'I paid for six months, I have only had five'
The subscriber is sure. They bought a six month plan in April, paused for August, and now the plan has ended. Your subscription app says the plan finished after the September box. You look through their history: a skipped month, a replacement box sent in June after a courier lost the original, and a switch from the standard to the large box halfway through that may have reset something.
Working it out takes half an hour, and at the end you are still not certain. You send the sixth box anyway, because arguing is worse.
Why 'boxes remaining' gets muddled
Prepaid plans are often set up as a subscription that charges once and then ships on a schedule. That works for the simple case and becomes unclear for everything else.
- Skips and pauses may or may not extend the plan, depending on how the app was set up.
- Replacement boxes can be counted as one of the prepaid boxes by mistake.
- Switching box size or plan length part way through creates a new subscription with its own count.
- Prepaid plans bought as gifts behave differently from ones bought for yourself.
- The end of a plan either renews automatically or stops, and subscribers are often unsure which.
The only reliable record is the list of boxes actually sent, and nobody compares that with what was paid for.
What the confusion costs
Every disputed count takes investigation time and usually ends in a free box to keep the peace. Some subscribers get one box too many without anyone noticing. Others get one too few and do not notice either, until they leave a review. Automatic renewals at the end of a long plan catch people out, leading to refunds and chargebacks.
Prepaid money is also money you owe in boxes. Without a clear count, you cannot say how many boxes you still owe across all prepaid subscribers, which your accountant will want to know.
The prepaid ledger we build
- Each prepaid plan is recorded as a balance of boxes, set when the plan is paid for.
- Each box actually dispatched to that subscriber reduces the balance, taken from the packing plan and courier records rather than the subscription schedule.
- Replacements are recorded as replacements, linked to the box they replace, and do not reduce the balance.
- Skips and pauses follow your rule, for example extending the plan by one box per skipped month, and the new end month is shown to the subscriber.
- Plan changes carry the remaining balance over to the new plan, with any price difference handled by your rule.
- Before the last box, the subscriber gets a note saying it is the last one and what happens next, whether that is renewal, a choice, or stopping.
| Event | Effect on balance | What the subscriber sees |
|---|---|---|
| Box dispatched | Reduces by one | Boxes remaining on their manage page |
| Replacement sent | No change | Replacement noted against the original |
| Month skipped | Plan extended by your rule | New end month shown |
| Plan switched | Balance carried over | Updated plan and balance |
| Last box | Balance reaches zero | Note explaining what happens next |
The ledger also gives a total of boxes owed across all prepaid plans at any date, which your bookkeeper or accountant can use as they see fit.
Prepaid plans without the arithmetic
When a subscriber asks how many boxes they have left, support sees the ledger and the answer, with every box listed. The subscriber can see the same number on their manage page. Skips extend plans automatically by your rule, replacements are never counted, and nobody is surprised by the end of a plan.
At the month end, you can see how many prepaid boxes you still owe and to whom.
Signs your prepaid plans need this
- Subscribers dispute how many boxes they have received.
- Replacement boxes are sometimes counted against the plan.
- Skips on prepaid plans are handled differently by different staff.
- You do not know how many prepaid boxes you still owe in total.
- Automatic renewals at the end of long plans lead to refund requests.