luis-checkout-sendinvoice | Stripe Developers | Page 1

quaint swiftBOT Aug 17, 2023, 5:43 PM

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elder grail Aug 17, 2023, 5:44 PM

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No that is not possible with Checkout since Checkout accepts a payment immediately as part of starting the Subscription. You can switch to send_invoice later. But it wouldn't make sense on Checkout since "send_invoice" is about "you can pay this in 30 days"

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luis-checkout-sendinvoice

hazy forum Aug 17, 2023, 5:45 PM

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ok thank you. But we don´t want to charge automatically when the subscription expires

elder grail Aug 17, 2023, 5:45 PM

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what does that mean? If something "Expire" it means it "stops"

hazy forum Aug 17, 2023, 5:45 PM

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We want to warn the user that the subscription will end if he doesn´t pay for another month/year.

hazy forum Aug 17, 2023, 5:46 PM

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elder grail what does that mean? If something "Expire" it means it "stops"

Unless it´s renewed

elder grail Aug 17, 2023, 5:46 PM

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I'm sorry I don't really understand what that could mean. I think you are misunderstanding "send invoice". It's more for delivering a service now and sending an Invoice they can pay in 30/60/90 days for example

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Unless it´s renewed
but then nothing "expires" right? Sorry the vocabulary is a bit crucial to get right since there are dozens of ways to do this

hazy forum Aug 17, 2023, 5:47 PM

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ok let´s clear up

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When a user buys a subscription on stripe checkout it will always auto renew, right? The money will be taken from the user automatically at the end of the subscription period, unless he actively cancels the subscription, right?

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It´s a "recurrent payment"

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We want to sell subscriptions without automatic recurrent payments, instead of just taking the money from the user, we want to tell the user the subscription period is ending and he must actively pay to renew.

elder grail Aug 17, 2023, 5:52 PM

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Gotcha. But that is not something we support at all. Like you have to build this yourself in this case where each month you ask them if they want to renew and when they pay you start a "new period" for example.

hazy forum Aug 17, 2023, 5:53 PM

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I think what I want is exactly this: https://stripe.com/docs/api/subscriptions/create#create_subscription-collection_method

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set to "send_invoice"

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But I can´t find how to set this parameter when using checkout

elder grail Aug 17, 2023, 6:00 PM

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it's absolutely not what you want

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Say I subscribe on August 1st, I pay $100. On September 1st you email me saying "hey do you want to renew" and I wait September 10 to pay, what happens then? Do I get access September 10 - October 10 or September 1st - October 1st?

hazy forum Aug 17, 2023, 6:02 PM

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You loose access on September 1st and get access September 10 - October 10.

elder grail Aug 17, 2023, 6:04 PM

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So send_invoice is absolutely not what you want

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We send an Invoice on September 1st and you keep access and you can pay 30 days later

hazy forum Aug 17, 2023, 6:04 PM

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I see what you mean

elder grail Aug 17, 2023, 6:04 PM

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It's more for B2B or large B2C transactions where you basically trust them to pay you later

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In your case, it's like you don't really do a real subscriptions. It's a one-time payment, and every cycle you lose access until you go and repay

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conceptually that is often a mistake because you will frustrate all your customers when they lose access

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and half the time they'll go "well I didn't need this service"

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I get why you approach it this way though, I just would not recommend it

hazy forum Aug 17, 2023, 6:08 PM

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So your suggestion is to have recurring payments and refund the users that get charged for a service they don´t need?

elder grail Aug 17, 2023, 6:08 PM

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Well why would you refund?

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Like if you have Amazon Prime or Netflix, they charge you monthly, if you get charged, you get the service until the end of the period

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We do have additional features like automatic email ahead of renewal for the future Invoice. CustomerPortal to manage your Subscription, etc. There's a lot you can do to make this simpler too

hazy forum Aug 17, 2023, 6:14 PM

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elder grail Well why would you refund?

Because the user lost track of the renewal period and didn´t have the intention to extend the subscription. But your suggestion solves this, we inform the user that a new invoice will be charged automatically unless they cancel.

elder grail Aug 17, 2023, 6:15 PM

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yeah and you send emails for upcoming invoices

hazy forum Aug 17, 2023, 6:16 PM

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And the way to cancel further charging is to cancel the subscription, right?

elder grail Aug 17, 2023, 6:16 PM

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yes

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Usually you mark the Subscription to cancel at the end of the current period. That way they keep access until the last day and then it gets canceled, and it makes it easier to re-active

hazy forum Aug 17, 2023, 6:17 PM

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It´ll keep active until the end of the payed period, then no money will e charged and no invoices will be generated

elder grail Aug 17, 2023, 6:17 PM

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this parameter https://stripe.com/docs/api/subscriptions/update#update_subscription-cancel_at_period_end

hazy forum Aug 17, 2023, 6:18 PM

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elder grail this parameter <https://stripe.com/docs/api/subscriptions/update#update_subscrip...

Great, this seems to be what we need. Is it possible to set this parameter on checkout?

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So that the user can choose to be charged automatically or not.

elder grail Aug 17, 2023, 6:20 PM

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no it's not something we support. It's again something really strange honestly to "start a Subscription that will really just cancel immediately". It's not a Subscription then.

hazy forum Aug 17, 2023, 6:21 PM

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It won´t end immediately, it just won´t be renewed automatically.

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Like iRacing has for its members: https://www.iracing.com/membership/

elder grail Aug 17, 2023, 6:24 PM

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I mean sure, but still it all looks like $10/month but not really it's just one month

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that pricing is clearly a one-time fee in my eyes

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so in that case you just wouldn't do a Subscription at all

hazy forum Aug 17, 2023, 6:28 PM

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Ok, and can stripe handle the end period for a one-time fee purchase? So we can sync the availability of the service with what´s been bought through stripe, or do we need to manage it on our end?

elder grail Aug 17, 2023, 6:31 PM

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no

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You have 3 options
1/ Use Subscriptions the way I described, auto-renew -> my recommendation
2/ Don't use Subscriptions at all, everything is a one-time payment, track "period" and such on your end always
3/ Use Subscription, always mark "cancel at period end" every single time -> works but harder to grasp for the end customer, easy to make a mistake and charge by mistake, etc

hazy forum Aug 17, 2023, 6:33 PM

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ok @elder grail I get the idea, we'll work with that. Thank you!

elder grail Aug 17, 2023, 6:34 PM

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Sure thing!

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I would recommend #1 and becoming a "SaaS" business 🙂

hazy forum Aug 17, 2023, 6:38 PM

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Yep, saas is the idea

#luis-checkout-sendinvoice