Invoice Issued After a Termination

In Short

The recommended, and most common, termination takes effect at renewal: the subscription runs to the end of the current period, and the termination only becomes final on that date. Whatever is then left to bill — termination fees, consumption, options, added quantities — is gathered in the customer balance and invoiced on a last invoice at the customer’s next billing date. That invoice is genuinely due: waiving it remains possible, but it is then a goodwill gesture.

How It Works

Unlike an immediate termination, a termination at renewal does not end the subscription on the day it is requested. The subscription runs to the end of the current period, and the termination becomes final on that date.

When the termination becomes final, new lines can be added to the customer balance:

• termination fees, where the offer carries them;
• quantities consumed during the last period and not billed yet.

The balance can also hold lines created during the period, where features of the subscription were changed:

• options enabled;
• quantities raised — users added, for instance.

The billing date belongs to the customer, not to the subscription. It is set from the start of the first paid subscription and recalculated at each billing; where it has been changed in the back office, the following dates run from that change. A termination moves neither that date nor the subscription’s own term date.

At that date, the customer balance is read: the lines it holds are gathered onto a single invoice, debit lines and credit lines alike.

A customer invoiced on the 6th of each month requests, on 27 February, the termination of a subscription that also renews on the 6th. The termination becomes final on 6 March, and the customer is invoiced that day for whatever the balance holds then. That invoice is not a reaction to the termination: 6 March was already the billing date. Once no running subscription is left, no further billing date is scheduled — 6 March is the last one, and nothing follows it.

Requesting the termination early in a period does not bring the last invoice forward, nor does it reduce what the period costs: a period that has started is due in full. Where the balance holds nothing at the next billing date — no termination fee, no consumption, no option, no quantity left to bill — no invoice is issued at all; where it holds credit lines, the last invoice can be smaller than expected, or come to € 0.00.

This last invoice is not an error. It covers amounts the customer genuinely owes: fees the offer provides for, and what the customer used or added up to the end of the period. Waiving it remains possible — by voiding it while it is unpaid, or by refunding it once paid — for instance to end the relationship with that customer on good terms; it is then a goodwill gesture, since the amount was due.

Steps

Normally there is nothing to do: a last invoice is produced only where amounts are due. The three steps below are optional, and serve only where no last invoice should be issued all the same. They follow one another in time: the first comes before the termination is confirmed, the second before the customer’s next billing date, and the third applies only if an invoice has been issued anyway.

1. Remove the Termination Fee Before Confirming the Termination

The termination workflow states whether a termination fee applies, before anything is confirmed. The fee cannot be dropped from inside that workflow — it is read from the subscription — so the subscription is edited first:

1. Leave the termination workflow without confirming.
2. Open Subscribers and select the subscription.
3. Open Actions and remove the termination fee from the subscription’s pricing.
4. Save.
5. Start the termination workflow again: Actions → Interrupt.

2. Empty the Customer Balance Before the Next Billing Date

Lines still in the balance at the next billing date are invoiced. Deleting them before that date keeps them off the invoice; a deleted line can no longer be invoiced. The procedure is described in Delete a Line from the Customer Balance.

Where the termination becomes final on the billing date itself, the lines added that day — termination fees, consumption — are invoiced at once, with no chance to delete them first: the invoice they produce is handled by step 3.

3. Void or Refund the Last Invoice, If It Has Been Issued

Once issued, the last invoice is past the point where editing the subscription or the balance changes anything. Since its amount is due, waiving it is a goodwill gesture. While it is unpaid, it is voided, as described in Void an Invoice. Once paid, it can no longer be voided and is refunded instead, as described in How to refund an invoice?.

Specific Cases

• No last invoice at all. Where the offer carries no termination fee and the balance holds no consumption, no option and no quantity left to bill, nothing is waiting at the next billing date and no invoice is issued.
• A last invoice at € 0.00. Where credit lines offset the amounts due, the balance still holds lines, so the invoice is issued for zero rather than skipped.
• An immediate termination. Access ends at once, but the current period is still due in full, and whatever that leaves in the balance is invoiced at the next billing date.

See Also

• The different ways to interrupt a subscription
• How to terminate a subscription
• How to update a subscription
• Change the Next Billing Date
• Invoicing customer’s balance
• Balance Lines
• € 0.00 Invoices