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Switching a customers membership plan
Switching a customers membership plan

You can switch a customer between your membership plans from the customers account page so you can manually upgrade or downgrade their plan.

Cam Langsford avatar
Written by Cam Langsford
Updated over a week ago

For example a customer might want to be upgraded from an online membership to a one on one coaching plan, or downgrade from one on one coaching to an off season online membership plan.

Currently customers can not change their own payment plans but a coach can do this for them.

Finding the Customer

Go to People.

Go to Clients

Scroll through the list of members to find the customer you would like to change.

Once you've found the member, click on the his or her name.

Next, click on Account

Then click on Switch Plan

Highlighted is the current plan the member is on.  Click on the drop down button to find other plan options.

Select the new plan from the options.

In the next step, you will need to select between prorating the charges between the old and new plan or setting a trial period for the new plan.

Proration vs Setting a Trial Period

Proration

If you want the payment gateway to calculate the difference between the pricing plans between now and the next payment date then select the "Prorate" option. The payment gateway will then calculate any unused time on the old plan and additional time on the new plan and either apply a credit or charge extra at the next payment date (depending if the plan is more or less expensive). The customer will not be charged immediately but will be charged the calculated amount on the next payment date. The proration calculation will be clearly shown on the customers next invoice which you can double check directly in Stripe.

If you want to ignore any price differences then leave the "prorate payment" option unchecked and no calculations will be made and the customer will simply be charge the price of the new plan on the next payment date.

Set Trial Period

If the plan you are switching to already has a trial period defined then that period will be applied.

If there is no trial period then the new plan will simply be charged on the current plans payment cycle. Setting a trial date while switching a plan is a way to change the payment cycle (the date they are charged). You can use the trial end date to bring a customers payment date either forwards or push it out later. 

Warning: applying a trial period will essentially make the time between now and the trial end date "free" for the customer. If you don't want that period to be free then ensure you leave the "prorate payment" option unchecked.

For more information on proration and using trial periods to move a payment date please see the Stripe's documentation on prorationand changing billing cycles with trial periods.

Viewing Details Directly in Your Stripe Account

To view the customer or their subscription details directly in Stripe you can click on the links under the subscriptions details.

Restrictions and Exclusions

Switching customers between plans has some restrictions and exclusions.

Any "start up" fees will be ignored when switching plans.

You can not switch customers between plans that are not recurring e.g a fixed price membership plan. To achieve this, customers must signup to the new plan and link it to their account. Any reconciliation in pricing in this situation will need to be handled manually.

If the plans have different billing periods, the new plan is billed at the new interval, starting on the day of the change. For example, switching a customer from one monthly plan to another does not change the billing dates. However, switching a customer from a monthly plan to a yearly plan moves the billing date to the date of the switch i.e now. Switching a customer from one monthly plan to another monthly plan while introducing a trial period also moves the billing date (to the conclusion of the trial). 

Stripe immediately attempts payment for these types of subscription changes:

  • From a subscription that doesn’t require payment (e.g., due to a trial or free plan) to a paid subscription

  • When the billing period changes

You can read more detail about the way Stripe handles switching between plans here.

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