Unbilled Charges

Introduction

The Unbilled Charges feature separates the creation of subscription-related charges from their invoicing.

There can be multiple charges incurred for a subscription, including:

• Upgrade or downgrade
• Switch to a different plan
• Addon attached in the middle of the subscription term
• Add a one-time charge or any other additions or changes to the subscription

When unbilled charges are created in Chargebee, they can be invoiced on demand.

If left unbilled, they are:

• Invoiced automatically at the next subscription renewal
• Invoiced automatically or retained as unbilled during a subscription pause
• Invoiced automatically or deleted during subscription cancellation

Configuration

Chargebee allows you to configure how unbilled charges are handled on your site. Navigate to Settings > Configure Chargebee > Billing LogIQ > Billing & Invoices > Unbilled Charges and ensure that the proper settings are in place.

Note: Unbilled Charges are enabled on the web interface by default. You can disable them on the web interface, but they are still available via the API.

You can choose the site defaults as either invoice immediately or add them to unbilled charges for the following cases:

• When a subscription is created and there are charges
• When a subscription is changed and there are charges
• When a subscription is reactivated and there are charges
• When a subscription term is extended and there are charges
• When one-time charges are created
• When advance charges are created

Users can choose to override these default settings while creating charges on the Chargebee interface. However, if you want to prevent this, click the more options (vertical ellipsis) menu to the right of the setting and disable the Allow overriding via Chargebee interface toggle.

Disabling Unbilled Charges

You can use the Disable button to turn off unbilled charges. This will:

• Remove the unbilled charges option from the Chargebee web interface, allowing only immediate invoicing for all charges
• Turn off unbilled charges settings for Subscription cancellation and Pause subscription
• Still allow API users to continue using the unbilled charges API

Note: When charges are incurred via Checkout and Self-Serve Portal, they are always invoiced immediately.

Add as Unbilled Charge

Here are the ways you can add a charge to the Unbilled Charges list via the web interface and API:

Via the Web Interface

Provided the configuration allows, you can keep charges as unbilled during the following actions:

• Creating a subscription
• Editing a subscription
• Reactivating a subscription
• Adding a one-time charge to a subscription
• Changing next billing
• Generating an advance invoice

Via API

Creating Actual Charges Here are the API calls you can use to add a charge to the list of unbilled charges:

Note: Set the invoice_immediately parameter to false to keep the charge as unbilled.

• Create a subscription
• Create a subscription for customer
• Update a subscription
• Add charge at term end
• Charge addon at term end
• Reactivate a subscription

Estimating Charges Without Creating Them Get an estimate of any unbilled charges using the following API calls:

• Create subscription estimate
• Create subscription for customer estimate
• Update subscription estimate

Viewing Unbilled Charges

You can view all unbilled charges for a particular customer or for a particular subscription.

Subscription Level

All unbilled charges for a subscription are listed on its details page:

The section also shows the date on which the charges will be invoiced (same as the subscription renewal date).

Customer Level

All unbilled charges for a customer (across all subscriptions under it) are listed on its details page.

Invoicing Options

Immediate (on-demand) invoicing of unbilled charges can be done at two levels:

Subscription Level

After navigating to the details page of the subscription, click the Invoice now link at the top of the list of unbilled charges to immediately invoice the charges.

Customer Level

Unbilled charges for a customer can be found on the customer details page. Click the Invoice now link above the list of charges to immediately invoice all such charges. The unbilled charges are invoiced separately for each subscription under the customer.

Using API for Invoicing

API calls can be used to either invoice unbilled charges or create an estimate for unbilled charges. They work for both customer and subscription levels depending on the parameters passed.

FAQs

1) How are discounts and one-time charges applied to unbilled charges?

One-time charges are not affected by existing coupons.

For example, if a subscription is created on May 1, and a coupon is applied to the subscription on May 2, the coupon will not apply to all charges created after May 2.

If an ad hoc charge or non-recurring addon is added to unbilled charges, the discount(s) present in the subscription will not be applied to the charge immediately. When the unbilled one-time charge or non-recurring addon is invoiced, the discount present in the subscription will be applied.

2) How are discounts applied to one-time charges present as unbilled charges?

Coupons will be immediately applied to recurring charges that are added to the list of unbilled charges.

3) How is proration applied to unbilled charges?

If changes to a subscription affect existing charges present in the Unbilled Charges section, Chargebee will revise the unbilled charges so that any invoices raised are accurate and up to date.

4) How are taxes applied to unbilled charges?

Tax exclusive: If you are operating with an exclusive price type, tax for unbilled charges will be calculated at the time the invoices are created. Tax inclusive: If you are operating with an inclusive price type, taxes will be calculated when you create the charge and will be applied immediately. In other words, if your prices include tax, all the pending charges that appear in the list of unbilled charges will include tax as well. More info on price types.