Unbilled Charges 

Introduction 

The Unbilled Charges feature separates the creation of subscription related charges from the invoicing of them.

There can be multiple charges incurred for a subscription, including

• Upgrade or downgrade
• Switch to a different plan
• Addon attached in the middle of the subscription term
• Add a one-time charge or any other additions or changes to the subscription

Example
Subscription created: 1st of April 2017
Plan subscribed to: Silver Plan ($50)
Subscription updated on 15th of April 2017 with the following changes:
Add-on: Custom Report ($30)
One time charge: Migration support ($79)
You can add the two incurred charges to a list of Unbilled charges for the subscription

When unbilled charges are created in Chargebee they can be invoiced on-demand.

If left unbilled, they are:

• invoiced automatically at the next subscription renewal or
• invoiced automatically or retained as unbilled during subscription pause or
• invoiced automatically or deleted during subscription cancellation.

Configuration 

Chargebee allows you to configure how unbilled charges are handled in your site. Navigate to Settings > Configure Chargebee > Unbilled Charges and ensure that the proper settings are in place.

Note:
Unbilled Charges are enabled on the web interface by default. You can disable them on the web interface but they are still available via API .

You can choose the site defaults as either invoice immediately or add them to unbilled charges for the following cases:

• When a subscription is created and there are charges
• When a subscription is changed, and there are charges
• When a subscription is reactivated and there are charges
• When subscription term is extended, and there are charges
• When one-time charges are created
• When advance charges are created

Users can choose to override these default settings while creating charges on the Chargebee interface. However, if you wish to prevent them from doing so, click on the more options (vertical ellipsis) menu to the right of the setting and disable the Allow overriding via Chargebee interface toggle.

Disabling Unbilled Charges 

You can use the disable button to turn off unbilled charges. This would:

• Remove unbilled charges option from the Chargebee web interface, thereby only allowing immediate invoicing for all charges.
• Turn off unbilled charges settings for Subscription cancellation and Pause subscription.
• Still allow API users to continue using the unbilled charges API .

Note:
When charges are incurred via Checkout and Self-serve Portal (both Full page and In-app), they are always invoiced immediately.

Add as Unbilled Charge 

Here are the ways you can add a charge to the Unbilled Charges list via the web interface and API:

Via the Web Interface 

Provided the configuration allows, you can keep charges as unbilled during the following actions:

• Creating a subscription
• Editing a subscription
• Re-activating a subscription
• Adding a one-time charge to a subscription
• Changing next billing
• Generating an advance invoice

Via API 

Creating Actual Charges
Here are the API calls you can use while adding a charge to the list of unbilled charges:

Note: set the invoice_immediately parameter to false to keep the charge as unbilled.

• Create a subscription 
• Create a subscription for customer 
• Update a subscription 
• Add charge at term end 
• Charge addon at term end 
• Reactivate a subscription 

Estimating Charges without Creating Them
Get an estimate of any unbilled charges using the following API calls:

• Create subscription estimate 
• Create subscription for customer estimate 
• Update subscription estimate 

Viewing Unbilled Charges 

You can view all unbilled charges for a particular customer or for a particular subscription.

Subscription Level 

All unbilled charges for a subscription are listed on its details page:

The section also shows the date on which the charges would be invoiced (same as the subscription renewal date).

Customer Level 

All unbilled charges for a customer (across all subscriptions under it) are listed on its details page.

Note:
If you'd like to view the details of any changes that Chargebee makes to the list of unbilled charges, you can use the List unbilled charges  API call. The is_voided parameter is set as true for unbilled charges that have been invoiced already. For such charges, voided_at parameter is also available.

Invoicing Options 

Immediate (on-demand) invoicing of unbilled charges can be done at two levels:

Subscription Level 

After navigating to the details page of the subscription, click on the Invoice now link on top of the list of unbilled charges to immediately invoice the charges.

Customer Level 

Unbilled charges for a customer can be found on the customer details page. Click on the Invoice now link above the list of charges to immediately invoice all such charges. The unbilled charges are invoiced separately for each subscription under the customer.

Note:
If consolidated invoicing is enabled, all the unbilled charges for the customer may be billed together in a single invoice.

Using API for Invoicing 

API calls can be used to either invoice  unbilled charges or create an estimate  for unbilled charges. They work for both customer and subscription levels depending on the parameters passed.

FAQ 

How are Discounts and One Time charges applied on Unbilled Charges? 

One time charges are not affected by existing coupons.

For example, if a subscription is created on the 1st of May, and a coupon is applied to the subscription on the 2nd of May, the coupon will not apply to all charges created after the 2nd of May.

If an ad hoc charge or non-recurring addon is added to unbilled charges, the discount(s) present in the subscription will not be applied to the charge immediately. When the unbilled one-time charge/non-recurring add-on is invoiced, the discount present in the subscription will be applied.

How are discounts applied to one time charges present as unbilled charges? 

Coupons will be immediately applied to recurring charges that are added to the list of unbilled charges.

Example
If a recurring charge of $50 is added to the list of unbilled charges, any coupons that are created after the charge is added will be immediately applied to the charge.

How is proration applied on Unbilled Charges? 

If changes to a subscription affect existing charges present in the Unbilled Charges section, Chargebee will revise the unbilled charges so that any invoices raised are accurate and up to date.

Example
A subscription is created with a Silver plan ($50/month) on 1st April.
It is not invoiced immediately.
An unbilled charge is created for $50 dollars in the subscription's details page for the billing period 1 Apr - 1 May.
On 16th April, the subscription is changed to Gold plan ($100/month).
This change affects the current unbilled charge (of $50 dollars for the Silver plan), Chargebee will revise it.
The list of unbilled items will now contain the following:
Revised charge for the Silver plan - $25 (1st April to 16th April)
Charge for the Gold plan - $50 (16th April to 1st May)

How are taxes applied on unbilled charges? 

Tax exclusive: If you are operating with an exclusive price type, tax for unbilled charges will be calculated at the time of the creation of the invoices.
Tax inclusive: If you are operating with an inclusive price type, on the other hand, taxes will be calculated when you created the charge and will be applied immediately. In other words, if your prices include tax then all the pending charges that appear in the list of unbilled charges will include tax as well.
More info on price types.