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Billing & the Subscriber Lifecycle

Overview​

This is the most important part of the Subscribers module. Everything else — recharging, suspending, terminating — makes sense once you understand how a subscriber is billed and how their service moves through its life.

A subscriber's Billing Type (set on the Settings tab) decides which model they follow:

Billing TypeAlso calledIn one line
PrepaidOn-DemandThe customer pays first; the system just watches the expiry and cuts off when it passes. Renewal is manual, self-service, or automated with Auto Renew.
Postpaid (Recurring)—The system runs a repeating billing cycle on a set day each period, bills automatically, and disconnects/deactivates based on due dates if unpaid.

Read the model that applies to you:

  • Prepaid (On-Demand) — manual recharge, self-care recharge, Auto Renew, and the grace-period + temporary-suspension hybrid.
  • Postpaid (Recurring) — the recurring cycle, billing day, proration, disconnection and deactivation.

And the lifecycle actions common to both:

The key dates​

Both models revolve around a small set of dates. It's worth learning them:

DateMeaning
Start DateWhen the current cycle/plan began.
End Date / Due DateWhen the current cycle/plan ends (and, for postpaid, when payment is due).
Disconnection Date (Expiry)End Date + Grace Period. When the internet is actually cut off if unpaid.
Deactivation DateDisconnection Date + Deactivation Period. When the billing cycle is stopped altogether.

Grace Period and Deactivation Period (both in days, on the Settings tab) are the buffers between those dates.

The lifecycle, stage by stage​

  1. Active — the plan is valid; the customer is online (subject to data/time limits).
  2. Due — the End/Due Date passes. In postpaid the next invoice is raised; in prepaid the plan has expired.
  3. Grace — during the Grace Period the customer may still be online (postpaid), or, in prepaid with temporary suspension, is given the agreed days to pay.
  4. Disconnected — at the Disconnection Date the internet is cut off, but the account and its cycle still exist.
  5. Deactivated — at the Deactivation Date the billing cycle stops. If the customer returns, service starts from scratch.
  6. Terminated — an ISP-initiated end of service, with a chosen refund settlement (see Terminating & Refunds).

Who Can Use This Feature​

Billing staff, managers and administrators. Some controls (the site-wide Allow Temporary Subscriber Suspended and Change Package With Settlement) are set once in Config → Site and affect every subscriber.

Important Notes​

  • Prepaid vs Postpaid is a per-subscriber setting (Settings tab) — you can run both models on the same network.
  • The Grace and Deactivation periods only matter once a due/expiry date passes — they define how forgiving the cut-off is.
  • Two behaviours are switched site-wide in Config → Site, not per subscriber: Allow Temporary Subscriber Suspended (prepaid hybrid) and Change Package With Settlement (billing on package change).