Form Recurring Payment Merge Fields

When using the Payment Form Widget to start a recurring payment within a form, you can use Form Recurring Payment merge fields to include details about that recurring payment in form communications.

Note: Standard Payment Receipt merge fields do not include recurring payment information. To display recurring payment details, be sure to use the Form Recurring Payment merge fields instead.

Understanding How Form-Recurring-Payment Works

Unlike Form-Payment-Receipt, there is no merge field button that inserts a preformatted recurring payment block.

The Form-Recurring-Payment object does not exist as a standalone button in the merge field menu. Instead, each field must be manually referenced in the message using its full merge field syntax (for example, {{Form-Recurring-Payment.amount}}).

You can place these merge fields anywhere within the message body. There is no required wrapper or parent Liquid block.

For example:

Thank you for creating a recurring gift of ${{Form-Recurring-Payment.amount}} 
to be paid {{Form-Recurring-Payment.payment_frequency}}.

Each field functions independently and will populate only if a recurring payment was initiated by the form submission.

Displaying Content for Recurring Payments

Because the merge fields will be blank when no recurring payment exists, it is recommended to either:

Use Liquid logic to conditionally display recurring messaging, or
Create two separate communications: one for one-time payments and one for recurring payments.

Option 1: Use Liquid Logic

To display a message only when a recurring payment is initiated:

{% if Form-Recurring-Payment.amount != null and 
Form-Recurring-Payment.amount != "" %} 
Thank you for creating a recurring gift of ${{Form-Recurring-Payment.amount}} 
to be paid {{Form-Recurring-Payment.payment_frequency}}.
{% endif %}

This ensures the message only appears when a recurring payment exists.

Option 2: Create Separate Communications

You may choose to create:

One confirmation/receipt email for standard payments using Form-Payment-Receipt
A separate confirmation email for recurring payments using Form-Recurring-Payment

This approach avoids conditional logic and can simplify message formatting.

Available Merge Fields

There are a number of available Form Recurring Payment fields that can be used as merge fields:

Merge Field	Description
$ `{{Form-Recurring-Payment.amount}}`	Amount paid, formatted as a decimal
`{{Form-Recurring-Payment.currency}}`	Three-letter currency name, such as “USD” for U.S. dollars
`{{Form-Recurring-Payment.interval}}`	Payment to be made every [interval] months, year, etc. (for example, every 3 months)
`{{Form-Recurring-Payment.interval_type}}`	Payment to be made every 3 [interval_type] (for example, every 3 months)
`{{Form-Recurring-Payment.payment_frequency}}`	A user-friendly description of the frequency, such as Monthly, Quarterly, or Annually
`{{Form-Recurring-Payment.payment_type}}`	“cc” for a credit card, “bank” for ACH/checking account
`{{Form-Recurring-Payment.payment_type_detail}}`	Credit card name for “cc” (such as "Visa" or "American Express") and “Bank: [bank name]” for banks (for example, "Bank: Bank of America")
`{{Form-Recurring-Payment.last4}}`	Last four digits of card or account number

Testing and Warnings

Not Seeing Merge Field Data in Test Communications?

Payment merge fields are not populated with values in test messages. Instead, you should create a real form submission with a Test Record, Test Payment Account, and Test Credit Card.

Warning: `{{Form-Recurring-Payment.<data-point>}}` in body is an unknown merge field

For each Form Recurring Payment merge field you include in a form communication, Slate may raise a pre-flight warning that it is unknown.

You can safely ignore these warnings.

They occur because Form-Recurring-Payment data is not technically part of the recipient list query. Instead, the data is generated dynamically when the form submission creates a recurring payment. As long as the form contains a Payment Form widget configured to initiate recurring payments, and a recurring payment is created, the merge fields will populate correctly.