Using Subscription Billing

The following example is based off of a subscription invoice with a NET 14 terms. In this scenario, AutoPay will be disabled. If you wish to use AutoPay, we recommend using the signup pages to subscribe a new customer and capture the payment information on signup.

Subscriptions are created and accessed in the Subscriptions tab. To begin creating a subscription, you can click the + sign next to the subscription tab or access the Add Subscription button in the Subscriptions tab.

A dialogue box will now show to select or add a customer. If the customer does not exist, you will add the customers name and Invoiced will create the customer.

This will allow you to enter the customers contact information, select AutoPay (if applicable), payment terms, and options for payment methods. This example will use NET 14. Click create when finished.

Once the customer is saved, it is time to create a plan. Click +New Plan to create a new plan.

Let's say we want to create a plan called Basic for $39/month. The ID field is a unique identifier used to reference your plan through the API. The ID is automatically generated for you, but you are free to rename this to match your own internal SKU or naming scheme. Click save when completed.

The last step is to customize the duration of the subscription and if you wish to have any addons. To reveal these options, click the *Options drop down.

In this example, we want to start the subscription now. If you wish to start the subscription at a later date or offer a free trial period then you can uncheck the *Starting now *option to select a start date. We are going to leave the Duration as Until canceled. The subscription will renew until canceled by you or the customer. The Quantity can be left as 1, unless the customer is purchasing multiple quantities of the base price. Let's try adding an addon by clicking + Addon. In our example we are selecting an 1 on 1 session addon and setting the quantity to 4.

For the Renew On setting we are going to leave it as Start date anniversary. This will renew the subscription each billing cycle on the same day of the month as the start date, which is today in this example. If you selected Day of month instead then this would bill your customer on a specific day of the month you choose, like the first of the month. The first bill would be prorated for the time remaining until the next billing cycle. Future renewals will be on the date you've specified.

At the bottom of the screen you can see the calculated recurring total. If you click the Preview button you can even see a preview of the upcoming billing cycles. Once the subscription looks right you can now click Create.

You will now see that your newly created subscription is active. The invoice for the first billing cycle has already been generated.

What happens when your customer falls in love with your service and wants to purchase more? This common scenario is easily handled with Invoiced. We will even (optionally) calculate and bill the prorated amount when switching a plan, quantity, or addons in the middle of the billing cycle.

You can edit a subscription by opening the subscription in the dashboard and clicking the Edit button in the top right corner.

This allows you to change the quantity, add subscription addons, discounts, and taxes.

Once your subscription is running you might want to change when it renews next. The reason might be that the customer wants the subscription to renew on a certain day of the month, maybe the wrong start date was chosen, or else you want to issue invoices sooner.

With the subscription in the dashboard you can click Actions → Change Billing Date to change when the subscription will renew next.

The billing date cannot be set in the past. Changing the billing date will not produce any prorations.

Canceling a subscription is simple. With the subscription open in the dashboard you can click Actions → Cancel Subscription.

You can choose whether you want the subscription to be canceled immediately or at the end of the billing period.

When a customer cancels a subscription in the customer portal, the subscription will end at the end of the billing cycle. This also means that the cancellation will not trigger a credit to the customers account. This is because the subscription is pre-paid at the beginning of the billing cycle.

With subscriptions, an automatic billing schedule is based on an infinite number of billing charges. With contract billing, a finite duration of payments for the consumers contract can be created that does not automatically renew, making it beneficial to your enterprise. The interval at which the customer is billed is often more frequent than the length of the contract. Traditional subscription billing allows you to set a subscription billing cycle with no end date, or a billing plan with an ending of X months. Contract billing allows you to set a contract term length. Even if canceled, the contract will continue to bill until the end of the contract term.

An example of Contract Billing can be an annual contract that is billed monthly and the contract does not renew automatically. When the contract does not renew automatically, the user will have to manually update the contract during the renewal process to determine if the customer intends to renew their contract. This process also allows for renewal increases and what the duration of the renewal might be.

Please note the renewal length and initial term length are not intrinsically the same. A customer could have a contract that has an initial term of three years and has the option to renew on a yearly basis after the inital term.

If auto-renewal is enabled, there is no need for internal intervention of the contract. With auto-renewal disabled, each time there is a contract renewal, it is important to distinguish if the subscription is being renewed, what the length of the next term will be, and if there will be any pricing or line item changes.

To set-up a contract, simply navigate to:

Subscriptions → Add Subscription

Like the process of creating a traditional subscription, find the customer you wish to add the subscription to then select the subscription plan. To add contract billing terms, expand the Options section.

Select how long the initial term of the contract will be.

Next, select whether the contract will :

Renew Automatically: It will continue to renew automatically until canceled based on the renewal terms.

Require Approval to Renew: It will require the approval from the customer to renew the contract. This allows internal users to change the terms, pricing, and plan items.

Stop Billing: This will cancel the contract

Once you select the process of the contract ending, continue the traditional set up of a subscription billing cycle.

Approval of Contract Renewal

When a contract is up for renewal, the renewal process is done by the internal Invoiced user, not the customer. It is up to the business and the customer to work on the renewal terms of the contract.

You can filter your subscriptions by upcoming renewal in your Subscriptions section under the filter : Pending Renewal.

Canceling contract billing is slightly different than canceling a traditional subscription. The customer can still access the cancellation process in the customer portal, however, the option to cancel at the end of the billing cycle should not be available until the length of the contract has completed. In many cases, this option could be a couple of cycles out from the end of the contract billing term.