The answer depends on your payment processor, but here's the general plan:
- Contact your payment processor and inform them that you want ARB (Automated Recurring Billing) added to your account. There's generallyMost payment processors will add an additional monthly charge (around $10-20/month). Some (like iATS Payments) do not.
- Most payment processors (e.g. Authorize.Net, PayPal) will send a notification to a predetermined URL when they process a payment. Instructions are here for PayPal and Authorize.
- Other payment processors (e.g. iATS Payments) store a token in CiviCRM. CiviCRM submits the token on a regular basis to process a payment.
- On any contribution page, go to the Configure menu > Contribution Amounts and check the box labeled "Recurring Contributions".
You can configure your options from there. Bi-monthly and quarterly transactions are possible by specifying recurring intervals. I've been commissioned to write an extension to add "quarterly" as an option without using intervals, but it's not written yet!