Autopay is driven by a regular "run" of payment cycles (e.g. payment cycle runs at 5AM CT daily - Example only: Exact time may vary depending on a number of factors) and looks for "eligible" charges.
Eligibility
Date: Every charge created on an account has at least a due date. That Due Date is the "Eligible Date" for a payment collection to be run. In some cases, where organizations have enabled "offsets" from the Due Date, the "eligible date" is later than the Due Date.
Eligible Date: When an organization allows for the Auto Pay to be configured to run up to 10 days after the due date (example), that "offset" creates an "eligible date" (different from the Due Date).
Charge Type: Some organizations allow users to designate which charges are eligible for their Autopay. For example, a "Fine" charge type may not be eligible but a Dues charge type is.
Example:
The association Hill Country Hills has Autopay set so that a user may choose any amount of days 1-10 for running their payment after the due date.
The Admin or Board sets the due date for the monthly charge at August 1st (and the 1st of every month).
User A sets their "offset" at 5 days (pay on the 6th of the month = 1st + 5 days) - this means their "eligible date" each month is the 6th.
Users B,C,D and all others leave their offset at "0" so their payments run at the start of the month (1st)
On August 1st, the payment cycle runs and processes payments for anyone who has an "eligible date" is on or before August 1.
User A sees a payment as "Processing" in their account after the payment cycle runs.
The important factor here is that the eligible date was on or before the date in which the payment cycle ran. If User A changed their offset from 5 days to 8 days on the 5th of the month (one day prior to the payment cycle running), then the payment cycle would not process their payment on that originally scheduled 6th day. Instead, it would process their payment on the new eligible date.
⚡️Autopay "sweeps" the system to find eligible charges on a regular basis. To prevent unwanted charges that may take place rather quickly, you can do the following:
Enable Charge Type Selection for users who turn on Autopay. Users may de-select Fines, Late Fees, Special Assessments or Interest for example. These will not be picked up by Autopay when de-selected by the user.
You can set later due dates for automatically triggered charges. For example when Fines get created, you can set the "Due in x days" to be 30 days (or a setting of your choice). That way even when Autopay is enabled, the newly created charge will sit for those days without being charged. Read more here.
⚠️ Caution: For admins - If you create a charge with a due date in the past, and today's date is greater than the due date + any offset days set by users, the payment will run immediately.