Pause Subscription

Introduction

Your customers may want to pause their subscription temporarily instead of canceling it altogether, for the following reasons:

• They may not want to use the service for a short period of time.
• They may not be present at the location temporarily.

You can pause a subscription if there are issues with receiving payments from your customer. Until you resolve the payment issues, you can keep the subscription on hold.

Subscriptions placed on pause are not counted as churn, so your reports remain accurate and reflect the correct numbers. These subscriptions are identified by a distinct status—paused—which helps you track them in Chargebee and communicate better with third-party systems. For example, an order tracking system can identify whether to ship goods for that period based on whether the subscription is paused.

You can pause the subscription from your Chargebee site or via API. Customers can also pause their subscription via the Customer Self-Serve Portal.

Subscriptions can be paused for a defined period if the resume date/time is known, or paused indefinitely. Chargebee does not provide credits for the unused billing period, but you can choose to manually provide credits to your customers if needed.

Configure Pause & Resume Subscription

You can enable Pause Subscription in your Chargebee site at Settings > Configure Chargebee > Billing LogIQ > Customers & Subscriptions > Pause Subscription > Enable.

Configure the default settings for handling subscriptions, invoices, and charges when you pause or resume:

Choose defaults for Pause:

Choose defaults for Resume:

Pause a Subscription

Only subscriptions in the ACTIVE state can be paused.

Via UI

Once Pause Subscription has been enabled for your site, to pause an active subscription:

• Navigate to the subscription details page.

• Click Pause Subscription on the Action panel. The defaults defined in Chargebee settings will be preloaded and the necessary options can be overridden, if allowed.

• Choose when you want to pause the subscription:

• Immediately: The subscription will be paused immediately. Prorated credits are not given when the subscription is paused.
• End of term: The subscription will be paused at the end of the current billing term.
• Scheduled: The subscription can be scheduled to pause on a specific date. If the subscription is scheduled to be paused, it overrides other changes that were scheduled for the subscription and prevents further changes. For example, if you schedule an upgrade and later schedule a pause, the subscription upgrade will not take place and the subscription will be paused instead.
• Set Resume Date: If you know when you want to resume the subscription, you can set the date/time here; otherwise, you can resume later. If the resume date is not mentioned, the subscription will be paused indefinitely.

Via API

You can pause the subscription via the Pause Subscription API.

Via Self-Serve Portal

If the allow, your customers can pause and resume their subscriptions using the portal:

If you use Chargebee's Single Page Customer Portal for your customers:

If the settings allow, then your customers can Pause or Resume subscriptions from the Hosted Pages Portal.

Your customers can choose to pause the subscription immediately or end of the current billing term.

They can also choose to resume a paused subscription manually or on a specific date.

Renewals and Charges

• Subscription renewals will not occur if the subscription is paused.
• Subscription renewal reminder emails will not be sent to the customer during the pause period.
• Unbilled charges linked to the subscription will be invoiced when the subscription is resumed after the billing term.

Billing Cycle

• Whenever you resume the subscription, the billing cycle remains intact.
• Managing the billing cycle of a paused subscription depends on the subscription period of the plan. For a monthly plan, pausing the subscription for 2 months does not affect the billing cycle. For a yearly plan, pausing the subscription for 2 months means your customer loses 2 months of service period.

Subscription Changes/Cancellation

• Subscription changes are not allowed when the subscription is paused. You can make changes once the subscription resumes.
• Scheduled subscription changes (except cancellation) are removed when the subscription is paused or scheduled to be paused.
• Subscription cancellation (immediate or scheduled) will occur even if the subscription is on pause or scheduled for a pause.
• Advance invoices cannot be raised on a subscription that's on pause. If any advance invoices are raised on a subscription that's paused later, credits will be created for the invoice.
• The next billing date/time cannot be changed if the subscription is on pause. However, if the subscription is scheduled to be paused at the end of term, the next billing date/time can be changed to a date/time that falls within the resumption period.
• Record payment, write-off, or void can be performed on past invoices linked to the paused subscription.

