#mehdi-invoice
sullen atlas
Hello! There isn't a way to update the Invoice description once the Invoice has been finalized, which can be difficult with Subscriptions because in a lot of cases they automatically finalize the first Invoice when the Subscription is created
There's a couple of ways around this
You could create the Subscription with a really short trial (like a couple of seconds), so that the first Invoice is the $0 trial one, and the second Invoice (that you care about) can still be updated
sullen atlas
You could also use Subscription Schedules instead
mossy elbow
it created the first invoice for a subscription, with a description
sullen atlas
Ahhh, I see how the dashboard does it - they're using a dashboard-only parameter (invoice_settings.description) when they create a Subscription. But you can only set this through the dashboard, so it won't work for you
mossy elbow
oh hmmm
why can't I pass that as a parameter?
is it blocked on the backend? or can I just manually pass it
sullen atlas
If you pass it in the request will fail, because we only allow it to be set from requests made through the dashboard
mossy elbow
hmmm
if I use a subscription schedule, can I set it as part of default_settings.invoice_settings ?
sullen atlas
No, if you use Subscription Schedules you'd make a separate API request to update the Invoice description (which you would be able to do because the Invoice wasn't finalized yet)
mossy elbow
ahhh I prefer not having to finalized the invoice manually
or have weird states for the subscription
is there any plan to let the API set invoice_settings.description?
sullen atlas
The Invoice will still finalize automatically, but it'll start off as a draft and then automatically finalize in an hour
I don't believe there's any plan to allow general usage of invoice_settings.description (but I'm definitely flagging it as feedback)
mossy elbow
oh with subscription schedules though, we would send an invoice to the user, right?
sullen atlas
No, you could still use charge_automatically with Subscription Schedules - Schedules are just a different way of creating and making updates to a Subscription
mossy elbow
hmmm so would the right way to do this, make a schedule, create a subscription from it and then release the subscription from the schedule?
sullen atlas
Yeah, that's one way to do it 👍
the other way around this is the short trial thing I mentioned earlier
mossy elbow
what would be the right end date for the phase in a schedule?
wispy slate
Hi 👋 @sullen atlas had to step away so I'm jumping in here. Can you describe which phase in a schedule you are talking about?
mossy elbow
hey, we were talking about using subscription schedule phases so that we could set description on the first invoice in a subscription
wispy slate
If I understand correctly the point of using a Subscription schedule is to use charge_automatically but still have the 1 hour draft period to edit the first invoice. Is that correct?
mossy elbow
ahh yeah
wispy slate
Okay so you can set either the end_date or the iterations of the phase to whichever you want and by default, the subscription schedule will transition to a plain Subscription once the phase is over.
We point that out here: https://stripe.com/docs/billing/subscriptions/subscription-schedules#completing-schedule
I just tested this out creating a Subscription Schedule and the first invoice was created in Draft mode.
mossy elbow
if I want it to immediately turn into a plain subscription, can I put end_date 'now' ?
wispy slate
I wouldn't do that just in case it alters the behavior of that initial invoice. Instead I would add an iteration of 1
The behavior (except for the initial invoice) will be identical to a plain subscription.
mossy elbow
is there some reason why the default payment method from the customer is not applying to the subscription schedule?
for example, I tried to finalize this invoice: in_1Lq0XWGMqtYOJnNwC1j3vzDY
the customer has a default payment method
or do I need to set default_settings.collection_method to charge_automatically?
wispy slate
Okay looking at the Customer I see the default_payment_method is pm_1LlGQkGMqtYOJnNwXO27jebF. When I look at the Invoice and I check the related Payment Intent (where we actually collect payment) I see the Payment Method used is pm_1LlGQkGMqtYOJnNwXO27jebF. The current stat of that payment intent is requires_confirmation.
wispy slate
More like stripe.invoices.confirm: https://stripe.com/docs/api/payment_intents/confirm
mossy elbow
uhhh, why do I need to confirm the payment intent? when I create a subscription normally with this payment intent, it works
hmm okay, I think I worked around by it paying the invoice instead of finalizing it
wispy slate
Well the invoice was already finalized
But yeah I guess that step also confirms the Payment Intent.
mossy elbow
ahhhh okay
thanks for all your help! this was a round-about way to set description on the invoice but it worked
wispy slate
I'm glad we got it working for you!