Payments, Credits & Impacts on Orders

Payments & Credits

The invoice amount associated with an order is called its order amount. Whenever a subscription is paid for, the invoice amount is equally distributed among each of its orders. When there are addons, the price of each addon is distributed equally among all the orders for the addon. Taxes and discounts applied are also linked to the relevant orders.

Full Payment of Invoice

Example:

Consider a 12-month plan that ships an item every 3 months. Such a plan would have 4 orders for its entire billing period. If the price of the plan is $1200 then once the invoice is paid, each of the orders would have their order amount as $1200 ÷ 4 = $300.
Now consider that the above subscription was signed-up for with an addon worth $100 that ships every 2 months. In this case, the order amounts would be as follows (assuming the subscription starts on Jan 1):

Order Date	Order Amount
Jan 1	$300 (plan) + $100 (addon) = $400
Mar 1	$100 (addon)
Apr 1	$300 (plan)
May 1	$100 (addon)
Jul 1	$300 (plan) + $100 (addon) = $400
Sep 1	$100 (addon)
Oct 1	$300 (plan)
Nov 1	$100 (addon)

Partial Payment of Invoice

In some cases, the invoice may only be partially paid by the customer while the remaining amount is adjusted by you by means of an adjustment credit note. In such a case, the adjustments credits are also distributed equally among the orders connected to the invoice.

Example: Consider a plan of 6 months worth $300 that ships every 2 months. Say the customer pays $200 and the remaining $100 was adjusted by you, then we would have:

Plan period: 6 months

Plan amount: $300

Order period: 2 months

Invoice amount: $300

Paid amount: $200

Adjusted amount: $100

No. of orders:

(plan period ÷ order period) = 6÷2 = 3

Order amount:

(invoice amount ÷ no. of orders)

= $300 ÷ 3 = $100

Paid order amount:

(paid amount ÷ no. of orders)

= $200 ÷ 3 = $66.66 for first 2 orders

and $66.68 for the last one.

(Since an exact division is not possible,

the round-off amount has been

applied to the last order)

Order adjustment amount:

(adjustment amount ÷ no. of orders)

= $100÷3 = $33.33

for first 2 orders and $33.34 for the last one.

Note

For a plan with only one shipment, there will be just one order. It follows from the above discussion that the entire invoice amount, the paid amount and the adjustment amount (if any) would be associated with that order only.

Impacts on Orders

Subscription Change

We now look at how changes made to a subscription affect the orders associated with it.

Information

It is advisable to not use the proration feature while changing/cancelling subscriptions that have shippable products. This is because proration in Chargebee is time-based. We are working on coming up with delivery-based proration. Until then, please look at the FAQ section for help with prorating shippable subscriptions.
The cases discussed in the table below assume that the subscription changes are set to apply immediately and not on next renewal.

Subscription Change	Impact on Existing Orders
Subscription Deletion	All associated orders are deleted.
Subscription Pause	All queued orders with shipping date after the pause date — regardless of whether a resume date is set or not — are changed to on hold.
Subscription Resume	When a subscription resumes, all on-hold orders with shipping dates on or after the date of resume are changed to queued.
Changing the subscription plan to one with the same billing period Changing the next billing date Changing the subscription price Changing the plan/addon quantity Adding a recurring addon Changing the shipping address or billing address	In these cases, the change happens only on the next renewal so the current orders aren't affected.
Changing the subscription plan to one with a different billing period	This does not impact the existing orders for the subscription in any way. However, since the subscription plan gets updated, a new invoice is raised for the new plan and new orders are created against it when paid. You may cancel the queued orders of the previous plan if they're not needed.
Cancelling a subscription	All of its orders with status queued and shipping date in the future are cancelled.
Reactivating a subscription	If reactivation happens such that a new invoice is generated for the subscription (For example, during out-of-term reactivation or if you change subscription and switch to a new plan), new orders are created when the invoice gets paid.
Changing subscription details such as shipping address, billing address, billing price, changing or applying coupons.	No impact on the orders.
Adding a non-recurring addon	See this section.
Adding a charge to a subscription	No impact on the orders since a charge is not considered a shippable item.
Bill future renewals	No impact on current orders. New orders are created when the invoice is paid for.

