Billing

Subscriptiona and their invoices are all stored in Hubspot, and Stripe is used for payment processing for contracted revenue. For FlowFuse's montly self-service customers Stripe also tracks the subscription instead of Hubspot. Team members will be given a login to the relevant Stripe and Hubspot dashboard as required for their role with an appropriate level of access.

Providing support

The main use of the Stripe dashboard will be to answer queries on a customers subscription, this should only be in relation to a ticket raised by the customer and we must confirm that the customer team in question on the support ticket is the same one you are looking at it Stripe. Remember that the email address in Stripe may not match that of the FlowFuse user as this is a "billing email". You should use the team ID numbers in the metadata field to confirm.

The customer must first configure their billing details within their FlowFuse account for Stripe to recognize that the customer exists in the system.

Invoices

Monthly subscriptions will be automatically generated in Stripe and charge customers based on their payment method filed with Stripe.

Annual subscriptions and invoices are managed in HubSpot, please see instructions below.

Creating a subscription invoice

To generate an invoice, the corresponding deal and quote must first be in place in HubSpot. This ensures the correct products and amounts are auto-populated.

  1. Ensure the company details are updated, and include an address and country.
  2. On the Deal page, find the Invoices section on the right-hand side, then click Add and Convert Deal to Subscription.
  3. Change the dates, terms, products, discounts, PO number, contact, and company information if required (most will be correct, since it is pulling from the signed quote).
  4. Make sure both ACH and Credit Card options are checked for payment.
  5. Click the Finalize button on the top right.
  6. It will prompt to send the invoice automatically to the billing contact you designated, change date of send if needed.

Creating a PS invoice

For new customers an invoice should be generated in Hubspot's Invoice section.

  1. Ensure the company details are updated, and include an address and country.
  2. Ensure the customer provided a PO number if they require one.
  3. Create a one-time invoice through Hubspot -- If the customer already is used to paying through Stripe, use best judgement when to switch them over

Adding a Coupon

From time to time we may wish to provide a user with some free access to the managed FlowFuse platform. In this situation we will create a coupon code in Stripe which can be shared with the users. You should always use list price to calculate coupons.

Please note that only 1 coupon can be applied to an account at a time, so in order to add additional coupons you need to stack their amounts into one large coupon.

To create a couple on Stripe:

  1. Log into Stripe.
  2. Use the top search bar to 'Create a coupon'.
  3. Give it a name you will remember, ideally descrbing the reason for issuing the coupon.
  4. Select fixed amount discount.
  5. Don't add more credit than you need.
  6. Set the Duration as the shortest amount of time this coupon is needed.
  7. Select 'Limit the total number of times this coupon can be redeemed'.
  8. Input 1 time.
  9. Toggle 'Use customer-facing codes'.
  10. Add a code which cannot be easily guessed, ideally a password type format, at least 8 characters with a mix of upper and lower case letters, and numbers.
  11. Press 'Create coupon' which is bottom right of the page.

That coupon code can now be used when you are asked to provide payment card details.

Removing a Coupon

The preferred course of action is to create coupons that will expire on their own. However, in the event that a coupon needs to be removed manually, follow these steps.

  1. Find the customer's subscription.
  2. Click 'Actions' in the upper-right corner.
  3. Choose 'Update a Subscription'. The customer's subscription details are now open.
  4. Locate the coupon and remove it.
  5. Click 'Update Subscription' to save the changes.

Credits

Occasionally we may need to apply a credit to a customers account as a goodwill gesture to cover an issue they have experienced, this should be the exception and must be approved by either CTO or CEO. We will also check to see if the customer has received any previous credits on their account.