Invoices and billing a client
Put a client on Stripe billing, change or cancel a subscription from the client's Billing tab, and watch invoices, payment attempts and refunds.
Billing a client happens in two places. The client's Billing tab is where you start, change and cancel their Stripe subscriptions — one card per subscription, each with its own renewal date. Everything afterwards — invoices, declines, retries, refunds — lives on FinanceBilling CatalogCustomers.
The client sees their own invoice inside their portal and pays through Stripe. Included in the plan changes what the client sees, not what Stripe charges — the checked services are granted as included in the plan, never added as line items.
Before you start
You need Billing edit permission and a connected Stripe account. Build your plans first — the wizard picks line items from the Billing Catalog, and it will tell you "No active plans in the billing catalog yet." if there are none. The wizard is not available in the iOS admin shell; run it from a browser or the desktop app.
Bill a client
Open the client and start the wizard
Clientsthe clientBillingSet up billing. The Billing strip on the client's Overview has the same Set up billing button, and Bill this client… on the client's row menu in the Clients list opens the same wizard. Once the client is billed, New subscription on the Billing tab starts one for a project that has none.
Step 1 — Billing portal
Choose which of the client's portals is billed. A client with several portals bills per portal, not per client. With one portal and no subscription on it yet, the wizard skips this step and opens on Services — a line under the step chips says where it bills, and Change reopens the step.
Step 2 — Services
Pick the plans this portal pays for. Open Advanced if you need to change how Stripe collects or when the first charge lands.
Step 2, continued — Included in the plan
Under the custom lines, check the services the plan includes — for example SEO reporting, blog content, Google Ads or the website chatbot. Right after the subscription is saved they are granted as included in the plan, and the client sees them as "Included in your plan" with no separate charge. A service an add-on line already bills is greyed out (it rides that line). The list never offers lead automations, backlink monitoring or Visitor ID, and it never cancels a service the client already has. A service already on the portal — for example one you included earlier alongside a custom plan — shows as already included and is left exactly as it is.
Step 3 — Review
Check the combined monthly total, the changed lines and the removed lines, then continue to compose the subscription.
Composing is a live charge on your Stripe account
The review step warns "Composing will switch this portal to Stripe billing." It is real money on your own connected Stripe account, not a draft. Read the combined monthly total before you continue, and if this is the first subscription you have composed, confirm the result in your Stripe dashboard afterwards.
Change a subscription
Every subscription is a card on the client's Billing tab: its project, its status and renewal date, the lines it bills, the next charge and the card that pays it. To change one — a lower or higher price, a different plan, a service added or removed — click Edit subscription on its card.
Services
The wizard opens on that subscription with its current plans checked. Change, add or remove services — for a plan change, uncheck the old plan and check the new one.
When does this take effect?
The review step asks when the change starts:
- At the next renewal — nothing is charged or credited today; on the renewal date the subscription bills the new total, then every month. This is the default when the monthly total goes down.
- Right away, prorated — the new total starts today, and the difference for the rest of the current period is charged or credited on the next invoice. This is the default when the monthly total goes up.
Either way it stays the same subscription, with the same card and the same charge date — the client does not have to do anything.
Confirm
The button names what happens: Schedule change for the renewal date, or Update subscription now. A scheduled change reads Change scheduled on the done step.
Cancel or resume a subscription
Open the ⋯ menu on the subscription's card and choose Cancel subscription…. Pick when it ends:
- At the end of the period (the default) — no further charges; the client keeps access until the renewal date, and you can choose Resume subscription from the same menu any time before then.
- Immediately — it ends now and what the plan includes stops. Nothing more is charged, and no refund is issued automatically.
Cancelling one subscription never touches the client's other subscriptions. Click Keep subscription to close the dialog without changing anything.
Billing tools
The Billing tools fold at the bottom of the client's Billing tab holds the less common work for one portal: the portal's invoice list (with Void for an open invoice sent by mistake), the Advanced subscription editor (price locks and the other advanced settings), One-time invoice and Provider & migration.
