Installment Plan Payment Module [Support thread]

The Installment Plan Payment Module is now available at

http://www.zen-cart.com/index.php?main_page=product_contrib_info&cPath=40_48&products_id=588

It is based on the manual credit card payment module, but breaks the total payment up into a number of payments (specifiable by the shop owner), thus providing "financing" for your customers. It is designed to replace the "Layaway" module which did the same thing less securely.

This module does not automate the process of charging the card; this still must be done manually. It simply allows you to offer another payment option.

That Software Guy

version 1.1 is now available; if you run both the Zen Cart credit card module and this module, you should upgrade.

Thanks,
Software Guy

Mr. Scott Wilson

Your installment module for zencart is a great addition to the zencart payment modules and though I find this kind of payment module extremely valuable
I would like to propose an addition to your module that would greatly increase it's value.

I feel that for most of zencart shop owners it would become very confusing to use and keep track of this method of payment if it were widely used by customers because there is no visual input for the shop owner of which customers credit cards have been charged and what balance still remains.

If you could come up with a way to take the products a customer has purchased with your installment module and visually set them aside in the zencart admin area so the shop owner can keep track of the products purchased with the installment module and the due balance remaining for the customers purchase.
I feel that this would greatly cut down on the risk that shop owners may double charge their customers credit cards by mistake.

Additionally, There is no visual representation for the zencart shop owner to what amount to charge it's customer per month like is represented to the customer during the checkout process.

I also would like to offer the suggestion to let the customer choose the installment billing date because some people may be using a check card to make purchases and may or may not have funds available in the customers credit card or bank account for the transaction when the zencart shop owner initiates the installment transaction for a particular installment payment. This way liability is reduced for overdraft fees and takes the responsibility away from the shop owner for initiating said transaction.

I am not approaching you to criticize your work or your valuable addition to the zencart community but to share an idea and improve your modules productivity.

I really think this would help zencart shop owners keep track of who they need to process and when.

I hope you find this information very helpful:) "beasleybub" zencart community.

Interesting suggestions. The admin is undergoing modification; let's wait to see what the Zen team delivers in 1.6 and go from there.

Scott

Thanks swguy!
I'm glad someone like yourself has worked on a module like this.
I don't know enough about php or I would gladly help.
cheers!:P

Question - is this an item that, once installed, is always available in the cart as a purchase option, or can it be set as an option only for items over a certain price?? I downloaded the package and read thru the readme, looks like a great feature! :smile:

There are no minimum order restrictions but one could certainly be added. It is always available as a purchase option for customers whose group name begins with "invoice" as long as their cart is not all virtual items.

Hi Guys,

I have a question to see whether anyone has done this before.

I want to only give customer options to pay installment i if they buy a products from a certain category.

So pretty much how do I go through the cart before payment to see if customer has added a product from a certain category.

Has anyone done this before.

I am running zencart 1.3.7

Any help is appreciated. Thanks in advance.

Response by PM.

swguy:

There are no minimum order restrictions but one could certainly be added. It is always available as a purchase option for customers whose group name begins with "invoice" as long as their cart is not all virtual items.

Hi SW GUY! I love this mod. My client does, too, but now she tells me she wants a way for this to be used only for purchases of a certain amount or higher. I don't understand how to make this happen...or do you mean you can build it in?

thanks,
tracey

Response by PM.

Hi Scott,

I, too, am interested in modifying this very useful mod to set a minimum order and limit by category.

You mentioned waiting to see about changes made in the admin before possibly adding the changes that beasleybub suggested, but how far away is 1.6 anyway??? :smile: I am sure that everyone that uses this mod would appreciate thos additional admin features. I for one would happily donate to make this a reality, this mod will be a sizeable part of our payments since we sell a lot of high-dollar items to mainly starving artists.:D

Thanks!

Matt

Re: beasleybub's requests: this is just a payment module. It's not an accounts receivable system. If you need a tracking tool, start with a spreadsheet and build up from there.

Re: your requests: if you have specific needs for customizations for your shop, you are welcome to PM me for a quote or post your request in the Commercial Help Wanted area.

Thanks,
Scott

Hi swguy (waving to you from the spacecoast),

Do you think this mod could be used for a site that only requires a deposit on their items?

It's a travel site that you can either pay for the whole trip up front or put down a deposit and pay the rest upon arrival. It's been making me nuts as to how to deal with this.

thank you,

betty

You could do this.

Another approach, depending on what payment modules you use, would be to simply modify the payment module to take (say) 25% of the actual amount.

Good luck,
Scott

swguy:

You could do this.

Another approach, depending on what payment modules you use, would be to simply modify the payment module to take (say) 25% of the actual amount.

Good luck,
Scott

Problem I could see with that would be if they wanted to pay in full.

Plus one thing I'm figuring your mod could help with I didn't mention in my previous post is that there is no zencart payment mod for the sites credit card processor, so by using your mod, the deposits at least would not have to go through Paypal.

thank you,

betty

Gotcha. Yet another approach would be to use the Invoice module, and then invoice them for either 100% or 25% of the total using Google Checkout (stand-alone).

Good luck,
Scott

Hi there! Any chance we can work together to make this function with Authorize.net to take advantage of their 'Automated Recurring Billing' feature?

Right now one of my clients offers payments but this was accomplished by placing a 'deposit' in the attributes which, when selected, gives a transaction to the 'enable ARB' via authorize.net -- was just wondering if that is something which can be 'triggered' from outside authorize.net???

Anyone have any experience with ARB and know if there is info which can be passed via AIM?

You'd have to start with the authorize.net payment module, not with this - and you'd have to code to their API, etc. etc.

All the Installment Plan module does is what the regular "credit card" module does, but with the ability to divide the total by a specified divisor. There's no logic that will cause recurring billing to occur automagically. You have to do it by hand.

Scott

Got ya... in that case I can still see using it to help people figure their 'payments' instead of the using an excel spreadsheet to figure before entering the ARB.
Ah... except then it will not enter the first transaction for them... right now they search for the first one then use a link to 'create ARB' -- thanks for the clarification!