#Rob.Clayton
gloomy willow
uncut stump
OK, so basically you want to set a schedule to update the subscription price after one year, am I right?
covert quartz
Hey Jack, and thanks for your quick assistance.
No, I obviously didn't explain myself at all well 🙂
Hang on, I'll write a better example.
One of our customers begins a subscription:
period: 1-1-2023 - 1-1-2024
Product: Tier 1
We charge full amount of $1000
6 months into the contract the customer wants to move to Tier 2
Tier cost is $10000
I don't want to charge a % of the cost based on how much time is left in the contract.
I want to charge Tier 2 Cost - Tier 1 Cost = $10000 - $1000
I don't want to change the contract period.
uncut stump
Ok, so imagine your customer begins the subscription on 1 Jan 2023 with $1000 product, on 30 June they updates to $10000, and you wants to charge them $9000 on 30 June, and they'll pay $10000 again on 1 Jan 2024?
Is this the logic that you want to implement?
covert quartz
you got it!
It's like they purchased tier 2 from the start of the contract, and when it renews they'll be charged the tier 2 price going forward.
basically the time they upgrade is irrelevant to us
If our customers upgrade 1 day before renewal they'll need to use their added data very fast before it rolls over.
I'm assuming some prorating trickery ... but I don't understand the financial terminology or concepts well enough
I have our api working to create subscriptions and from initial date is fine ... but because the subscription modification behaviour by default charges a % of the remaining period on the contract I'm a bit out of my depth.
uncut stump
So if your customer updates on 30 Dec 2023 and paid $9000, are you expecting them to pay %10000 again on 1 Jan 2024?
covert quartz
Yes
It sounds strange, but basically they are buying a data package, and it's not % rated on time left.
our tier 1 gives 1 data unit
Our tier 2 gives 10 data units, etc
and the data MUST be used within each contract period, it doesn't roll over.
They'd be mad to upgrade on 30 DEC 2023 ... but yes, if they did we'd charge them the full difference in tier price
I know I could do something complicated like canceling the contract and starting a new one, but if we could just manage the invoice generated immediately and upgrade the product (tier) within the subscription it would be awesome
uncut stump
OK. So here's how it works
When you update the subscription, you turn off the proration by setting proration_behavior to none, and you manually add in a new invoice item for the different (i.e., $10000 - $1000 = $9000) and generate an invoice for your customer to pay the June invoice.
covert quartz
ahhhhhhh!
okay ... I assume that needs to be done through the api? Which is fine!!
uncut stump
Yes you are right
covert quartz
awesome, all good.
Do you possibly have any code examples?
Otherwise I'll just go ahead and try to implement what you are described
I currently create subscriptions in code and send them to stripe, but so far only initial subscriptons, not more complicated updates that add invoice items
uncut stump
I don't have an example. The key idea is to disable proration and create an ah-hoc invoice when update
covert quartz
No worries.
Can I add an even more complicated situation?
What if I wanted to charge monthly in the scenario I have described?
We still want to (internally for us) lock our customers in to 1 year rolling contracts.
However, if we charge monthly, if we need to fully charge the tier2-tie1 over the remainder of the year ... is there an option to increase the monthly repayments appropriately?
uncut stump
if we charge monthly, if we need to fully charge the tier2-tie1 over the remainder of the year -> Can you elaborate more?
covert quartz
Apologies Jack.
So, similar to the initial situation, we always work with a 1 year contract.
An upgrade during that year period requires the full amount to be paid out over the remainder of the contract.
If at 6 months in, an upgrade from tier 1 -> 2 occurs, and the cost is tier 1 = 1000, and tier 2 = 10000, they need to pay back 9000 in the remaining 6 months.
If we are not taking all payment immediately (monthly payment), they now need to be paying $1500 per month until renewal date, at which time they will be paying $833 per month.
uncut stump
So you want them to pay $9000 in June, or $1500 monthly for 6 months?
covert quartz
1500 pm for 6 months