One-Month Retention Credit — CS Guide
Gives a customer one month of service free, including their taxes and fees.
What it does
Gives a customer one month of service free, including their taxes and fees.
The credit is sized to one month of what that customer actually pays — not one billing cycle, and not just the plan price. It's calculated per customer, from their own plan and their own tax rate for their zip code.
What it does NOT do
It does not move their billing date. This is the most important thing to get right on a call.
The customer's next bill stays on exactly the same date. What changes is the amount — it drops by one month's worth. Telling a customer "your next payment moves to next month" would be wrong, and they'll call back when they get billed on the original date.
✅ "You'll get a month free — your next bill will be reduced by a month's worth." ❌ "Your next billing date moves back a month."
What the customer actually gets
The credit equals one month of their total bill, taxes and fees included.
| Their plan | Their next bill | Credit applied | They pay |
|---|---|---|---|
| Quarterly (3-month) | $45.94 | $15.31 | $30.63 |
| Annual | $176.84 | $14.74 | $162.10 |
| Monthly | $16.42 | $16.42 | $0.00 |
Real examples from live accounts. Every customer's numbers differ — taxes and fees vary a lot by zip code (we see anywhere from ~50% to ~85% of the plan price), so do not quote figures from this table to a customer.
Don't quote an exact dollar amount
Unless the credit applies immediately (see below), the final number isn't known until the bill is issued, because taxes can change. Safe wording:
"You'll get one full month free, including taxes and fees."
That's always true. A specific dollar figure might not be.
When the credit applies
It depends on how close their renewal is. Both cases are automatic — you don't do anything differently.
If they renew within about 36 hours → applied immediately
The credit goes on while you're still on the call. You'll get a confirmation with the exact amount, and the note on the agreement will say "has been applied" with the figure.
Running this on a customer's renewal day works. No need to time it or avoid it.
In this case you can quote the amount, because the note shows the real number.
If their renewal is further out → scheduled
The credit is recorded now and applied automatically the day before their renewal.
Why the wait? The credit covers taxes and fees, and those aren't final until the bill is issued. Locking in a number months early could make it wrong. Waiting until just before renewal means the amount is exactly right.
In practice:
- Monthly customers see it within weeks.
- Quarterly customers see it at their next 3-month renewal.
- Annual customers may wait months. One live example is scheduled for March 2027.
If you're offering this as a save on an annual account, the customer won't see it for a while. Worth considering whether it's the right offer for that conversation.
The customer is never charged anything, in either case.
How to run it
- Open the customer's Stripe Agreement record.
- In the Billing Workflows card, click Apply One-Month Retention Credit.
- Confirm the note appears on the agreement (see below).
That's it. No forms, no amounts to enter — everything is calculated automatically from the customer's own plan.
What you'll see afterwards
Notes are added to the Agreement record (not the contact record).
If it applied immediately — one note, with the real amount:
One-month retention credit of $15.31 has been applied for order example123.
This customer renews imminently, so the credit was applied straight away rather than waiting for the scheduled run.
The amount covers one month of service including taxes and fees...
The customer was not charged. The credit comes off the amount due on that invoice, leaving $30.63 to pay. The billing date is unchanged.
If it was scheduled — a note now confirming the date it will apply, then a second note later with the final amount once it does.
Either way, check an agreement's notes any time to see whether a credit is pending or applied, and for how much.
Slack: approvals and applied credits post to #voiply-task-automation. Failures go to #alerts.
Rules and limits
One per account, ever
Each account/order can receive this credit once. Running it a second time returns an error and does nothing — no double credit, no harm.
If a customer genuinely needs a second credit, that's an escalation, not a re-run.
Past-due customers are refused
If the customer's subscription is past due, the workflow will fail with "no active subscription for orderId."
This is deliberate for now — crediting an account that already owes money needs a decision we haven't made yet. If you hit this on a save call, escalate rather than working around it.
⚠️ Known gap, still open: if a customer is approved for a credit and then goes past due before their renewal (e.g. a card fails), the pending credit is currently cancelled without notifying anyone. If you approved a credit for someone who later has a payment problem, re-check the agreement notes to confirm it still applied.
Cancelling customers are refused
If the subscription is already set to cancel at the end of the period, the workflow refuses. Reactivate first if that's the intent.
Multiple subscriptions
If an account somehow has more than one active subscription, the workflow refuses rather than guessing which to credit. Escalate.
If something goes wrong
Errors appear directly on the Billing Workflows card on the agreement.
| What you see | What it means | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| "no active subscription for orderId" | Usually past due, cancelled, or a legacy account | Escalate |
| "credit already applied for this account" | They've had it before | Escalate if a second is genuinely needed |
| "subscription is set to cancel at period end" | Cancellation pending | Resolve the cancellation first |
| "multiple active subscriptions" | Account has more than one live plan | Escalate |
Nothing partial ever gets written. A failed attempt leaves no credit and no record, so it's safe to retry once the underlying issue is fixed.
Quick reference
| Question | Answer |
|---|---|
| Does the billing date change? | No. Only the amount. |
| Can I run it on their renewal day? | Yes — applies immediately |
| Does it include taxes and fees? | Yes, always. |
| Is the customer charged anything? | No. |
| When does it apply otherwise? | Day before their next renewal |
| How many times per account? | Once |
| Works on past-due accounts? | No — escalate |
| Where's the record? | Notes on the Agreement record |
| Can I choose the amount? | No — calculated automatically |
The one-line version for a customer
"I can apply a one-month credit to your account. You'll get a full month of service free, including taxes and fees — it'll come off your next bill automatically, and there's nothing you need to do."