How AutoPay works

AutoPay is a comprehensive solution that allows you to automate recurring charges by delegating both security (PCI tokenization) and scheduled execution of charges to Placetopay.

Unlike a traditional subscription, AutoPay supports variable charge models (such as utility billing or consumption) and fixed models (such as memberships), automatically managing retries and payment method updates.

Unified integration model

Instead of coordinating interface creation, card tokenization, and charging rule configuration separately, your server only needs to communicate with the Gateway API.

The Gateway takes charge of centralizing the operation:

  1. Interface Management: Automatically generates the secure WebCheckout session for the user to enter their data.
  2. Security (PCI): Ensures sensitive data is captured and tokenized directly on our servers, keeping your merchant scope out of complex PCI audits.
  3. Charge Scheduling: Registers and activates recurrence rules (frequency and amounts) in the AutoPay engine to ensure future charges are executed on time.

Key concepts

To integrate AutoPay, it is necessary to understand two configurations that define the contract:

1. Recurring

Defines the contract's "frequency and lifespan" (Periodicity, Interval, and Validity Dates). It is fundamental to configure these parameters correctly so the billing engine works as expected.

👉 See Recurring configuration guide

2. Charge type

Defines how the amount to be charged is calculated in each cycle. AutoPay allows everything from fixed charges (FIXED) to real-time queries of total debt (TOTAL_BALANCE) or minimum payments (MINIMUM_BALANCE) against your system.

👉 See Charge Types detail

Integration lifecycle

The following describes the flow of creating an AutoPay (Setup) and subsequent execution.

React Flow

Process phases

  1. Initialization: Your server consumes the Gateway API (POST /autopay/session) sending recurrence rules. The system returns a redirection URL.
  2. Capture and tokenization: The user is redirected to WebCheckout. There, they select their payment method, accept terms, and the card is securely tokenized.
  3. Confirmation: Upon completion, the user returns to your site. You must query the session status to confirm the AutoPay was created (APPROVED).
  4. Scheduled execution (future):
    • The AutoPay engine detects when the next charge is due.
    • If it is a variable amount, it queries your Balance API.
    • It executes the transaction using the stored token.
    • It notifies you of the result via Webhook (AUTOPAY_TRANSACTION_FAILED or successful).

Editing an AutoPay (update)

What happens if the user's card expires? The flow to edit a subscription reuses the same integration:

  1. Create a new session in the Gateway (POST /autopay/session) specifying the action EDIT and the id of the existing AutoPay.
  2. Redirect the user to WebCheckout.
  3. The user updates their payment details.
  4. Upon completion, the system updates the associated token without losing the subscription history.

What's next?