meisei81-recurring payments

[tired cosmos]

👋 happy to help

if the Subscription API is not accommodating for all of your use cases maybe take a look at Subscription Schedules which might offer you more flexibility in controlling your subscriptions

[upbeat oasis]

I think the stripe subscription solution is too heavy. So I want to use some base api to build my recurring billing

[tired cosmos]

it is doable, in the end we use those APIs with the Subscription API, but it would be as if you're reinventing the wheel.

instead of taking this drastic measure let us help you figure out how to use the Subscription API in the best way that suits your need

[upbeat oasis]

ok. the upgrade or downgrade subscription is not flexibility to us. because when customer upgrade, we want to make the customer paid extra amount immediately, and when downgrade, we want to refund the rest amount to the customer card immediately and make the customer paid the new plan immediately

Now in the stripe subscription solution, we don't know how the extra amount or rest amount to generate. what's the function to calculate by percent? And in the downgrade, the rest amount is applied to the customer's balance, not the bank card.

[tired cosmos]

we don't know how the extra amount or rest amount to generate
it depends on how you implement your subscription

[upbeat oasis]

what do you mean?

I want to create a monthly subscription, and sometimes there is a one time fee with it.

[tired cosmos]

for the one time fee you could use this https://stripe.com/docs/api/subscriptions/create#create_subscription-add_invoice_items

[upbeat oasis]

yeah, i've seen the api

so, if I want to build my own recurring billing, the customer, card, charge ,refund apis could help, right? Any other api should I concern? In my recurring billing solution, it would contain pay and refund

[tired cosmos]

It's probably best to use the PaymentIntent instead of card/charge

but you will have to create a scheduler in your solution

[upbeat oasis]

it's ok to manage the recurring

so, if I use the PaymentIntent api, it also generate the invoice, right?

I want to offer the invoice to the customer, so that they can check the bill.

[tired cosmos]

in that case you could generate invoices using the Invoice API and use the PaymentIntent on the invoice for the payment

[upbeat oasis]

how to combine the invoice and paymentintent?

I mean, if I create an invoice, I should specify the line items. I want to generate invoice simplify.

[tired cosmos]

an invoice would automatically create the underlying PaymentIntent

if it's necessary

[upbeat oasis]

you mean after creating the payment intent, the invoice would create automatically?

[tired cosmos]

no the other way around

[upbeat oasis]

well..

so, I should create invoice firstly, and then create the invoice items within invoice id, right?

when the invoice would be paid? can it pay automatically?

[kind dome]

you could use the guide at https://stripe.com/docs/invoicing/integration . The invoice items are create first, then the invoice is created and charges for those items.

[kind dome]

if you create it with collection_method:charge_automatically and auto_advance:true then after an hour after creating it, it will finalise and charge the customer's default payment method if you've set one.

or there are other ways to force the payment immediately if you want(mainly by confirming the PaymentIntent that the Invoice creates).

[upbeat oasis]

ok. If I don't need any invoice, and I just want to make the customer pay the recurring billing, using the PaymentIntent api could make the effect?

[kind dome]

yep, you can just create PaymentIntents directly to charge the customer on whatever basis you like, if desired.

[upbeat oasis]

create payment intent would be paid immediately?

or should confirm it?

[kind dome]

the payment attempt happens when you "confirm" the PaymentIntent, which can be done in a separate API call or by passing confirm:true on creation. Maybe reading https://stripe.com/docs/payments/save-during-payment-cards-only?platform=web#web-create-payment-intent-off-session would help

[upbeat oasis]

ok. can set the payment intent's confirm to be true when create an invoice?

And, if I don't use the stripe subscription's solution, how to make the recurring period advanced?

[kind dome]

no, it works the way described earlier, you create the invoice and then either wait for it to get automatically paid, or confirm the PaymentIntent directly.

[kind dome]

you write your own code and backend scripts and cron jobs and stuff so you can schedule when you call the payment processing API.

[upbeat oasis]

the test clock doesn't work? or it just work for the stripe subscription solution?

[kind dome]

it just work for the stripe subscription solution?
yes

test clocks and really anything in the docs underneath the "https://stripe.com/docs/billing/" section is for our Subscriptions/Invoice solutions. If you want to be doing the recurring payments yourself by directly calling the PaymentIntents API, none of that applies to you.

[upbeat oasis]

ok

[upbeat oasis]

if I want to make the customer pay immediately, I should confirm the payment intent immediatelly after create an invoice, right?

[kind dome]

yes