Setup Payment Subscriptions or Installments in your Google Form

With Payable Apps, you can not only process one-time payments through Google Forms and Sheets, you can also process recurring payments in the forms of subscriptions and instalments. Keep reading to learn how to easily configure these features with our add-on.

Set Up Your Subscription and/or Installment Options

It is easy to setup different types of payments, you just need to carefully follow the correct formatting, adding the subscription frequency and duration after the price:


Currency formatting may differ from the below samples depending on your country and currency.

Subscription Frequencies

Subscription items are a breeze to set up with Payable Apps, enabling you to process automatically recurring payments. Our subscription feature can be applied to a wide range of uses, from gym memberships, to meal delivery services, to donation pledges and beyond.

To create a subscription item, simply add the suffix " / (frequency label)" following the monetary amount of your line item. Your subscriptions can set to bill by daily, weekly, bi-weekly, monthly, quarterly, or annually.

For example:

Unlimited drop-in HIIT classes - $95 / biweekly
Weekly local produce basket, family size - $35 / week
Annual hiking club membership fee - $110 / year

Make sure your Frequency Label matches one from the table below.

Frequency Label	Meaning
Day	Charges once each 24 hours.
Week	Charges once per calendar week.
Biweekly	Charges once per 2 calendar weeks.
Month	Charges once per calendar month.
Quarter	Charges once per 3 calendar months.
Year	Charges once per calendar year.

Once a user submits your Form and completes payment, the subscription will be initiated and recur each given period from the point of payment.

If ever you need to cancel an ongoing subscription, just locate the transaction in your payment provider account (PayPal, Square, Stripe) to stop it.

Subscription Limits (Installments)

You can also setup your question answers with a limit to have the subscription automatically stop after a certain number of cycles. This is great for allowing your customers to pay in installments for big-ticket items or for subscriptions that will only go on for a shorter period of time, like a seasonal farmshare.

To create an installment item, simply add the suffix "X (limit)" following the monetary amount and the subscription frequency of your line item. The limit needs to be number greater than 1.

For example:

Summer Camp in 3 Payments - $295 / Month__ X 3__
6 Week Fitness Camp paid Weekly - $35 / Week__ X 6__

NOTE: You cannot create a single order that has 2 different instalment limits. If you are going to let users select multiple items in your Form that are instalments, they need to have the same number of cycles.

You can also try out these forms in Test Mode:
PayPal Instalment Test Form
Square Instalment Test Form
Stripe Instalment Test Form

Payment Provider Details

We support subscriptions outlined above with PayPal, Stripe and Square. There may be some limitation by region on which payment methods are allowed for orders that include subscriptions and installments.

	PayPal	Square	Stripe
If One-Time Items are in the Order	They will be added to the PayPal Subscription as a "One Time Setup Fee"	The initial transaction size is increased to add these item.	The initial transaction size is increased to add these item.
First Payment	Will be part of the PayPal subscription and can sometimes be delayed by 15 minutes.	Will appear as a Transaction like any 1 time payment.	Will appear like a 1 time payment.
Subscription Notes	If a limit is set, it will end of that many cycles.	The subscription will take over after the first period ends. Subscription will appear in Square with a "pending" status until the second payment time is reached. Subscription payments will appear as an automatically paid invoice.	The subscription is setup with a trial for the first period since the first period was covered by the initial one-time payment. Subscription will appear in Stripe with a "trialing" status until the second payment time is reached. Subscription payments will appear as an automatically paid invoice.

Please note that PayPal requires users have a business account in order to process subscriptions - a personal PayPal account will be unable to process subscription transactions.

Please note that presently subscriptions are only available in English.
If your form is in another language and you would still like to use the feature, please take note -
-Your form's language setting must be set to English (configure this in your Payable User Settings)
-Once you change your form's language to English, the pop-up window will display how your money amounts need to be format. This will likely require that you re-format the money amounts on your form
-The text on your form can remain in the original language, the only thing on your form that will need to be in English is the subscription frequency marker

Updated on: 09/01/2024