Subscription & Billing Issues
Managing Your Subscription:
How to Check Your Subscription Status:
1. Go to Business → Software Subscription tab 2. Your current plan, price, and renewal date are shown on the subscription card 3. If you have a scheduled downgrade, it will show "Changes to [plan] on [date]" in amber text
Updating Your Payment Method:
1. Go to Business → Software Subscription 2. Click Manage Subscription to open the Stripe billing portal 3. Update your card details, download invoices, or change your plan
What Happens If Your Payment Fails:
• Stripe automatically retries failed payments up to 3 times over several days • You will receive email notifications about the failed payment • Your access continues during the retry period • If all retries fail, your subscription moves to an unpaid state
What Happens When Your Subscription Expires:
• You get read-only access — you can still view your data, reports, and client history • Your clients will not be able to log in to their portal during this time • Your data is retained for 90 days after expiration • To restore full access, simply resubscribe from the Software Subscription page • All your data, clients, programs, and history are preserved when you reactivate
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How to Cancel Your Build Stability Subscription:
Cancellation is designed to be fair, transparent, and done in one click. You keep full access to everything you already paid for.
Two clicks from the dashboard:
1. Go to Business → Manage Billing & Subscription 2. You are redirected to the Stripe Customer Portal. Click Cancel subscription.
That is it. No retention loops, no extra confirmation screens, no survey gates between you and the cancel button.
What happens next:
• You receive a confirmation email from us with the exact end date of your current period • Your subscription is flagged as "cancelling" but stays fully active until that date • No new charges will be made to your card • On the end date, your account moves to read-only mode for 90 days so your client data and reports are still there if you come back
Changed your mind? Go back to Business → Manage Billing & Subscription and reactivate in the Stripe portal. Takes one click.
A note on iOS: Subscription management on native iOS is restricted for App Store compliance. Sign in to buildstability.com on a desktop browser to cancel or update your subscription.
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Cancelling your subscription vs deleting your account:
These are two separate things and knowing the difference matters.
Cancel subscription (Business → Manage Billing & Subscription) • Stops future billing at the end of your current period • Your data stays with us for 90 days of read-only access after the period ends • You can resubscribe any time during those 90 days and pick up exactly where you left off • Your clients, programs, appointments, and history are preserved
Delete account (Settings → Delete Account) • Also stops future billing at the end of your current period • Permanently deletes your account, business data, clients, programs, appointments, and billing records after a grace period (see below) • Cannot be reversed after the grace period expires
Most trainers who want to "leave" want Cancel, not Delete. Delete is for people who want a full data wipe for GDPR or privacy reasons. If you just want to stop paying, cancel is the right choice.
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The 14-day grace period on account deletion (and how it works on annual plans):
When you delete your account, we do not wipe your data immediately. We give you a grace window so you can undo if you click by mistake, and so you never lose access to a period you already paid for.
The rule is simple: your data lives as long as the longest thing you paid for.
Monthly plans — grace is 14 days:
• You click Delete Account today • Your subscription is flagged to cancel at the end of the current month • Your account is marked for permanent deletion 14 days from now • You receive a confirmation email, a 7-day reminder, and a 1-day final warning • You can undo from the amber banner at the top of your dashboard any time in that window • On day 14, the account, business, clients, programs, and all data are permanently deleted
Annual plans — grace extends to the end of your paid period:
• You click Delete Account on day 2 of an annual subscription • Your subscription is flagged to cancel at the end of the year you paid for • Your account is marked for permanent deletion on that same end-of-year date, not 14 days from now • You keep full access for the entire remaining period you already paid for • The undo banner stays visible in your dashboard for the full remaining period • The 7-day and 1-day reminder emails fire in the final 7 days before deletion
Why it works this way: our Terms of Service promise you keep full access until the end of the period you already paid for. Deleting your data before that would break that promise.
If you want an early refund on an annual plan, contact support@buildstability.com. We do not offer automatic pro-rata refunds, but we review these requests case by case.
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What happens to my trial data if I never convert to a paid plan?
Free trials are covered by the same fairness rules as paid plans, with one important difference: there is no billing period to extend the grace against, so we use a fixed 90-day window after the trial ends.
The timeline for an abandoned trial:
1. You sign up, start your 14-day free trial (no credit card) 2. Day 14: your trial ends automatically. We do not charge you. Your account is now an "expired trial". 3. Days 15 to 89: your account sits idle. Nothing is deleted. You can come back any time, convert to a paid plan, and pick up where you left off. 4. Day 60 (30 days before deletion): we email you a "your trial data expires in 30 days" reminder. Come back, export, or ignore. 5. Day 83 (7 days before deletion): we email you a final "last chance, data will be deleted on X" warning. 6. Day 90: your account, business data, clients, programs, appointments, and billing records are permanently deleted.
If you click "Delete account" during a trial, the standard 14-day soft-delete grace period applies (same as monthly paid users). You can undo from the amber dashboard banner any time before the 14 days are up.
