Reactivation allows you to restart a canceled subscription. Reactivating a subscription will have the following effects:
- The subscription balance will be reset to $0
- The subscription will be immediately activated
- The customer will be charged the normal price for a single period
- The customer’s billing date will be reset to today
How to Reactivate a Subscription
To reactivate a subscription, navigate to the subscription and use the “Reactivate” link in the actions menu.
At the bottom of the screen, the "What's going to happen" section outlines what occurs on a reactivation.
Click Reactivate Subscription to proceed
Once a subscription has been successfully reactivated, the subscription will be in the active state and resume a normal recurring period of incurring charges.
Updating the Credit Card before Reactivation
There are two ways to update the credit card before reactivation. You may need to do this if the subscription was originally canceled due to failed transactions on the original card.
From the reactivation confirmation screen, there are two links in the “Credit Card” section:
-
Update Payment Profile: allows the merchant to manually update the card in the existing subscription
-
Send “Update Profile Request” email to Customer: sends an email to the customer requesting card update, including a link to a page to perform the update.
Once the card is updated, you will still need to initiate the reactivation. Canceled subscriptions do not become active again just because the attached card is updated.
Reactivation scenarios
Your subscribers in Advanced Billing possess many attributes that are taken into consideration during reactivation. Some important factors to consider when reactivating a subscription are the following:
- Current balance due
- Current subscription credit
- Existing coupon code
- Existing components
- Calendar billing
We’ve depicted the flow of events under a few scenarios to help you understand how reactivation in the presence of certain attributes will affect your subscribers.
Reactivation with a Coupon
When a subscription is in the canceled state, you may add a coupon so that upon reactivation, the subscription will be discounted. This is a great tactic to use to bring subscribers back on board after canceling.
In the example below, we are applying the coupon 10 PERCENT OFF COUPON for a discount of 10% off their subscription prior to reactivation. The Gold Product has a recurring cost of $50.00 per month, with a resulting cost of $45/month after discount.
Subscription with existing coupon before reactivation
After the coupon is applied to the subscription, select Actions > Reactivate Subscription. You will receive a preview of the costs and actions to be applied to the subscription.
Select Reactivate Subscription to proceed
Reactivation with a Calendar Billing Subscription
Reactivation under calendar billing exhibits a few unique traits that we’d like to outline.
- When a subscription signs up via calendar billing, the subscription inherits an attribute called the “snap date”.
- The snap date is the date that the subscription automatically charges your subscriber.
- The snap date is important to keep in mind as we delve further into the topic.
Now, let’s dive into an example below to illustrate the full chain of events after reactivation:
- A subscription is created via a Public Signup Page, and obtains a snap day of the 1st of the month, and cancels 6 months later on the 15th of the month.
- The subscriber wishes to reactivate on the 10th of the month.
- The snap day for the subscription does not change.
When a subscriber is reactivated, you may control the way the reactivation charge is handled:
| Calendar billing scenario | Amount charged upon reactivation |
| Prorated | Prorated product cost, relative to next snap day |
| Immediate | Full product cost |
| Delayed | Full product cost at renewal (not reactivation) |
For example, a subscription with a snap day of the 15th of the month, which is reactivated on the 10th of the month: its next billing would be on the 15th. You may then choose to charge the prorated product cost at reactivation (from the 10th to the 15th), immediately charge the full product cost, or delay charging the full product cost until the 15th.
Reactivate Subscription without Payment
To reactivate a subscription without charging the subscriber immediately, you can add credit by decreasing the balance of a subscription. If there is a negative balance on the subscription, this credit will be applied to the subscription when the reactivation step is performed. For complete information on adjusting a balance, please see our documentation here.
In order for the subscriber to be charged $0.00, the amount of the balance adjustment must be equal to or greater than the cost of the product. If the amount of the balance adjustment is less than the cost of the product, the subscriber will immediately be charged the difference upon reactivation.
In this case, when you reactivate the subscription, you must check the Do not reset the existing balance box. This will preserve the balance adjustment and will not charge the card on file during reactivation.
Check the Do not reset the existing balance box
When you elect to reactivate a subscription, you’ll receive a preview of the charges to be assessed during reactivation. Ensure that the amount is $0.00 if your goal is to reactivate a subscription without assessing charges to the card on file.
Once these steps are complete, the card on file will be charged at the next date of renewal.
Reactivating Trial Ended Subscriptions
Once a subscription has reached the Trial Ended status, you can reactivate the subscription easily by choosing Reactivate from the Actions menu.
Reactivate the "Trial Ended" subscription
You may choose the default option of activating a subscriber on the same product without including the trial. If you do not include the trial, the following will occur:
- This existing balance will be cleared.
- This subscription will be immediately activated.
- The customer will be charged the cost of the full product’s recurring period cost
- The customer’s billing date will be reset to today.
Don't include the trial in the reactivation by keeping the Include Trial option unchecked
If you DO include the trial, the following will occur:
- This existing balance will be cleared.
- This subscription will begin the trial immediately.
Reactivation Failures
There are 2 reasons why a reactivation of a subscription will fail within Advanced Billing.
Reason 1:
The card on file declined the charges
Reason 2:
There is no card on file for the subscription
In the event that reactivation fails, you may wish to instantly reach out to your subscriber to have them update their card on file. This can be done instantly by selecting Email Customer to Request Payment Update under Payment Details.
Resuming a Subscription
Resuming allows you to restart a previously canceled subscription within the billing period in which it was canceled, as though the cancellation never happened. Resuming a subscription will have the following effects:
- The subscription will be immediately activated
- The customer will be charged any outstanding balance (you may optionally choose to forgive this balance before resuming the subscription)
- The customer’s billing date will not change
A subscription is considered “resumable” if you are attempting to reactivate within the billing period the subscription was canceled in.
A resumed subscription’s billing date remains the same as before it was canceled. In other words, it does not start a new billing period. Payment may or may not be collected for a resumed subscription, depending on whether or not the subscription had a balance when it was canceled (for example, if it was canceled because of dunning).
Consider a subscription that was created on June 1st, and would renew on July 1st. The subscription is then canceled on June 15.
You may resume the subscription on or before the time it was meant to renew on July 1st.
You may not resume the subscription after July 1st.
How to Resume a Subscription
To resume a subscription, navigate to the subscription and use the “Reactivate” link in the actions menu.
Select Reactivate Subscription
You will see a confirmation screen that gives you the option to reactivate (start a new billing period) or resume (continue the billing period).
Click Reactivate Subscription to proceed
Once a subscription has been successfully resumed, the subscription will be in the Active state.
Resuming a Subscription with a Balance
If the subscription has a balance, by default Advanced Billing will attempt to collect that balance. You will be given the option to forgive that balance before resuming the subscription.
Choose whether or not to forgive the subscription balance
If you do not choose to forgive the subscription balance, then Advanced Billing will attempt to collect that balance. Once the subscription has been successfully resumed, the subscription will be in the active state, with no balance.
If you do choose to forgive the subscription balance, then Advanced Billing will not attempt to collect that balance. The balance will be cleared, and then the subscription will be resumed and will be in the active state, with no balance.
Resuming a Trial Ended Subscription
Subscriptions which are “trial ended” are not eligible to resume. They must be reactivated with a new billing period.