Cradled's payment plans automate a recurring fee against a card the client has saved with you. Instead of generating a stack of invoices you have to send and chase, you set the terms once and Cradled charges the card on schedule — common for postpartum packages billed monthly, or a deposit plus installments through the birth.
The model
A plan has three parts:
- A card on file. The client saves a card through a secure Stripe link before any plan can run.
- An optional deposit. A one-time amount charged the moment you create the plan.
- A recurring charge. An amount charged automatically on a cadence (weekly, every two weeks, or monthly) until an end condition is met.
End conditions can be: through roughly week 36 of pregnancy, on a specific date, after a set number of charges, or until you stop the plan.
It charges automatically
This is the key difference from a regular invoice. Once the plan is running, you don't send anything and the client doesn't pay anything manually — Cradled charges their saved card off-session on each cycle. Every charge is recorded as an invoice in your list (marked Paid on success, Overdue on a failed attempt) so you keep a clean per-charge history.
When a card declines
Cradled retries and protects the client from repeat attempts:
- Retry the next day, then again three days later.
- Pause the plan after a third failure, and notify you.
To recover, send the client a new card-on-file request, then Resume with latest card — the plan continues from where it paused using their newest card.
What your client sees
The client saves a card once. After that, charges happen automatically and they receive a receipt for each one. There's no per-installment link to click and nothing to pay by hand — the whole point is that it runs itself.
Refunds and edits
Refund any individual charge from its invoice; it doesn't affect the others. To change the terms, cancel the plan and set up a new one. See Issue a refund.