Invoices
Every charge is an invoice first: numbered, as PDF, with your logo and tax fields, sent by email and available in the API.
How it works · Subscriptions
How subscriptions work.
A subscription is a plan, a customer and a schedule. SparkIO runs the schedule: trials, the first charge, renewals, retries when a card fails and updates when a card changes.
Subscriptionsub_7Lm2Qa · simulated
Desk Refill Club$18 / month$18/mo
Hannah Lee
Lifecycle
- Trial
- Active
- Renewal
- Retry
- Recovered
Day 1$18.00
Renewal
Insufficient funds
Dunning email
Day 3$18.00
Retry 1
Insufficient funds
Dunning email
Day 5$18.00
Retry 2
Insufficient funds
Dunning email
Day 7$18.00
Retry 3
Approved
Receipt sent
Visa ending 3155 approved $18.00 on day 7. No interruption for Hannah.
Simulated. Retry days are a placeholder schedule.
Visa ending 3155 approved $18.00 on day 7. No interruption for Hannah.
The billing cycle
From plan to renewal, and what happens when a card fails.
Each step creates a record you can see: a plan, a subscription, an invoice, a payment. Nothing is charged without an invoice behind it.
Timings and amounts are placeholders, not commitments.
Create a plan
Once
A plan is a price, a currency and an interval, say $18 every month, with an optional trial. You create it in the dashboard or the API. Customers never see the plan itself, only the checkout built from it.
You seePlan
Customer subscribes
At checkout
The customer pays through the same checkout as a one-off purchase. The card is tokenized and stored for future charges, with their consent recorded on the subscription. If there is no trial, the first charge happens right now.
You seeSubscribed
Trial
14 days, or what you set
During a trial the subscription is active and nothing is charged. A reminder goes out before the trial ends. A trial started without a card on file simply stops at the end instead of converting.
You seeTrialing
First charge
When the trial ends
On the day the trial ends we authorize and capture the plan price in one go. The customer gets a receipt; you get a payment linked to the subscription and its invoice. From here the cycle runs on its own.
You seeAuthorized
Renewal
Every cycle, same local time
Each period an invoice is created, then paid with the stored card. Renewals are merchant-initiated transactions, so 3-D Secure is not repeated where the rules allow it. The payment settles like any other.
You seeRenewed
Smart retries
Retried on day 3 · 5 · 7 (the failure is day 1)
If a renewal fails, the subscription becomes past due and access continues while we retry. Retries follow a schedule timed to when the issuer is most likely to approve, and a dunning email goes out with each attempt. After the last attempt the subscription is canceled or paused, your choice.
You seePast due
Account updater and network tokens
Before the next charge
When a customer's card expires or is reissued, the card networks send the new details, and network tokens keep working across reissues. Most 'card expired' failures never happen. For the rest, the dunning email asks the customer to update the card in their portal.
You seeCard updated
Cancel or pause
At period end, or now
A customer or you can cancel at the end of the paid period or immediately, with or without a prorated refund. Pausing keeps the subscription and the card on file and skips charges until a date you set.
You seeCanceled
Mid-cycle changes
Proration, upgrades and pauses.
When a customer changes plan on day 10 of a 30-day cycle, they should pay for exactly what they used. Proration credits the unused part of the old plan and charges the used part of the new one, on one invoice.
- Upgrades charge the difference today, or add it to the next invoice
- Downgrades credit the difference against future invoices
- Interval changes, say monthly to yearly, reset the cycle and prorate the remainder
- Pauses stop charges and extend the current period by the paused days
Prorationinv_7Hq2Wd · simulated
Northlight
Upgrade · Day 10 of 30
Desk Refill Club → Plus
Hannah Lee · [email protected]
- Unused Desk Refill Club20 of 30 days · $18.00/mo
- −$12.00
- Desk Refill Club Plus, rest of cycle20 of 30 days · $32.00/mo
- $21.33
- Due todayCharged to •••• 3155
- $9.33
- Next invoice · day 31
- $32.00
Simulated. Price × days left ÷ days in cycle.
Also included
The parts around the charge.
Everything a subscription business needs around the payment itself, in the same dashboard.
Dunning emails
Pre-written, branded reminders for failed payments, expiring cards and ending trials. Edit the copy or turn any of them off.
Usage billing
Report usage during the period, such as API calls, seats or minutes, and the renewal invoice adds it to the base price.
Coupons
Percent or fixed amount, once or repeating, with expiry and redemption limits. Applied at checkout or to an existing subscription.
Tax
Tax rates applied by customer location on every invoice, with tax IDs collected at checkout where required. Filing stays with you or your accountant.
Customer portal
A hosted page where customers update their card, download invoices, change plan or cancel, without emailing you.
Questions
Questions about billing.
- What exactly happens when a renewal fails?
- The invoice stays open and the subscription is marked past due. We retry on a schedule, email the customer with each attempt and a link to update their card, and keep access on until the last attempt. Then the subscription is canceled or paused, depending on your setting.
- Can customers pay a subscription with Pix or a bank debit?
- Recurring Pix and SEPA Direct Debit work through a mandate: the customer authorizes once and renewals are debited without a card. Methods that cannot recur, such as boleto or OXXO, generate a new payment request each cycle instead.
- Who sends the invoices and receipts?
- We do, in your name, at each charge. If you prefer your own system, turn ours off and use the invoice webhooks to send from there.
- Do renewals need 3-D Secure?
- Usually not. The first payment can be authenticated; renewals are merchant-initiated transactions, which the rules exempt. If an issuer asks for authentication anyway, the customer gets an email with a link to complete it.
- How does proration appear in my accounting?
- As line items on one invoice: a negative line for the unused part of the old plan and a positive line for the remainder of the new one. The payment and the settlement follow the invoice total.
Create a plan and run a test cycle today.
Test clocks let you move a subscription through trial, renewal and retries in minutes.