Auto top-up lets a golfer choose a balance, such as $20, and an amount, such as $50. When their house account drops below that balance, their saved card is charged and the money lands on their account straight away. They never have to top up by hand.
It's off until an account owner turns it on, and then each golfer decides for themselves.
Before you start
- Online top-ups must be on, with Stripe connected (or Peach Payments with saved cards switched on by PocketPass support).
- Golfers need a saved card in the customer portal.
Turning it on
- Go to Settings → House accounts → Online top-ups.
- Under Auto top-up, switch on Let golfers turn on auto top-up. Only an account owner can do this. Anyone who can change top-up settings can switch it off.
- Check the Limits and change them if you need to.
Nothing is charged yet. Each golfer still has to turn it on.
What the golfer does
In the customer portal, under Card on file, the golfer taps Set up auto top-up and enters:
- When my balance drops below: the balance that starts a top-up.
- Top up by: how much to add each time.
- Limit per 30 days (optional): their own cap, lower than yours.
They then tick a box agreeing to the charges. The wording names your club, their card, the amounts and the limits. We store exactly what they agreed to, when, and from where, and email them a copy. You can't turn auto top-up on for a golfer.
For a shared account, only the account holder can turn it on, and their card pays.
When it charges
As soon as a charge, an adjustment or a refund leaves the balance below the golfer's amount, we charge their card. A check every 15 minutes catches anything missed. The golfer gets an email receipt for every charge, and their pass updates as with any top-up.
Before every charge we check again that:
- your club still offers auto top-up and online top-ups
- the account isn't frozen and auto top-up isn't paused
- the card is the one they agreed to
- the amount is still within your limits
- no limit has been reached
Limits
You set these for every golfer:
| Limit | Default |
|---|---|
| Largest single top-up | Your online top-up maximum |
| Top-ups per day | 2 |
| Top-ups per 30 days | 10 |
| Most charged per 30 days | $1,000 |
| Minutes between top-ups | 10 |
Golfers can set a lower 30-day limit for themselves. If you raise a limit, golfers who already agreed stay at the old one until they confirm again. If you lower one, it applies at once.
When a limit is reached, auto top-up pauses until the window resets, and the golfer is emailed. They can still top up by hand.
When a card is declined
A declined card is never retried. Auto top-up pauses and the golfer is emailed. It starts again only when they turn it back on in the portal, which means agreeing again.
The same happens when their bank asks them to confirm the payment, since nobody is there to confirm an automatic charge.
If the golfer removes their card, auto top-up turns off. If they replace it, auto top-up waits until they agree again for the new card.
What your team sees
On the customer's page (or the shared account's Card tab), the house-account card shows whether auto top-up is on, what they agreed to, and why it's paused. Staff can Pause it or Turn off it, and the golfer is emailed either way. Only the golfer can turn it back on.
Every charge, decline and pause is in Settings → Audit log.
A charge we couldn't confirm
Very rarely, the payment provider doesn't answer and we can't tell whether the card was charged. We never charge again while that's unknown. Auto top-up pauses and the customer's page shows the charge as unconfirmed. Check your Stripe or Peach Payments dashboard, then an owner chooses It was charged (the account is credited), Not charged, or Check again.
In Lightspeed Retail
If you post online payments to Lightspeed Retail, auto top-ups are posted the same way as other online top-ups. See House accounts and Lightspeed Retail accounting.