Billing
Settings → Billing is where the money lives: which plan the organization is on, when it renews, what it has used of its allowances, and where the invoices are. What each plan costs and what it allows is on Plans and limits.
Every member can open the page and read it. Only an owner can subscribe, open the payment details or cancel, so a member sees the same page without those buttons. See Members and roles.
What the page tells you
The card at the top names the plan and the state it is in.
Underneath, the card says what the plan costs for the interval you are on, and which company is charging you. That last line matters when you are looking for a receipt: your invoices live with whoever bills you, not in Cascade.
Below the plan card is your usage: a bar for each of the three allowances a plan is sold on, and a plain line for each of the fair-use backstops. It is there so that outgrowing a plan is something you see coming.
If you go over an allowance
Going over is not a wall, and the day it happens nothing changes. What happens next depends on one switch, Bill me for usage over an allowance, which is on the billing page and is on when you sign up.
Either way we tell you before anything happens: an email to everyone in the organization at 80 percent of an allowance, and another the day you go over.
With overage billing on
This is the default. Your allowances stop being a ceiling and become the point where the price starts going up.
The rates are the same on Starter and Growth. Enterprise settles volume in its contract instead, so the switch does not appear for it.
Four things worth knowing:
- A block is a whole block. One review past the allowance is one block of 1,000, which is $10. The three allowances are counted and billed separately.
- It is worked out once, after the month ends. Nothing is reported to Stripe or Shopify while the month is running, so a spike you correct before the month closes is never charged. If you delete 900 spam reviews on the 30th, you are billed for what is left.
- You can see it before you pay it. The billing page shows the running total for the month beside each allowance bar, and the rate is there even when you are under. Nobody should learn the number from an invoice.
- Nothing degrades. The list below does not apply while overage is on: the products keep taking new activity for as long as you are paying for it.
If Shopify bills you there is a ceiling on it, because Shopify asks you to approve a maximum when you install the app: $250 a month on Starter and $750 on Growth. We charge up to that and no further, and the rest is not billed.
With overage billing off
Turn the switch off and nothing above your plan is ever charged. What happens instead is the sequence below, for each of the three allowances separately.
- At 80 percent the meter turns amber on the billing page, and the product's own screens show a banner. Nothing else happens.
- Past 100 percent everything keeps working, and the banner says so. You are not cut off in the middle of a month you have already started.
- Fourteen days later, if you are still over, that one product stops taking new activity. Which one depends on which allowance you went over:
The three are independent: going over on reviews never stops a wishlist.
Nothing is ever deleted, and nothing is hidden from your shoppers. Points, tiers, rewards, saved wishlists and published reviews all stay exactly as they are, and every storefront widget keeps serving them. A shopper cannot tell that your account is over its allowance.
- The moment usage is back under, whether because you upgraded, we raised the limit or the month rolled over, everything resumes on its own. There is nothing to switch back on.
The banner counts down to the date in step 3 so it is never a surprise, and the same date is on the billing page. If the number is the only thing in your way, ask us: raising one allowance for your account is quicker than moving you up a plan.
Changing your mind
The switch is one setting for all three allowances, and only an owner can change it.
Turning it back on stops any countdown that was running, immediately rather than at the end of the hour. A product that had already degraded starts taking new activity again the moment you switch it on, and the month you are in is billed at the rates above when it closes.
Turning it off means the next time you go over, the 14 day countdown starts. It does not retroactively refund a month that has already been billed.
What we email you about
Cascade sends seven emails about your plan. There is nothing to switch on, and there is no setting to turn them off: each one is either something you have to act on or something you would otherwise find out from a shopper.
Anything about money goes to owners only, because only an owner can update the payment details, change the plan or cancel. Anything about an allowance goes to everyone in the organization, because the person who notices that review requests are about to stop is not always the person who pays. See Members and roles.
The 80 percent email goes out either way, whether overage billing is on or off. The two below it are about the degradation, so with overage billing on there is nothing for them to announce and they do not go out; the billing page carries the running total instead.
Each one goes out once. The 80 percent email is sent once per allowance per month, so sitting at 85 percent for three weeks is one email and not twenty. The rest are the same: one per breach, one per failed payment, one per trial warning, one per plan change, and one the day access ends however long you stay read only. An organization with no plan, or one that has been canceled, is not emailed about allowances at all.
If you change plan from the billing page, the confirmation email names you. If the change came from Stripe or from your Shopify admin, it says that instead.
Your free trial
Every new organization starts on a 14 day free trial, and it starts the moment you sign up. There is nothing to activate and no card to enter: we never ask for one until you pick a plan, so nothing can be charged by accident.
The trial has the full Starter allowances, and everything works exactly as it does on a paid plan.
The trial does not turn into a paid plan on its own. Nothing is charged when it runs out, and nothing is charged if you walk away. What you get instead is a countdown: a banner in the admin during the last week, and an email to the owners three days before and again on the day.
What happens when your trial ends, or you cancel
If the trial runs out with no plan running, or you cancel and the period you paid for finishes, the organization goes read only. It is the same landing either way, so there is one thing to learn rather than three.
Read only means:
Nothing is deleted. Your reviews, loyalty balances, tiers, rewards, wishlists, products and customers are all exactly where you left them. We keep the export window open for 14 days so there is a date to work to, and nothing goes away when it passes. If you ever do want your data removed, that is a separate request and you have to ask us for it.
