Trialing Subscriptions

Offering an option to trial your Plan or service can be a powerful tool to help grow your business. Trials give your potential subscriber the option to demo your Plan at little to no charge. To complement this approach, Advanced Billing offers many different ways for your subscribers to experience your Plan or service.

Here’s a few examples of the types of trials you can offer your subscriber:

Free trial with no obligation to enter a credit card
Free trial with setup fee charged at the end of the trial
Paid trial with setup fee charged at the beginning of the trial
Paid trial with setup fee charged at the end of the trial

Advanced Billing has provided the scenarios below to explain in detail what charges you can expect your subscribers to face throughout the trial period. A subscriber’s experience during the trial period depends on how a Plan is configured in Advanced Billing, as well as the validity of the subscriber’s credit card.

Trial Examples in Detail

The below examples assume a few attributes:

Trial Period: The examples below are broken into 2 sections, paid and free trials. Within Advanced Billing, you can easily define the length and cost of a trial.
Recurring period: When the trial period ends, the first recurring period begins. The Plan on the subscription defines the length of the recurring period, and the subscription renews every time another recurring period passes.
Plan price > $0.00. A $0.00 trial period, with a $0.00 Plan will not transition to the trial_ended state. A Plan must contain an amount due at the beginning of the non-trial recurring period in order to create a situation where a subscription transitions to trial_ended.
Require Payment Method is unchecked under the Plan Settings. The following bullet points cover a brief explanation of the column headers describing the various subscription states in trials, charges applied, customer experiences, etc., during a trial period.

Trial examples explained

Setup Fee: This fee allows you to specify a setup fee that is charged once. The Setup fee is normally charged at signup, but if your Plan has a trial period, the Setup fee may be charged at the end of the trial. An setup fee can be charged before the trial period, or after the trial period. While setup fees may influence your intent to require a payment method, the system does not explicitly enforce this. To ensure a card is collected, enable "Require Payment Method" and use an automatic collection method.
Trial Type:
- No Obligation Trials: If no card is on file at the end of the trial, the state the subscription transitions to depends upon the subscription type:
  - Automatic subscriptions transition to trial_ended.
  - Remittance subscriptions transition to active.
- Payment Expected Trials: If no card is on file at the end of the trial, the subscription will transition to past_due.
Card required on signup: This informational column indicates whether or not a valid credit card is required at the time of signup. This is purely indicative of the charges assessed. The actual requirement depends on Plan settings and collection method — typically, if "Require Payment Method" is enabled and automatic collection is used, a card is required. However, setup fees alone do not automatically trigger this requirement. For more information on Plan options, please view our documentation here.
Charges applied at signup: This informational column defines the types of charges that will be applied at signup for the given scenario.
Status at end of the trial with failed charge: This informational column defines the status of the subscription at the end of a trial if a failed transaction is encountered.
Status at end of the trial with no card on file: This information column defines the status of the subscription at the end of a trial if there is no card on file at the end of the trial.

Free Trials

The following trialing examples contain two types of trials.

Free trials that do not include a setup fee
Free trials that do include a setup fee

While free trials with setup fees are not “free” in the true sense of the word, we wanted to ensure to illustrate all types of trials for clarity purposes.

Setup fee	Trial type	Card required on signup?	Collection Method	Charges applied at signup	Status at end of trial successful charge	Charges applied at end of trial	Status at end of trial with failed charge	Status at end of trial with no card on file
Before Trial Period	No Obligation	Yes	N/A	Setup fee	Active	Recurring Plan fee	Past Due	Trial Ended
After Trial Period	No Obligation	No	Automatic	$0	Active	Recurring Plan fee + Setup Fee	Past Due	Trial Ended
After Trial Period	No Obligation	No	Remittance	$0	Active	Recurring Plan fee + Setup Fee	Past Due	Active
Before Trial Period	Payment Expected at End of Trial	Yes	N/A	Setup fee	Active	Recurring Plan fee	Past Due	Past Due
After Trial Period	Payment Expected at End of Trial	No	N/A	$0	Active	Recurring Plan fee + Setup Fee	Past Due	Past Due
N/A	No Obligation	No	Automatic	$0	Active	Recurring Plan fee	Past Due	Trial Ended
N/A	No Obligation	No	Remittance	$0	Active	Recurring Plan fee	Past Due	Active
N/A	Payment Expected at End of Trial	No	N/A	$0	Active	Recurring Plan fee	Past Due	Past Due

Free Trial with Metered & On/Off Products

The following trialing examples contain two types of trials.

Free trials that do not include a setup fee
Free trials that do include a setup fee

While free trials with setup fees are not “free” in the true sense of the word, we wanted to ensure to illustrate all types of trials for clarity purposes.

