Invoices, changing plan and cancelling

Once your site is on a paid plan, everything to do with paying for it is behind one button on your account page: Manage billing. It opens pages run by Stripe, our payment provider, where you can see invoices, change your card, change plan or cancel. This page is for the account holder or the choir's treasurer.

The "Plan" section

Sign in to your account. In the Hosted site card, the Plan section reads, for example:

Starter, billed monthly. It renews on October 9, 2027.

Under it is the Manage billing button, with the note "Change plan, switch between monthly and yearly, update your card, see invoices, or cancel. This opens our payment provider, Stripe."

Press Manage billing to open Stripe's pages. When you have finished there, use the link back to return to your account. We never see your card number: it is entered on Stripe's pages and stays with Stripe.

note

Manage billing is still there on a Free site if you have ever paid us for anything, including the setup and migration package alone, so your past invoices stay within reach.

Find an invoice or a receipt

1. Press Manage billing.
2. On Stripe's page, find the list of your invoices. Each one opens to a page where you can download the invoice and, once it is paid, its receipt.

Stripe also emails a receipt when it takes a payment. The setup and migration package has an invoice and receipt of its own in the same list.

Update your card or billing details

1. Press Manage billing.
2. Change your payment method or your billing name and address on Stripe's page.

Do this before your renewal date if your card has expired or been replaced.

Change plan, or switch between monthly and yearly

1. Press Manage billing.
2. On Stripe's page, choose to update your plan, and pick Starter or Premium, monthly or yearly. Stripe shows what you will be charged before you confirm.
3. Return to your account page. Your site moves to the new plan when Stripe confirms the change to us, normally within a minute. Reload the page to see it.

You cannot buy a second plan for the same site. If you try from an old page you get "Your site already has a subscription. Use "Manage billing" to change it."

Moving from Premium to Starter hides ticketing and donor records in your admin panel, and brings back the footer link. Nothing is deleted: see What each plan includes.

Cancel

1. Press Manage billing.
2. Choose to cancel your plan on Stripe's page, and confirm.

Cancelling stops the next renewal. It does not end your plan at once: the plan runs to the end of the period you have already paid for. Your account page then reads, for example:

Starter, billed monthly. It has been cancelled and runs until October 9, 2027, when your site goes back to the Free plan. Your members, donors and ticket records are kept for at least 90 days after that; to have them exported, write to support@choirmastercms.com.

If you change your mind before that date, press Manage billing again and look for the choice to keep or renew the plan on Stripe's page. If you cannot find it, write to support@choirmastercms.com.

To have your records exported, or to close your account altogether, see Your data.

An overdue payment

If a renewal payment fails, for example because your card has expired, a red banner appears in the Plan section:

A payment for your plan is overdue. To keep your plan, open "Manage billing": pay the invoice there, or check that your card is up to date.

Your site keeps its plan while the payment is overdue. To put it right:

1. Press Manage billing.
2. Either pay the open invoice, or update your card so that the payment can be tried again.

Stripe also emails you when a payment fails. If the amount is still not paid when the time allowed runs out, the subscription ends and your site goes back to the Free plan. The terms describe the time allowed like this:

If a payment is overdue, your account enters a 30-day grace period during which your paid features continue to work and we will remind you to pay. If the amount is still unpaid at the end of the grace period, your account is converted to the Free plan.

When a site goes back to Free

A site goes back to the Free plan when a cancelled plan reaches the end of its paid period, or when an overdue payment is never made. This is what happens:

	What happens
Your public website	Stays online, at its .cmcms.org address.
Paid features	Hidden in the admin panel and switched off on the site: the member portal on leaving Starter or Premium, ticketing and donor records on leaving Premium.
Your records	Nothing is deleted at once. Members, announcements, donors, gifts and ticket orders stay in your site's database.
Your feature switches	Kept as you set them.
A domain of your own	Disconnected. Your site's main address goes back to its .cmcms.org address, and visitors to your own domain no longer reach your site. See Domain problems.
Your own mail server settings	Kept, but not used. They are there again if you return to a paid plan.
Announcement emails still waiting to be sent	Dropped. Any part of an announcement that had not gone out yet is not sent.
The footer	Shows "Powered by Choir Master CMS".
Contact form messages	Kept in the admin panel under Messages, no longer emailed to you.

The terms say this about how long the records are kept:

1. your website stays online under the Free plan;
2. paid-plan features stop working, and their data (such as member, donor and ticketing records) is kept for at least 90 days, during which you can ask us for an export by writing to support@choirmastercms.com; and
3. after those 90 days, we may delete paid-plan data.

Paying the overdue amount, or subscribing again, within the 90-day period restores your paid features and data.

To come back, choose a plan again from the Plans section: see Move to a paid plan. You will need to connect your domain again afterwards.

What the terms say about renewal, price changes and refunds

These are quoted from section B5 of the License Terms, which are the words that count.

On renewal:

Starter and Premium plans are billed in advance, monthly or yearly, at the prices on our pricing page when you subscribe or renew. Subscriptions renew automatically until cancelled. Prices are in Canadian dollars for customers in Canada, and US dollars for customers elsewhere, and exclude applicable taxes.

On price changes:

We will give at least 30 days' notice before a price change takes effect at your next renewal.

On cancelling and refunds:

Fees are non-refundable except as required by law, as provided in section B13.3, or at our discretion. Cancelling stops future renewals; your paid plan continues until the end of the period you paid for and then converts to Free.

For a summary of the rest, see Terms, privacy and your responsibilities.

If something goes wrong

What you see	What to do
"That did not go through to our payment provider. Nothing was charged: try again in a minute." after pressing Manage billing	Stripe's pages could not be opened. Wait a minute and try again.
The section is headed Plans and has no Manage billing button	Your site is on the Free plan and you have never paid us for anything. See Move to a paid plan.
The plan on your account page has not changed after you changed it at Stripe	Reload the page after a minute. If it is still wrong, get help.
You pay by invoice rather than by card	See Pay by cheque or bank transfer.