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Act 5: Growth & Governance

22. Subscription & Billing

Story

The trial period is ending, and Sarah must move to a paid plan without disrupting daily operations.

As the company scales, she also handles upgrades, downgrades, and payment recovery scenarios with clear visibility into billing history.

Happy Path

The subscription lifecycle is smooth from trial conversion to plan changes, with prorated billing behavior reflected transparently in account status and invoices.

  • Trial user subscribes by card through Stripe checkout
  • Upgrade applies with prorated charge
  • Downgrade schedules at next period end
  • Cancellation keeps access until period end then becomes CANCELED
  • Addon activation applies immediately when prorated

Failure Modes

FailureWhat the user seesWhat happens next
Trial expiredAccess restricted bannerRenew to restore full access
Trial abuse detected (email/domain/IP)New trial rejectedContact support
Invoice payment failsPayment failure noticeRetry schedule and notification flow starts
Retries exhaustedService restrictedUpdate payment method and settle invoice
Payment method expiredEmail prompt to update methodUser updates card details
Downgrade below seat usage"Remove employees first"Reduce active seats then retry
Downgrade removes active features"Feature will be disabled" warningUser confirms or cancels downgrade

Edge Cases

ScenarioBehaviorWhy
bKash/Nagad payment flowManual verification path usedNon-card settlement workflow
Enterprise invoicingNo self-service checkoutContractual billing lifecycle
Invoice PDF downloadAvailable from billing historyFinance and compliance needs

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