Subscription renewal timing and preparation¶

Renewal prepares payment for another subscription term. A reminder, an attempt waiting to run, a payment sent to the provider, a verified charge and applied coverage are different outcomes. This explanation covers the inspected preparation, charging and recovery rules. The connected screen journey and deployed behavior still require their separate verification.

Which subscriptions can enter automatic renewal¶

The automatic path applies to a paid subscription with current saved-method eligibility, an identifiable stored method and no separate provider-managed subscription. The workspace must be active or suspended specifically for billing. A workspace suspended for another reason is not eligible through this path. A trial, a free plan, a removed or expired method, or a planned move to a free plan does not produce these automatic attempts.

Read saved payment methods and consent for the difference between having paid before and currently permitting an automatic payment. Environment enablement and current authority remain necessary. This guide does not establish that automatic charging is enabled for a particular workspace or deployment.

Three possible attempt windows¶

The code defines these windows relative to the existing paid-through timestamp:

The scheduler is configured to signal once a minute, but the receiving service checks its current time and saved state. This configuration is not a charge-time guarantee. A missed window is skipped rather than replayed as a burst of overdue charges. A changed licensed-seat count can also make an old attempt inapplicable.

A pending payment or an attempt needing manual review blocks another automatic attempt. A confirmed failure can allow the next still-eligible window; uncertainty does not count as permission to try again. These are at most three scheduled opportunities for the recorded term, not a promise that three provider charges will occur.

The last window starts at the end of the maximum three-day paid-renewal grace. An attempt at that time does not extend grace while payment is pending. Access depends on the exact coverage rules in subscription access, including earlier method or plan boundaries. Failed attempts before expiry do not themselves shorten the already-paid term.

What the renewal amount represents¶

Preparation uses the applied subscription terms, licensed seats, currency and billing cadence. A scheduled paid-plan change can supply the upcoming plan and seat price for renewal without immediately changing the current plan. Plans that require a negotiated commercial contract need an active accepted contract before this renewal can be prepared.

Continuing seat add-ons and storage packs contribute to the quote. An add-on scheduled to expire at or before the current term's end is excluded from the next renewal calculation. The result is a net amount; the final payment amount can also include applicable tax. Do not substitute an old receipt, catalog example or preview amount for the saved payment summary.

Creating the renewal intent does not itself extend paid coverage or establish a provider result. Where an unresolved payment already exists, the system recovers that saved workflow instead of silently changing consent and creating another payment. Use its original reference when checking progress.

Before a charge is sent¶

Billing checks that automatic charging is enabled, reads the exact saved method, compares its organization and customer details, checks its validity and asks Platform whether the specific renewal is still authorized. A method that has become unavailable or an attempt whose terms are no longer current cannot be treated as ready merely because it was previously queued.

If storage or authority verification fails before dispatch, an attempt can close without a charge request being sent. A failed attempt is therefore not always a bank decline. The current hosted path can instead defer a temporarily unavailable authority check and retry that same saved intent; a mismatched response cannot authorize collection. These outcomes differ from an uncertain provider result after dispatch. Use the current status and original reference to distinguish them.

Before contacting the payment provider, Billing saves that it is about to dispatch this specific workflow. A transaction identifier returned by the provider is then passed to independent payment verification. The returned identifier alone does not prove payment success or applied coverage.

If the provider response is lost¶

Once the dispatch record exists, recovery uses the saved transaction identifier or looks up the original payment reference. It does not create a fresh charge merely because a response is missing. A timeout can mean the provider accepted the request but the result did not reach Zerohive; it can also leave no matching result yet. Neither case makes a second payment safe without reconciliation.

The background process can revisit a hosted authority deferral before any dispatch after at least one minute without an update. Dispatched unresolved workflows have a separate five-minute age threshold. Both share a limited batch, so neither threshold promises a completion time. A later check still needs the original attempt's current authority and does not create a new entitlement to charge outside its window. Missing or uncertain provider results require reconciliation rather than automatic duplicate collection. Continued waiting does not add paid coverage or extend grace.

Removing a saved method after dispatch does not erase the payment already being investigated. The system can continue checking its result so a completed payment is not overlooked. Ask support to reconcile the original reference rather than repeatedly requesting payment or treating removal as a refund.

When renewal needs attention¶

Administrators can use billing access and recovery even when ordinary paid-product access is unavailable, subject to the documented account and membership rules. The checkout retry explanation covers eligible failed or expired workflows; it does not turn an unresolved automatic payment into a safe duplicate.