Subscription statuses: what do they mean and how do you end a subscription at the end of the term?

While managing subscriptions in your webshop you will come across five different statuses. Each status determines whether a customer has access and whether payments are processed. Below you can read what each status means and how to end a subscription politely at the end of the paid term.

The five subscription statuses #

Active #

The subscription is active and will renew automatically on the next payment date (or expire if an end date has been set). The customer has full access to all services and products within the subscription.

On hold #

The subscription is paused temporarily, either by the shop manager or the customer, or because a payment is outstanding. No new payments are processed. The customer temporarily loses their access rights. The subscription only continues after manual reactivation, or automatically as soon as an outstanding payment is processed.

Pending cancellation #

This is the status that arises when a customer cancels their subscription while the current paid term has not yet ended. The customer keeps access until the end of the term. After that the subscription automatically moves to ‘Cancelled’. So this is the friendly middle ground between active and cancelled.

Cancelled #

The subscription has ended definitively, either after going through the ‘Pending cancellation’ phase or because it was cancelled directly by the manager. The customer loses their access rights. A cancelled subscription cannot be reactivated: the customer has to take out a new subscription.

Expired #

The subscription has reached its set end date (for example a subscription with a fixed term of 1 year). The customer loses their access rights. As with Cancelled, this subscription cannot be reactivated.

How do you end a subscription at the end of the term? #

Subscriptions can sometimes be linked to granting access through a tag (for example if you use the community and courses module). Do you want to end a subscription without taking the customer’s access away immediately? Then use the status ‘Pending cancellation’. The customer keeps their access (the linked tag) until the end of the current paid period, after which the subscription is cancelled automatically.

1. Go to Shop → Orders
2. Click the ‘Subscriptions’ tab
3. Open the subscription you want
4. Look at ‘Subscription actions’ in the top right
5. Choose ‘Cancel’ from the dropdown menu

If the subscription has a running prepaid term, the system automatically sets it to ‘Pending cancellation’ instead of cancelling it right away. The customer receives a notice that their subscription stops at the end of the current period.

Changing the status manually #

You can also change the status directly to ‘Pending cancellation’. Use the status dropdown within the subscription and select the status you want. This gives you more control over the exact moment of the status change.

When do you use which approach? #

Use ‘Pending cancellation’ when you want to round off a customer relationship neatly. The customer gets what they paid for and can still change their mind before the end date. For more information about how subscriptions work, see also how does a subscription work in the webshop.

Cancelling immediately is only advisable in cases of trouble such as non-payment or misuse, where access has to end at once.