How does Subi’s Inventory Policy manage out-of-stock subscription billings?

Overview

The Inventory Policy in Subi lets you decide what happens when a subscription billing attempt occurs for a product that’s out of stock.

This setting helps you manage recurring orders smoothly—whether you want Subi to block billing attempts, continue billing despite low inventory, or fulfill only what’s available.

Before you start

You can find this setting in your Subi admin → Settings → Billing & Inventory.
Scroll to the Inventory Policy section.

Please check your plan details for feature availability.

Available options

Subi offers three policy options to control how inventory affects recurring billing.

1. Attempt only if inventory is available

Subi will attempt billing only if enough stock exists to fulfill the order.
If items are unavailable, the billing attempt will fail and be flagged with an inventory error.
This option prevents overselling and maintains accurate inventory tracking.

Best for: Merchants who want to avoid negative stock or overcommitment.

2. Attempt anyways (Default)

Subi will process billing even if stock is zero.
Orders will still be created, and inventory may drop below zero.
This is useful if you regularly restock and prefer not to block recurring payments.

Best for: Merchants managing frequent restocks or preorder workflows.

3. Attempt partial delivery (Beta)

Subi will bill and fulfill only the items currently in stock.
Out-of-stock items are automatically deferred to the next billing attempt.
This allows partial fulfillment while waiting for other items to restock.

Best for: Merchants offering subscription boxes or multi-item orders.

The Partial delivery option is currently in Beta and may not be available to all merchants yet.

Key details

The default setting is Attempt anyways.
This setting applies to recurring billings for active subscriptions only — it does not affect checkout or widget settings for new orders.

Example

Imagine you sell a monthly coffee subscription and select “Attempt only if inventory is available.”

If your medium roast beans run out, Subi will skip that billing attempt and mark it with an inventory error. Once restocked, Subi will automatically retry billing in the next scheduled cycle.