#bramleyt_best-practices
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ocean falcon
The energy cost (c/kWh) can vary based on the customer or time of day, so in order for us to control the total cost, we have currently configured a single price at all: 1c per unit (as suggested by your team previously). Then we adjust the units based on the time-of-use price. But we don't like how this is shown to customers:
above is the initial subscription checkout.
The issue is that "$0.01 per unit" doesn't really make sense to customers. We can't include the actual c/kWh price here, because it varies based on what charger they use or the time of day.
We can remove it from the checkout and apply it later via APIs, but it will still show up in the Customer Portal -> estimated payment, and the invoice:
We can adjust the wording slightly, to say "$0.01 per cent" at checkout, and “$0.01 per amount cent” at estimated payment, but that’s not much better.
Are there any other options to customise how this displays in estimated payments and invoices?
For clarity, here’s our ideal workflow:
• User subscribes to our flat rate per period eg $5
• During the period, they perform electric vehicle charge sessions, and we submit invoice line items like
o 15-09-2024 13:45 AEST CM1234 charged 10 kWh @22c/kWh in 1h 27m = $2.20
o 16-09-2024 17:40 AEST CM1234 charged 5 kWh @32c/kWh in 1h 7m = $1.60
• At any time, they can visit the customer portal and see their estimated payment, in this case $5 subscription + $3.80 in usage
• At the end of the period, they are automatically charged $8.80, ideally in the one invoice with an accurate breakdown
hollow chasm
Hi there, can you share with me the subscription ID?
ocean falcon
is this what you need? sub_1Q9giAHKuwCZr2J1hCvEXitw
hollow chasm
Thank you, let me take a look
Thanks for waiting. We don't have an option to customize the unit name at this moment. I'd pass along your feedback to the product team
ocean falcon
ok. so if instead we go with the new price for each transaction option in my original question, would that be ok from 'best practice' point of view?
or would each price line item keep showing up in subsequent months, with $0 indefinitely?
you actually do have the option to customise the unit name - just not far enough to get it to what we'd like
hollow chasm
I see, what additional features you need for the unit label?
ocean falcon
The issue is that "$0.01 per unit" doesn't really make sense to customers. We can't include the actual c/kWh price here, because it varies based on what charger they use or the time of day.
We'd like to be able to hide the per unit text completely, but it doesnt seem like you have such a feature.
ocean falcon
For clarity, here’s our ideal workflow:
• User subscribes to our flat rate pe...
so instead we would like some suggestions on how to achieve this result:
hollow chasm
Hmm, you mean the unit label doesn't allow you to enterkWh ? can you share with me the subscripton ID that you created with a custom label product?
ocean falcon
for business reasons, we cant set the units to be kWh anyway. We need to be able to control the total cost of a charge session explicitly ourselves. this is because the price per kWh can vary during each session.
hollow chasm
I don't quite understand, I thought you want to use kWh ?
ocean falcon
we want to control it ourselves
in our ideal workflow, that description kwh is plain text from our system.
very simply, we want to tell you the cost. per car charging session. we dont want stripe to calculate it via "1c per unit" because that is very confusing for customers. and we cant show any cost per kWh, because the cost varies dynamically.
so we're open to any solution at all. doesnt need to be Stripe Meter. we were using this because we understood that was the best way to add consumption to a periodic subscription in the same invoice, but if there's another easier way to give us the control, customization, and control that we need, we would prefer such a solution.