---
title: "Go live"
description: "Move from test mode to real customers: check your plan, connect a live payment gateway, copy what you built in test mode, and check it before the first charge."
canonical_url: "https://twominutebilling.com/help/getting-started/go-live"
---
# Go live

> Move from test mode to real customers: check your plan, connect a live payment gateway, copy what you built in test mode, and check it before the first charge.

Every business has a test mode and a live mode. Going live does not convert anything: you copy
what you built in test mode into the live mode of the same business, connect live payment
credentials, and bill your real customers there.

## Check your plan

<note title="Cloud only">

Plans, the free plan and **Settings → Billing** are part of Two Minute Billing Cloud. A
self-hosted installation has no plans and no limits, so skip this step.

</note>

On the hosted service, a new account starts on the **free plan**, with live mode on and every
feature. It is free while you make less than
[the Free plan's monthly limit](https://twominutebilling.com/pricing). Then a flat monthly price. There is no time limit. No credit card required.

When you bill more, open **Settings → Billing → Plan and billing** and select a paid plan. You pay
through a hosted checkout page, and the larger limit applies as soon as the plan is active. There
is no review and no waiting.

- Every plan has every feature. Plans differ only in how much you bill each month.
- Billing more than your plan covers in a month shows a notice on the Billing page. Your billing
carries on.
- If you stay above the limit, we can make your organization read-only until you change plan. Your
customers are still billed.
- If you cancel a paid plan, you go back to the free plan. Live mode stays on.
- Only an owner or an administrator can select or change the plan.

<warning title="Keep your plan paid">

If a plan invoice stays unpaid, your organization becomes read-only until you pay it. Your own
customers are still billed during that time, but nobody can make changes.

</warning>

## Copy your set-up to live mode

Switch to test mode with the **Mode** switch at the foot of the sidebar. In test mode, open
**Settings → Import & export data** and use **Transfer** to copy your set-up to the live mode.

Select the sections you need, then **Check changes** to see each change before you copy:

<table>
<thead>
  <tr>
    <th>
      Section
    </th>
    
    <th>
      What it copies
    </th>
  </tr>
</thead>

<tbody>
  <tr>
    <td>
      Catalog
    </td>
    
    <td>
      Products, prices and product groups
    </td>
  </tr>
  
  <tr>
    <td>
      Coupons
    </td>
    
    <td>
      Coupon codes and their item limits
    </td>
  </tr>
  
  <tr>
    <td>
      Taxes
    </td>
    
    <td>
      Tax profiles, rates and registrations
    </td>
  </tr>
  
  <tr>
    <td>
      Settings
    </td>
    
    <td>
      Billing behavior: payment terms, dunning, proration, cancellation
    </td>
  </tr>
  
  <tr>
    <td>
      Company profile
    </td>
    
    <td>
      Address, tax registration number, invoice issuer, default HSN/SAC
    </td>
  </tr>
  
  <tr>
    <td>
      Email sending
    </td>
    
    <td>
      Sender details and your SMTP or Amazon SES settings, not the templates
    </td>
  </tr>
</tbody>
</table>

A transfer never copies customers, subscriptions, invoices or money. Those stay in the mode where
they were created. It also keeps the destination's own invoice prefixes and checkout URLs.

A live business takes only what is new. To change its existing settings with a copy, an owner or
admin selects **Also update what is there** and types the business name to confirm.

<tip title="Keep the same ids in both modes">

Your products and prices keep the ids you gave them, like `pro` and `pro-monthly`. Because a
transfer copies them unchanged, your own code, your runbooks and your support team can use the same
ids in test mode and live mode.

</tip>

## Before you charge a real card

Switch to live mode and work through these in **Settings**.

<screenshot alt="Business settings: profile, billing rules, payment gateways, currencies, tax and hosted pages" caption="Settings is where you configure the business: profile, billing rules, payment gateways, currencies, tax and hosted pages." src="settings">



</screenshot>

<steps>

### Connect a live payment gateway

Open **Settings → Payment gateways** and connect your account with its live credentials. Test
credentials do not work in live mode. Until a gateway is connected, live mode can raise invoices
but cannot collect them. See [Connect a payment gateway](https://twominutebilling.com/help/guides/connect-a-payment-gateway).

### Check your tax set-up

Check your registrations, rates and the countries you charge tax in. Tax is calculated for each
invoice from the customer's address, and an issued invoice keeps the rates that applied that day.

### Check your invoice details

Check your legal entity name, address, tax number and invoice numbering. These print on documents
your customers keep for their own accounts. Invoice numbering in live mode starts at 1, separate
from test mode.

### Set your billing rules

Especially what happens when a payment fails: how many retries, how far apart, and what happens to
the invoice and the subscription when all of them fail. See
[Recover failed payments](https://twominutebilling.com/help/guides/recover-failed-payments).

### Check your emails

Send yourself a test of each billing email. They go out under your name, so read them as a
customer would.

### Invite your team

Give each person who handles billing and support their own sign-in. Every action is recorded
against the person who did it. See [Your team and the audit log](https://twominutebilling.com/help/guides/your-team).

</steps>

## What you cannot undo

**An issued invoice does not change.** To correct one, you issue a credit note — a second
document with its own reason. That keeps your records clear when a customer disputes a charge.

**Money that moved stays on the record.** Archiving a customer stops new activity. It does not
delete their history.

<tip title="Keep using test mode">

Test mode stays beside live mode after you go live. Use it to try a pricing change, a new tax rule
or a retry schedule before your customers see it.

</tip>

## Related

- [Cloud pricing](https://twominutebilling.com/pricing)
- [Connect a live payment gateway](https://twominutebilling.com/help/guides/connect-a-payment-gateway)
- [Test mode and live mode in the API](https://twominutebilling.com/help/developers/getting-started/test-and-live)


## Sitemap

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