Subscriptions
Master the modern Subscriptions API with automatic billing cycles, prorated upgrades, and delayed downgrades for recurring revenue.
The Subscription is the object that ties everything together for recurring revenue. It connects a specific Customer to a recurring Price on a Product, and automatically manages the entire billing cycle.
This is the modern and recommended way to handle all recurring payments on PayNowPro.
Creating & Managing Subscriptions
Subscriptions are managed through their own dedicated intent endpoint, which simplifies the process of signing up a customer for a recurring plan.
Where Subscriptions truly become powerful is in their ability to automatically handle plan changes. When your products are organized in a Product Group, PayNowPro uses the group's price-based hierarchy to seamlessly manage upgrades and downgrades for you.
Upgrades & Proration
When a customer upgrades to a higher-priced tier within the same Product Group, the change is immediate. PayNowPro automatically calculates a proration to ensure fair billing. We credit the customer for the unused time on their old plan and apply it toward the cost of the new plan.
Proration Example:
- A customer is on your "Basic Plan" at $1,000 JMD / month.
- Exactly halfway through the billing period, they decide to upgrade to the "Pro Plan" at $2,500 JMD / month.
- At this point, they have $500 JMD worth of unused time on the Basic Plan.
- PayNowPro applies this as a credit to the immediate charge for the new plan.
- Immediate Charge:
$2,500 (Pro Plan) - $500 (Unused Credit) = $2,000.The customer's billing cycle resets, and they will be charged the full $2,500 JMD one month from the date of the upgrade.
Downgrades
When a customer downgrades to a lower-priced tier, the change is delayed. The customer continues on their current, higher-priced plan until the end of the billing period they've already paid for.
At the start of the next billing cycle, the subscription is automatically switched to the lower-priced plan, and the customer is charged the new, lower amount.
You've Mastered the Concepts!
You now have a complete overview of the core concepts in PayNowPro. You're ready to start building.