Awaiting Signup

Awaiting signup allows you to create a Subscription in Maxio now and schedule its first billing date for the future. This feature is useful when onboarding new Customers, coordinating start dates with Contracts, or aligning billing with implementation timelines. The Subscription exists in the backend immediately, but its first successful billing is treated as the official signup event. Understanding how awaiting signup works ensures accurate Invoice generation, proper revenue tracking, and correct Subscription state transitions.

What Is Awaiting Signup?

Awaiting signup allows you to create a Subscription now and bill it on a specified future date. This initial billing date is treated as the signup event and calculates any trial or setup fees defined on the product.

Subscription creation and Subscription signup are considered two separate events. Each event has its own success and failure records for tracking and reporting.

Because the first billing date is treated as a signup, it behaves similarly to an immediate signup:

• Automatic net terms are ignored to prompt immediate payment.
• Remittance net terms are respected only if the site setting is enabled.
• Prepayments and credits on the Subscription or group can be applied to the signup Invoice.
• You can generate a proforma Invoice to preview signup charges.
• You can generate an advance Invoice to capture charges before the signup date.

Subscriptions created with a delayed signup have the awaiting_signup state. These Subscriptions are not considered paying and do not influence MRR. If necessary, you can extend the waiting period by updating the billing date on the Subscription.

When the delayed signup processes successfully, the Subscription will either:

• Become active, or
• Enter a trial, depending on product settings.

A signup success event is logged in the Subscription’s activity.

If the signup payment fails, the Subscription will either:

• Be immediately canceled, log a failure event, skip dunning, and have its Invoice canceled.
• Enter a past due state and begin dunning if the product’s dunning strategy has Trigger dunning if awaiting signup payment fails enabled.

Restrictions

Delayed signups are not available on legacy statement-based sites or for prepaid Subscriptions. Subscriptions with a delayed signup cannot be placed on hold.

Comparison to Next Billing At

Advanced Billing allows you to create an imported Subscription using the next_billing_at attribute. This workflow assumes the Subscription previously existed in another system and is being migrated into Maxio.

In contrast, a delayed signup represents a new Subscription that has not yet officially begun billing. API overrides supported for next_billing_at, such as importing as canceled, setting a previous billing date, or importing MRR, are not available for delayed signups.

Example of setting the first billing date during Subscription creation

If the First Billing Day aligns with the Calendar Billing day, the time automatically aligns with the Calendar Billing time.

Signup Time

You can specify the date and time of signup for each Subscription. To configure a default processing time for all delayed signups, navigate to Config > Settings > Delayed Signup. The default time is 5 am.

Because daylight saving time changes can shift processing across calendar days, the default signup time cannot be set to midnight. However, midnight can be selected at the individual Subscription level.

Component Changes

You can adjust component quantities or usage before signup to ensure accurate billing. These changes do not generate prorated charges or Invoices.

Components may be configured during Subscription creation or at any time before signup. Metered usage added at Subscription creation is not reset until the delayed signup processes.

Product Changes

You can change the product associated with the Subscription using the immediate or scheduled Change Product functionality.

Because the billing period has not officially started, upgrade and downgrade migrations are not available before signup.

Example of reactivation with awaiting signup

Reactivation

If a delayed signup Subscription is canceled before processing, you can reactivate it by resuming the billing period. The Subscription will return to the awaiting_signup state as long as time remains in the billing period.

Once the signup has processed, whether successfully or unsuccessfully, the Subscription cannot return to the awaiting signup state. A new Subscription must be created instead.

Groups are an exception. If you reactivate an entire group, resuming the billing period places all Subscriptions in an active state.

Calendar Billing

Calendar billing proration options, charge a prorated amount, charge the full amount, and don’t charge at all, can be selected at Subscription creation. These options determine how charges are calculated at delayed signup.

For example, if a Subscription has a snap date of the 1st and signup is scheduled for the 5th of the next month:

1. The product is charged at full cost on the 5th.
2. The billing date snaps to the 1st of the following month.

For more information, see calendar billing.

Subscription Groups

Subscriptions with delayed signups can be grouped with the following rules:

• If the primary Subscription is awaiting signup, all group members must also be awaiting signup. Align billing dates whenever possible.
• If the primary Subscription is active, individual group members may remain in the awaiting signup state. Ensure the correct accrue setting is configured to control when the member pays.

Group consolidation options at signup behave as follows:

• Align the billing date with the billing date of the group copies the primary billing date. If the primary is awaiting signup, the member is automatically created in the awaiting signup state.
• Prorate billing for the current period is ignored because it applies only when dates are aligned and no proration remains at signup.
• Accrue charges until the group renewal determines whether a consolidated Invoice is issued immediately or waits for the primary renewal.

We recommend combining Align the billing date and Accrue charges when you want multiple Subscriptions to sign up on the same date and generate a single consolidated Invoice.

For additional details, see signup consolidation options.