#gabor-subscription-referall
stiff flax
- We create a 100% off reward coupon for the monthly plan, and other 12 reward coupons for the yearly plan (one month = 8.33% off, two months = 16.67%off and so on). When a new successful referral happens, we record that in our db, and add a monthly or yearly (8.33%) coupon to the subscription if there is no coupon there already. If there is a coupon already attached to the subscription, and this is a monthly plan, then we wait and add a coupon only in the next billing period. If this is a yearly plan, and there is a coupon on the subscription already that is not a 100% off coupon, then we replace that coupon with a one month larger one (e.g. 8.33% -> 16.67). If it's a 100% off coupon (12 months free), then we add a new 8.33% coupon to the next billing period. Plus, on plan switch we check and update the coupons too…
…So, I'd like to ask for some more insight about the Stripe team, which or what direction could give a working, reliable solution.
limber hornet
HI 👋
mellow cedarBOT
stiff flax
👋 hi @limber hornet
Oh, there is option 5, in which we give a fix amount, so that removes the difficulty of plan switching. But from UX and marketing perspective we'd prefer free months.
limber hornet
There's a lot going on here.
stiff flax
yep, sorry
limber hornet
No worries, it's why we're here
stiff flax
I tried to summarise, but I know it's a lot. If anything is not clear, I'm happy to rephrase or tell more.
misty magnet
#1 is a ton of work and you'd miss out on a lot of value of the Portal but unfortunately until we add support for SubscriptionSchedules that seems like the most likely solution. And we're not working on Schedule support for now
#2 is what I would personally recommend. That's what I always tell people who do referrals to use. The yearly part is definitely trickier if you don't want to give them more free months, since in that case you have to tweak the balance before the upgrade (and reset it back if they end up not upgrading).
#3 does work, especially to "extend" the free period. You basically set trial_end to whatever you want their next payment date to be. But when you switch to yearly, then it won't work if you want them to partially pay that year. Also it hurts your "revenue recognition" to put them on trial periods like this.
#4 works though I personally would do "amount_off" coupons instead of the percentage. But again, painful on plan switches.
gabor-subscription-referall
stiff flax
Thank you @misty magnet! It seems the most straightforward solution is balance adjustment with fix reward amounts (instead of free months).
In case I'd like to go with free months, is there a way to query and calculate what part of the balance is from rewards? It would be easy to do something like that with credit notes, but as far as I can see credit notes are not really suitable for giving rewards this way. (I mean credit notes can be "tagged" and updated individually.)
Is it possible to start a trial period without subscription schedules once the customer is paid the first invoice?
misty magnet
For us, the balance is one big amount, we have no way to track what it represents, where it comes from, partially pull from it, etc. This is something you'd track entirely on your end.
And for the last bit you can set trial_end on a Subscription via the Update API.
stiff flax
Thank you for your help, this was really useful! I will likely go with giving fix amount rewards via balance adjustments.
misty magnet
awesome!
stiff flax
And I'm looking forward to the schedules support in customer portal, sometime in the future.