arrowcircle

[wide remnant]

Invoice id in_1No0aXCchCXkAqXgNLROO95J

[slender lichen]

Well I'd guess the initial invoice was for $0 as there was either a trial or a discount applied

[wide remnant]

subscription id sub_1No0aXCchCXkAqXgUouUQtT6

Definetly not trials or discounts

[slender lichen]

Ah, usage based. So this is expected

We invoice for metered/usage based items at the end of the period

Unfortunately the initial $0 invoice is unavoidable in this scenario. However they're not sent to customers automatically

[wide remnant]

but how to deal with this?

[slender lichen]

How to deal with what exactly?

[wide remnant]

because I have a flat pack, that should be charged as a pack price

[slender lichen]

I'm afraid I don't know what that means

You mean the flat fee?

We don't bill for those upfront, they're on the same Invoice as the usage items at the end of the perod

[wide remnant]

But with the same 0 usage next invoice preview shows proper price

[slender lichen]

Yes, because the next invoice at the end of the current period will include the flat fee regardless of whether you report any usage. This is jsut how metered billing works

[wide remnant]

and is it possible to include this payment into first invoice?

[slender lichen]

Kind of, but this is the only time you'd see an invoice at the start of the period

i.e. at the start of the Subscription

Every other period there'd only be an invoice at the end

[wide remnant]

I mean idea is to charge user for the next month of plan package and all the overusage for previous month

And when I activate the subscription it should charge user immediately or with small delay

how can i implement this?

[slender lichen]

You'd need to manually add an invoice item to the initial invoice

[wide remnant]

Did I setup products and prices properly? Because each payment includes payment for the next month and for previous month overusage

[slender lichen]

That would depends on how you want to model your pricing/business in Stripe. What exactly are you building?

[wide remnant]

So, I want to have three tiers of pricing with included metered products. Lets it be Starter, Plus and Pro. There are 3 products: Storage, translation and transcribe. Each tier have included pack for each product + ability to overuse. Overuse price for each tier is different.

Subscription will have all 3 producs included with different prices attached depending on tier

subscription id to have a better look sub_1No0aXCchCXkAqXgUouUQtT6

[slender lichen]

By 'pack', you mean some predefined usage quota that is included for a flat fee with Stripe?

[wide remnant]

exactly

[slender lichen]

And then any usage over that quote you just report to Stripe as regular usage?

[wide remnant]

Idea is to report all the usage to the stripe

otherwise I will need to implement billing on my side as well

[slender lichen]

But you want to charge the flat fee upfront, and the usage separately?

[wide remnant]

ideally in one payment

[slender lichen]

But they are in one invoice/payment, and the end of the billing period

[wide remnant]

so how can I set it up properly?

[slender lichen]

From everything you've described above, it is set up correctly

[wide remnant]

but it does not charge initial flat fee on subscription

[slender lichen]

Yep, and that's not possible when using usage based pricing as I've explained

[wide remnant]

and how can I set it up with different approaches?

should I create 2 subscriptions?

[slender lichen]

That is one options yes. Obviously means more overhead for you and separate invoices for the flat amount and overusage

[wide remnant]

what are other options?

[slender lichen]

Thinking..

If you want to bill the flat fee upfront every month, then there's no way to consolidate that and the overusage into a single invoice/payment. They're going to need to be separate

[wide remnant]

oh..

[slender lichen]

One alternative would be to bill the flat fee as a manual invoice item on the Subscription via https://stripe.com/docs/api/invoiceitems/create#create_invoiceitem-subscription

[wide remnant]

what would be better and reliable way?

[slender lichen]

Not use our usage billing and handle it manually. That's the only real way to get the behaviour you want

[wide remnant]

so 2 subscriptions with 6productprice vs 3prooductprice + 1 manual invoice item?

[slender lichen]

Why would you need the invoice item with 2 Subscriptions?

[wide remnant]

to handle flat payment for next period and overusage for previous

[slender lichen]

Those would be handled by the Subscriptions

I think you need to take a step back and understand how our pricing models work (https://stripe.com/docs/products-prices/pricing-models) and figure out which best fits your requirements and system

Then try some things with a test clock so you can advance the time to test various scenarios

[wide remnant]

thing is non of them work easily

anyway, thanks a lot for the help

[slender lichen]

Then you'll need to adapt by trying some of the workarounds I've mentioned

[wide remnant]

but what do you think, will it be easier and reliable to add manual item for the first invoice or go for two subscriptions (one for flat and one for overusage)?

[slender lichen]

Well as I explained the issue with the manual item is in any future billing period there won't be an invoice at the start of the period

[wide remnant]

but as I understood, it will be required on the initial invoice, that is 0 right now?

[slender lichen]

Which is why I suggested this (#1149631646618894367 message), pkus controlling the interval at which we bill for them: https://stripe.com/docs/api/subscriptions/object#subscription_object-pending_invoice_item_interval

[slender lichen]

Yes, but only at the start of the Subscription. There won't be a $0 invoice at the start of subsequent billing periods

You need to just try some stuff with the API

[wide remnant]

ok, thanks a lot! sorry for dumb questions