ChangelogGuidesRecipesAPI ReferenceRoadmap
Guides
START FREE TRIALSCHEDULE A DEMO
Start typing to search…

Billing Engine

Overview

Pelcro’s billing engine is the core system that manages how subscriptions, invoices, payments, and revenue recognition are handled. It automates recurring billing, ensures accurate accounting, and provides flexibility for different subscription models.

Why It Matters

  • No Fees: Keep Stripe or other processors for payments, but avoid the additional percentage-based fees charged by third-party billing vendors. You get predictable costs without sacrificing reliability.
  • Faster Processing Eliminate delays caused by syncing data into Stripe Billing. With transactions processed directly in the billing engine, invoices, payments, and reports update instantly.
  • Full Control: Configure billing to match your accounting policies and customer agreements. Control how and when revenue is recognized, how credits and adjustments are applied, and ensure compliance with your internal rules and external standards.
  • Future-Ready Leverage AI-powered billing, intelligent retry logic, and native integrations with CRMs, ESPs, and fulfillment systems. Stay ahead with a platform built to scale and adapt to new technologies.

Changes To Consider

Moving billing from Stripe to Pelcro shifts the source of truth for subscriptions and invoices. Here’s what changes:

On Pelcro

  • Invoices: All invoices are generated and branded directly in Pelcro, using Pelcro’s own numbering sequence.
  • Subscriptions & Balances: Subscriptions, invoices, and customer balances are fully managed in Pelcro.
  • Customer Balance: Balances can be applied across both subscription invoices and e-commerce invoices.
  • Branding & Consistency: Pelcro’s PDF generator ensures unified invoice design and branding.

On Stripe

  • Payments Only: Stripe continues to act as the payment processor but no longer manages invoices, products/plans, or subscriptions.
  • No Sync for Billing Objects: The following are no longer synced into Stripe: Products, Plans, Subscriptions, Invoices, Customer Balance, Credit Notes, Coupons & Discounts, Accounting, and Settings.
  • Subscriptions Migrated: Existing Stripe subscriptions are canceled to prevent autorenewal. All renewals are managed natively in Pelcro.

Step-by-Step Guide:

This guide provides a step-by-step walkthrough for transitioning your Stripe payment and billing configurations to Pelcro. The core idea is to replicate your existing Stripe functionality within the Pelcro platform, especially since invoices and subscriptions will no longer reside in Stripe.

For each section below, In Stripe shows you where to locate your current settings, and In Pelcro explains how to apply the equivalent configuration in our platform.


Invoice & Receipt Branding

  • In Stripe: Log in → Settings → Account settings → Business → Branding and review your logo, colors, headers, and footers. All branding for invoices and receipts configured in Stripe (logos, colors, headers, footers) will no longer apply.

  • In Pelcro:

    1. Log in to Pelcro.
    2. Go to Settings → Invoicing.
    3. Enable the PDF generator checkbox.
    4. In the Invoicing section, customize your invoice and receipt branding (logos, headers, footers).
    5. Save your settings — all future invoices and receipts will use Pelcro’s PDF generator.

Customer Emails & Notifications

  • In Stripe: Log in → Settings → Account settings → Business → Customer Emails. Note which notifications (payments, refunds, renewals) you’ve enabled. Please note, these must now be replaced by our email integrations.

  • In Pelcro:

    1. Disable Stripe’s customer emails.
    2. Set up an email integration (Marketing Integrations) — or skip if you already have an ESP connected to Pelcro.
    3. Go to Settings → Notifications in Pelcro.
    4. Enable and configure webhooks to match your old Stripe emails:
      • invoice.payment_succeeded → triggers when a payment succeeds.
      • charge.refunded → triggers when a refund is processed.
      • invoice.payment_failed → triggers when a payment fails.
      • subscription.trial_will_end → notifies when a subscription trial is ending.
      • invoice.upcoming → notifies before a subscription is scheduled to create an invoice.
      • source.expiring → notifies when a card is expiring.
      • invoice.payment_action_required → notifies when payment confirmation (e.g., 3D Secure) is required.
    5. Map each webhook to your ESP so customers receive branded emails.
    6. You can find the full list of webhooks here: Pelcro Webhooks.

Accounting

  • In Stripe: If you used Stripe’s accounting or revenue recognition features.
  • In Pelcro:
    1. Log in to Pelcro.
    2. From the left navigation bar, go to the Accounting tab.
    3. Track financial metrics, transactions, and ledger accounts.
    4. Generate detailed reports for revenue recognition and financial tracking.
    5. See more in Pelcro Accounting Docs.

Billing Rules & Automation

  • In Stripe: Log in → Settings → Product settings → Billing. Review trials, renewal reminders, failed payment retries, card expiry emails, and payment confirmations.

  • In Pelcro:

    • Trials & Renewals

      1. Go to Settings → Notifications.
      2. Enable the subscription.trial_will_end webhook to send trial-ending emails.
      3. Go to Settings → Billing and enable Upcoming Invoice Notifications to trigger the invoice.upcoming webhook.

    Expiring Cards

    1. Go to Settings → Billing.
    2. Enable Payment Method Expiration Notifications.
    3. This triggers the source.expiring webhook, which you can use to notify customers of expiring cards.

    Failed Payments & Retries

    1. Go to Settings → Billing.
    2. Locate the Failed Payment Retries setting.
    3. Recreate your Stripe retry schedule:
      • Choose retry frequency (e.g., every 3 days).
      • Set maximum attempts (e.g., 3).
      • Choose subscription action after retries (e.g., leave past due).
      • Choose invoice action after retries (e.g., mark as uncollectible).
    4. Enable the invoice.payment_failed webhook to trigger failed payment emails.

    Note: The Failed Payment Retries setting will only be available after your account has been migrated to Pelcro’s billing engine.

    Disputed Payments

    Currently, Pelcro does not offer a specific setting for managing disputed payments. However, by default, when a dispute is marked as lost on Stripe, Pelcro automatically takes the following actions:

    • Updates the payment status to "refunded" or "partially refunded" based on the dispute amount.
    • Creates a credit note to document the reversal of revenue.
    • Generates a refund record specifying the reason as "Credit Card Chargeback" and the type as "Full" or "Partial" depending on the amount.
    • Adjusts accounting ledgers to reflect the reversed amounts.

    Payments Requiring Confirmation (3D Secure)

    1. Go to Settings → Notifications.
    2. Enable the invoice.payment_action_required webhook.
    3. When triggered, notify the customer with a link to confirm payment.
    4. Invoice remains open until confirmation is completed.

  • Invoices & Past-Due Handling

    1. Invoice Creation: Enable the invoice.created webhook to notify customers when a new invoice is generated.
    2. Handling Past-Due Invoices: Go to Settings → Billing → Automatic and enable Automatic Uncollectible:
      • Past-due invoices will automatically be marked as uncollectible.
      • Related subscriptions will be canceled immediately.
      • For more details, see Automatic Uncollectible.

Next Steps

Ready to unlock a smoother, more personalized billing experience?

  • Get Personalized Support – Our team is here to walk you through the setup and ensure everything is tailored to your business — just reach out at [email protected].

Updated 2 days ago