Paying, yearly, invoices and canceling

How to buy a plan, change it, pay yearly, find your invoices, replace your card, and cancel.

WhereDashboard, Billing

Who can pay

Only the account owner can buy, change or cancel a plan. The permission is Manage billing and plan (org:billing), and no custom role can be given it. See Roles and Handing a brand over.

Everybody else can open Billing (opens in a new tab) and see the plan, the limits and how much is used. There are no buttons, no card and no invoices, and the page says:

The plan belongs to an account and covers every brand that account owns. The usage bars count the brand you are in against its owner's plan, not yours.

Buying a plan

1. Open Billing (opens in a new tab) and scroll to Compare plans.
2. To pay for a year, press Yearly on the switch above the table first. The prices change with it.
3. Press Upgrade to Pro or Upgrade to Business. With yearly prices showing, the button reads Upgrade to Pro, yearly.
4. Stripe Checkout opens. You type your card there, never here.
5. Paying returns you to Billing with: Thank you. Your subscription is active.

Leaving checkout without paying also returns you to Billing, and nothing has been charged. If the page still shows the old plan, reload it once.

Monthly or yearly

A year is charged as 10 months.

The switch above Compare plans is labeled Monthly and Yearly, and the yearly side reads 2 months free. It is only there for a first purchase. Once a subscription is running, use the button described next.

Moving between monthly and yearly later

On a running subscription the button under Current plan reads Pay yearly and save $58 on Pro, or Switch to monthly billing if you already pay yearly. Your plan stays the same; only the interval changes.

The difference is billed at once, so switching to a year credits what is left of the month you paid for. The page answers: Your plan has been changed. The difference is billed right away.

The button is hidden once a subscription is set to end.

Changing plan

A plan change takes effect immediately and you are charged the difference straight away. Your billing interval is carried over.

• Moving up is Upgrade to Business. Anything a smaller plan had frozen becomes editable at once.
• Moving down is Switch to Pro. Nothing is deleted. What is over the new limit stays published and readable, and stops being editable 14 days later unless you choose which brands and manuals to keep active. Read What a downgrade freezes first.
• Dropping to Free is a cancellation, so the Free column offers Cancel and drop to Free.

What the status word means

The Status row at the top right shows where your subscription stands. Under it, Renews on gives the next charge date, or Access until when the subscription is ending. History window is how many days of activity and versions your plan keeps, or Not included.

Three more values can appear. Ending at period end means you canceled and the date beside it is when access stops. No subscription is a Free account that never bought anything. Granted, no subscription is a paid plan given to the account by hand.

Invoices and receipts

The Payments panel lists your invoices, newest first, up to the last twelve. Only the owner sees it.

Above the table you get Last payment with the amount and date, or Nothing has been charged yet. On the right is the total of what you see: paid in total, or paid over the last 12 invoices once the list is full.

Before the first charge the panel reads: No invoices yet. The first one appears after the first charge.

Anything older than the last twelve, and the tax and address details on an invoice, are behind Invoices and payment method.

Changing the card

Press Invoices and payment method. It opens the Stripe billing portal, already signed in, and returns you to Billing when you are done. There you can replace the card, correct your billing address and tax details, and download any invoice ever raised.

The button appears only for the owner, and only when there is a subscription to manage.

Canceling

Press Cancel subscription under Current plan, or Cancel and drop to Free in the Free column. They do the same thing. The page answers:

• Nothing changes today. You keep the paid plan for the whole period you have already paid for.
• The date is on the page. Renews on becomes Access until, with the same date, and the status becomes Ending at period end.
• No notice period and no cancellation fee. Canceling a yearly subscription still runs to the end of that year.
• Nothing is deleted when the plan drops. A published manual stays published. What is over the Free limits is frozen, which means it cannot be edited. See What a downgrade freezes.
• The current period is not refunded. Canceling stops the next charge only.

Changing your mind

Until the period ends, the cancel button is replaced by Resume subscription. Pressing it clears the cancellation: Your subscription will renew again as normal. No new checkout, no new card, and the renewal date is unchanged.

Once the period has ended, pressing a plan button sends you through checkout like the first time.

When a payment fails

Your plan keeps working. Stripe retries the declined card for a while, and the status reads Payment failed, retrying the whole time.

A banner sits above every dashboard page while this lasts:

The owner also gets an Update payment button on the banner, which opens Billing. From there, Invoices and payment method is where you replace the card.

If it is never fixed

The account drops to Free when the retries run out. The status reads Stopped, payment never went through and the banner stops appearing.

A plan that was granted rather than bought

An account can be put on a paid plan by hand. Everything the plan includes works, but there is nothing to cancel and no invoice to show. The page says:

Messages the billing page can show

The page answers in one line above the plan panel. In every case that is a refusal, nothing has been charged and your plan is unchanged.

Where to go next

• What each plan includes for the limits behind the price.
• What a downgrade freezes before moving to a smaller plan or canceling.
• Roles and Handing a brand over.
• The pricing page (opens in a new tab) for the same prices in public.