Automatic Recurring Billing (ARB) FAQ's

Frequently Asked Questions:

Q. What do I need to use Auto Recurring Billing in Atlas?

A. First, you need an Authorize.Net or Beanstream account. Auto Recurring Billing will only work with Authorize.net. For assistance in creating an account, please contact Atlas Support. To use Auto Recurring Billings for credit cards, you must add the ARB option to your Authorize.net account. Log in to your Authorize.Net account to set up the ARB option.

To use ACH features to automatically debit your member's checking accounts, you must add the eChecks feature to your Authorize.net account. Log in to your Authorize.Net account to set up the eChecks option. Note: The eChecks application is lengthy and may take a week or more for Authorize.net to approve once submitted.

Q. Can I edit an ARB Billing Record after I've created it?

A. No. After Atlas passes the ARB account information to Authorize.Net, Authorize.Net does not allow the information to be changed. If you need to edit the account information, you should first inactivate the existing ARB billing record and create a new one using the updated information.

Q. When I Auto-Generate Invoices, will Atlas try to create invoices for my ARB accounts?

A. No. All ARB accounts are excluded from the Auto Generate Invoice process. This prevents the creation of duplicate invoices for the same item and/or period.

Q. How will I know what my projected billings are for a given month?

A. The Projected Billings report will still show all billing items that are expected to be billed in future months.

Q. How can I find the members that have ARB records set up?

A. On the Billing Info Tab of the Profile Selector, there is a new check box for 'ARB Billings Only.' This will allow to search for all profiles with ARB Billings or filter them using additional functions in the Profile Selector.

Q. How will I know when a member's credit card is about to expire?

A. When you log in to your Authorize.Net account and view your ARB subscriptions, you can view a list of any Expiring Credit Cards. Under 'Configure ARB Email Notifications' you can choose to receive email notifications of upcoming credit card expirations as well.

Q. What happens if a member's card is declined?

A. You will receive an email from Authorize.Net that a transaction has been declined. An invoice will not be created for this transaction. You can either manually create the invoice to apply payment that you receive from the client, or you can set up a new ARB billing with updated card information to re-start their billing.

Q. If I delete or inactivate an ARB billing will Atlas automatically inactivate the ARB subscription in Authorize.Net?

A. Yes, when you inactivate a billing item or if you right-click and delete it on the Billing Tab, Atlas will pass that information through to Authorize.Net.

Q. Can ARB records be flagged as Taxable, Invoice Separately or Bill Manually like other recurring billings?

A. No. Automatic Recurring Billing records cannot be flagged as Taxable, Invoice Separately or Bill Manually. If any of those three check boxes are checked when you click 'Automatic Recurring Billing (ARB)', they will be unchecked and greyed out (disabled) by Atlas.

Q. How can I tell which members have had ARB subscriptions created in Authorize.Net?

A. Log in to your Authorize.Net account and click on Automated Recurring Billing (ARB) under Products & Services. You'll be able to view the Active, Expiring and Inactive ARB Subscriptions in addition to any credit card that are expiring soon.

Note: You must set up the ARB subscription through Atlas as an ARB Billing Record for the invoice to be created in Atlas . If you set up an ARB Subscription directly in your Authorize.Net account, Atlas will not create invoices for those billings.