highondefi_sub-schedule

[uneven trout]

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[toxic jetty]

Hi, let me help you with this.

Yes, all items in a single Subscription should have equal intervals. However, there's no issue with a Customer having multiple Subscriptions.

For the year -> monthly case, I suggest adding a one-time item to the Subscription: https://docs.stripe.com/api/subscriptions/create#create_subscription-add_invoice_items
And also adding a 1 year trial period. This way, the customer will pay the flat fee immediately, and then the monthly Subscription will kick off after the trial is over - in a year.

When a customer buys more items, you will just create a new Subscription objects for the same Customer.

[empty nest]

But those new Subscription objects will result in separate new invoices correct?

[toxic jetty]

Yes

Since they will be created on different days, depending on when the purchase of new items happened.

[empty nest]

Is there a way I can have a single invoice for all those subscriptions?

[toxic jetty]

If, for example, the billing day for the initial Subscription is 1st of a month, and, few months later, the new items were purchased on the 15th, the 2 subscriptions are out of sync. On what day would you like the joint Invoice to be generated?

[empty nest]

For the new items, the one time payment should be done immediately. As of the subscription invoice, they should be generated on the first of every month

[toxic jetty]

I guess then it's best to use Subscription Schedules. You would generate a separate one-off Invoice for the initial payment, and then schedule the Subscription to add an extra item in a year.

[empty nest]

In subscription schedules, can I have parallel phases running though?

For example:

User buys 10 items (and priced at 100$ each, with subscription of 9$ per month) on May 25, 2024. He's charged 1000$ immediately and a subscription phase is scheduled to start on May 25, 2025 for 10 devices

Now, in November 2024, he buys 5 more items. So he's charged 500$ right away

and the subscription for those should start on Nov 2025

Is this achievable?

[toxic jetty]

This is either 2 separate Subscriptions. Or a Subscription Schedule, where you would add extra phases (first starting on May 1, second starting on Nov 1) as they buy more products. But it's harder to manage than multiple independent Subscriptions.

[empty nest]

Can one off items be added to phases?

Also, cancellations would be tricky to manage, I'm guessing>

*?

[toxic jetty]

I would recommend just creating one-off Invoices for that. Basically, as soon as they pay the one-off fee, you update the Schedule, or create an extra Subscription.

[toxic jetty]

Cancellations as in, removing selected items, or cancelling everything?

[empty nest]

Removing selected items

[toxic jetty]

With individual Subscriptions it's easy - you just cancel the whole Subscription.

With Schedules, you will have to remove a selected item for all phases.

[whole sundial]

👋 taking over for my colleague. Let me know if there's any follow-up Qs I can answer!

[uneven trout]

highondefi_sub-schedule

[empty nest]

I'm also exploring using meter based billing to achieve the same

Do I need to report the meters used every month? or is there an option to set a default base number of meters that get charged every month?

[whole sundial]

you can actually set a flat-fee

and basically anything between 0 to x has a unit amount of 0 but flat-fee of Y and then between x+1 -> infinity with a unit amount without a flat fee

something like this https://docs.stripe.com/billing/subscriptions/usage-based/pricing-models#fixed-fee-and-overage-model

[empty nest]

I think I did not explain it right, apologies for that!

So I want to report my items as metered units to stripe

Say a user has purchased 10 items, with each item has a subscription of 9$ per month

Do I need to report to stripe every month, that 10 units were consumed? Or can I just set it once?

[whole sundial]

if it's a fixed qty every month then you create that as a separate price and subtract it from the usage

[empty nest]

understood

That helps, thank you!

[empty nest]

In a subscription schedule, can a new phase be added which has the start date to be earlier than the end date of a previous phase?

[noble gorge]

No

[empty nest]

For example, can I have the following phases:

25th May -> Forever
14th Nov -> Forever
10th Dec -> Forever

[noble gorge]

You can't have multiple phases running in parallel

[noble gorge]

You're thinking about this all wrong

What is it you're trying to do exactly?

[empty nest]

I have a use case where I need to start a subscription for a new user with two entities:
a one time fee based on quantity of item they add
a monthly subscription fee that kicks off a year later than (i.e. does not start immediately)

Further, users should have the option to add new items to the same subscription at a later point of time. And the monthly subscription for those specific items should kick off a year later from their purchase.

[noble gorge]

What have you tried so far?

[empty nest]

Still researching

My plan was to use a one off payment for the one time fee

Then creating a subscription schedule for those items

When the user buys a new item sometime later, I append another phase to it

[noble gorge]

You should be able to get exactly what you need. You just need to clone and add item(s) to the first phase and configure the end date accordingly

[empty nest]

But the start date for the items added later would be different

For example, if user buys 10 items on May 2024, the subscription for those needs to start on May 2025

If he buys 10 more items in Nov 2024, the subscription for those needs to start on Nov 2025

[noble gorge]

Yes, you'd remove the first phase

Essentially have a single phase

[empty nest]

And there should be a single invoice for all these

[noble gorge]

I'd recommend you trying the API out and see how it works

[empty nest]

But this would mean for both those orders, the subscription would start on Nov 2025, correct?

[noble gorge]

Can you provide an extensive example/description of what it is you're doing exactly (with dates, etc). I'm strugglign to understand

Equally, using the API is a lot easier to understand the concepts of how this all works

[empty nest]

Sure, give me a moment

[noble gorge]

I'd recomend trying it out, and if it's not working as you need, at least we have some actual API requests with parameters that I can help debug

[empty nest]

I just need one clarification that would help me hugely simplify my understanding

These phases aren't possible, correct?

25th May -> Forever
14th Nov -> Forever
10th Dec -> Forever

[noble gorge]

Correct:

If there are multiple phases, the end_date of one phase will always equal the start_date of the next phase. Note that past phases can be omitted.

[empty nest]

Got it

This means I can't use schedules for my use case

Since there would be a point where I'll need two phases running in parallel

[noble gorge]

The alternative is to just use the Subscription API directly and schedule the update(s) to add the item(s) yourself

[empty nest]

Yup, will try that! Thank you!

One last question

Is there a limit to the number of phases that can be added to one susbcription schedule object?

Also, can one subscription have multiple subscription schedules associated with it?

[noble gorge]

No limit AFAIK

[noble gorge]

No, 1:1 relationship

[empty nest]

got it!