Partners API - Question about app Billing Cycles

aizzy · ‎02-20-2022

Hello,

I have a few questions about the App Billing Cycle; note I have reviewed: https://www.shopify.com/partners/blog/shopify-app-billing-cycle and the relevant documentation.

My questions are:

When I look at a given shop's event and transactions log, I noticed that the "charge" transactions occur on no real schedule/fixed schedule. I assume that these reflect when a payment actually went through rather than either the merchant's Shopify or App billing cycle. Is that correct?
What does the "Billing On" field mean (https://shopify.dev/api/partner/2022-01/objects/AppSubscription#field-appsubscription-billingon)? Is this the billing cycle of the merchant's master Shopify subscription? Of my app? Something else?
Is there any way to retrieve a merchant's app or Shopify billing cycles? If you are selling a standard 30 day subscription, can you just assume it is 30 days from the first charge activation date?
Do the billing cycles reset if a merchant uninstalls and then reinstalls/activates?
What about if they close their shop and re-open their shop (pause/unpause their master Shopify subscription)? Does their master billing cycle reset or continue where it was originally established?
Is there any way in the API to query either the merchant's Shopify or app-specific billing cycle?

Any pointers here would be hugely appreciated!

thank you

Alex

alagaesia · ‎02-21-2022

Hello Alex,

I've recently investigated the same topics, asked for some support, and I found some answers. Not all of them, and not always satisfactory.

The BillingOn field means when the shop will be charged for the first time. It's used when activating a subscription and having some trial days. For example today 21st Feb I subscribe for an app with 7 days of trial, my billingOn will be 28th Feb. This means that if the shop uninstalls before the 27th, he will not be billed. If he installs on 1st March, he will be billed.

AFAIK, there is no way to "forecast" when the next billing cycle will be. This also depends on the shop's billing setting. As a merchant, you can set a threshold, and you would be billed if the amount you should pay (sum of all the apps subscriptions, usages, blabla) overcomes that threshold.

I hope this was at least a little bit helpful, and I'm looking forward more answers to this topic

Cheers,

Alessandro