---
title: "Customers and subscriptions"
description: "Add customers, subscribe them to plans, change what they pay mid-cycle, and pause or cancel, with proration worked out and shown before you confirm."
canonical_url: "https://twominutebilling.com/help/guides/customers-and-subscriptions"
---
# Customers and subscriptions

> Add customers, subscribe them to plans, change what they pay mid-cycle, and pause or cancel, with proration worked out and shown before you confirm.

A customer is the person or company who pays. A subscription is what they pay for, and how
often. Both live in the business, in the mode you are in.

<screenshot alt="The customer list in the dashboard, with search, filters and one row for each customer who pays you" caption="Everyone who pays you, in a list you can search and filter." src="customers">



</screenshot>

## Add a customer

Open **Customers → Create**. An email is enough to start, but fill in the rest before you invoice
them:

<table>
<thead>
  <tr>
    <th>
      Field
    </th>
    
    <th>
      Why it matters
    </th>
  </tr>
</thead>

<tbody>
  <tr>
    <td>
      Currency
    </td>
    
    <td>
      Decides which prices you can put them on. It cannot be mixed on one subscription.
    </td>
  </tr>
  
  <tr>
    <td>
      Billing address
    </td>
    
    <td>
      Tax is worked out from it. Each invoice keeps a copy as it was that day.
    </td>
  </tr>
  
  <tr>
    <td>
      VAT / tax number
    </td>
    
    <td>
      Drives reverse charge where the rules allow it.
    </td>
  </tr>
  
  <tr>
    <td>
      Additional contacts
    </td>
    
    <td>
      Extra people who should receive billing email, such as accounts payable.
    </td>
  </tr>
</tbody>
</table>

<screenshot alt="The subscription list, showing what each subscription charges and when it next renews" caption="Every subscription, with what it charges and when it next renews." src="subscriptions">



</screenshot>

## Subscribe them

From the customer, create a subscription and select prices from your catalogue. Add as many lines as
you need — a plan, two add-ons and a metered line share one renewal date and one invoice.

Add a trial if you offer one, and nothing is charged until it ends.

<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>

## Change what they pay

Open the subscription and change its items — swap the plan, add an add-on, change a seat count.

Two Minute Billing works out the money both ways: it credits the unused part of what you removed
and charges the new item for the rest of the period. The renewal date does not move.

<tip title="Always look at the estimate first">

Before you confirm, the dashboard shows exactly what the change costs, tax included. Read it to
your customer — it is the number they will be charged.

</tip>

### Upgrades now, downgrades at the end

Apply an upgrade immediately: your customer wants what they just paid for.

Schedule a downgrade for the end of the term instead. They have already paid for this period, so
taking the feature away now while keeping the money creates a complaint.

A scheduled change is visible on the subscription until it happens, and you can withdraw it.

<note title="A downgrade credits the balance, it does not refund the card">

Money left over becomes credit on the customer's account and comes off their next invoice. To put
it back on the card instead, issue a refund — see
[Invoices and credit notes](https://twominutebilling.com/help/guides/invoices-and-credit-notes).

</note>

## Pause, cancel and reactivate

Each of these asks you what should happen to the money — outstanding invoices, unbilled charges
and any credit the customer holds — and lets you record a reason.

Reasons are worth using. They are what your churn reporting is built from.

**Cancelling at the end of the period** leaves the subscription running until the term ends and
then stops it. The customer keeps what they paid for.

**Resuming** a paused subscription bills according to one question: has the term your customer
paid for ended? Inside the paid term, it carries on to the same renewal date and nothing new is
charged. After it, a new term starts on the day of the resume and is billed in full, either
invoiced immediately or added to unbilled charges for the next invoice. Set the default under
**Settings → Billing rules → Pause and resume**. The Resume dialog preselects it. The same rule
applies to resumes from the API, the customer portal and pauses that end on their own.

**Reactivate** brings back a cancelled subscription, or clears a cancellation you scheduled but no
longer want.

## Skip a renewal

Skip one or more upcoming renewals when a customer needs a break but does not want to stop. On
the subscription page, open **More**, select **Skip a renewal**, and then select the date.

At a skipped renewal:

- The subscription stays active, and its term moves on to the next period.
- The plan and add-ons are not charged. MRR does not change.
- Metered usage from the period that just ended, and one-time charges, are still invoiced.
- A fixed term does not count the skipped renewal, so the term ends one cycle later.
- No renewal reminder is sent.

You can skip any of the next 12 renewals and undo a skip until 48 hours before the renewal. To let
customers do this in the portal, turn on **Let customers skip a renewal** under
**Settings → Hosted pages**, and set how many renewals they can skip in 12 months.

From the API, get the dates with `upcoming_renewals`, then skip one:

```bash
curl "$TMBILLING_URL/v1/businesses/$BIZ/subscriptions/$SUB/skip_renewal" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $TMBILLING_API_KEY" \
  -H "Idempotency-Key: $(uuidgen)" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"renewal_at": "2027-04-01T00:00:00.000Z"}'
```

The response is the subscription. `skipped_renewals` lists the dates skipped, and
`next_billing_at` is the first renewal that charges. `unskip_renewal` takes the same body. The
`subscription_renewal_skipped` webhook tells your fulfilment system not to ship that cycle.

## Charge something one-off

Add a charge to the subscription and select whether to invoice it now or add it to the next
renewal. Deferred charges wait on the subscription until the next invoice sweeps them in.

## Related

- [Subscription management and proration](https://twominutebilling.com/product/subscriptions)
- [Upgrades and downgrades with the API](https://twominutebilling.com/help/developers/recipes/plan-changes)
- [Invoices and credit notes](https://twominutebilling.com/help/guides/invoices-and-credit-notes)


## Sitemap

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