Pain - trigger a subscription payment | Stripe Developers | Page 1

bold whale Apr 22, 2022, 7:59 PM

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Yes that is one of the events that is generated .We actually have two ways for you to test this quickly:

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One great thing that we released a bit ago are Test Clocks, with them, you can simulate any amount of time passing under different conditions to see what your subscriptions will do https://stripe.com/docs/billing/testing/test-clocks

Test your integration with test clocks

Learn how to move Billing objects through time in test mode.

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In this specific scenario, you can also just create a subscription with a three second trial period and we will attempt to take payment soon after that

golden raft Apr 22, 2022, 8:01 PM

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Oh that's awesome, will most likely use the test clock as I don't generate subscriptions using the API.

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The dashboard only allows daily as the minimum

bold whale Apr 22, 2022, 8:02 PM

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Nice! Glad we have something for you there

golden raft Apr 22, 2022, 8:03 PM

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Appreciate the support, thank you.

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From what I can see, it just sends the invoice.paid again with the same subscription ID, I am supposed to listen to this event correct?

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or is there a different event I am supposed to be listening to for renewals on a subscription?

bold whale Apr 22, 2022, 8:16 PM

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Yes, invoice.paid is a good event to listen to for information on subscription renewals. I think other events should be generated but that one will always happen on subscription renewal payments. Can you tell me a bit about what you are trying to do based on this event?

golden raft Apr 22, 2022, 8:18 PM

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I am creating a software subscription, I have linked up the priceId to the plans, the customerId to the user and now I am creating the subscription with this data.

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I create a subscription for the customer, now I am looking for the best way to handle the subscription renewal

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I am currently storing this data in my database

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My idea is to keep the boolean for active as long as it's active, when it's cancelled I will switch it to 0 (false)

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Only storing the dates in my database to avoid calling the stripe api again as I list subscriptions

bold whale Apr 22, 2022, 8:24 PM

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So yes, it would make sense to update that table when processing the invoice.paid event. I think on every renewal there should also be a customer.subscription.updated event that you can use to look at the Subscription's status without retrieving it in the API.

golden raft Apr 22, 2022, 8:25 PM

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Those are the ones that I am listening to currently

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The query execution is the invoice.paid event

golden raft Apr 22, 2022, 8:26 PM

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bold whale So yes, it would make sense to update that table when processing the `invoice.pa...

I will take a look at this event too for that usage

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my idea is to simply check the subscription id in the invoice.paid event and update my database subscriptions accordingly

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what is the event that is invoked when the subscription isn't paid/failed to pay/card declined (or related)?

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I can see that the charge.failed event is invoked

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and also the customer.subscription.updated is invoked

bold whale Apr 22, 2022, 8:32 PM

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Yes those events are created and you can see when the subscription moves to past_due

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You can define how you want failed payments to be handled https://stripe.com/docs/billing/subscriptions/overview#recurring-charges

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Depending on what you set up, you may want to listen for the customer.subscription.updated event where your subscription's status becomes unpaid or past_due

golden raft Apr 22, 2022, 8:34 PM

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Oh I see,

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I can also see that the payments will carry on being charged on a daily

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(since it's a daily charge)

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If I want to pause the subscription until it's manually renewed is there a way to do this?

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Oh I found the dashboard settings, is there any other way?

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as those settings aren't really suitable for what I'm attempting to do

bold whale Apr 22, 2022, 8:40 PM

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Can you tell me a bit more about the flow that you want here?

golden raft Apr 22, 2022, 8:41 PM

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Basically, I want a charge to happen based on the subscription time, if the payment fails I want to pause/cancel the subscription after one failed charge attempt and allow the customer to renew it manually (I wish to allow the subscription to be manually renewed for 7 days maximum).

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from what I'm understanding so far is I can listen to customer.subscription.updated for the status past_due and set the subscription to inactive in my database as soon as it fails, but how do I stop the subscription from attempting to charge the customer again?

bold whale Apr 22, 2022, 8:45 PM

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In your billing settings you can set your retry schedule to have no entries https://dashboard.stripe.com/settings/billing/automatic

Stripe Login | Sign in to the Stripe Dashboard

Sign in to the Stripe Dashboard to manage business payments and operations in your account. Manage payments and refunds, respond to disputes and more.

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I think that should make the subscription go to past due as soon as the first payment happens

golden raft Apr 22, 2022, 8:46 PM

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I see

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If I set this status to 7 days

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Will that achieve what I just stated?

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The subscription will be past_due as soon as first payment fails

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The subscription will be in that state for 7 days (this should allow me to offer the user a manual renewal chance) then it would get cancelled, correct?

steady crescent Apr 22, 2022, 8:59 PM

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👋 stepping in here for @bold whale as they need to step away. Catchin up

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Do you want this behavior to happen on the first charge for the Subscription as well?

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Or do you only want it on renewals?

golden raft Apr 22, 2022, 9:06 PM

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I wish for it to happen as soon as a payment fails

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I believe I almost have it

steady crescent Apr 22, 2022, 9:07 PM

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Okay so just to be clear... if the first payment fails when you start a Subscription, that Subscription will expire in 23 hours.

golden raft Apr 22, 2022, 9:09 PM

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Oh

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What if I change this setting?

steady crescent Apr 22, 2022, 9:09 PM

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No that is for renewals

golden raft Apr 22, 2022, 9:10 PM

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After I changed it the subscription didn't get cancelled anymore

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I attached the card that fails

steady crescent Apr 22, 2022, 9:10 PM

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Sure, see how the first payment was successful?

golden raft Apr 22, 2022, 9:10 PM

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Yes,

steady crescent Apr 22, 2022, 9:10 PM

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So if that one fails

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Then the Sub will expire in 23 hours

golden raft Apr 22, 2022, 9:10 PM

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So only if the first payment fails?

steady crescent Apr 22, 2022, 9:11 PM

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Correct.

