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$0 Manual Invoices for Free Plans: Why They Happen and How to Avoid Manual Invoice Fees

Recurly
  • Updated

Merchants offering “freemium” or $0 plans may notice Recurly generating $0 manual invoices when subscriptions are created or renewed. This can lead to confusion and frustration—especially when the merchant is charged a manual invoice fee for invoices with a $0 balance.

Key takeaway: When a subscription is created or renews, Recurly generates an invoice even if the amount due is $0. If the subscription’s collection method is manual, Recurly generates a manual invoice.

Why $0 Manual Invoices Are Generated

As documented in the internal guidance referenced by the ticket request and TAM notes:

  • When a subscription is created or renews, it generates an invoice regardless of whether it is $0.
  • If the subscription is set to automatic collection, Recurly generates an automatic invoice.
  • If the subscription is set to manual collection, Recurly generates a manual invoice.
  • There is not a way to “skip” invoice generation for a subscription created/managed in Recurly.

Manual Invoice Fees for $0 Invoices

Important: From a billing standpoint, Recurly still charges the manual invoice fee even for $0 manual invoices. For this reason, using manual invoices is not recommended for free plans, because the fee can add up quickly as subscriptions renew over time.

This is commonly encountered when a merchant offers a free plan and wants customers to sign up without billing information, but ends up with subscriptions defaulting to manual collection and generating $0 manual invoices.

The documented path forward is to use automatic collection for $0/free subscriptions while allowing sign-up without billing information by using a cardless free trial configuration at the plan level.

Note: Normally, if a subscription is set to automatic collection, Recurly requires billing information and will return an error if none is present. The solution below uses Recurly’s support for cardless free trials to avoid that requirement.

How to Configure a Cardless Free Trial Path Forward

1) Update the plan to include a free trial

  • Edit (or create) the plan used for the $0/freemium subscription.
  • Add a free trial to the plan. (The documented guidance notes that the trial length does not matter for this use case when the subscription is $0.)

2) Disable the “require billing information” setting for the trial

  • At the plan level, locate the setting that determines whether billing information is required during trial.
  • Select the option to not require billing information.

3) Create subscriptions using automatic collection

  • Create the subscription with automatic collection.
  • Because the plan is configured for a cardless free trial, Recurly allows creation without billing information.

What to Expect After Setup

  • Subscriptions created/renewed will still generate invoices, including when the amount is $0.
  • With automatic collection, these will be automatic invoices rather than manual invoices.
  • This approach is used specifically to help merchants avoid incurring manual invoice fees for $0 invoices while supporting a “no-card” free plan scenario.
 
Important: Recurly does not provide a method to prevent invoice generation entirely for subscriptions created/managed in Recurly. The intent of this approach is to avoid manual invoice generation (and associated fees) for $0 subscriptions.

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