Overview
Subi allows you to charge your customers on specific days, such as the 1st of the month, every Monday, or on set dates each year, by configuring this directly within your selling plans. Setting a specific billing day helps you standardize your subscription cycles and align charges with your business and customer preferences.
What does “charge on specific days” mean?
Charging on specific days means you can set your subscription plans to bill customers on set dates. For example, you might bill customers every Saturday, on the 1st of the month, or on an annual date like January 1. This is useful for aligning your billing cycles across Membership, Subscribe & Save, and Subscription Box plans.
Note: The billing day is separate from the delivery day—you are responsible for scheduling and fulfilling deliveries independently. The dates you select control only when your customers are charged, not when products are shipped.
Tip: Because this feature can be complex, we recommend placing a test order in your store to understand how billing and renewals work before making your plan live.
Why set a specific billing day?
Common reasons for using specific billing days include:
Delivery restrictions: Bill only on days that align with your delivery schedule.
Lower shipping/fulfillment costs: Synchronize orders for easier batch fulfillment.
Sync all subscription orders: Set the same billing day across multiple plans so a customer’s subscriptions are billed (or delivered) together.
How do I set a billing day for my subscriptions?
You can set a billing day for each of your selling plans in Subi. The “Charge on specific days” feature is available for plans with weekly, monthly, or yearly billing frequencies. This option is not available for daily billing plans.
To configure this feature:
Open the Subscription Plans tab in your Subi app.
Create a new selling plan or edit an existing one.
Set the billing frequency (weekly, monthly, or yearly; not available for daily plans).
Enable the Charge on specific days option.
Adjust your settings as follows:
Charge on specific days settings and options
Select specific day
Choose when you want your customers to be billed:Weekly: Pick a day of the week, such as every Saturday.
Monthly: Select a specific day of the month or set the plan to bill every 2, 3, 4, or 6 months.
Yearly: Select both the month and the day, such as January 1.
This sets the recurring charge date for all subscribers on this plan.
When do you want to deliver the first order?
Decide whether the first order should be delivered immediately after a new subscription is placed, or scheduled for the next occurrence of your chosen billing day:Immediately: The first order is delivered right away, regardless of the selected billing day.
Closest specific day: The first order is scheduled for the next chosen billing day.
Note: Depending on your choice here, additional delivery timing options appear below.
What happens if an order is placed close to the billing day?
Control how Subi handles new subscriptions created shortly before your scheduled billing day:If you chose Immediately for the first order, you’ll see:
Deliver immediately (Second order is on the closest specific day): The first delivery is fulfilled right away, regardless of your scheduled billing day. The next (second) order is billed and delivered on your set billing day.
Deliver on the closest specific day: If a new subscription is created within your defined cut-off period (for example, 1 day before your billing day), the first delivery is held and fulfilled on the upcoming billing day instead of immediately.
The “cut-off period” is controlled by the field: when the order comes within X day(s) before specific date. Orders created within this window will be scheduled for the next billing day, preventing double charges or deliveries in quick succession.
If you chose Closest specific day for the first order, you’ll see:
Deliver on the closest specific day:
The first and all future deliveries are aligned to your selected billing day. If a new subscription is created within your cut-off period, the first order is delivered on the next available billing day.
Deliver on the next cycle:
If a subscription is created within your cut-off period, the first order skips the closest billing day and is scheduled for the following cycle instead.
This helps avoid charging and delivering too close to the start date for new subscribers.
Each setting helps you customize both the billing experience and the initial fulfillment logic to best fit your business needs.
Important notes
Adjust the cut-off period (X days before the specific date) to fine-tune how close to the billing day new subscriptions can be scheduled.
Changing a selling plan’s billing day only affects future subscriptions. Active subscriber contracts are not updated.
If you need to change the billing day for existing subscriptions, please contact Subi support.
Let your customers know their billing day by including this detail on your product page, subscription FAQ, or landing page.
Tip: Test your settings with a sample subscription to preview how billing and fulfillment will work for new and renewing orders.
Real-life examples: How billing day settings work in practice
Example 1: Weekly billing, pay-per-delivery subscription
Settings used:
Frequency: Weekly
Charge on specific days: Enabled
Select specific day: Saturday
When do you want to deliver the first order?: Immediately
What should we do if an order comes close to a specific day?: Deliver immediately (Second order is on the closest specific day)
How it works:
A customer subscribes to your weekly plan on Sunday, December 11th.
Their first order is created and delivered immediately (Dec 11th), based on your selection.
