The setting responsible for charging behaviour is called backwards charging and is available when creating a new plan term. Once a plan term has been created, this setting cannot be changed. All plans which do not have the backwards charging option sellected will use forwards-charging.

We know how important is predictability, so we do our best to never change renewal dates when modifying subscriptions. That means changing plan terms of a subscription that was being charged on every first day of a month will preserve the next renewal date, and as long as the new plan uses same billing period, charging will continue to happen on first day of a month.

If you need to issue one invoice for multiple subscriptions being charged on the same day, be sure to create the subscriptions with group on invoice option selected. However, changes to subscription resulting with invoices or credit notes will still use individual document per subscription.

Note of warning: you cannot change subscription terms to terms in another currency. You need to cancel the subscription and create a new one instead. Some of the capabilities described here are only available by using the API and not in the user interface currently.

Forward-charging (pre-paid) subscriptions

Forwards-charging (pre-paid) plan terms are always charged on the first day the subscription using them is active (since its start date or if it isn't given, its creation date) and everytime an interval defined on the plan term in question passes.
As an example, let's use a plan term with the interval of one month to create a subscription starting on the 15th of November, 2018: it will be charged every month on the 15th. The first invoice will be issued on 15.11.2018, and the invoice line descibing the plan will use the period of 15.11.2018 to 14.12.2018.

The first invoice issued after creation of subscriptions with group on invoice enabled will be created after approximately 2 hours pass since its creation: it aims to give enough time to add more subscriptions and/or draft invoice lines that should appear on a single invoice. It will work regardless of whether the start date of subscription is in the past or right now, and doesn't concern subscriptions starting in the future. Be wary that whenever a subscription that uses group on invoice creates an invoice, it includes all other subscriptions that group on invoice which should be invoiced on the same day - so to keep subscriptions bundled on their first invoice, it's best to create them all within 2 hours.

Modifying existing subscriptions

Changing quantity onlyThis will generate an invoice billing or crediting for the change in quantity proportional to the remaining part of billing period. The invoice will be issued immediately as the change happens. This behaviour can be disabled when using API to update subscriptions, in this case no prorated invoice will be issued.

Changing terms to another forward-charging termsThis will generate an invoice awarding prorated credit partially refunding last issued invoice, and charging a prorated amount for the new plan. This preserves the next renewal date, so the charge will amount to the number of days until next renewal times the daily price of the new plan. The invoice will be issued immediately as the change happens.

Changing terms to backwards-charging termsThis will generate an invoice awarding prorated credit partially refunding last issued invoice. The invoice will be issued immediately. The new plan terms will be charged one day before the planned renewal date - the amount will be prorated according to the part of the billing period of the new plan that has passed between the change and the renewal. The future invoices will be issued on the last day of the billing period of the new plan terms, eg. a subscription with renewal date on 1.12.2018 was changed to a backwards-charging plan with one month interval on 15.12.2018. This will result with credit note being issued on 15.12.2018, prorated invoice being issued on 31.12.2018 and future invoices being issued on last day of every month.

Cancelling subscriptions

Cancelling at renewalThis action will result in subscription not renewing another time after the current billing period ends and no refund being issued. Subscription will be marked as not renewing until the current billing period ends and as expired afterwards.

Cancelling with prorated refundThis action will issue a prorated credit note refunding the remaining part of the billing period. Subscription will be marked as expired immediately.

Cancelling with full refundThis action will issue a credit note fully refunding the latest invoice. Subscription will be marked as expired immediately.

Backwards-charging (post-paid) subscriptions

Backwards-charging (post-paid) plan terms are always charged on the last day of the billing period of subscription using them. That means for a subscription using a monthly plan term, that started on 1.11.2018, the first invoice will be created on 30.11.2018, the second on 31.12.2018, etc. The lines describing the plan will use the period of 1st to last day of the month the invoice is being issued for.

If you want to have the ability to add variable parameters depending on actual usage, make sure to set subscription start date's time to as late of an hour as possible (so 23:59:59).

Modifying existing subscriptions

Changing quantity onlyThe quantity will be changed for the whole billing period. The invoice issued at the end of the billing period will charge for the updated quantity.

Changing terms to another backwards-charging termsA prorated invoice for the part of the billing period that has already passed will be issued at the moment of change. The invoice issued on the planned date will be charging prorated price of the new plan terms.

Changing terms to forward-charging termsAn invoice will be issued at the moment of change. It will contain prorated charge for the part of the billing period that has already passed, and a prorated charge for the part of the billing period that is yet to pass using the new plan terms. The next invoice will be issued on the first day of the new billing period, eg. a subscription with renewal date on 31.12.2018 was changed to a forward-charging plan with one month interval on 15.12.2018. This will result with proratedinvoice being issued on 15.12.2018, and future invoices being issued on first day of every month.

Cancelling subscriptions

Cancelling at renewalThis will result in the next invoice being generated as usual on the planned date and covering the whole billing period. Afterwards the subscription will not renew. The subscription will be marked as not renewing until the invoice is issued, and as expired afterwards.

Cancelling with prorated refundThis action will issue an invoice covering the part of the billing period that has already passed. The subscription will not renew afterwards. The subscription will be marked as not renewing for one day, and then as expired. The invoice will be issued with two-hour delay to allow for sending the webhooks associated with subscription renewal, which in turn allows for adding draft invoice lines with additional calculated usage.

Cancelling with full refundNo invoice will be issued. Subscription will be immediately marked as expired.