Grace period¶
Target Audience: Users, Administrators, Stakeholders
Introduction¶
The grace period is a configurable time window that determines what happens when a recurring subscription renewal payment fails. Instead of immediately deactivating the subscription, Payway keeps it active for a set number of days, giving the customer time to resolve the payment issue.
The grace period is configured per package in PAP under Packages & Campaigns → Packages, and can be set between 0 and 25 days.
Note
If the grace period is set to 0, the subscription will be immediately deactivated upon payment failure — no grace period is applied.
What is a grace period?¶
When a recurring subscription renewal payment fails and the package has a grace period configured (greater than 0), the subscription does not immediately lose access. Instead, Payway uses Automatic Payment Retries (APR) to retry the payment once per day during the grace period.
Example: A subscription renews on July 16 and the payment fails. If the grace period is set to 5 days, Payway will retry the payment daily until July 21. If no successful payment is made by then, the subscription is deactivated.
How it works with APR¶
The grace period defines the window in which APR operates. During this window:
- The subscription remains active — the customer keeps access to their digital products.
- Payway automatically retries the payment once per day.
- The customer (or an administrator) can also manually trigger a retry from My Account (PCP) or PAP.
- If any retry succeeds, the subscription is renewed as normal.
- If all retries fail and the grace period expires, the subscription is deactivated.
Warning
A grace period must be set to a value greater than 0 for APR to function. Without a grace period, APR has no window in which to retry payments.
For more details on APR, see Automatic payment retries (APR).
Which payment methods are affected?¶
The grace period only applies to Tulo-provisioned recurring subscriptions. It does not apply to externally provisioned subscriptions.
Additionally, the grace period only applies to certain payment methods:
| Payment method | Grace period supported | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Credit Card | Yes | |
| Adyen | Yes | |
| Klarna | Yes | |
| Billecta | Yes | Has its own grace period setting in the payment provider configuration |
| ROPO | Yes | Has its own grace period setting in the payment provider configuration |
| Free | Yes | |
| Direct Debit | No | |
| External | No | Lifecycle managed by external system |
Invoice-based payment methods (Billecta, ROPO)
For invoice-based payments, the grace period works slightly differently. The grace period starts after the payment due date has passed, rather than immediately after a failed renewal attempt. See Tulo invoice for more details.
When do I need to configure a grace period?¶
You should configure a grace period whenever you want to give customers a chance to resolve failed payments before their subscription is deactivated. This is relevant when:
- You have recurring subscriptions with Tulo-provisioned payment methods.
- You want to reduce involuntary churn caused by temporary payment issues (e.g. expired card, insufficient funds).
- You are using APR — a grace period is required for APR to function.
Subscription system considerations¶
If you have integrated Payway with an external subscription system (ESS), make sure the grace period in your subscription system exceeds the one in Payway by at least one day. This ensures that if a payment is resolved at the last minute in Payway, the subscription system has time to process it before deactivating the subscription on its end.
Can I set the grace period differently for campaigns?¶
No. The grace period is configured on the package level only. Campaigns inherit the grace period from their underlying base package and this cannot be overridden per campaign.
This means that if you need a different grace period for a specific set of subscriptions, you would need to use a separate package with the desired grace period configured.
Historical note¶
The grace period with APR replaces the earlier frozen subscription model. In the old model, a failed payment would put the subscription into a "frozen" state, requiring the customer to manually renew the payment. With APR, this process is now fully automated — Payway retries the payment automatically during the grace period, and the subscription remains active throughout.
Summary¶
| Question | Answer |
|---|---|
| Where is it configured? | PAP → Packages & Campaigns → Packages |
| What is the range? | 0–25 days |
| Does it apply to all payment methods? | No, only supported Tulo-provisioned recurring payment methods (see table above) |
| Can I set it per campaign? | No, campaigns inherit the grace period from the base package |
| What happens if set to 0? | Subscription is immediately deactivated on payment failure |
| Is a grace period required for APR? | Yes — APR requires a grace period greater than 0 to function |