Audience: Billing, Revenue, and Customer Service Representatives (CSRs)
Patients' situations change after a payment plan is set up. A patient might ask for a lower monthly payment, a later due date, a different card on file, a pause while they apply for financial assistance, or to pay everything off at once. As a staff user, Flywire gives you several tools to make these changes from the patient's account.
A quick note on permissions: Not every staff user can do every action. Each change is controlled by a permission tied to your role. If you don't see a button described here, your role most likely doesn't have that permission. See Article 4: Important Things to Know for the full permission list.
Where you make changes: the Payment Plan Actions menu
Almost every change starts in the same place. From a patient's account, open the Payment Plans tab and find the plan you want to change. Each plan has:
- Two primary buttons for taking payments: Pay Next Installment and Pay Full Balance
- A Payment Plan Actions menu (a dropdown button) that holds all of the change options
The options that appear inside Payment Plan Actions depend on three things:
- Your permissions (your role)
- The plan's status (active, paused/frozen, completed, pending)
- The plan type — a standard provider plan vs. a financed (PayZen) plan
The different ways to change a plan (at a glance)
| Change | Menu / Button label | Plan type |
|---|---|---|
| Change the term, monthly amount, or first due date | Modify Payment Plan | Provider |
| Add another bill/balance to the plan | Modify Payment Plan (then add bills) | Provider |
| Forgive missed installments | Inside Modify Payment Plan | Provider |
| Waive the service fee | Inside Modify Payment Plan | Provider |
| Pause the plan (put it on hold) | Pause Payment Plan | Both |
| Resume a paused plan | Resume Payment Plan | Both |
| Cancel / close the plan | Cancel Payment Plan | Both |
| Turn on automatic payments | Turn On Autopay | Both |
| Change the card/account on file | Change The Way You Pay | Both |
| Take the next scheduled payment now | Pay Next Installment | Both |
| Pay the plan off in full | Pay Full Balance | Both |
| Change the pay-in-full discount on an active plan | Alter Pay In Full Discount | Provider |
| Remove a bill from a financed plan | Remove Bills | PayZen |
| Combine multiple plans into one | Combine Plans | Provider |
| View the original offer terms | View Offer Terms | Provider |
| View financed plan details | View Financed Payment Plan Details | PayZen |
Provider plan vs. financed (PayZen) plan: A provider plan is paid directly to the healthcare organization, and staff can change its terms in Flywire. A financed (PayZen) plan has been financed through PayZen — its terms cannot be modified in Flywire. For financed plans, term changes must go through PayZen support. See Article 4 for the full comparison.
Before you change anything: three rules of thumb
- Confirm the plan type first. If it's a financed (PayZen) plan, your options are limited and some changes route to PayZen. The menu will reflect this automatically.
2. Check the plan status. Paused (frozen), completed, and pending plans hide or disable most change options. A paused plan, for example, only offers Resume Payment Plan.
3. Some changes can't happen mid-processing. When the nightly payment run is in progress and a payment is due that day, Flywire temporarily blocks changes to avoid double-charging. If an action is greyed out or you get a "try again later" message, this is usually why.
Quick decision guide
- Patient wants a smaller/larger monthly payment or more time → Modify Payment Plan
- Patient needs a temporary break (e.g., applying for financial assistance) → Pause Payment Plan
- Patient is ready to start paying again after a pause → Resume Payment Plan
- Plan needs to be closed (approved for assistance, duplicate, etc.) → Cancel Payment Plan
- Patient got a new card / wants autopay → Turn On Autopay or Change The Way You Pay
- Patient wants to pay this month now / pay everything off → Pay Next Installment / Pay Full Balance
- Patient has a new bill to add → Modify Payment Plan (add bills)
- Financed plan needs a bill removed → Remove Bills