Setup fee	Trial type	Card required on signup?	Collection Method	Charges applied at signup	Status at end of trial successful charge	Charges applied at end of trial	Status at end of trial with failed charge	Status at end of trial with no card on file
Before Trial Period	No Obligation	Yes	N/A	Setup fee	Active	Recurring Plan fee + Product Charges	Past Due	Trial Ended
After Trial Period	No Obligation	No	Automatic	$0	Active	Recurring Plan fee + Setup Fee + Product Charges	Past Due	Trial Ended
After Trial Period	No Obligation	No	Remittance	$0	Active	Recurring Plan fee + Setup Fee + Product Charges	Past Due	Active
Before Trial Period	Payment Expected at End of Trial	No	N/A	Setup fee	Active	Recurring Plan fee + Product Charges	Past Due	Past Due
After Trial Period	Payment Expected at End of Trial	No	N/A	$0	Active	Recurring Plan fee + Setup Fee + Product Charges	Past Due	Past Due
N/A	No Obligation	No	Automatic	$0	Active	Recurring Plan fee + Product Charges	Past Due	Trial Ended
N/A	No Obligation	No	Remittance	$0	Active	Recurring Plan fee + Product Charges	Past Due	Active
N/A	Payment Expected at End of Trial	No	N/A	$0	Active	Recurring Plan fee + Product Charges	Past Due	Past Due

Free Trial with Quantity Based Products

The following example contains signups for free trials without a setup fee. Additonally, all of the trials utilize the “no obligation” trial type.

Proration Method	Trial Type	Collection Method	Total charges applied if Product added at signup	Total increase in "Current Balance" if Product is added during trial	Total charges applied at first renewal	Status after trial ends with no card on file
Prorate + Accrue	No Obligation	Automatic	$0	Prorated cost of Product	Current balance + cost of Plan	Trial Ended
Prorate + Process	No Obligation	Automatic	$0	Prorated cost of Product	Current balance + cost of Plan	Trial Ended
Full Cost + Accrue	No Obligation	Automatic	$0	Full cost of Product	Current balance + cost of Plan	Trial Ended
Full Cost + Process	No Obligation	Automatic	$0	Full cost of Product	Current balance + cost of Plan	Trial Ended
No Cost Change	No Obligation	Automatic	$0	No change in balance	Cost of Plan	Trial Ended
Prorate + Accrue	No Obligation	Remittance	$0	Prorated cost of Product	Current balance + cost of Plan	Active
Prorate + Process	No Obligation	Remittance	$0	Prorated cost of Product	Current balance + cost of Plan	Active
Full Cost + Accrue	No Obligation	Remittance	$0	Full cost of Product	Current balance + cost of Plan	Active
Full Cost + Process	No Obligation	Remittance	$0	Full cost of Product	Current balance + cost of Plan	Active
No Cost Change	No Obligation	Remittance	$0	No change in balance	Cost of Plan	Active

Paid Trial Period

Setup fee	Trial type	Card required on signup?	Charges applied at signup	Status at end of trial successful charge	Charges applied at end of trial	Status at end of trial with failed charge	Status at end of trial with no card on file
Before Trial Period	No Obligation	Yes	Setup fee + Trial cost	Active	Recurring Plan fee	Past Due	Trial Ended
After Trial Period	No Obligation	Yes	Trial period cost	Active	Recurring Plan fee + Setup Fee	Past Due	Trial Ended
Before Trial Period	Payment Expected at End of Trial	Yes	Trial period cost	Active	Recurring Plan fee	Past Due	Trial Ended
After Trial Period	Payment Expected at End of Trial	Yes	Trial period cost	Active	Recurring Plan fee + Setup Fee	Past Due	Trial Ended
N/A	No Obligation	Yes	Trial period cost	Active	Recurring Plan fee	Past Due	Trial Ended
N/A	Payment Expected at End of Trial	Yes	Trial period cost	Active	Recurring Plan fee	Past Due	Trial Ended

Paid Trial Period with Metered & On/Off Products

Setup fee	Trial type	Card required on signup?	Charges applied at signup	Status at end of trial successful charge	Charges applied at end of trial	Status at end of trial with failed charge	Status at end of trial with no card on file
Before Trial Period	No Obligation	Yes	Setup fee + Trial cost	Active	Recurring Plan fee + Product Charges	Past Due	Trial Ended
After Trial Period	No Obligation	Yes	Trial period cost	Active	Recurring Plan fee + Setup fee + Product Charges	Past Due	Trial Ended
Before Trial Period	Payment Expected at End of Trial	Yes	Trial period cost	Active	Recurring Plan fee + Product Charges	Past Due	Trial Ended
After Trial Period	Payment Expected at End of Trial	Yes	Trial period cost	Active	Recurring Plan fee + Setup fee + Product Charges	Past Due	Trial Ended
N/A	No Obligation	Yes	Trial period cost	Active	Recurring Plan fee + Product Charges	Past Due	Trial Ended
N/A	Payment Expected at End of Trial	Yes	Trial period cost	Active	Recurring Plan fee	Past Due	Trial Ended

