davidthorand | Stripe Developers | Page 1

rain jackalBOT Dec 12, 2023, 12:10 PM

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Hello! We'll be with you shortly. Below are links to other discussions we've had with you in the past week in case you want to review that information. If your question is related to one of these previous discussions, please provide a comprehensive summary of the current state and what you need help with now. We help many users simultaneously, so a summary allows us to resolve your issue as soon as possible.

davidthorand, 21 hours ago, 19 messages
davidthorand, 3 days ago, 15 messages

cosmic coyote Dec 12, 2023, 12:12 PM

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Hi
Can you share an example please ?

lilac seal Dec 12, 2023, 12:15 PM

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Sure! So let's say a customer is on the "Starter" Plan and now wants to upgrade to the "Pro" Plan. I want them to see a preview of what to expect cost-wise from the new plan. So what I'd so is retreive an upcoming invoice with the requested plan/it's price ID.

So far so good. Another thing that needs to be kept in mind is that in case of the new price having a higher amount than the current price, the upgrade should happen immediately. In case of a downgrade, it should happen at the end of the current billing period.

Does that help?

cosmic coyote Dec 12, 2023, 12:16 PM

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Do you have a Subscription Id ?

lilac seal Dec 12, 2023, 12:17 PM

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Yes

cosmic coyote Dec 12, 2023, 12:17 PM

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the upgrade should happen immediately. In case of a downgrade, it should happen at the end of the current billing period.
YOu can manage this using Subscription Schedule

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https://stripe.com/docs/billing/subscriptions/subscription-schedules

lilac seal Dec 12, 2023, 12:18 PM

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Yes, but I want to show the customer a preview first before creating a schedule of the actual subscription update

cosmic coyote Dec 12, 2023, 12:19 PM

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When downgrading try to set the proration date as the end of the current billing period:
https://stripe.com/docs/api/invoices/upcoming#upcoming_invoice-subscription_proration_date

lilac seal Dec 12, 2023, 12:24 PM

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Does not seem to work:

[1] { currentPeriodEnd: '2024-12-12T11:53:26.000Z' }
[1] { newPeriodStart: '2023-12-12T12:24:38.000Z' }
[1] { newPeriodEnd: '2024-01-12T12:24:38.000Z' }

cosmic coyote Dec 12, 2023, 12:25 PM

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What is the issue/result ?

lilac seal Dec 12, 2023, 12:25 PM

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The expected newPeriodStart is after currentPeriodEnd. But it's not

cosmic coyote Dec 12, 2023, 12:30 PM

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These fields refer to what in Stripe API ?

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Can you share the SusbcriptionId you are doing your test with

lilac seal Dec 12, 2023, 12:32 PM

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The fields come from:

const currentPeriodEnd: currentSubscription.current_period_end;
const newPeriodStart = previewInvoice.lines.data[0].period.start;
const newPeriodEnd = previewInvoice.lines.data[0].period.end;

The Subscription ID is: sub_1OLWURAuRq0b7FtTBvRzrK9l

cosmic coyote Dec 12, 2023, 12:34 PM

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Why you are comparing the preview invoice dates with the current subscription period ?

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What value are you passing to the proration_date ?

lilac seal Dec 12, 2023, 12:35 PM

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currentPeriodEnd

lilac seal Dec 12, 2023, 12:37 PM

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cosmic coyote Why you are comparing the preview invoice dates with the current subscription pe...

I'm just trying to access the date when the updated subscription starts and will be renewed. I mean I can definitely calculate this myself but I'd like to prevent mixing Stripe logic with custom stuff

pulsar pulsar Dec 12, 2023, 12:50 PM

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Hi! I'm taking over from my colleague. Please, give me a moment to catch up.

pulsar pulsar Dec 12, 2023, 12:52 PM

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lilac seal `currentPeriodEnd`

Could you please share the Request ID req_xxx? https://support.stripe.com/questions/finding-the-id-for-an-api-request

lilac seal Dec 12, 2023, 12:53 PM

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Sure, sec

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req_Cu4ss8fR84QpKS

pulsar pulsar Dec 12, 2023, 12:56 PM

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I don't see that you're sending the subscription_proration_date: https://stripe.com/docs/api/invoices/upcoming#upcoming_invoice-subscription_proration_date

lilac seal Dec 12, 2023, 12:57 PM

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Yes, you're right. I commented it out to try something different. New Request ID incoming

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req_8eAYDugyr1E5vR

pulsar pulsar Dec 12, 2023, 12:59 PM

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Do the responses differ? (I can't see the response of the GET requests on my side)

lilac seal Dec 12, 2023, 1:00 PM

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Haven't compared every value but the relevant ones seem to be the same (new period start & end)

pulsar pulsar Dec 12, 2023, 1:05 PM

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I need a moment to check something...

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I see that the proration_behavior is identical to always_invoice (bills immediately) when you change the billing cycle: https://stripe.com/docs/billing/subscriptions/upgrade-downgrade#immediate-payment

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Maybe that's the reason why it ignores the subscription_proration_date.

lilac seal Dec 12, 2023, 1:10 PM

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So what should it be then? none? Because then the request would fail since you can not specify a proration date if no proration is being done (see req_PdQRvz50Pbiz4l)

pulsar pulsar Dec 12, 2023, 1:11 PM

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By default the proration date is "now"

lilac seal Dec 12, 2023, 1:11 PM

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And when I set it to create_prorations the result is the same as before

pulsar pulsar Dec 12, 2023, 1:13 PM

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pulsar pulsar I see that the `proration_behavior` is identical to `always_invoice` (bills imme...

