Billing Lifecycle & Support
What happens to a customer's access when payment fails, what the labels on your
Customers page mean, and what their invoice looks
like.
For what a seat is and how it is priced, see
The invoice, and the question customers ask
Their invoice has two lines:
| Line | Amount |
|---|---|
| The subscription item | quantity 0 — $0.00 |
POS seats used during completed billing period | registers × the seat price |
cannot know how many registers took an order until the period closes. So the
recurring line stays empty, and the whole charge lands on the second line.
One thing to tell them up front: **their first invoice after going metered
covers the month they already worked**, not the month ahead.
When payment fails
Stripe retries on its own schedule. The first two failures change nothing — the
venue keeps trading.
| What happened | Their access | Status in your portal |
|---|---|---|
| 1st and 2nd failed attempt | Unaffected | active |
| 3rd failed attempt | Revoked | suspended |
| Stripe gives up (subscription unpaid) | Revoked | suspended |
| Subscription cancelled | Revoked | cancelled |
| A payment succeeds after any of the above | Restored automatically | active |
Access is restored automatically when Stripe reports the subscription active
again. Nobody at Synalux has to do anything.
Do not raise a request to re-enable access, and do not tell a customer they need
to ask for one.
Labels on the Customers page
Access restoring / Access revoking
An access change is in progress across the POS regions. This is temporary and
clears on its own. Nothing to do.
Access sync failed
An access change did not finish everywhere, so the customer's venue access may
not match their billing status right now.
This one does not clear itself. Raise it through
Support with the customer name. Do not give the
customer a timeline until Synalux confirms which side is out of step.
Final seat billing needs review — invoice , N seats
The customer cancelled, and their final invoice ended in a state Stripe cannot
retry (voided or written off).
Their access is already revoked and stays revoked. What is outstanding is the
money, which a Synalux platform admin resolves and records. You do not need to
do anything. Do not tell the customer they owe nothing until that is resolved.
When a customer cancels
The final period is settled exactly once. Which form it takes depends on timing:
| When they cancel | What they get |
|---|---|
| Mid-period | One final invoice for the part of the period they used |
| At the period boundary | The renewal invoice already being prepared is used — no second invoice |
| No registers took an order that period | No invoice at all |
Access is revoked at cancellation either way, even if the final charge does not
settle cleanly. If it does not, the needs review label above appears.
What never to add to a seat subscription
**Never add a Stripe coupon, promotion code, automatic tax, or default tax
rate.**
Seat billing refuses these rather than guessing at a different amount. What you
see depends on when it was added:
| Added when | What happens |
|---|---|
| Before activation | The subscription is not created at all until you remove the discount from the Stripe customer |
| After seats are billing | The affected invoice stops and is held for review instead of charging |
This is not the same as the restaurant's own sales-tax setup inside POS,
which is unaffected.
Discounts belong in the signed quote. Contact Synalux when commercial terms need
to change.