---
title: "Take your first payment"
description: "Add a customer, subscribe them to a plan, and watch the invoice get raised and paid in test mode, with test cards that succeed or decline when you want."
canonical_url: "https://twominutebilling.com/help/getting-started/first-payment"
---
# Take your first payment

> Add a customer, subscribe them to a plan, and watch the invoice get raised and paid in test mode, with test cards that succeed or decline when you want.

Your first payment shows the whole billing cycle: a customer, a subscription, an invoice and a charge. This runs entirely in test mode. No real money moves, and you can use cards that decline on demand
to see what your customers would experience.

<screenshot alt="A subscription in the dashboard: its plan and add-ons, next billing date, payment method and the tax on the next renewal" caption="A subscription shows what the customer pays, the next billing date, the payment method and the tax on the next renewal." src="subscription-detail">



</screenshot>

## Add a customer

Open **Customers** and create one. At minimum you need an email. Fill in the rest too:

- **Currency** decides which prices you can put them on. A USD customer cannot go on a EUR price.
- **Billing address** is what tax is worked out from — country, and state or province where that
matters. Set it before the first invoice, because each invoice keeps a copy of the address as it
was on the day it was raised.
- **VAT or tax number**, where your customer has one.

## Subscribe them

From the customer, create a subscription and select a price from your catalogue. You can add more
than one line — a plan plus two add-ons is one subscription with one renewal date and one invoice.

Set a trial if you offer one. Nothing is charged until it ends.

## Collect a card

Your customer needs a saved card before anything can be collected. Your team never types in a
card. Two ways to ask for one:

- On the customer's page, select **Request update**. The customer gets an email with a link to
their portal, where they add a card.
- On a product's page in your catalogue, select a price, then **Create checkout link**, and send
the link. The buyer subscribes and adds a card in one step.

Both pages are hosted by Two Minute Billing, so card details never reach your systems. In test
mode, email goes only to members of your team, so give your test customer your own address.

Complete the card form with these test cards:

<table>
<thead>
  <tr>
    <th>
      Card number
    </th>
    
    <th>
      What happens
    </th>
  </tr>
</thead>

<tbody>
  <tr>
    <td>
      <code>
        4242 4242 4242 4242
      </code>
    </td>
    
    <td>
      Succeeds
    </td>
  </tr>
  
  <tr>
    <td>
      <code>
        4000 0000 0000 9995
      </code>
    </td>
    
    <td>
      Declines for insufficient funds, and enters the retry schedule
    </td>
  </tr>
  
  <tr>
    <td>
      <code>
        4000 0000 0000 0002
      </code>
    </td>
    
    <td>
      Declines outright
    </td>
  </tr>
  
  <tr>
    <td>
      <code>
        4000 0000 0000 3155
      </code>
    </td>
    
    <td>
      Asks the customer to authenticate with 3-D Secure
    </td>
  </tr>
</tbody>
</table>

## Watch what happened

Check three places:

<table>
<thead>
  <tr>
    <th>
      Where
    </th>
    
    <th>
      What you should see
    </th>
  </tr>
</thead>

<tbody>
  <tr>
    <td>
      <strong>
        Subscriptions
      </strong>
    </td>
    
    <td>
      The subscription, active or in trial, with its current period
    </td>
  </tr>
  
  <tr>
    <td>
      <strong>
        Invoices & Credit Notes
      </strong>
    </td>
    
    <td>
      An invoice — paid if collection worked, payment due if it did not
    </td>
  </tr>
  
  <tr>
    <td>
      <strong>
        Logs
      </strong>
    </td>
    
    <td>
      The actual attempt against your payment provider, and its result
    </td>
  </tr>
</tbody>
</table>

If the invoice is not paid, the log tells you why. That is the same trail you will use in
production when a customer says they were not charged.

## Fast-forward to the renewal

You do not have to wait a month. Open **Time Travel** and travel forward. Two Minute Billing runs
everything it would have run in that time — the trial ending, the renewal, the invoice, the
collection, and the retries if it fails.

Use the declining card above, then travel forward, and you can watch the whole failed-payment
sequence in under a minute. See
[Test with Time Travel](https://twominutebilling.com/help/guides/test-with-time-travel).

<tip title="Next">

[Go live](https://twominutebilling.com/help/getting-started/go-live) when you are happy with what you have seen.

</tip>

## Related

- [Test renewals and retries with Time Travel](https://twominutebilling.com/help/guides/test-with-time-travel)
- [Go live](https://twominutebilling.com/help/getting-started/go-live)
- [The developer quickstart](https://twominutebilling.com/help/developers/getting-started/quickstart)


## Sitemap

See the full [sitemap](https://twominutebilling.com/sitemap.md) for all pages.