The next billing and order occur on the closest Saturday (Dec 17th), then continue on Dec 24th, Dec 31st, and so on, every Saturday.
If a renewal is skipped, the next charge and order automatically move to the following Saturday.
Example 2: Monthly pre-paid subscription with grouped deliveries
Settings used:
Frequency: Monthly
Charge on specific days: Enabled
Select specific day: 1st of the month
Selling plan type: Pre-paid subscription
Bill every: 3 deliveries
When do you want to deliver the first order?: Immediately
What should we do if an order comes close to a specific day?: Deliver immediately (Second order is on the closest specific day)
How it works:
A customer subscribes and pays for a pre-paid plan on Sunday, December 11th.
Their initial payment creates an order with 3 fulfillments: Dec 11th (immediate), Jan 1st, and Feb 1st.
At the next renewal (March 1st), Subi charges the customer again and creates a new order for the next three deliveries (March 1st, April 1st, May 1st).
If a delivery is skipped, the next group of fulfillments starts on the next eligible 1st of the month.
How contract anchors and delivery days work with rescheduling subscriptions
When a customer purchases a product with a selling plan that has a specific delivery day, the subscription contract created will include that delivery day as its “anchor.” This anchor is the recurring delivery day for the contract.
What happens if you reschedule a contract?
If you reschedule a contract, the delivery day anchor does not change. Instead:
The customer will be billed on the new rescheduled date you select.
However, the order fulfillment will still be scheduled according to the original anchor—the set delivery day on the contract.
Example:
Suppose your selling plan is set to deliver on the 1st of each month. If you reschedule a customer’s contract to January 5th, the customer will be billed on January 5th.
The order created for this renewal will be scheduled to fulfill on the next upcoming billing and delivery day (in this case, February 1st), not January 5th.
This means that even if billing happens on a different day due to rescheduling, order fulfillment stays locked to the contract’s original delivery anchor.
What if you need to fulfill an order earlier?
You can manually fulfill orders early from your Shopify admin, but this can only be done one order at a time—there is no bulk early-fulfillment option.
Important:
If you plan to bulk reschedule contracts that use delivery day anchors in Subi, make sure to consider this limitation, as the anchor will continue to determine fulfillment timing.
How payment failures and retries affect billing and fulfillment with delivery day anchors
When you use a selling plan with a set billing or delivery day, every new subscription contract created will always be billed on that specific day (the contract’s “anchor”). However, if a customer’s payment fails and you retry the payment using billing management tools, the process works a bit differently:
If a payment retry succeeds, the order will be created on the day the payment goes through, even if this is not your original billing/delivery day.
However, the fulfillment of this order will still follow the contract’s delivery anchor. This means the actual fulfillment will be scheduled for the next upcoming billing/delivery day set on the contract.
Example:
Suppose your subscription is set to bill and deliver on the 1st of every month. If a customer’s payment fails on February 1st and is retried and succeeds on February 5th:
The order will be created on February 5th (the day the payment is retried and succeeds).
The fulfillment for this order will be scheduled for the next anchor date—which is March 1st.
This ensures all recurring deliveries remain synchronized with your original billing/delivery schedule, even if payments are delayed.
Tip:
Review your billing management settings to understand how and when payment retries occur, and always communicate delivery timing clearly to customers when payment issues arise.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
Q: How do I select the specific day my customers are billed in Subi?
A: To set the exact day your customers are billed, enable the Charge on specific days setting in your selling plan. You can choose a specific day of the week (for weekly plans), a specific day of the month (for monthly plans), or a specific month and day (for yearly plans).
Q: How do I decide when the first order is delivered for a new subscription?
A: You can choose whether the first order is delivered immediately after a new subscription is placed, or scheduled for the next occurrence of your selected billing day. This option is found in the selling plan settings.
Q: What happens if a customer subscribes close to my billing day?
A: When a new subscription starts close to your chosen billing day, Subi uses the cut-off period setting to control what happens. Depending on your setup, you can either fulfill the first order immediately, deliver on the closest billing day, or skip to the next billing cycle to avoid overlapping orders.
Q: What does the cut-off period setting do in Subi?
A: The cut-off period determines how many days before the billing date a new subscription must be created to be included in the upcoming billing cycle. Orders placed within this period can be moved to the next billing day to prevent double charges or back-to-back fulfillments.
Need Help?
Feel free to contact our support team. We're here for you anytime:
Live Chat: Message us from within the Subi app or your Shopify Admin.
Email: Reach us at [email protected].