You expected money to come in and it didn't. Work through this checklist from the top — the first few causes explain most missed charges.
1. The invoice is still held
A held invoice is invisible to parents and is never charged. Autopay only processes invoices that have been published, and a held invoice doesn't count toward what the student owes either.
Open the invoice and click Publish at the top of the page. To find the ones still waiting, use the Draft pill on Billing → Invoices, which counts every held invoice in the school.
2. Autopay is off
Autopay must be on for TeachHero to charge an invoice. Without it, the invoice waits for the parent to pay in their portal.
Open the invoice and look at the autopay alert above the totals — it reads Autopay is on or Autopay is off. Autopay ON also shows under the status on Billing → Invoices, and the Autopay column on Billing → Payments → Scheduled shows an On or Off badge. TeachHero switches autopay off automatically when:
- A payment fails. Autopay is switched off on every open invoice charging that payment method, and each of those invoices says so in the gray Autopay is off alert at the top of the invoice, with the failure reason.
- No usable payment method is found, or the method on file isn't one the invoice accepts.
After fixing the underlying problem, open the invoice and click Turn on autopay in the alert at the top, choose the payment method to charge, and confirm.
3. No valid payment method on file
Autopay charges the payment method chosen when autopay was turned on for the invoice — or, if none was chosen, the payer's default payment method. If the payer has neither, nothing can be charged.
On Billing → Payments → Scheduled, look under the Billed to column: No method on file means the payer has no saved payment method, and Update payment method means the saved one is no longer usable (for example, expired). Ask the parent to add or update a card or bank account in their portal, or add one from their contact page under Payment Methods.
Also confirm the method's type is allowed: if the invoice only accepts ACH and the parent only has a card on file (or vice versa), autopay switches itself off. Check Accepted payment methods in Edit invoice on the invoice. If the parent has the right type saved but it isn't their default, Turn on autopay still offers it — choose it in the Payment method field.
4. The payment isn't due yet
An invoice on a payment plan is charged one date at a time, not all at once. Open the invoice and check its Payment dates tab: if the next date is in the future, nothing is late. Billing → Payments → Scheduled shows exactly what's due in any date range.
5. The invoice isn't open anymore
Only invoices that are Unpaid, Partially paid, or Past due get charged. Paid, closed, and uncollectable invoices are skipped — check the status badge on Billing → Invoices.
6. The charge failed
Maybe the charge did run and the bank declined it. Go to Billing → Payments → Received and open the Failed pill — each failed payment shows its failure reason (insufficient funds, card declined, and so on). Failed payments are deleted after 7 days, so check soon. Remember a failed charge also turns off autopay (see #2).
To hear about failures right away, turn on the Payment Failed and Autopay Disabled notifications under Settings → Personal profile → Notifications. The Upcoming Autopay notification emails you a digest of payments due in the next 48 hours so you can fix problems before charge day.
7. Stripe isn't connected
All online charges run through your school's Stripe account. If you haven't finished connecting Stripe, no cards or bank accounts can be charged at all. Click Settings in the sidebar and, on the School account tab, check the Payment Processor section — its Status should say "Connected to Stripe." If not, see Setting up online payments.
8. The wrong person is billed
The invoice's Billed to contact is the person whose payment method gets charged. Payment methods belong to individual contacts, so if Mom is billed but the card is saved on Dad's contact, autopay finds nothing. Check Billed to in Edit invoice on the invoice — the options are the parents in the student's family, plus whoever pays the invoice now. If the right parent isn't listed, add them to the family first (see Families).