Settings reference
The Advanced fold in step 2, and the review step's timing choice.
| Setting | What it changes | Default |
|---|---|---|
| Collection method | Whether Stripe charges the card on file automatically or emails the client an invoice to pay. | — |
| Email invoice every month | Sends an invoice each cycle instead of charging a card. | — |
| When does this take effect? (review step, when changing a subscription) | At the next renewal — nothing charged or credited today, the renewal bills the new total — or right away, prorated. | At the next renewal when the total goes down; right away when it goes up |
| Start billing on | Delays the first charge to a date you choose. First-charge delays apply on creation only — you cannot use this to move an existing subscription's charge date. | — |
| Card statement | The text on the client's bank or card statement for this subscription's charges — your statement name plus the project, up to 22 letters, numbers and spaces. Shown on the review step; edit it there. | Your statement name + the project |
Card statements
Every charge names what it is for. The review step of the wizard shows the
Card statement for the subscription — your workspace's statement name and
the project, for example HDG FITNESS RX TAMPA — and you can edit it before
you confirm. A client with two projects then sees two different lines on their
bank statement instead of two identical ones.
- Statement name — set once on FinanceBilling CatalogCard statements. It leads every label (2–10 characters). Saving it also gives subscriptions started outside the wizard a default label.
- Existing subscriptions — the Review statement labels panel on the same card lists every live subscription with its proposed text. Apply them one by one or all at once; each is a metadata-only change on Stripe — nothing is cancelled, re-created, prorated or re-dated — and the next renewal invoice carries the new text. Subscriptions whose lines bill several projects ask you to pick one.
- One subscription — on the client's Billing tab, each live subscription's card shows its card statement; Edit card statement in the card's ⋯ menu changes it.
- One-time invoices carry their own optional text from Billing tools; left blank, the statement name and the project are used.
What the bank prints
Stripe sends the text with the charge; the cardholder's bank decides how it renders it, and some banks show a merchant name of their own instead. A subscription started in the wizard carries its label from the first charge on; the wizard's done step shows the exact text that first charge carried.
Unmapped Stripe line items need review
If the live subscription already contains items that are not catalog plans — set up directly in Stripe, or left over from an older arrangement — the wizard says so rather than silently dropping them. Map them to catalog plans, or handle them in Stripe, before composing.
Watching invoices
Open FinanceBilling CatalogCustomers, click a customer, then open an invoice. You get:
- Payment attempts — the last decline, how many attempts have been made, the next automatic retry and the card on file.
- Refund this invoice — with a reason of Requested by customer, Duplicate or Fraudulent.
Use the Past due and Open invoices filter chips on the Customers tab to find the ones that need you, rather than reading every row.
Consolidating several subscriptions
A client who was billed in stages can end up with more than one live subscription and more than one charge date. On the client's Billing tab each one is its own card, and a Consolidate billing section appears under them. Click Clientsthe clientBillingReview & consolidate to merge them into one subscription with a single monthly charge date. The modal shows the Live subscriptions, the Resulting single subscription and a Progress section.
Finish a consolidation you have started
If a consolidation half-completes, the modal warns "The client is being double-billed until this is fixed." Run it through to the end. Do not close the modal and come back tomorrow.
What the client sees
In their portal, a client opens Billing and sees the invoice with its Total, Amount due, and either Paid in full or No payment due. View invoice opens the secure Stripe invoice in a new tab, where they pay.
Invoices raised outside Stripe can still be shown to them for viewing, with the payment handled wherever it was raised.
Troubleshooting
| Symptom | Cause | Fix |
|---|---|---|
| Set up billing / Bill this client… is missing, or the wizard cannot be started | No Stripe account connected, missing Billing edit permission, or you are in the iOS admin shell | Connect Stripe as the owner, grant the Billing permission, and run the wizard from a browser or the desktop app |
| "No active plans in the billing catalog yet." | Every catalog plan is Archived, Hidden or Coming soon | Set at least one plan Active in the Billing Catalog |
| "Unmapped Stripe line items need review" | The live subscription holds items that are not catalog plans | Map them to catalog plans or resolve them in Stripe before composing |
| An invoice keeps failing | The card on file was declined; Stripe is retrying on its own schedule | Open the invoice, read Payment attempts, and ask the client to update the card |
| The client says they were charged twice | A consolidation did not finish | Reopen Review & consolidate on the client's Billing tab and complete the run |
| A plan on the subscription shows the wrong price | The catalog plan and Stripe have drifted | Run Stripe reconcile in the Billing Catalog, then sync the plan |