Your shoppers cannot tell. Every storefront widget keeps serving reads whatever state your billing is in, so ratings, review lists, loyalty balances and saved wishlists all carry on. We do not take a merchant's storefront down over an invoice.
Subscribing puts everything back at once. There is nothing to restore and nothing to switch on: pick a plan and the next thing you save works.
Starting a plan
The billing page shows the plans you can buy, with the price for each. Pick one, choose whether to be billed monthly or yearly, and subscribe. During the trial nothing has been charged yet, so this is the first time we ask for a card.
Enterprise is priced per contract rather than from the price list, so it is not something you can buy on this page. Contact us and we will set it up.
There is one trial per organization. It is the 14 days you got when you signed up, and it is not offered again: subscribing after a cancellation, or after uninstalling and reinstalling the Shopify app, starts a paid plan straight away rather than another free fortnight.
Payment details and invoices
Manage payment details opens the billing account of whoever charges you, which is where your card, your billing address and every invoice are kept. Cascade does not store your card and does not keep a second copy of your invoices.
Changing plan
Change plan opens a dialog with the plans and the two billing intervals. Pick one and the dialog says, before you confirm, what it costs and when it starts. Switching between monthly and yearly works the same way and follows the same rules.
If Shopify bills you, this is done in your Shopify admin instead. See If Shopify bills you.
Moving up takes effect immediately
The new plan and its allowances apply as soon as you confirm. Nothing is charged that day. The difference for the rest of the billing period you are in goes onto your next invoice, and from then on you pay the new plan's price.
Switching from monthly to yearly counts as moving up: you get the cheaper rate straight away.
Moving down takes effect when the period ends
You have already paid for the period you are in, so you keep the plan you paid for until it runs out. The billing page then says the date, for example "your plan changes to Starter on March 14. Until then you keep Growth and everything it allows." Nothing is charged on the day you ask for the change.
Going from yearly to monthly is the same: it waits for the year you paid for to end.
Changed your mind? Open Change plan again and pick the plan you are on now. That calls off the change that was waiting, and nothing is charged.
When a downgrade is blocked
Some allowances are things you hold rather than things you use up in a month, like connected stores or API keys. If you have more of one of them than the plan you are moving to allows, the dialog says exactly which, and by how much:
Connected stores: you have 5, and Starter allows 3. Remove 2 to move to this plan.
Remove what is over, and the change goes through. This is only ever about a plan you are moving down to.
The three monthly allowances (review submissions, active loyalty members, active wishlist customers) never block a change. If you are already over what the new plan allows for this month, the dialog says so and lets you carry on: those counts reset at the start of next month, and nothing is paused in the meantime. See If you go over an allowance for what happens if they stay over.
If we raised an allowance for your account
An allowance we set up for you is a deal rather than a plan, and there is no automatic answer to what that deal becomes on a different plan. So the plan change controls are replaced with a line asking you to get in touch, and we move you over by hand. Nothing you were given is lost in the move: those allowances are set on your organization rather than on the plan.
If something needs fixing first
A plan cannot be changed while the last payment has failed, or after the plan has been canceled. The page says which of those it is and what to do about it: update your payment details, or start a new plan.
Canceling
Cancel plan asks you to confirm, and spells out what happens:
- Billing stops at the end of the period you have already paid for. Nothing is charged after that date.
- Until then everything carries on exactly as it does now.
- Nothing is deleted. Your reviews, loyalty members and wishlists stay where they are.
- You can subscribe again whenever you want.
Once that date passes the organization is read only, which is the same landing a trial that runs out has. See What happens when your trial ends, or you cancel.
Shopify works slightly differently: an app charge stops there and then rather than running to the end of the period, and you are not charged again. Everything else is the same.
Who bills you, and why you do not choose
Cascade is sold two ways, and which one you arrived by decides who charges you. It is not a setting.
Shopify requires apps sold through its store to be billed through Shopify, which is why there is no choice to make. It is decided once, the first time the organization subscribes, and it never changes underneath you. Either way the price is the same and the plan allows the same things.
If you were already paying by card and then connect a Shopify store, nothing about your billing changes: connecting a store and buying a plan are separate things, and you are never charged twice.
If Shopify bills you
Your plan appears on your Shopify invoice alongside your other apps, and your payment details and receipts live in your Shopify admin under Settings → Billing. Cascade keeps no card and no second copy of those invoices.
The Cascade billing page still shows the plan, the state it is in, when it renews and all of your usage, and Manage payment details takes you to the right page in your Shopify admin.
Changing plan is done in Shopify. Shopify has to collect your approval for the new charge, so Cascade cannot do it for you: the plan change controls are replaced with a line saying where to go. Cancel plan still works from the Cascade billing page, and so does canceling from your Shopify admin.
Uninstalling the Cascade app from your store ends the charge, so your plan stops with it. Your Cascade account carries on: it goes back to the free trial with whatever is left of the 14 days you started with, which for most accounts is none, and it is then read only in the usual way until you subscribe. Nothing is deleted, and reinstalling picks up where you left off.
If you would rather move from a Shopify charge to paying us by card, uninstall the app and subscribe from the Cascade billing page. Going the other way, cancel your card plan first and then install the app, which is what puts the charge on your Shopify invoice. You are never billed twice: an organization has one subscription, and one company charging for it.
Subscribing from inside Shopify
If Shopify bills you, the Cascade app inside your Shopify admin has the same plans on it. Pick one, and Shopify shows you the charge to approve: the price, the billing interval and the usage terms if you ever go past your allowances. Nothing is billed until you approve it.