#rob_subscription-invoice
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- rob_unexpected, 6 days ago, 78 messages
loud wagon
As I didn't have enough characters to formulate my question:
We currently pause auto advance on newly created invoices for this subscription, then 3 days later add the line item, then invoice. But then still, Stripe doesn't invoice for the previous month, which is something we would like. We set up a trial period of 30 days to also prevent invoicing the customer directly.
My main question is should we revert to manual invoicing, or is pausing auto advance considered best practice? And how do we still leverage the benefits of Stripe managing the subscription lifecycle? Also, how can we make a subscription stop generating invoices, if we were to switch to manual invoicing?
arctic phoenix
hi there!
loud wagon
hello!
arctic phoenix
can you share an example Subscription ID (sub_xxx) so I can better understand the context?
do you want users to pay at the end of the month based on how much they used your product? if so have you looked into usage based pricing?
loud wagon
Yes I have looked at it, and created a meter as well, to see if it would work for us. Looking at the API docs, I don't see a way to historically add usage. We also don't know the useage per day, we only know the number on a given day. So we could only leverage 'max' or 'last' aggreation methods which are not available right now. But it also doesn't really make sense I thought, since we don't know the final usage inside the month that is billed (so we can't display a meter to the customer anyway).
arctic phoenix
since we don't know the final usage inside the month that is billed
can you share more details on how you want the system to work exactly?
loud wagon
We have customers that would need to be billed at the first of the month, for the previous month's usage. There is a flat fee component and a usage component. The usage component can only be calculated 3 days after the month has ended.
component in this case, is an invoice (line) item
arctic phoenix
And you want the Invoice to contain both the flat fee (that you need to pay at the beginning of the month) and the usage based (that you get 3 days after the end of the month)?
that seems tricky
loud wagon
in_1PInKDGcuLQxtiNKVXCoYRUx is an invoice that is almost correct. Only the period is incorrect. It's 1st june invoice, it should the period of May that is invoiced.
arctic phoenix
note that you can't change the period of an Invoice generated by a Subscription.
loud wagon
Yeah so my solution right now is to pause auto advance for invoices of this subscription, and then add the usage line item manually later on.
So that's indeed my problem right now, I either want Stripe to create an invoice for the past month instead, or do I need to revert to manual invoicing to set the period (previous month)?
loud wagon
And you want the Invoice to contain both the flat fee (that you need to pay at t...
It's also fine to have the flat fee be paid at the end of the month instead. We don't need to charge anything ahead.
But given how stripe works, no matter if I set the billing anchor to the first or last of the month, the period ahead will always be charged
arctic phoenix
Yeah so my solution right now is to pause auto advance for invoices of this subscription, and then add the usage line item manually later on.
yeah that's probably the best option
or do I need to revert to manual invoicing to set the period (previous month)?
that's also an option, but then you'll need to implement the subscription logic on your end (emails, retry, etc.) which Stripe does automatically for you when using Subscriptions. so I wouldn't recommend this.
loud wagon
For the last part, can't we turn on automatic collection for the invoice, after we finished creating it?
arctic phoenix
sure, but you'll miss most of these features: https://dashboard.stripe.com/settings/billing/automatic
and you'll also miss the customer portal, and prorations, and many other things.
loud wagon
While licensed subscriptions items bill in advance, metered subscription items bill in arrears—at the point of invoice, all service has already been provided and all revenue recognized.
Would it be a solution to make the flat fee component, a metered price with a quantity of always 1?
loud wagon
and you'll also miss the customer portal, and prorations, and many other things.
Aiii, we use the customer portal right now, to set up payment method and switch subscription
arctic phoenix
yep. note that if the main issue is the wrong dates on the Invoice, then you could use custom_fields to clarify directly on the invoide what the "real" dates are. it's not ideal, but it could help.
loud wagon
Can we actually delete the invoice item of the subscription? Then we overwrite it ourselves with the correct period.
arctic phoenix
which Invoice Item? the one generated by the Subscription itself? if so, I don't think that's possible no.
loud wagon
Okay
jovial atlas
👋 taking over for my colleague. Let me know if there's any follow-up Qs I can answer!
loud wagon
Would it be a good idea to make the setup like this:
A subscription with a single price that is 'usage-based' and then manually set the quantity of that line item on the paused invoice? This would make it a 'bill in arrears' price, and set the date correctly. We can do this in the same time when we manually add the usage based invoice item anyway. Is it possible to edit the quantity of a subscription based invoice item?
jovial atlas
please give me a moment to catch up, will be with you shortly
arctic phoenix
sorry Discord is busy right now. not sure about your question, I would recommend for you to test that in test mode and see if it works as expected.