Subscription Cancellation Scenarios

Ordway allows Subscription Contract to be cancelled at any time. All future Billing Schedule Lines are removed and partial period credit when cancelled in the middle of an existing period.

If company policy is to not provide a refund or credit on cancellation, choose a Cancel as of (Cancellation Effective Date) at the End of Current Billing Period or current term.

See also: Delete a Subscription

Common Cancellation Scenarios

1. Cancellation due to Subscription created in error.

When a Subscription was created in error or is immediately recognized as not needed. Cancel the Subscription using the Start Date as the Cancel as of date (Cancellation Effective Date).

2. No refunds or partial period credits upon cancellation:

Typically used for Billing in Advance. Set the Cancel as of date (Cancellation Effective Date) to align with the End of Current Billing Period.

Example: Customer paid for services in advance for the period of Sept 1st - Sept 30th, and cancels on 15th. Set the Cancel as of date (Cancellation Effective Date) as End of Current Billing Period, which defaults to Sept 30th.

3. Credits created upon cancellation:

Mid-period cancellations may occur for a period that was already paid. If the charge has partial period proration and the cancellation is in the middle of the current period, a prorated credit will be created for the period between the cancellation date and the end of the current billing period. This will simply create a new Billing Schedule Line reflecting the credit.

Example: Customer service period is Sept 1st - Sept 30th for a charge or $100/month, and cancels on 16th. A new schedule line is then created from Sept 16th - Sept 30th for an amount of -$50 reflecting the credit. The Billing Run will take into account the credited charges and correctly reflect in the final invoice.

4. Cancellation as a result of non-payment:

When a customer hasn’t paid in a few billing periods and you want to cancel their subscription, the Cancellation Effective Date will drive which invoices remain outstanding.

• If you cancel as of today, but they haven’t paid for the last 3 billing periods, then the customer will maintain an account balance of all 3 unpaid invoices.
• If you cancel effective the end of the last period that the customer paid, then the subsequent open invoices will essentially be credited, as Ordway will automatically generate negative BSLs for the invoices after the cancellation date.

Example: 

Monthly Subscription for Jan 1 2021 - Dec 31 2021

Monthly charge for $6,000

Customer’s last paid invoice was March 1 (3/1/21-3/31/21)

Option 1: Cancellation Effective Date: May 5, 2021.

Result: The customer will carry an account balance for 1+ months (the unpaid balance for 4/1/21-5/5/21).

Option 2: Cancellation Effective Date: March 1, 2021.

Result: The invoices already created after March will be credited out with new corresponding negative BSLs (invoices), so the account balance will be 0.

When cancelling a subscription, be sure to adjust the Cancel as of date (Cancellation Effective Date) for when the customer wants to effectively end the contract. Consider that the date may not be today.