When a customer has more than one invoice queued for autopay at the same time, Biller Genie groups them into a single bulk transaction instead of charging each one separately. Your customer sees a single "Bulk-Pay" entry on their card statement; you see one row to reconcile instead of several.
Why this matters
- Lower gateway fees. One transaction instead of three to five means one gateway processing fee instead of three to five.
- Cleaner reconciliation. One deposit line matching one bulk transaction is far easier to reconcile against your bank feed than several small deposits matching individual invoices.
- Better customer statements. Your customer sees "Acme Corp paid $1,247 for 4 invoices" rather than four separate $300-ish charges on their card statement.
How it works
- Eligibility: invoices are grouped by customer (Contact). If 2 or more eligible invoices belong to the same customer when the autopay queue runs, they flow through the bulk path. If only one invoice is eligible at that moment, it processes as a single-invoice autopay charge.
- Charge to the gateway: the bulk transaction is sent as a recurring autopay charge, identical in its handling to a single autopay charge — chargeback-protection and recurring-billing flags are preserved. To you and your customer, the bulk charge is treated the same way as any other autopay charge.
- Thresholds apply per invoice. If a customer has a per-customer autopay threshold (see Autopay Thresholds), each invoice is evaluated individually before being included in the bulk. Invoices outside the threshold are skipped and remain in the queue.
- Failure handling matches single-invoice autopay. If the bulk transaction fails (declined card, gateway error), Biller Genie sends the failure notification and records the failure the same way as for a single-invoice failure (see When Autopay Fails).
What your customer sees
On their card statement: a single charge labeled with your business name and the bulk amount (e.g., "Acme Corp $1,247.00"). On their Biller Genie payment history: a single "Bulk-Pay" transaction with a breakdown of which invoices it covered.
What you see
In the Merchant Portal transaction list: a single Bulk-Pay row. In the deposit reconciliation view: one matching deposit line. In the customer's transaction history: the bulk transaction with the list of invoices it paid.
FAQs
Why did my customer's statement show "Bulk-Pay" instead of individual invoice charges?
Because two or more of their invoices were eligible for autopay at the same time. Biller Genie groups them into one transaction to reduce gateway fees and simplify reconciliation. The individual invoices are still tracked and visible in the bulk transaction's breakdown.
Does bulk autopay reduce my gateway fees?
Yes — fewer transactions means fewer per-transaction gateway fees. The amount of savings depends on how often your customers have multiple invoices queued for autopay at the same time.
What if one of the invoices in the bulk should not be autopaid?
Use a per-customer threshold to exclude it by size (see Autopay Thresholds), or skip-autopay on the specific invoice before it enters the queue. Bulk autopay only groups invoices that are eligible for autopay individually — it does not bypass the threshold check.
What if my customer only ever has one invoice at a time?
Single-invoice customers process as a single-invoice autopay charge — no bulk grouping happens unless 2 or more eligible invoices are queued at the same time.
Related articles
- Setting Up Autopay Thresholds for a Customer — per-customer size limits, evaluated per invoice even in bulk.
- When Autopay Fails — failure handling is at parity between single and bulk autopay.
- How to Set Up Auto Pay — the basics.