Subscription & billing

The Billing page is where you manage your club's ClubHelix subscription: see which plan and member band you're on, change plans, choose how often you pay, keep your card up to date, and download past invoices. You'll find it under Business management → Billing in the admin sidebar.

Who can use this

Billing is for administrators. Your plan, invoices, payment method and everything else on this page are your organisation's financial record, so a moderator who opens it sees a short notice instead of the page.

ClubHelix staff helping with a support question can open your Billing page too. They see it read-only — a notice at the top says so, and none of the plan, portal or cancellation controls are shown to them. Only your own administrators can change your subscription.

If a ClubHelix team member has set you up on a Managed plan (custom pricing), the plan controls are hidden and a notice asks you to contact support to make changes.

What's on the page

• A Manage in Stripe portal button (top right) once you've started a paid subscription — your secure home for updating payment details and downloading receipts.
• A member band warning banner when your active member count is close to (90%) or over the band you're paying for. Your price never changes without you confirming the move here.
• A Current plan card showing your tier, your member band (for example ≤ 250 members), a Yearly badge if you're on a yearly plan, status badge, the price for your billing period, your next renewal (or end) date, your active member count against your limit, storage and email limits, plus the payment method on file. If a promotion is running on your subscription, the discounted price and its end date are shown here too.
• A how often you pay row inside the Current plan card, with a button to switch between 28-day and yearly billing.
• A scheduled change card when you've booked a change for the end of a period you've already paid for, with a button to cancel it.
• A Promotion code box above the plans grid — new customers can apply a code to discount their first plan until the promotion's end date.
• An Available plans grid (Free, Standard, Pro, Enterprise) with a member-count selector — pick the club size to price against and each paid plan shows the matching band price. Before your first subscription there's also a Pay selector for 28-day or yearly billing. Bands below your current active member count are unavailable: you can't buy a plan your club doesn't fit in.
• If your organisation has never held a subscription, the paid plan cards offer a Start free trial button instead of Switch to… — see Start a free trial below.
• An Invoice history table of your past invoices.
• A Cancel subscription card, shown only while you're on a paid plan.

Step by step

Start a free trial

1. In Available plans, choose your member band and billing period as usual.
2. On the Standard or Pro card, select Start 14-day free trial.
3. You're taken to Stripe Checkout to add your card — nothing is charged today ($0 due at checkout).
4. After a short You're all set confirmation page, your trial starts straight away, with a countdown in the admin header. When the trial ends, your card is charged automatically and the plan simply continues — no interruption to your site or members.

A few things to know:

• We email every administrator before the first charge, so it's never a surprise.
• Cancel anytime before the trial ends (the normal Cancel subscription card) and you pay nothing — your organisation drops back to the Free plan when the trial runs out.
• The trial is available once per organisation, only before your first subscription, and can't be combined with a promotion code.

If you don't get your website live, we don't charge you

Life gets in the way. If your trial is nearly over and your homepage still isn't published, we take that as a sign the timing wasn't right, and we set the trial to finish without charging your card — you don't have to remember to cancel, and you won't find a payment weeks later that you'd forgotten was coming.

When that happens:

• Every administrator gets an email saying, in as many words, that we won't be charging you.
• Your Billing page shows the same message, with the two ways to change your mind.
• Nothing is deleted. Your organisation, members and content stay exactly as they are — you simply continue on the Free plan when the trial ends.

Changed your mind? Either works, right up until the trial ends:

• Publish your homepage (Website → Pages). That's the signal we were waiting for: your trial goes back to converting normally and your plan continues.
• Or select Resume subscription on the Current plan card, if you'd like the plan whether or not the site is live yet.

Either way you get a confirmation email saying your card will be charged on the trial end date, so you always know which way it's going. And if you cancel yourself, that stands — publishing later won't quietly restart your subscription.

The same applies to promotion codes. A code that makes your first stretch free works the same way as a trial: if your homepage still isn't published when the code is about to run out, we end the subscription on that date instead of taking the first payment, and tell you we've done it.

Upgrade or start a paid plan

1. In Available plans, use the Members selector to choose the band that fits your club (it defaults to the smallest band your active member count fits in).
2. Use the Pay selector to choose Every 28 days or Yearly. Yearly covers twelve months and works out 7.7% cheaper.
3. Find the tier you want (for example Standard or Pro) and select Switch to Standard or Switch to Pro.
4. If you don't yet have a subscription, you're taken to Stripe Checkout to enter your card. On success you'll see a short You're all set confirmation page — select Continue to Billing to come back with Subscription updated.

Prices are set by location — the higher of where you are and where your club is based — and scale with your active member count. There is no currency picker; once a subscription starts, its currency is fixed for the life of the subscription.

