Pause or Resume a subscription

• Pause a subscription
• Resume a subscription
• Understanding timings when pausing and resuming subscriptions
• Pausing subscriptions created in a partner integration

Pause a subscription

If you wish to temporarily stop collecting subscriptions payments from a customer, you can pause their subscription rather than cancelling it and then having to recreate it again at a later date.

1. Click Customers or locate your customer via the search bar

2. Select the customer

3. Find the subscription within the corresponding section and open it

4. Click on the three dots in the top right corner followed by pause

5. Choose whether to pause the subscription indefinitely or for a specific number of subscription cycles

6. Click Pause subscription

The customer’s subscription timeline will reflect the pause.

Resume a subscription

If a subscription has been paused indefinitely it will need to be manually resumed via the customer’s record in your dashboard.

1. Click Customers or locate your customer via the search bar

2. Select the customer

3. Find the subscription within the corresponding section and open it

4. Click the Resume button

5. Click Resume subscription to confirm

This action will be reflected in the customer’s subscription timeline.

Understanding timings when pausing and resuming subscriptions

The pausing timeline provides valuable information about when your next charge date will be. By referring to the pausing timeline, you can determine the impact of pausing your subscription. Below is an example of how the pausing timeline looks:

After pausing your subscription, the payment timeline within the customer subscription details page will also reflect the pause.

How the Next Charge Date is Calculated

The calculation of the next charge date is not only based on how long you have chosen to pause your subscription, but also your scheme notice period. The scheme notice period refers to the amount of notice that has to be provided to your customers when making changes to their subscription i.e. in advance of pausing their subscription, and in advance of resuming their subscription. Where there is a scheme notice period, this means additional time is required to process any changes to your subscription. 

Subscription amendment notice periods

The next charge date is determined by considering the scheme notice period. It is essential to understand this calculation to ensure accurate billing for your customers.

Paused Indefinitely

When you pause a subscription indefinitely, it is important to consider your scheme notice period. The scheme notice period refers to the number of days required to notify your customers of the change(s) you’ve made (i.e. the pause and the resume). To illustrate this, let's consider an example:

Pause: Suppose your charge date is set for the 23rd of the month. If you are using the PAD (Pre-Authorized Debits) scheme and have a 3 business day scheme notice period, if you do not wish to charge your customer this month, you should pause the subscription at least 3 business days before the 23rd (i.e. no later than the 20th, assuming that this is a business day). This allows sufficient time prior to the scheduled charge to process the change and provide the required notice of the amendment (i.e. let your customer know that you have paused their subscription).

Resume: Suppose, after pausing the subscription, you wish to resume the subscription and charge your customer on the 23rd of the month. If you are using the PAD (Pre-Authorized Debits) scheme and have a 3 business day scheme notice period, if you wish to charge your customer this month, you should resume the subscription at least 3 business days before the 23rd (i.e. no later than the 20th, assuming that this is a business day). This allows sufficient time prior to the charges being resumed to process the change and provide the required notice of the amendment (i.e. let your customer know that you have resumed their subscription). 

Paused for a Set Period

When pausing a subscription for a specific period, it is important to account for your notice period as well. By doing so, you can effectively manage your subscription and billing cycles. Here is an example to clarify this concept:

Pause: Suppose your subscription is set to a monthly billing cycle, with the charge date falling on the 23rd of each month. If you are using the BECS (Bulk Electronic Clearing System) and have a 14-day scheme notice period, if you do not wish to charge your customer this month, you must pause your subscription at least 14 days before the 23rd (i.e. no later than the 9th). This allows sufficient time prior to the scheduled charge to process the change and provide the required notice of the amendment (i.e. let your customer know that you have paused their subscription).

Resume: As you have paused your subscription for a specific period, GoCardless will calculate and display your next charge date (which is calculated based on the relevant scheme notice period). 
By understanding the pausing timeline and scheme notice periods, you can effectively manage your subscriptions and ensure a seamless billing experience for your customers.

Other Important Notes

You should be aware that: 

• Your charge date will always be a business day (unless otherwise stated), meaning that it can vary (for example, if your charge date is set for the 23rd of the month but the 23rd falls on a Saturday, your customer will be charged on the next business day).

• Some scheme notice periods are specified in business days, and others in calendar days, and you should take this into consideration when calculating your next charge date.

• Third parties are involved in the overall execution of Payment Scheme Mandates and Payment Orders, and failures or issues relating to these third parties may impact these GoCardless’ timings, and therefore your charge date. 

• You can find out more about GoCardless’ Payment Scheme Timings here.

• Pausing subscriptions can fail if there is an error whilst processing the request, and in these cases the subscription will not be updated. 

• If you use GoCardless for notifications, we will email your customers notifying them you have paused and/or resumed their subscription. They will receive this email in accordance with the scheme notice periods set out above. If you don’t use GoCardless for notifications, you are responsible for sending these notifications, and ensuring that they contain all the required information and are sent at the right time. You can find out more about Custom Notifications here.

Pausing subscriptions created in a partner integration

If you have a subscription set up via a partner integration you will not be able to pause or resume subscriptions within the GoCardless dashboard.

You will need to manage the subscriptions and relevant payments from within the partner integration to ensure that the change is actioned accordingly.