Subscription grace period

Overview

Set a grace period for your products and enable customers to renew expired subscriptions for a specific number of days after the expiration deadline. For example, for a 7 day grace period, 2Checkout will still accept payments and customers can still renew their subscriptions for up to a week after their subscriptions have expired. The expiration date of a recurring subscription is calculated based on a 'last day of the month' principle. For a subscription that is recurring on a monthly basis, and starts on January 31st, the subscription will expire as follows: in February, this subscription will expire on February 28th (or 29th for leap years). In March, the subscription will expire on the 31st.

Impact

Grace period settings impact subscriptions generated with every sale and are used as attributes of these subscriptions throughout their lifecycle.

Grace period configuration

2Checkout allows you to configure subscription grace period for multiple scenarios.

Account-level grace period

1. Go to Setup -> Renewal -> Global Renewal Settings.
2. Define the grace period length.
3. Click Save.

Apply the global grace period settings to existing subscriptions

1. Go to Setup -> Renewal -> Global Renewal Settings.
2. Define the grace period length.
3. Apply the settings to different types of existing subscriptions:
   
   • Expired (will apply the new settings to subscriptions for the product you're editing sold to your customers that expired - the number of expired subscriptions impacted is enclosed in parenthesis).
   • Past due (will apply the new settings to subscriptions for the product you're editing sold to your customers that are currently in the grace period - the number of subscriptions in their grace period impacted is enclosed in parenthesis).
   • Active (will apply the new settings to subscriptions for the product you're editing sold to your customers that are still active -  the number of active subscriptions impacted is enclosed in parenthesis).
4. Click Save.

Product-level grace period

1. Go to Setup -> Products.
2. Click Edit on the product that you want to configure the grace period for.
3. Go to the Renewal tab and select the Set custom grace period for this product option.
4. Define the grace period length.
5. Click Save.

Overwrite product-level grace period for existing subscriptions

Subscription sold for products with product-level grace period settings inherit the custom renewal configurations and not the global renewal setup.

1. Go to Setup -> Renewal -> Global Renewal Settings.
2. Define the grace period length.
3. Apply the settings to different types of existing subscriptions:
   
   • Expired (will apply the new settings to subscriptions for the product you're editing sold to your customers that expired - the number of expired subscriptions impacted is enclosed in parenthesis).
   • Past due (will apply the new settings to subscriptions for the product you're editing sold to your customers that are currently in the grace period - the number of subscriptions in their grace period impacted is enclosed in parenthesis).
   • Active (will apply the new settings to subscriptions for the product you're editing sold to your customers that are still active -  the number of active subscriptions impacted is enclosed in parenthesis).
4. Check the Apply to subscriptions with grace periods set at product-level option. This overwrites only the inherited grace period for existing subscriptions and not the custom grace period settings set at product-level.
5. Click Save.

Usage scenarios

Prolonging the grace period for expired subscriptions

1. The interval increase doesn't push the grace period beyond the current date when the change is operated. As a result, expired subscriptions will maintain their Expired status.
   

   Subscription 1
   Recurring billing	1 month
   Lifecycle	May 1 - May31
   Grace period	5 days
   Current date	June 12
   Current status	Expired
   Update grace period to	7 days
   Impact on subscription	New 7 day long grace period
   Impact on status	None
   Comment	Because the prolonged grace period doesn't include the current date when the change is operated, the status of the subscription remains unchanged, in this case, Expired.

2. The interval increase pushes the grace period beyond the current date when the change is operated. As a result, expired subscriptions will re-enter their grace period (Past Due status) allowing customers to renew them through manual payments.
   

   Subscription 1
   Recurring billing	1 month
   Lifecycle	May 1 - May31
   Grace period	5 days
   Current date	June 12
   Current status	Expired
   Update grace period to	14 days
   Impact on subscription	New 14 day long grace period and subscription is returned to its grace period
   Impact on status	Switched from Expired to Past Due
   Comment	Because the prolonged grace period includes the current date when the change is operated, the status of the subscription is changed from Expired to Past Due. Customers will now be able to once again renew their subscriptions through manual payments (buy links previously sent in manual renewal email notification will work as the status is changed).

Prolonging the grace period for Past Due subscriptions

1. The interval change doesn't reduce the grace period to a previous date compared to the current date when the change is operated. As a result, subscriptions in their grace period will maintain their Past Due status.
   

   Subscription 2
   Recurring billing	1 month
   Lifecycle	May 1 - May31
   Grace period	14 days
   Current date	June 12
   Current status	Past Due
   Update grace period to	13 days
   Impact on subscription	New 13 day long grace period
   Impact on status	None
   Comment	Because the update doesn't shorten the grace period to an interval preceding the current date when the change is operated, the status of the subscription remains unchanged, in this case, Past Due.

2. The interval change reduces the grace period to a previous date compared to the current date when the change is operated. As a result, subscriptions in their grace period will expire.
   

   Subscription 1
   Recurring billing	1 month
   Lifecycle	May 1 - May31
   Grace period	14 days
   Current date	June 12
   Current status	Past Due
   Update grace period to	7 days
   Impact on subscription	New 7 day long grace period and subscription expires
   Impact on status	Switched from Past Due to Expired
   Comment	Because the update shortens the grace period to an interval preceding the current date when the change is operated, the subscription expires, and its status switches from Past Due to Expired.

License Change Notifications (LCN)

When you modify the grace period of subscriptions, the 2Checkout system will automatically send out License Change Notifications (LCNs) reflecting the update you made.

LCN corner cases

1. You set a 1 day grace period for a subscription that's no more than 24 hours after its' expiration deadline and that did not feature a grace period previously. In this case, the 2Checkout system will send out 2 notifications:
   
   • 1 LCN reflecting the grace period change.
   • 1 LCN reflecting the Past Due status of the subscription.
2. You decrease the grace period of a subscription that's less than 24 hours from the grace period deadline by 1 day. In this case, the 2Checkout system will send out 2 notifications:
   
   • 1 LCN reflecting the grace period change.
   • 1 LCN reflecting the expiration of the subscription.

F.A.Q.

1. What happens if the grace period expires?
   
   • 2Checkout will no longer accept payments and customers will not be able to renew their expired subscriptions.
2. Does grace period offer extra usage?
   
   • No. Configuring a grace period for subscriptions does not influence the recurring billing process. Grace periods provide an interval of time, after the expiration of a subscription, in which shoppers can order a renewal. After the grace period, if any, runs out for expired subscriptions, customers will have to purchase a new offering. Expirations deadlines are calculated in accordance to purchase dates and converted to the 2Checkout local time zone.
3. Does 2Checkout send LCNs for grace period updates?
   
   • Yes. 2Checkout sends out LCN notifications for each change you perform per subscription that results in an update of the grace period.