Move up (or down) a member band

1. When your club grows past 90% of your band, a warning banner appears here and on the admin overview. Nothing changes automatically — your price is never increased without you confirming it.
2. Use the Members selector to show the next band, then select Move to the ≤ N member band on your current plan's card.
3. What happens next depends on how you pay:
   • On 28-day billing, the new band price applies from your next renewal date — no charge today.
   • On a yearly plan, you land on a confirmation card first. It shows exactly what you'll pay today (the pro-rata difference for the days left in your year), what you'll pay at each renewal from now on, and your renewal date — which doesn't move. Nothing is charged until you select Pay … and move up. If your card is declined, your plan is left exactly as it was and you aren't charged.

If your active members exceed your band before you move up, new member approvals are paused until you confirm the bigger band (or a bigger plan). On a yearly plan you can also choose Stay on my current band, which costs nothing — approvals stay paused until your renewal, when your plan moves to the band that fits.

Move down a band, or to a cheaper plan

• On 28-day billing, the lower price applies from your next renewal date.
• On a yearly plan, the change is booked for the end of the year you've already paid for. You keep your current band and plan until then, and a scheduled change card appears at the top of the Billing page with a Cancel this change button. Prepaid amounts aren't refunded part-way through a year.

Apply a promotion code

1. Type the code into the Promotion code box above the plans grid and select Apply code.
2. The plan cards update to show the discounted price (the standard price appears struck through) and how long the discount runs.
3. Choose your plan as normal — the discount is applied automatically at checkout.

Promotion codes are for new customers only: if your organisation has already paid an invoice, holds a subscription, or has used a code before, the code can't be applied. A 100% code makes the plan free until the promotion ends — your card is collected at checkout and the first charge lands on the promotion's end date. Codes never discount the done-for-you build packages.

Switch between paid plans

1. With an active subscription, select Switch to Standard or Switch to Pro on the plan you want, at the member band shown.
2. On 28-day billing the change applies in place — no charge today. You'll see Plan updated. The new price takes effect on your next renewal date. On a yearly plan, moving up goes through the confirmation card described above, and moving down is booked for the end of your paid year.

Switch between 28-day and yearly billing

1. Open the Current plan card and find the row showing how often you pay.
2. Select Switch to yearly billing or Switch to 28-day billing.

The two directions work differently, on purpose:

• To yearly takes effect straight away. We credit the unused days of your current 28-day cycle against the charge, bill the year today, and your renewal moves a year out. If your card is declined nothing changes and you aren't charged. If a promotional discount is currently running on your subscription, you'll be asked to wait until it finishes — that way you keep the discount on every 28-day charge you were promised.
• To 28-day billing takes effect at the end of the year you've already paid for — you're not charged again before then, and you keep everything you've paid for. A scheduled change card shows the date and lets you cancel it any time before it happens.

Cancel your subscription

1. Scroll to the Cancel subscription card.
2. Select Cancel at period end.
3. Service continues until the end of the period you've already paid for — the current 28-day cycle, or the end of your yearly term — then drops to Free. The current plan button changes to Resume subscription so you can undo this before the end date.

Update your card or get receipts

1. Select Manage in Stripe portal → at the top of the page.
2. Update your card, view billing details and download receipts in Stripe, then return to Billing.

Refresh after a missed payment update

1. If a recent payment or plan change isn't showing, open Invoice history.
2. Select Restore payments from Stripe to re-sync your invoices and current plan.

Field reference

Tips & FAQ

• Plans are billed every 28 days, not per calendar month — that's 13 billing cycles a year.
• Or pay yearly and save 7.7%. A yearly plan covers twelve months and costs 7.7% less than paying every 28 days for the same plan and member band. It's charged in full up front and renews yearly unless you cancel before the renewal date.
• Growing never costs you a surprise. On any plan, we never raise your price because your club grew. On a yearly plan you're shown the exact pro-rata amount before you agree to anything, your renewal date doesn't move, and staying on the band you've paid for is always a free option.
• Prices scale with your members. Each paid plan comes in bands (Standard: up to 100, 250 or 500 active members; Pro: up to 250, 500, 750 or 1,500). You pay the band that fits your club today and move up as you grow — always with a warning first, never a silent price change.
• Prices are set by location — yours and your club's (whichever is higher) — and can't be switched manually. Your club's country comes from Business details, so keep it accurate.
• Payment failed? A red banner appears across your admin pages. Admin write features lock until you settle the balance via the Stripe portal; leave it too long and your public site can be suspended.
• Outstanding invoices must be paid before you can start a new subscription or switch plans — open the Stripe portal to clear arrears.
• For day-to-day club income (member fees, tickets, shop), see Member payments and Orders. To update your club's contact and ABN details, see Business details.