Expire Subscription (2024)

When a customer elects to end their subscription at the next bill date or term end, this is called canceling the subscription. If you decide to end the subscription early, mid-cycle, this is called terminating the subscription. Both result in the subscription expiring. Once a subscription is expired, it cannot be reactivated. Only a canceled subscription can be reactivated, which just means the customer changed their mind and decided to continue the subscription before the bill date where the subscription was set to expire. Subscriptions configured to expire at end of their term, will naturally expire at the end of their last billing period.

Canceling a subscription will move the subscription's status to canceled and the subscription will automatically expire at the next bill date or term renewal. A canceled subscription is considered an active subscription, since the customer still has access to the service or has time to change their mind and reactivate the subscription. Canceling a subscription will not issue an invoice to the customer.

How to Cancel a Subscription

A subscription can be canceled in the Admin Console, Hosted Account Management, or the API.

Admin Console

To cancel a subscription in the Admin Console, find the account and click on the subscription name. In the Subscription Actions dropdown at the top right of the page, select Cancel Subscription. On the next page, select when you would like the subscription expire.

If a subscription that is set to start in the future is canceled, the subscription will be deleted from the account and will not show up in the account's subscription list.

Hosted Account Management

By default, the Hosted Account Management pages will not show your customers the option to cancel. You can enable this option on the Hosted Page Settings page in the Admin Console under Configuration. Select the Cancel subscriptions option under Customer Options.

Once a customer cancels, they will see the option to reactivate in place of the cancel link until the subscription expires.

Reactivate Subscription

If a customer decides to cancel and then changes their mind, you can reactivate their subscription if the subscription has not yet expired. Once the subscription has expired, your only option it to start a new subscription on the customer's account.

Reactivating a subscription will move the subscription back to an active state and will not issue an invoice to the customer. Reactivating the subscription will ensure that the subscription renews at the end of the current cycle.

How to Reactivate a Subscription

A subscription can be reactivated in the Admin Console, Hosted Account Management, or the API.

Admin Console

To reactivate a subscription in the Admin Console, find the account and click on the canceled subscription's name. In the Subscription Actions dropdown at the top right of the page, select Reactivate Subscription.

Hosted Account Management

If you are allowing the customer to cancel their subscription form the Hosted Account Management pages, the customer will see the option to reactivate in place of the cancel link until the subscription expires.

Terminating a subscription will move the subscription's status to expired immediately. Since terminating expires the subscription in the middle of the billing cycle, you have the option to refund the customer for any fixed fees paid up front, or charge the customer for any usage fees not yet billed.

How to Terminate a Subscription

A subscription can be terminated in the Admin Console or the API. The Hosted Account Management pages do not provide a customer facing terminate option.

To terminate a subscription in the Admin Console, find the account and click on the subscription name. In the Subscription Actions dropdown at the top right of the page, select Cancel Subscription. On the next page, click Terminate Subscription.

If the last invoice for the subscription was paid, you will see the option to refund all or a prorated amount of the last invoice. If the subscription includes usage-based add-ons with unbilled usage, you will see the option to not charge the customer for their final usage. Note that a final invoice is always sent if there are usage-based add-ons in the subscription. Choosing to not charge simply reduces the usage shown on the invoice to zero.

Dunning

Within Dunning Management you can choose to automatically expire a subscription when an invoice for the subscription reaches the end of the dunning cycle without successful payment.

It is important to note that if a subscription expires outside of dunning, via canceling, terminating, or naturally expiring, any past due invoices on the account currently in dunning will not automatically be failed. Those past due invoices will stay open and in dunning until they are either paid or reach the end of their dunning cycle. If you have selected to leave invoices past due at the end of dunning, then the invoices will never automatically fail. If you would like to stop collection on the past due invoices, you will need to manually mark them as failed.