mark-invoice-upcoming

[dark pasture]

Hi!

So sorry, I missed this message

Reading!

So when you update a Subscription, a new invoice will always be cut if the billing cycle changes.

However, if the billing cycle does not change, then you can force an invoice via proration_behavior: 'always_invoice' - https://stripe.com/docs/api/subscriptions/update#update_subscription-proration_behavior

[brave light]

Hi. A new invoice for the proration is always created when calling update as follows:

subscription = await stripe.subscriptions.update(
  subscriptionId,
  {
    items: Object.values(updatedItems),
    payment_behavior: 'default_incomplete',
    proration_behavior: 'always_invoice',
    expand: ['latest_invoice.payment_intent'],
    proration_date: currentPeriodStart + (daysSincePeriodStart * 86400),
  },
);

However, if I try to preview the update via

const invoice = await stripe.invoices.retrieveUpcoming({
  customer: customerId,
  subscription: subscriptionId,
  subscription_items: Object.values(updatedItems),
  subscription_proration_behavior: 'always_invoice',
  subscription_proration_date: currentPeriodStart + (daysSincePeriodStart * 86400),
});

I only get the immediate invoice if there is a positive proration.

[dark pasture]

Right because otherwise the proration becomes a credit on the customer. However, there should still be a $0 invoice if I remember correctly.

No invoice is being generated at all?

[brave light]

For zero or negative prorations, retrieveUpcoming seems to be giving me the invoice for the next subscription cycle.

[dark pasture]

Gotcha. Let me check on something

[brave light]

thanks

[daring stump]

👋

if you pass proration_behavior: 'always_invoice' you explicitly say "Please make the change and invoice now (your first example). If you don't, the default is to prorate and wait for the next cycle

Whether it's a downgrade or upgrade doesn't matter and it always works the same way

[brave light]

But it doesn't seem to for me when using invoices.retrieveUpcoming. It does for subscriptions.update. Both have 'always_invoice' set.

[daring stump]

I'm going to need way more specific details to be able to help you debug this. I need the exact customer and subscription ids and the exact value you are passing in subscription_items and subscription_proration_date + the raw JSON you get back from that call

[brave light]

Can you do it from the request IDs?

[daring stump]

kind of

[brave light]

Successful positive proration: req_uUIZfGMHI3nQSt
Unsuccessful negative proration: req_uUIZfGMHI3nQSt

[daring stump]

those are the exact same ids

[brave light]

Sorry - give me a sec.

[daring stump]

Debugging this can be really tricky, my recommendation is to write really simple/basic code that will
1/ Create a Subscription
2/ Update that Subscription with the right settings and look at the Invoice
and do this for both changes separately

[daring stump]

@brave light did you find more details?

[brave light]

Sorry - just trying now to get the JSON output in the two situations.

[daring stump]

all good

I don't really need the JSON if you use the update path instead of the upcoming invoice

[brave light]

Annoyingly it seems to be behaving as expected now, so I think I'm going to have to leave this unless I can work out why it was happening. Thanks for your help though!

[daring stump]

I do think you likely were mixing up the subscription ids or not really making changes to the subscription

that's often what causes confusion like this

[brave light]

Yes, probably got confused. Thanks again.