"create_prorations" falls back to "always_invoice" in the case when you change the billing cycle, as the above article suggests. Meaning, no matter what proration_behavior you set, it will be always_invoice.

lilac seal Dec 12, 2023, 1:14 PM

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I don't follow. So how can I make it work then?

pulsar pulsar Dec 12, 2023, 1:17 PM

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Updating subscriptions is always tricky, let me try a few ideas...

lilac seal Dec 12, 2023, 1:19 PM

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It's weird that almost all update scenarios work perfectly fine except downgrading from a yearly interval to a monthly interval

pulsar pulsar Dec 12, 2023, 1:22 PM

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Ok, as a workaround you can add a trial period till the end of the current cycle: https://stripe.com/docs/api/invoices/upcoming#upcoming_invoice-subscription_trial_end

lilac seal Dec 12, 2023, 1:24 PM

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This did not work either, plus it broke some other already working scenarios

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req_HGbetjxZ1G9uDG

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Or does it need to be combined with another param?

pulsar pulsar Dec 12, 2023, 1:26 PM

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Can you try proration_behavior: "none"?

lilac seal Dec 12, 2023, 1:29 PM

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Same result. Is there really no "standard" way of letting the customer preview what happens to their subscription if they change to another price?

pulsar pulsar Dec 12, 2023, 1:36 PM

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I am actually not sure what do you want to calculate if you update (yearly -> monthly) the subscription at the end of the current cycle? The bill will just be the monthly amount, that's it. Unless there's a misunderstanding.

lilac seal Dec 12, 2023, 1:37 PM

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Expected outcome is that the customer sees the following information:

When will the next charge occur?
What will it cost?
When will it renew after the first charge?

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So let's say you have a yearly plan since today and want to upgrade to a monthly plan for 20 EUR/mo. The data would be:

Next charge: 12.12.2024
Cost: 20 EUR/mo
Renews at: 12.01.2025

errant totem Dec 12, 2023, 1:44 PM

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You can't really set upgrades/downgrades on X date in future like that where the billing interval changes (i.e. yearly -> monthly) without using a schedule. We will always immediately reset the billing anchor in those scenarios

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If your intention is to schedule these upgrades/downgrades on a specific date, look at: https://stripe.com/docs/billing/subscriptions/subscription-schedules/use-cases#upgrading-subscriptions

Subscription schedules use cases

Learn how to use subscription schedules.

errant totem Dec 12, 2023, 1:46 PM

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errant totem You can't really set upgrades/downgrades on X date in future like that where the...

Which is why the endpoint returns a new period date of now

rain jackalBOT Dec 12, 2023, 1:47 PM

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lilac seal Dec 12, 2023, 1:55 PM

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@errant totem for the actual subscription change, a schedule is definitely needed.

Just so we are on the same page here: There is no "stripe native way" to do what I want to do so I just have to handle it myself, right?

opal mural Dec 12, 2023, 2:10 PM

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👋 sorry for the delay, stepping in as ynnoj needed to step away

lilac seal Dec 12, 2023, 2:11 PM

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Hey again 🙂

opal mural Dec 12, 2023, 2:11 PM

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Yes you are correct -- if you don't have a schedule attached then you would need to implement logic yourself

lilac seal Dec 12, 2023, 2:12 PM

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Got it! I guess I'll do that then, thanks for clarifying 🙂

In the meantime I already took a look at how schedules work. It's not possible to schedule an update for an existing subscription, isn't it? It always creates a new one, right?

opal mural Dec 12, 2023, 2:14 PM

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You can attach a schedule to an existing Subscription, yes.

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You use from_subscription when you create the Schedule: https://stripe.com/docs/api/subscription_schedules/create#create_subscription_schedule-from_subscription

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Then you update the Schedule to correspond with what you want

lilac seal Dec 12, 2023, 2:21 PM

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Ahhh I see. So I create the schedule for the existing subscription, add phases etc. afterwards and when it finally releases, it's still the same subscription as before, yes?

opal mural Dec 12, 2023, 2:21 PM

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Yep

lilac seal Dec 12, 2023, 2:21 PM

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Does it need to be activated somehow? Or will this happen automatically once I added the phases etc.?

opal mural Dec 12, 2023, 2:21 PM

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It happens immediately once phases are associated

lilac seal Dec 12, 2023, 2:21 PM

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Awesome

opal mural Dec 12, 2023, 2:21 PM

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it's still the same subscription as before,
It is the same as the final phase

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To be clear

lilac seal Dec 12, 2023, 2:22 PM

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But the same subscription ID, right?

opal mural Dec 12, 2023, 2:23 PM

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Yes

lilac seal Dec 12, 2023, 2:23 PM

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Then it's exactly what I need, thank you 🙂

opal mural Dec 12, 2023, 2:24 PM

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Great!

lilac seal Dec 12, 2023, 2:25 PM

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Final question for today (hopefully): Is there some kind of service similar to the dev-help here which is more about plan modeling etc.? Would be super helpful to get some feedback on my setup here

opal mural Dec 12, 2023, 2:27 PM

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We are happy to talk about any technical questions so we will help if we can, but otherwise you would want to reach out to our Support team via https://support.stripe.com/contact/login about any non-technical questions.

lilac seal Dec 12, 2023, 2:27 PM

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Alright, thank you!

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Have a great day

#davidthorand