For discussing the development and integration of subscription-enabled shops using Shopify's Subscription APIs.
Hello Team.
I am reading this article. https://shopify.dev/docs/apps/selling-strategies/subscriptions/billing-cycles ( Billing cycles )
And trying to understand to whom addressed this article.
As I know the billing cycle is always 30 days. Here in the share link I see that the billing cycle represents the single date which the app is expected to bill the customer for their contract.
Kindly help me to understand for what and in which cases it is required to have subscription contact ? Mentioned in the link https://shopify.dev/docs/apps/selling-strategies/subscriptions/billing-cycles
Thank you in advance!
Hello @AnastasiaV ,
Subscription contracts represent how you intend to model your subscriptions.
Billing cycles are not always 30 days, it depends on the frequency at which your subscription renews, as defined in the subscription contract.
I advise you to go through the tutorial that will explain each of these objects, and how to create them step by step following this link: subscriptions apps.
Thanks!
To learn more visit the Shopify Help Center or the Community Blog.
Sorry, maybe i can not understand clearly what is required for subscription contact.
As I read before with Shopify, billing cycles are always 30 days. Please tell me more about possible ways of billing systems.
And who and to whom should in case i will have my own plugin on Shopify APP store. In this case, should I have a subscription contract , should I add read_own_subscription_contracts and write_own_subscription_contracts access scopes ?
Help me to understand the difference between the Shopify articles with the mentioned 30 days billing cycles and for subscription billing cycles which can be the same date each month.
Thank you in advance!
I could be wrong but it sounds like there might be confusion between billing for shopify apps and Shopify's Subscription Contract APIs
Billing Cycles (and Subscription Contracts in general) are part of Shopify Subscription APIs which is what you'd use to build a Subscription App that merchants installed and then billed customers for renewing subscriptions (ex a monthly box of wine).
That's unrelated to how an app dev bills a merchant for their app.
Sorry if I've misread
Hi Brian.
Thank you for your response.
Yes, it is really a misunderstanding, I will have my own plugin which will provide the services to my customers.
I do not understand how I should charge my clients ( the same date each month ) or strictly in 30 days. Also do not understand how I should pay Shopify in 30 days strictly ? Or can it also be the same date each month ?
Help me to understand, if I can provide my customers the possibility to be billed the same date each month?
Regards,
Unfortunately, you don't have any control over how/when merchants are billed (nor when Shopify pays you out).
You don't bill your merchants directly. Shopify bills them and you get paid by Shopify.
The documentation you're looking for currently all lives here: https://shopify.dev/docs/apps/billing
Don't be confused between an "app subscription" and a "subscription contract". The later is unrelated to how your merchant's will be billed nor how you'll be paid out. It's a completely separate topic (and the reason for this community board). A better community board for this kind of question is https://community.shopify.com/c/billing-api/bd-p/billing or a more generic one might be https://community.shopify.com/c/shopify-apps/bd-p/shopify-apps ..though you'll get the same answer ; )
As you are telling that "subscription contract" is unrelated to how your merchant's will be billed nor how you'll be paid out. Could you tell me what is this and in which cases we need "subscription contract" , which according to the documentation: "Each billing cycle has a start date and end date, and the next billing cycle starts on the day following the previous cycle's end date. Each billing cycle also has a billingAttemptExpectedDate, which represents the single date in the cycle on which the app is expected to bill the customer for their contract."
Billing Cycles are only relevant to Subscription Contracts which is 100% unrelated to how you bill a merchant for use of your app.
"Subscription Contracts" & "Billing Cycles" are meant for developers of Subscription Apps like these: https://apps.shopify.com/search?q=Subscription
To bill merchants you use the Billing API not subscription contracts. All of the relevant docs are in that link I sent. You can't control when billing happens for that.