Billing monthly parkers

Plans, first-month billing, and notice

Choose a plan for a parker paying for themselves, or set company billing rules on the client. Select anniversary or first-of-month billing. First-of-month billing can prorate the first month; the cutoff setting can combine a late-month start with the next full month.

Set a cancellation-notice requirement where appropriate. Staff can waive notice or override the first-month charge with a recorded reason. Existing subscriptions keep their schedule when rules change.

Set tax rates on lots if applicable. These are rates you configure, not automatic tax determination; lots with different rates cannot share one company bill.

Record outside payments or refund a monthly charge

Record a cash, check, or transfer payment in Monthly billing with the dates covered, amount, method, reference, and received date.

A paid online invoice has a Refund action for staff with Refund online payments permission. Confirm the full amount and enter a reason. The refund appears on the invoice, in the portal, audit history, and Money report.

Refunding does not stop the subscription or end the permit. Use Stop billing separately if the arrangement is ending.

Who pays

A company client pays for its people’s parking. Each one has a monthly amount, a number of parkers paid for (their portal can’t add more than that), the lots they’re contracted for, and the people who sign in to its portal.

A client can also be a property: an apartment building whose managers keep its residents, guests, and tow requests in the portal. A building and its residents aren’t billed through Monthly billing.

A parker with no client pays for themselves. Give them a monthly rate on the parker form. A company’s parker never pays on their own: the company does.

In the parker portal, the people who sign in for a company add or remove its parkers, keep plates current and manage the company’s payment. A parker who pays for themselves updates their plates, registers guests and manages their own payment.

Start billing

1. 1For a company, open Admin → Clients and enter the Monthly amount ($). For a parker who pays for themselves, open Admin → Monthly parkers, set Client (company) to None and enter the Monthly rate ($). Make sure they have an email (for a company, the Contact email).
2. 2Open Monthly billing for that client or parker.
3. 3Choose Card or bank account, charged each month. Lotably emails them an invite to sign in to the parker portal and set up automatic payments. You also get the sign-up link to send yourself.
4. 4Or choose Emailed invoice each month to have Stripe email an invoice due in 14 days, starting now.

Billing runs through your connected Stripe account, so connect Stripe first. If you don’t see Monthly billing, it’s turned off for your account: Plan & account lists your features.

Getting into the parker portal

Lotably’s invite links work once, for 3 days. When you add someone under Portal sign-in on a client (Managers, for a building), we email them an invite, and Email invite again resends it. On a parker, use Email a portal invite in their edit form.

Your public page has a Monthly parker? Sign in to your parking link. They enter their email and get a sign-in link that works for 15 minutes.

Managing billing

The Clients and Monthly parkers lists show where each one stands: Paid through a date, Ends on a date, Online payment not set up, Late payment, Parking paused, or Billing ended.

From Monthly billing you can open the Payment details link, see recent invoices, and Stop billing. Billing ends according to the account’s schedule and any cancellation-notice requirement; Stop billing shows the date before you confirm.

For a parker who pays for themselves, their permit ends on that day too. If they renew, the end date is lifted. If you change the end date yourself, say to give them extra time, your date stands.

Payers can also open Manage payment method and invoices from the parker portal to update a card, pay an invoice or cancel.

When a payment is late

1. 1Open Admin → Policies and find Late monthly payments.
2. 2Set the Grace period (days late), from 1 to 60.
3. 3Tick Pause their parking after the grace period if you want their parkers to stop counting as paid in plate checks until the invoice is paid.
4. 4Click Save on the card.

Paying the open invoice always restores parking by itself, and a paused parker can still sign in to the portal to pay. You can also restore it right away with Restore parking now in Monthly billing, which gives them a fresh grace period.

Common questions