Migrating prepaid subscriptions

Prepaid subscriptions require additional configuration during migration to ensure Recharge correctly calculates billing dates, shipment schedules, and subscription expiration.

This guide explains how to configure prepaid subscriptions in your migration template.

Before you start

• A prepaid subscription charges the customer less frequently than shipments are delivered.

• For example, a customer may pay every six months but receive one shipment every month.

• When migrating prepaid subscriptions, pay particular attention to the following migration template fields:

  • charge_interval_frequency
  • shipping_interval_frequency
  • last_success_charge
  • number_charges_until_expiration (optional)

Step 1 - Configure the charge and shipping intervals

Set the billing and shipping frequencies to match the customer's prepaid subscription.

The charge_interval_frequency should always be greater than the shipping_interval_frequency.

For example:

In this example, the customer is charged every six months and receives one shipment each month.

Recharge uses these values to determine when future charges and shipments should occur.

Step 2 - Set the last successful charge date

Populate the last_success_charge column with the date the customer's current prepaid billing cycle began.

Recharge uses this date together with the subscription frequencies to determine:

• how many prepaid shipments remain in the current billing cycle
• when future shipment orders should be created
• when the next prepaid renewal charge should occur

If customers are charged on a specific day of the month, ensure the day in last_success_charge matches the configured charge on day of month value.

If your store uses a processing cutoff date, you may need to adjust the month in last_success_charge so Recharge generates shipments on the correct schedule.

Step 3 - Configure expiring prepaid subscriptions (optional)

If you're migrating prepaid gift subscriptions or other subscriptions that shouldn't renew automatically, include the number_charges_until_expiration column.

Enter a value of 1 for the affected subscriptions.

Recharge counts the value in last_success_charge as the completed prepaid charge and automatically expires the subscription after the current prepaid cycle finishes.

Expected outcome

After migrating prepaid subscriptions:

• Customers are charged at the correct prepaid interval.
• Shipment orders are generated according to the configured shipping frequency.
• Remaining prepaid shipments are calculated correctly.
• Gift prepaid subscriptions expire automatically at the end of the prepaid cycle, if configured.