#ben_api
upper masonBOT
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charred foxBOT
light mural
Hi there 👋
Based on your example, are you planning on setting the billing cycle anchor to 8-weeks from the start date you provided (matching the billing period), or are you planning on letting the billing cycle anchor be the time the Subscription object was created?
I'm trying to figure out if the approach we show here is the best fit for you:
https://docs.stripe.com/billing/subscriptions/backdating?dashboard-or-api=api#backdating-billing-cycle
autumn quiver
For back dating, we would be looking to anchor the billing cycle to the chosen start date, so 2 weeks ago for example and for the subscipriotn to honour what ever its cycle sholud be from that date respectively.
For future dating, the sub should start on the chosen future date but be billed now
light mural
For future dating, the sub should start on the chosen future date but be billed now
This behavior isn't generally available. If you schedule the Subscription to start in the future via a Subscription Schedule, the Subscription doesn't process a payment until it's created. The feature is being built, but isn't out yet:
https://docs.stripe.com/billing/subscriptions/sales-led-billing#prebill-customers-in-advance
autumn quiver
so for more context, say I sell a 3 month subscripiton that is £100 each month. I back date teh start date to 2 weeks ago
The sub sjolud be set as started 2 weeks ago, and bill the first month now. The next invoice date would be 2 weeks from now and continue as normal
autumn quiver
> For future dating, the sub should start on the chosen future date but be bille...
If i use a schedule, can I not set the schedule and then use the invoice api endpoint to finalize the invoice and bill now? Or does this not even generate an invoice?
light mural
A Subscription isn't generated until the start time you specify, so no Invoice is generated either.
autumn quiver
OK so i suppose the only option then is to use a trial period to emulate this
light mural
Not too sure what you mean by that, since trial periods generate $0 Invoices.
autumn quiver
So if i want it to start in 2 weeks, I could create the sub now and bill my £100 for the first month. Then set a 2 week trial which would push back the billing cycle. Would this not work?
light mural
For back dating, we would be looking to anchor the billing cycle to the chosen start date, so 2 weeks ago for example and for the subscipriotn to honour what ever its cycle sholud be from that date respectively.
Billing cycle anchors can't be set in the past, so it sounds like you want to set it to the next natural billing period as shown in the guide I shared. What proration behavior do you see when you try that? You may need to try setting theproration_behaviortoalways_invoice. The server is pretty busy at the moment, but I can come back to try to help test that further in a bit.
autumn quiver
hmmm im not sure. Its sounding like this might not be very straight forward for whast hte product team are asking me for
When asub is back dated, we want to still want to bill all the normal amounts, but simply align that sub as if it started x days ago. It should otherwise behave as normal as far as the user is condcnered.
An example is when someone on our platform sells an 8 week challenge, but that person starts 2 weeks late. They still need to cover the entire 8 weeks payment but only really get 6 weeks of it.
light mural
Seems like setting backdate_start_date to the desired start date, and billing_cycle_anchor to one billing period from that date, does what you're hoping. Can you test that and let me know if that's not what you're looking for?
autumn quiver
Sure i can try that.
And what would you recommend on the future dating?
light mural
That's complex, and the specifics of the approach you should use will be dependent on your requirements. You could process a one-off Invoice to handle the upfront payment. Then when creating the Subscription you can use a trial period, a $0 price, or a coupon to reduce the amount of the Subscription until it's time for the Customer to pay again. You'll likely want to use Subscription Schedules to schedule the Subscription creation and possibly a subsequent update depending on which approach you use to discount the first billing period.
autumn quiver
Interesting, so perhaps scheudle sub in advance to start 2 weeks from now. Create, finalize and charge now an invoice to cover the first period / iteration. Apply a 100% discount to the schedule subs first period and then continue as usual.
That way the first payment i staken upfront and covered, and the continues as per the schedule fromthe 2nd invoice
light mural
Yup, I think that would do what you're hoping.