Why 90 days? It is long enough that trainers who got busy with their own business and want to come back after a month or two still have their data waiting. It is short enough that we respect GDPR storage minimisation and your implied expectation that abandoned data does not sit on our servers forever.
If you opted in to marketing emails at signup, we keep your name and email separately in our marketing contacts list even after your trial data is deleted, so we can email you about product updates. You can unsubscribe and request full deletion any time by emailing support@buildstability.com. If you did not opt in, your name and email are deleted with the rest of your account.
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Marketing emails and consent:
When you sign up, there is an optional checkbox: *"Email me occasional product updates, tips for growing a PT business, and offers."* It is unticked by default.
If you tick it, we record the time and date and add you to our product announcements list. We will email you periodically with: • New feature announcements • Tips for getting more value from Build Stability • Occasional offers (no spam)
If you unticked (or never ticked), we do not email you marketing messages. We will still send you transactional emails about your account, billing, subscription, and security, because those are required for the Service to function.
You can unsubscribe any time via the unsubscribe link at the bottom of any marketing email, or by emailing support@buildstability.com. Unsubscribing also removes you from our marketing contacts list permanently.
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Understanding Proration (Upgrade Charges):
When you upgrade your plan, Stripe uses fair proration — you only pay for what you use.
Example — Upgrading from Starter ($20/mo) to Pro ($60/mo) halfway through your billing cycle:
1. Stripe credits you for the unused Starter time (~$10 for the remaining 15 days) 2. Stripe charges you for Pro time (~$30 for the remaining 15 days) 3. Your charge today: ~$20 (the net difference) 4. Next billing cycle: Full $60 for Pro
Example — Upgrading from Essential ($4/mo) to Starter ($20/mo) on day 2 of a 30-day cycle:
1. Credit for unused Essential: ~$3.73 (28 days remaining) 2. Charge for Starter: ~$18.67 (28 days remaining) 3. Your charge today: ~$14.94 4. Next billing cycle: Full $20 for Starter
All proration is calculated automatically by Stripe. You can see the exact breakdown on your invoice in the Stripe billing portal (click "Manage Subscription" → Invoice History).
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Understanding Downgrades & Credits:
Downgrades work differently from upgrades:
1. Downgrades are scheduled at period end — you keep your current plan until the billing cycle ends 2. No immediate charge — you already paid for the current period 3. Credits for unused time are applied automatically to future invoices 4. On your next billing date, you are charged the new (lower) plan price
Example — Downgrading from Pro ($60/mo) to Starter ($20/mo):
• You schedule the downgrade on day 10 of your billing cycle • You keep full Pro access (100 clients, all features) until day 30 • On day 30, your plan switches to Starter ($20/mo) • Your next charge is $20
Example — Downgrading from Pro+ ($160/mo) to Essential ($4/mo) on day 1:
• Stripe creates a credit for unused Pro+ time (~$155) • This credit is applied automatically to future invoices • At $4/month for Essential, the credit covers many months of billing
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7-Day Grace Period (Over-Limit After Downgrade):
If you downgrade to a plan with a lower client limit and you have more clients than the new plan allows:
What happens:
1. Your downgrade takes effect at period end (you keep current access until then) 2. When the new plan activates, if your client count exceeds the new limit, a 7-day grace period begins 3. During the grace period, you can still view all your data and archive clients 4. After 7 days, if you are still over the limit, new client additions, bookings, and AI features are restricted
Example — 25 clients on Starter, downgrading to Essential (6 client limit):
• Day 1-30: Keep full Starter access (25 clients, all features) • Day 30: Essential plan activates. You have 25 clients but only 6 are allowed • Day 30-37: Grace period — archive 19 clients to get to 6 or fewer • Day 37+: If still over 6 clients, bookings and AI are blocked until you archive
What is NOT blocked during or after grace:
• Viewing client data (always available — your data is never deleted) • Archiving clients (always available — this is how you get compliant)
What IS blocked after grace expires:
• Adding new clients • Creating bookings • AI assistant features • Accepting payments
To clear restrictions: Archive enough clients to get within your plan limit. Access is restored immediately once you are compliant.
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Understanding Your Invoice:
If you see an unexpected charge, here is how to investigate:
1. Go to Business → Software Subscription → Manage Subscription 2. In the Stripe billing portal, click Invoice History 3. Click on the specific invoice to see a detailed breakdown including: • Line items for each plan charge • Proration credits (shown as negative amounts) • Proration charges (shown as positive amounts) • Tax amounts (if applicable) • Coupon or promotion discounts
Common reasons for unexpected charges:
• Mid-cycle upgrade — You upgraded and were charged the prorated difference (see proration examples above) • Annual to monthly switch — Switching billing intervals may trigger a prorated charge • Failed payment retry — A previously failed payment was retried successfully • Tax or currency adjustment — Your local tax rate or exchange rate may have changed
If you still have questions about a specific charge, contact us at support@buildstability.com with your invoice number and we will explain the exact breakdown.