Configuring Cancel Management with Billing 

Chargebee Retention integrates directly with your billing system to manage the processing of cancels via the respective billing systems API's for you. Gone are the days of needing engineering to maintain these integrations as Chargebee Retention takes over this process for you. To enable Cancel Management, start by visiting your Settings > Setup tab and toggle on the Cancel Management flag.

Depending on which Billing Integration you have enabled ( Stripe, Recurly, Chargebee) you will see a different set of configurations to enable related to the processing of cancels. These configurations will tell us how to send the correct API call's to these respective systems to ensure the subscription records are updated properly.

The Manage cancels feature can either be enabled globally for all pages, which means that every page will process cancelations via the billing system API, or it can be configured on a per-page basis.

For more on how to setup Manage Cancels at the page level, view this doc.

Stripe 

Here is Stripe's description of how their cancellation API works by default:

"Cancels a customer's subscription immediately. The customer will not be charged again for the subscription.

Note, however, that any pending invoice items that you've created will still be charged for at the end of the period, unless manually deleted. If you've set the subscription to cancel at the end of the period, any pending prorations will also be left in place and collected at the end of the period. But if the subscription is set to cancel immediately, pending prorations will be removed.

By default, upon subscription cancellation, Stripe will stop automatic collection of all finalized invoices for the customer. This is intended to prevent unexpected payment attempts after the customer has canceled a subscription. However, you can resume automatic collection of the invoices manually after subscription cancellation to have us proceed. Or, you could check for unpaid invoices before allowing the customer to cancel the subscription at all."

We provide a few additional optional parameters you can pass through to control how these cancels are processed in Stripe.

• The "Cancel all subscriptions" (optional) toggle will not only cancel the specific subscription ID that is passed to Chargebee Retention with the Cancel Session but will also cancel any future subscription updates that have been scheduled in the future.
• Note: If it is common in your business to have multiple subscriptions per unique customer (ex: multiple product lines), then you want to be careful before you enable this to ensure you don't accidentally cancel the wrong subscription.
• Enabling "Invoice Now" (optional) "will generate a final invoice that invoices for any un-invoiced metered usage and new/pending proration invoice items."
• Enabling "Prorate" (optional) "Will generate a proration invoice item that credits remaining unused time until the subscription period end."

For more details on how Stripe's API handles cancelation requests, refer to Stripe's API docs.

Recurly 

Here is Recurly's definition of how their cancel subscription API works:

"When a customer elects to end their subscription at the next bill date or term-end, this is called canceling the subscription. If you decide to end the subscription early, mid-cycle, this is called terminating the subscription. Both result in the subscription expiring. Once a subscription is expired, it cannot be reactivated. Only a canceled subscription can be reactivated, which just means the customer changed their mind and decided to continue the subscription before the bill date where the subscription was set to expire. Subscriptions configured to expire at end of their term will naturally expire at the end of their last billing period."

The "Cancel all subscriptions" (optional) toggle will not only cancel the specific subscription ID that is passed to Chargebee Retention with the Cancel Session but will also cancel any future subscription updates that have been scheduled in the future.

• Note: If it is common in your business to have multiple subscriptions per unique customer (ex: multiple product lines), then you want to be careful before you enable this to ensure you don't accidentally cancel the wrong subscription.

Recurly also has a set of configurations that can be enabled to determine how these cancelations are processed, however, these configurations are required.

• Cancel subscription will keep the subscription active for the paid period and allows you to select the Time Frame
  • Term End "Keep subscription active for the remainder of the current billing cycle and then expire the subscription"
  • Bill Date "Continue billing for the remainder of the current term and then expire the subscription"

• Terminate the Subscription will instantly stop the subscription with the option to handle how you manage refunds and/or unbilled usage.
  • Refund type "If the last invoice for the subscription was paid, you will see the option to refund all or a prorated amount of the last invoice"
  • Chargee unbilled usage "If the subscription includes usage-based add-ons with unbilled usage, you will see the option to not charge the customer for their final usage. Note that a final invoice is always sent if there are usage-based add-ons in the subscription. Choosing to not charge simply reduces the usage shown on the invoice to zero."

For more details on how Recurly's API handles cancelation requests, refer to Recurly's API docs.

Chargebee 

Here is Chargebee's definition of how their cancel subscription API works:

When a subscription has to be canceled (the following) options (are) available:

• Cancel immediately: Cancels thee subscription immediately.
• Cancel at end of term: Waits till the end of the term and then cancels (changes the subscription status to non-renewing).

The "Cancel all subscriptions" (optional) toggle will not only cancel the specific subscription ID that is passed to Chargebee Retention with the Cancel Session but will also cancel any future subscription updates that have been scheduled in the future.

There also are three additional configurations that must be selected.

• Credit Option:
  • None: The subscription is canceled without giving any credits for the unused period.
  • Prorate: The subscription is canceled and prorated credits are given for the unused period. (Not advised for shippable subscriptions as proration in Chargebee is time-based.)
  • Full: Issues full credits for the entire term.
• Account Receivable Option:
  • Schedule Payment Collection: A charge is attempted on the available payment method if auto-collection is enabled. If the payment fails, the invoice is retained as payment due.
  • Write Off: Thee amount due is written off.
  • None: No action is taken against the invoice.
• Charge Option:
  • Invoice: The unbilled charges will be invoiced and a charge is attempted on the available payment method if auto-collection is enabled. If the payment fails, the invoice is marked not paid.
  • Delete: This toggle allows you to apply to the unpaid invoices, any refundable credits/excess payments that are present for the customer record.

For more details on how Chargebee's API handles cancelation requests, refer to Chargebee API docs.