Invoice Changes

When an invoice is changed, any orders associated with it are affected as follows:

Invoice Change	Impact on Existing Orders
For a plan/addon that has only one shipment per billing period if you refund the invoice or record refund against the invoice.	A credit note of the entire refund amount is created against the order with the entire refund amount associated with the order.
For a plan/addon that has multiple orders per billing period if you refund the invoice or record refund against the invoice.	A refundable credit note is created. The credits are associated with the orders based on the following rules: If the refund reason code is "product/service unsatisfactory": &nbsp- From among the orders linked to the invoice, the refund amount is distributed among those with shipping date before the date of credit note creation. For all other refund reason codes: &nbsp- From among the orders linked to the invoice, the refund amount is distributed among those with shipping date as the date of credit note creation or later. Note: If the refund amount is greater than the total order amount of the orders it is applicable for (based on the above rules), the refund amount is distributed among all orders of the invoice.
Creating an adjustment credit note against an invoice for a plan/addon that has only one shipment per billing period.	The credit note is linked to the order and the entire adjusted amount is associated with the order.
Creating an adjustment credit note against an invoice for a plan/addon that has multiple orders per billing period.	The adjusted amount is associated with the orders based on the following rules: If the adjustment reason code is "product/service unsatisfactory": &nbsp- From among the orders linked to the invoice, the adjusted amount is distributed among those with shipping date before the date of credit note creation. For all other adjustment reason codes: &nbsp- From among the orders linked to the invoice, the adjusted amount is distributed between those with shipping date as the date of credit note creation or later. Note: If the adjusted amount is greater than the total order amount of the orders it is applicable for (based on the above rules), the adjusted amount is distributed among all orders of the invoice.
Remove payment from an invoice.	The removed amount is equally distributed among all the linked orders, reducing their paid amounts.
Adding payment to invoice	The added amount is equally distributed among all the linked orders, increasing their paid amounts.
Void an invoice	All orders linked to the invoice are cancelled.
Write-off an invoice before orders have been created	If it's only a partial write-off, the orders are created in queued status; if fully written-off, then orders are created in cancelled status. Adjustment credits are raised against all the orders for their order amounts. If partially written off, credits for the written off amount are equally distributed among all the orders.
Write-off an invoice after orders have been created	Order statuses are not affected. Adjustment credits are raised against all the orders for their order amounts. If partially written off, credits for the written off amount are equally distributed among all the orders.
Invoice billing address change	All linked orders are updated with the new billing address.
Invoice shipping address change	Queued orders with shipping date in the future are updated with the shipping address changes.
If consolidated invoicing is enabled	The orders continue to be created and processed separately for each subscription.
Other changes	No impact on existing orders.

Customer Change

Customer Change	Impact on Existing Orders
Customer is deleted	All orders are deleted.
Non-recurring addon is added	See this section.
Adding a one-time charge	No impact on the orders since a charge is not considered a shippable item.
Change customer details	The orders themselves are not affected but when the orders are synced to a third-party integration platform, the latest details are fetched.
Other changes	No impact on existing orders.

Other Changes

When a credit note is voided/deleted, then for all the orders linked to it, the adjustment/refund associated with the credit note will be removed.

FAQ

1) I'm canceling a subscription, how can I ensure that only the unfulfilled orders are refunded?

As described above, when a subscription is canceled, all queued orders with shipping dates in the future are canceled automatically. Since Chargebee does not currently support delivery-based proration, choose Don't issue credits for the unused period while canceling the subscription. Then, do one of the following:

Use the refund order action for each unfulfilled order, choosing the maximum refundable amount pre-filled in the dialog. OR
Create a credit note for the invoice associated with the orders, for the amount equal to the total value of the unfulfilled orders. Choose the reason code Order cancellation to ensure the refundable credits are associated with the canceled orders.

Articles & FAQs

When an invoice is generated and paid via account credits, the tax is not added. Why?

Payments, Credits & Impacts on Orders