Managing invoices and recurring payments manually is time-consuming, error-prone, and leaves money on the table. Converge by Elavon gives merchants a complete billing toolkit — from one-time invoices and pay-by-link to fully automated recurring card and ACH billing — all from the same browser-based dashboard. This guide walks you through every invoicing and billing capability available in Converge and how to get the most from each.
Why Converge Invoicing Changes the Billing Game
Traditional invoicing workflows — generating a document, emailing it, waiting for a cheque, or manually keying a card number over the phone — are slow, insecure, and hard to track. Converge's invoicing replaces this entire workflow with a streamlined digital process: send an invoice, the customer clicks a link, pays by card or bank account, and the funds appear in your settlement the same day. No phone calls, no manual entry, no paper.
Setting Up Your First Invoice Template
In your Converge dashboard, navigate to the Invoicing section to create your first template. Templates let you pre-load the line items, services, or packages you commonly sell so you don't rebuild each invoice from scratch. Define item names, descriptions, and default prices. Add your business logo and contact details. Configure default payment terms (due on receipt, net 14, net 30). Once saved, you can generate a new invoice from any template in under a minute.
Sending One-Time Invoices
To send a one-time invoice, select a template (or start from a blank invoice), add or modify line items, enter the customer's email address, and click Send. Converge generates a unique, tokenized payment page link embedded in the invoice email. The customer opens the email, reviews the invoice, and completes payment by entering their card details on the hosted Converge payment page — no account or app required on their end. When payment is complete, Converge posts the transaction and sends both you and the customer an automated receipt.
Pay-by-Link for Ad-Hoc Payments
Pay-by-link is Converge's fastest collection tool. Generate a secure payment link for any amount — without building a full invoice — and share it through any channel: SMS, WhatsApp, email, or even a printed QR code. The customer taps the link, enters their card, and pays. The transaction settles in your next batch. Pay-by-link is ideal for deposits, service calls, event tickets, or any situation where you need to collect payment quickly without a formal invoice process.
Automating Recurring Card Billing
Converge's recurring billing engine is designed for businesses with subscription or instalment payment models. The workflow is straightforward: on the customer's first transaction, store their card to the PCI-validated token vault. Create a recurring billing plan — define the amount, frequency (weekly, monthly, quarterly, or custom), start date, and optional end date. Assign the stored card to the plan and activate. Converge handles every subsequent charge automatically, including sending the customer a receipt after each successful payment.
If a card declines on a recurring attempt — expired card, insufficient funds, soft decline — Converge's dunning management captures the decline reason and queues a retry on your configured schedule (e.g., retry after 3 days, then 7 days). After exhausting retries, it flags the record for manual follow-up so nothing falls through the cracks.
Automating Recurring ACH Billing
For recurring billing where customers consent to bank debits, ACH billing through Converge is the most cost-effective option. Instead of paying card interchange on every recurring charge, you pay a flat ACH transaction fee. Capture the customer's bank routing and account number, obtain a signed or electronically acknowledged EFT authorization (Converge can generate the authorization disclosure), and schedule the recurring debit. NACHA return codes for failed ACH transactions (NSF, account closed, authorisation revoked) appear immediately in your Converge dashboard with the reason, so your team can follow up and update the payment method.
Managing Your Billing Calendar
Converge's recurring billing dashboard gives you a complete view of all active plans, their next scheduled dates, amounts, and last transaction status. Filter by payment method type, plan status (active, paused, cancelled), or date range. When a customer wants to pause their subscription, update their card, or change their billing date, you can make those changes directly from the plan management screen without cancelling and recreating the plan.
Handling Failed Payments and Dunning
Failed recurring payments are a primary source of involuntary churn. Converge's dunning management gives you control over the retry logic and notification workflow. Configure how many retry attempts to make, the interval between each, and whether to send the customer an email notification requesting they update their payment method. For card-on-file recurring billing, Converge's Account Updater service (where available) automatically refreshes expired or replaced card numbers before a charge attempt, dramatically reducing the failure rate at its source.
Tracking Recurring Revenue in Converge Reports
Pull a recurring billing report from Converge's reporting section to see total recurring volume, successful vs. failed charges, and revenue by plan or customer. Export to CSV for monthly reconciliation. For businesses managing subscription revenue, tracking monthly recurring revenue (MRR) via Converge reports gives you a clear picture of retention, churn, and growth that feeds directly into your financial planning.
Security for Stored Cards and Bank Accounts
All card data stored for recurring billing in Converge is held in a PCI-validated token vault — the actual card numbers are replaced by meaningless tokens at the point of capture and never reside on your systems. This eliminates the PCI scope burden of storing card data while preserving the ability to charge customers on any schedule. Bank account details for ACH are similarly protected under Converge's security architecture. Periodically audit stored payment profiles and remove those belonging to customers who are no longer active.
Conclusion
Converge's invoicing and recurring billing suite replaces fragmented manual billing processes with a single, automated, PCI-compliant workflow. Whether you're sending one-time invoices, collecting deposits by link, running monthly card subscriptions, or billing B2B clients via ACH, all of it lives in one dashboard with unified reporting. The result is faster collections, lower overhead, and significantly less manual work. To get set up with Converge invoicing and recurring billing, log in at convergepay.com or contact Elavon support at (844) 647-3616.