Subscription paid, access missing: connect billing to membership
Decide what a successful payment unlocks and when failed renewals should suspend access. Then put those membership rules into the system.
The workflow illustrates a possible design and is not a client case study.
- Verify event
- Update state
- Reconcile access
Where do payment and access diverge?
Someone pays and closes the checkout page before returning to your app. If access depends on that return, their membership may never activate. Failed renewals create the opposite problem: immediate suspension may ignore an agreed grace period. Define access for trial, active, overdue and ended memberships.
Check billing and access settings
Stripe sends subscription and payment events. With an existing membership platform, check its billing and access settings first. For a custom app, connect those events to the right member, plan and features. Periodic checks against the payment provider can find updates that were missed.
Start with one subscription plan
Start with one plan. Keep the payment provider’s customer reference, subscription status and event history. The server must verify changes to access. Give administrators a way to find the reason for a member’s status and resync it when needed.
Test renewal, cancellation and repeat events
Test first payment, recovery after a failed renewal, immediate and end-of-term cancellation, upgrades and downgrades. Deliver notifications twice and in a different order. Use two member accounts to check that access stays separate and repeated events do not extend membership again.
Bring an example of a membership access problem
Bring the plans, grace periods and cancellation rules. If a member has had trouble, include a timeline from payment to activation with personal details removed. Do not include API keys or card details in the enquiry.