When you have recurring subscription customers you'll inevitably have to deal with cancelations. One way you can avoid canceling someone's subscription (aka reducing "churn") is to offer them the ability to pause their recurring payments for a period of time.

⛔️ Note: If your customer currently has a FAILED payment status, you cannot pause their subscription. They will need to update their billing info, be up-to-date on payments, and then you can pause their subscription.

🤔 How Does Pausing Subscriptions Work?

In your individual customer's profile, when they have an active recurring subscription (Monthly or Annual) you'll see a Pause Subscription button when you click the "Actions" button.

⚠️ IMPORTANT: Pausing a subscription WILL continue to give your customer access to your course. Their access is NOT revoked when you pause. (You CAN revoke their access while paused if you want, using that action.)

When you click the Pause Subscription option you'll be presented with a window that explains how pausing the subscription works and you can set the pause date in the future. You'll also be able to see the next scheduled payment in the subscription as a friendly reminder.

(Don't worry, just clicking the Pause Subscription button itself does NOT pause payments immediately.)

Step #2: Pick the date you want to Pause payments until and hit "Save"

Once you pick a date in the future and click the save button, it will close the window and you'll get a success message. Your customer will not be charged until the date you set and there's no further action you need to take. 👍

In the PURCHASE INFO area of the customer's profile, you'll notice a "Payments Paused until [DATE]" has been added.

If you click Show Details in the PAYMENTS area, you'll see a "Payments currently paused until..." message. This message includes an (extend) link you can click to extend OR to end the current pause schedule early.

Step #3: Want to "Extend Pause" or "Resume Subscription?" Click the Actions button again and you'll see multiple options...

Extend Pause: If you want to extend the pause to be further out in the future just pick a further date in the future and hit the "Save" button. Your customer's pause subscription date will update and you're good to go!

Resume Subscription: If you click this option, two things will happen (after you confirm the action):

It will immediately charge your customer the next payment in the subscription.
It will change the subscription payment date to today's day of the month (or year).

If you click and confirm Resume Subscription, you'll get a success message and your customer will be immediately charged.

NOTE: The payment record for this charge and the next scheduled payment will take a few moments to refresh. Give the page 2-3 minutes and refresh it to see the updated payment information for this customer.

(Optional) Your Stripe Account: View your customer's record in your Stripe account to see the pause date

We use Stripe's "trial period" feature to make the pause subscription function work. Simply search for your customer's email address in the search bar and click it to view their customer record. You'll see a message after their email address confirming the "Trial ends {date}". This means your customer is good to go!

⚠️ IMPORTANT: Please do NOT take any payment actions within your Stripe account. All payment actions (unpausing, canceling, etc) should be done in Teachery in the Customer Profile.

🙋🙋 Common Questions About Pausing Subscriptions

When you pause a subscription, does a customer still have access to the course?

Yes! Pausing a subscription does NOT affect your customer's access to your course at all. If you'd like, you can use the "Revoke Access" action to remove their access to the course while they are in pause status. Just remember to grant them access when the pause time ends (if you use the Revoke Access action).

Does pausing a subscription work on Annual recurring subscriptions as well?

Sure does, friend! Just like the monthly recurring subscription, you'll go through the same steps, you'll just need to click the calendar forward ⏩ button a few more times to get to the next scheduled charge date (listed in the top right of the window when you click the Pause Subscription button) and extend it.

Can you pause the same subscription multiple times?

Yes! If a customer has their subscription paused for a couple of weeks, the pause finishes and charges the customer but then they need another pause later on down the road, you can absolutely pause that same subscription again.

Can you cancel a subscription that's currently in paused status?

Yes! When you cancel a customer's subscription by clicking the Cancel Subscription button on the customer's profile, it will remove the subscription AND the pause setting. As a reminder: When you use the Cancel Subscription button, the course access for your customer is NOT revoked automatically. Use the "Revoke Course Access" action if you also want to remove their course access.

What happens if a customer cancels their subscription while paused?

If your customer cancels their own recurring subscription they will immediately have their course access revoked and you'll see the cancelation was made by them in their Customer Profile.

We hope this feature helps you better manage your recurring customers! If you have any questions about it, just click the support chat bubble in the bottom right of your window and ask away. 👋

Related help doc: Learn about setting up Recurring Payment Pages