Wait for it payment plans are useful for three main scenarios:

Each of the above scenarios are supported by specific configurations in the plan settings. This includes optional surcharges or discounts baked into the plan as well as the option to add automated early cancellation fees and custom messages in automated emails.

If you want to offer Wait for it plans on your eCommerce site, create a "Wait for it" template instead of a plan. Instructions below are for a plan where you will set a pre-defined total. However if each customer will have a varying total to pay, use a template instead. Read more about templates in Paythen here.

To get started, click on the green + icon in your Paythen dashboard menu or go here.
Choose the new Wait for it plan option in the plan creation screen:

You'll see the plan creation screen just like the standard payment plan, with some key differences. All fields have an explanation under them for added context. If you're not sure about any of them, just ask us via the chat icon.

While most fields are self-explanatory, here's some guidance about specific fields and settings for this plan:

When entering the amount in this field, we recommend adding in the total amount of the plan before any surcharge or discount. So if you're planning on having a plan that is $1,000 with a 5% surcharge to cover admin costs, etc, you should enter 1000 here. You can configure the surcharge below.

The Wait for it plan can be set up as a typical layaway or lay-by plan with an optional surcharge where customers sign up, make all payments, then get their product or service.

OR you can use it as an incentive to encourage people to wait to receive their product or service by offering a discount instead. This can be useful if you sell a physical product that has limited stock, is made to order, or a service that has limited availability or spots.
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This field is where you can decide how you want to structure this plan by choosing a one-time or ongoing discount, by adding a surcharge, or neither.

For Wait for it plans, since the customer will not have received their product or service, the expectation (and law in some countries) is that if a customer cancels their plan without completing payments, they will be refunded what they've paid so far. You can choose to cover any costs by charging an automatic cancellation fee. This option only shows if you set the "Let customers self-cancel their plan" option to YES and then you will see an option to "Charge a cancellation fee" where you can enter a pre-set amount.

This amount is then charged to customers if they self-cancel their plan at any point before it is complete. They are showing this message, and if they confirm, then the fee is charged and then the plan is cancelled:

No automatic cancellation fee is charged if you cancel a customer's plan via your admin dashboard. With this approach, you can cancel a customer's plan, and if you do want to charge a cancellation fee, you can do so via the "Create a standalone payment" option available to you for any customer in your dashboard.

Like all Paythen plans, you can add as many custom fields as needed. However the Wait for it plan also lets you add custom text in two key customer emails – the payment schedule and confirmation sent to all customers when they sign up for the plan, and the upcoming payment reminder email sent 2 days before each scheduled payment.

You can use this custom text to provide more context, add links, and even use emoji. We recommend using it to communicate what customers should expect, timeframes, when they'll receive what they've ordered, and even to encourage early payments (customers pay their plan early any time via their customer page link, which is included in all emails sent to them)

See full email preview

See full email preview

Once you've configured the plan how you want it, click the "Create plan" button and we'll show you your easy share link you can use to share your plan with customers anywhere. On this page, we also show you a plan summary with key info, numbers and more.

You can change plan settings any time you want via the edit option next to each plan. You can change all settings until you have a customer on the plan, and after that you can change some settings.

This is a new type of plan we've just introduced based on popular demand. While most functions are on par with existing payment plans, not all options are available yet. This is being improved regularly.

Yes. You can create Wait for it plan templates via the templates page in your Paythen dashboard. These templates should be used with our dedicated Wait for it plugin.

Here are some of the features existing payment plans have that we are expecting to add support for in the coming weeks and months (not in order). All of these are in active development or testing stages.