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If you haven't given a read through https://stripe.com/docs/billing/subscriptions/overview I would recommend it!

How subscriptions work

Learn how subscriptions work within Stripe.

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You can get around this by setting a trial on the Sub

golden raft Apr 22, 2022, 9:11 PM

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Okay so that's fine, I only save it if the first payment succeeds

steady crescent Apr 22, 2022, 9:11 PM

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Then the first payment will always succeed

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Okay that works

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Just wanted to clarify

golden raft Apr 22, 2022, 9:12 PM

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Got it, I want to do it after that payment

steady crescent Apr 22, 2022, 9:12 PM

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Sounds good

golden raft Apr 22, 2022, 9:12 PM

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So if the renewal payment fails

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I only wish to attempt 1 renewal and if that fails, it wont try again (I've achieved that now)

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Now I wish to keep that subscription "alive" for 7 days

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to allow the customer to attempt a manual renewal

steady crescent Apr 22, 2022, 9:13 PM

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Gotcha, then yeah you want to just adjust your settings to either "mark the subscription as unpaid" or "leave the subscription as is" if all retries fail

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And not cancel

golden raft Apr 22, 2022, 9:14 PM

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This is the right setting?

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I wish to cancel the subscription after 7 days

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If it isn't paid

steady crescent Apr 22, 2022, 9:15 PM

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No that is for 3DS confirmation

golden raft Apr 22, 2022, 9:15 PM

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Oh

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Sorry misread

steady crescent Apr 22, 2022, 9:15 PM

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You want to adjust the settings under "Manage failed payments"

golden raft Apr 22, 2022, 9:15 PM

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steady crescent Apr 22, 2022, 9:16 PM

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Yep you want to change those settings

golden raft Apr 22, 2022, 9:16 PM

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That would cause it to cancel the subscription as soon as it fails the first time

steady crescent Apr 22, 2022, 9:16 PM

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Correct

golden raft Apr 22, 2022, 9:16 PM

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I don't wish to cancel it straight away

steady crescent Apr 22, 2022, 9:16 PM

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So you would change that

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To "mark as unpaid" or "leave as is"

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Then you are going to have to cancel the Sub yourself at 7 days

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Via the API

golden raft Apr 22, 2022, 9:16 PM

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Oh I see

steady crescent Apr 22, 2022, 9:16 PM

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Alternatively, you could just retry again at 7 days and if that fails then cancel.

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Then you can use the settings to cancel

golden raft Apr 22, 2022, 9:17 PM

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I believe that might cause some issues if it does go through

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I will use the API route

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So just to confirm this flow, I set the retry schedule to none

=> If payment fails the renew it will not renew it anymore
=> After 7 days I must send an api request to cancel the subscription myself

steady crescent Apr 22, 2022, 9:19 PM

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Yep that should be right

golden raft Apr 22, 2022, 9:19 PM

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Got it, sorry for taking up all this time. Just one more question

steady crescent Apr 22, 2022, 9:19 PM

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No need to apologize!

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That's what we are here for!

golden raft Apr 22, 2022, 9:20 PM

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Could you please point me in the right direction for customers to renew a subscription, I wish to add a button (renew) that would use stripes checkout so they can renew that same subscription by making a new payment

steady crescent Apr 22, 2022, 9:22 PM

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So you can't use Stripe Checkout to renew a Subscription directly. What you would do is you would use Checkout in setup mode.

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Then you would take the new PaymentMethod and use that to confirm the PaymentIntent

golden raft Apr 22, 2022, 9:23 PM

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Oh so I'd have to collect the payment details for that myself, then update the customer and add it to the subscription?

steady crescent Apr 22, 2022, 9:25 PM

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If you want to use Stripe Checkout then yes that is the high level of how it is done.

golden raft Apr 22, 2022, 9:26 PM

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steady crescent Then you would take the new PaymentMethod and use that to confirm the PaymentInt...

Oh is that not what you meant by this?

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I am currently looking at this https://stripe.com/docs/payments/save-and-reuse

Set up future payments

Learn how to save card details and charge your customers later.

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I assume you're referring to this

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https://stripe.com/docs/api/setup_intents

Stripe API reference – SetupIntents – curl

Complete reference documentation for the Stripe API. Includes code snippets and examples for our Python, Java, PHP, Node.js, Go, Ruby, and .NET libraries.

steady crescent Apr 22, 2022, 9:28 PM

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Nope you got the right link above. If you use the "Prebuilt Checkout page" then you would use setup mode

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Since if you use Subscription mode you will start a new Subscription

golden raft Apr 22, 2022, 9:29 PM

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I see, so I would update the customers payment method from there?

steady crescent Apr 22, 2022, 9:31 PM

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Yep you would set a new default and then attempt to charge the invoice again

golden raft Apr 22, 2022, 9:32 PM

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Oh I see, makes sense

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I think it will be best if I just allowed the customer to create a new subscription afterwards

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as this will swap the default payment method for the rest of the subscriptions too

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It seems like I will just create more complications trying to create this flow and end up saving the same amount of data in the end

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Either way, you've enlightened me with a bunch of new information, I really appreciate all your help.

steady crescent Apr 22, 2022, 9:35 PM

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You can set defaults at the Subscription or Customer level

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So really up to you on how you want to handle

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But starting a new Subscription works too!

#Pain - trigger a subscription payment