Installments and subscriptions

Installments and subscriptions let you sell a course with payment in parts. The student links a card once, and Exode charges payments on schedule by itself, retries failed charges and closes access if the student stops paying.

• Installment — the school’s internal installment plan. The course price is split into several payments with set dates. When all payments are made, the installment plan is complete.
• Subscription — a regular payment for a period: a week, a month or a year. The subscription renews as long as charges go through and it has not been canceled.

The payment type and schedule are set in the course tariff. See Launch and tariffs for more about tariffs.

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How an installment plan works

• The tariff contains a list of payments: the amount of each and how many days after sign-up it is charged. 0 days — at the moment of sign-up, 1 — the next day, 30 — in a month.
• The tariff price equals the sum of all payments.
• On the checkout page, the student sees the Payment schedule and the Total payments.
• If the student applied a promo code, the discount is split equally among all payments.
• When the last payment is made, the installment plan gets the Completed status.

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How a subscription works

• The tariff sets the Subscription interval: a week, a month or a year, and the number of such intervals in one period.
• Free trial period — several days of free access. The first charge happens after they end. If the student subscribes to the same course again, no free period is given.
• Discount for all periods — if turned on, the promo code discount applies to all subscription payments. If turned off, only the first period is paid at the discount, and then at the full tariff price.
• With monthly payment, the charge day stays the same. If the subscription was set up on the 31st, in shorter months the charge happens on the last day of the month.

On the subscription checkout page, the student sees the terms: free period, amount per period, payment day and the hint You can cancel your subscription in the account settings.

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How a student sets up an installment plan or subscription

If the first payment is not due on the sign-up day, for example in a subscription with a free period, access opens right after the card is linked, and the first charge happens on the scheduled day.

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One-time payments

In the tariff, you can turn on Option for one-time payments. Then an installment plan or subscription can also be set up through a cash register without card linking, for example through Payme or Click.

• The student pays the first payment as a regular payment.
• Exode does not charge the following payments automatically. On the payment date, the student receives the same message as for a failed charge, and the invoice appears in their Payments and bills → Bills to pay section.
• The deadlines and consequences of non-payment are the same as for a failed automatic charge.

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Automatic charges and retries

Exode checks upcoming payments every 30 minutes, so the charge happens within half an hour after the payment date comes. If the charge fails, Exode retries it. There are 4 attempts in total:

• After each failed attempt except the last one, the student receives a message about the failed charge by SMS, email or Telegram — through the channels available in their account.
• While the payment has not gone through, the student sees it in Payments and bills → Bills to pay with the retry date and the Pay by deadline — two days after the payment date. The student can pay it themselves without waiting for the next attempt.
• The next installment payment is not charged until the previous one is paid.
• If the 4th attempt also fails, the installment plan or subscription is canceled, the student is removed from the tariff’s group and loses access to the course. The student receives a message that access has been closed.

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Course access

• The student gets access through the tariff’s group: Exode adds them to the group after the first payment.
• As long as payments go through, access remains.
• When canceled due to non-payment, access closes right after the 4th failed attempt.
• When canceled by the student or the school, access remains until the next payment date and closes on that date.
• If the installment plan or subscription is activated again and the payment goes through, the student returns to the tariff’s group.

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Cancellation and restoring

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The student cancels a subscription

In Payments and bills → Subscriptions, the student clicks Cancel subscription and can give a reason. The subscription stays valid until the end of the paid period, and there will be no new charges. Before the next payment date, the student can click Restore subscription, and the charges continue. After that date, the subscription can’t be restored — a new purchase is needed.

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The school cancels an installment plan or subscription

In Sales → Installments or Sales → Subscriptions, expand the student’s row and click Deactivate. You can give the reason for cancellation in the Reason for cancellation (optional) field, up to 255 characters. The student’s access remains until the next payment date. To bring back a canceled installment plan or subscription, click Activate. Canceled payments become scheduled again, and Exode tries to charge overdue ones at the next check.

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Upgrading to a higher tariff

A subscriber can switch to a higher-tier subscription tariff in the same course without waiting for the end of the paid period. For this, Tariff tier must be filled in for both tariffs in the advanced subscription settings. You can switch only to a tariff with a higher tier.

• On the checkout page, the student sees the Tariff upgrade block: the days left on the current tariff, the Pay now amount and the next charge date.
• The extra charge equals the difference between the daily cost of the new and current tariffs multiplied by the remaining days of the period. If the difference is not positive, the switch goes through with No extra charge.
• The new tariff takes effect right after payment, and the student moves to the new tariff’s group. The next charge happens on the same date as before, but at the new tariff’s price.
• Promo codes do not apply to the extra charge.
• You can’t switch to a lower tariff. The student sees A lower tariff is not available and a hint to cancel the subscription and wait for the end of the paid period.

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Managing installments and subscriptions

All of the school’s installment plans and subscriptions are collected in Sales → Installments and Sales → Subscriptions. To work with them, you need the School sales permission. The list shows the student, the status, the dates of the last and next payment, the course and the tariff. For installments — how many payments have been made, for subscriptions — the interval and the number of renewals. Above the list there are the All, Active and Canceled tabs, search, filters by the current payment status, course, tariff, dates and payment amount, as well as export to a file. Click a row to expand the student’s payment schedule: Under the schedule you see the installment plan’s Total amount, Amount paid, Number of payments and Selected card. If the last charge failed, the schedule shows the reason: Insufficient funds, Card not found, Payment provider error or Unknown error. If the student set up an installment plan or subscription for the course several times, tabs appear above the schedule: Current and the previous ones by number.

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Changing the schedule

Click Edit to adjust the schedule of an active installment plan or subscription:

• change the payment date and amount;
• mark a payment as Paid or return it to Scheduled;
• change the number of attempts for a failed payment;
• add a payment with the Add button or delete an extra one.

After making changes, click Save. Payment numbers are recalculated by date. If you change the amount of an unpaid payment, its invoice amount is updated too, and unfinished payment attempts for the old amount are canceled. For a subscription, new payments are created automatically. You only need to add a payment manually if you want to change the date or cost of future charges.

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Changing the card

In the Selected card block, you can choose another active card of the student. If the student has no other saved cards, you see No active cards.

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Statuses

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Payment statuses in the schedule

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Installment and subscription statuses

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What the student sees

In the Payments and bills section of their account, the student sees:

• Bills to pay — payments that could not be charged;
• Installments and Subscriptions — the schedule, upcoming and recent payments, the selected card;
• Cards — saved cards;
• Recent payments — payment history.

A scheduled payment can be made early with the Pay button: if a card is linked, the money is charged right away, otherwise the invoice page opens.

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Frequently asked questions

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Updated: 2026-10-15 18:32 UTC