Unbilled Charges

You can deal with unbilled charges while pausing a subscription as below:

• Invoice now: Invoice the unbilled charges linked to the invoice when the subscription is paused. If the subscription's Auto Collection is ON, Chargebee will try to collect the payment. If the payment fails or Auto Collection is OFF, the invoice will be closed and marked as Unpaid.
• Retain as Unbilled: If you choose to retain the unbilled charges, the charges will be invoiced when the subscription resumes and added to the next invoice raised—on resumption (if out of term), the next invoice raised post resumption, or can be invoiced manually. The user can also choose to retain resumption charges as unbilled.

Dunning

When the subscription is paused, you can choose to continue dunning or stop dunning for related invoices.

• If you choose to continue dunning for a paused subscription, the final action will override even if the subscription is on pause.
• If you have enabled Consolidated invoicing and choose to stop dunning for a paused subscription, Chargebee will check if there is at least one active subscription listed in the invoice and will not stop dunning for the invoice. However, the subscription will be paused.

Reporting/Analytics

• MRR of a paused subscription is considered $0 and is accounted only on resumption.
• Subscriptions scheduled for pause and/or resumption are accounted in CMRR.
• Subscriptions on pause do not show up in reports as churn. You can filter subscriptions that are paused.

Discounts/Coupons

If a discount is applied to a subscription and the subscription is paused, the coupon duration is not extended. The coupon may expire even if the subscription is paused.

Resume a Subscription

A subscription in paused state can be resumed at any point in time.

If your customer has requested to resume or payment issues have been resolved, or any other reason due to which the product/service should begin to be delivered, you can resume the subscription in Chargebee.

• Immediate: Resume the subscription immediately.
• Scheduled: Schedule the subscription to be resumed on a specific date/time. For a scheduled resumption, the resumption date/time can be updated even when the subscription is on pause.

If a resume date/time is defined at the time of pause, the date will be preloaded and you can choose to modify it. If resume date/time was not mentioned, the subscription will be paused indefinitely. You can choose a new resume date/time or resume immediately.

Via UI

You can resume a paused subscription immediately or on a specific date/time.

Via API

You can resume a paused subscription via the Resume Subscription API.

When a subscription resumes, it can resume within the billing term or not, here's the calculation for the:

1. In-term Resumption
2. Out of term Resumption

Via Self-Serve Portal

If you have Portal v2 enabled for your Chargebee site, your customers can resume the subscription from the portal (immediately or schedule resumption on a specific date).

In-term Resumption

This is when a subscription is paused and resumed within the billing term of the subscription. For example, the subscription renews on the 1st of every month. If the subscription is paused on the 15th and resumed on the 25th, this is considered in-term resumption.

When a subscription resumes in-term, new charges are not created.

• Chargebee will try to collect payment for the unpaid invoice of the current term on resumption (if dunning is not in progress for the invoice).
• If the payment does not go through, Chargebee will keep the subscription on pause.

Out-of-Term Resumption

When a paused subscription resumes after the renewal date/time, it is considered out-of-term resumption. For example, the subscription renews on the 1st of every month. If the subscription is paused on the 15th and resumed on the 10th of the next month, this is considered out-of-term resumption.

A new invoice will be generated on March 10 (in this example).

• If the payment goes through, the subscription will resume; otherwise, it will remain paused.
• The collection of the invoice generated on February 1 will be scheduled as soon as the subscription resumes.
• If Calendar Billing is enabled, the subscription term will align with the billing date and charges will be raised accordingly.
• If Calendar Billing is not enabled, the renewal date/time will be set as the resumption date/time. For instance, if a subscription that renews on the 1st of every month is resumed (from paused state) on the 10th of the next month, the subscription renewal date will now be updated to the 10th.

Disable Pause Subscription

If you disable the pause subscription feature:

• You will no longer be able to pause subscriptions.
• Subscriptions that are currently paused will resume as scheduled or can be resumed manually.

FAQ

1. What will happen to the non-recurring charges if the subscription is resumed before the end of the billing term?

If the subscription resumes before the end of the billing term, non-recurring charges are not invoiced right away. These charges will be added to the invoice of the subscription renewal.