Paid Trial with Quantity Based Products

The following example contains signups for paid trials without a setup fee. Additonally, all of the trials utilize the “no obligation” trial type, but are required to enter a credit card upon signup.

Proration Method	Card Required on Signup	Total charges applied to credit card when Product added at signup	Current balance due after signup	Total increase in "Current Balance" if Product is added during trial	Total charges applied at first renewal	Status after trial ends with no card on file
Prorate + Accrue	Yes	Cost of Trial Period	Cost of Products added on signup	Prorated cost of Product	Current balance + cost of Plan	Trial Ended
Prorate + Process	Yes	Cost of Trial Period	Cost of Products added on signup	Prorated cost of Product	Current balance + cost of Plan	Trial Ended
Full Cost + Accrue	Yes	Cost of Trial Period	Cost of Products added on signup	Full cost of Product	Current balance + cost of Plan	Trial Ended
Full Cost + Process	Yes	Cost of Trial Period	Cost of Products added on signup	Full cost of Product	Current balance + cost of Plan	Trial Ended
No Cost Change	Yes	Cost of Trial Period	Cost of Products added on signup	No change in balance	Cost of Plan	Trial Ended

Trial with Introductory Offer

Advanced Billing offers a range of tools to make sure your subscribers have all the necessary information regarding their trial Subscriptions. To enable additional introductory offer settings, check the This trial period represents an introductory offer checkbox on the Plan Price point.

Emails

You can use our default templates to add additional information to emails after signing up for an Introductory Offer Plan:

Transaction Receipts

Additional information has been enabled on transaction receipts from signup or migration to a Plan that has an Introductory Offer (transaction receipt: Invoice, Statement, or Relationship Invoicing Invoice). The basic description that includes the trial length, trial end date, the date of the first subsequent transaction, and its estimated amount will appear on these documents. Additionally, we encourage you to enable the Billing Portal along with Cancellations to enable the customers an easier way of canceling their subscriptions if they like to. Once enabled, we will include a link to customers’ Billing Portal on their signup transaction receipts.

Past Due and Trial Ended Subscriptions

As your Subscriber nears the end of the trial period, it’s important to understand how/if they will enter the dunning process.

If at any point, your Subscriber’s status is Past Due, they have already entered the Dunning Process. The timeline set by your Dunning Settings takes over from here in an effort to collect any existing failed transactions on the Subscription.

However, if your subscriber’s status is Trial Ended, this is considered a dead state. The Dunning Settings do not apply at this point. The subscription will need to Reactivated in order to proceed. It is especially important to review the reactivation documentation as there are multiple options for reactivation.

Ending a Trial Early

To end a trial before the scheduled time, you can:

Advance the billing date to trigger an early renewal.
Cancel the subscription immediately via the Admin UI or Billing Portal.
Use a Plan migration flow: Perform a simple Plan or price point change, then migrate back to the original configuration. This resets the billing cycle and transitions the subscription to active.

For recurring use cases, consider setting up separate Plans or price points for trial vs. post-trial billing so that only one migration step is needed.

Manual Activation and Subscription Terms

When a subscription is in the trialing state, you can manually activate it before the scheduled end of the trial.

During manual activation, you can set or update the subscription term as part of the activation flow. This allows you to choose whether the subscription should become:

Evergreen
Term-based with a defined Term End Date

Advanced Billing also supports subscriptions that include both a trial period and a fixed term. In this case, the subscription remains in the trialing state for the duration of the trial. When the trial ends, the subscription transitions to active, and the term period begins at that time.

If you manually activate the subscription before the trial ends, the subscription becomes active immediately, and the selected term configuration applies starting from activation.

Use this flow when you want to end a trial early and immediately control whether the subscription continues as evergreen or under a fixed term.

Information on Plan Pricing

For full information on configuring Plan Pricing, please see the following help sections

Information on Plan Pricing

For full information on configuring Plan Pricing, please see the following help sections

Information on the Subscription States

For a full overview of all of Advanced Billing’s subscription states, we recommend viewing our documentation here. This section of our documentation covers live, problem and end of life states of a subscription.