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The activation strategy determines what happens after a customer completes checkout. By default, subscriptions are automatically activated immediately after checkout. However, you can configure Firmhouse to require manual activation, giving you control over when a subscription becomes active.

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Activation options

Firmhouse offers two activation strategies: Activate immediately (default): After signing up, the customer’s subscription starts right away. Logistics processes begin and recurring billing is scheduled automatically. Manual activation: The customer signs up and pays the initial amount, but the subscription remains inactive until you manually approve it. No logistics process or recurring billing happens until you activate the subscription.

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When to use manual activation

Manual activation is useful when you first want to perform a background check on your customer before charging or shipping your product, or when there is additional setup involved before you can charge your customer or ship your product.

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How manual activation works

When manual activation is enabled, the customer goes through your checkout flow and pays the initial amount, then gets added to Firmhouse as a subscriber with their status set to “inactive”. No monthly or recurring fees get charged yet, and nothing gets shipped out. You must manually activate or reject the subscription before any product ships or any recurring fee gets charged.

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How to enable manual activation

By default your project is set to automatically approve any new subscribers. To change this, head to Subscription Model and scroll down to Activation Strategy. Set it to “Manual activation”. Activation Strategy setting in Subscription Model You also have the option to perform background checks first. See Setting Up Acceptance Checks for more information. Don’t forget to save! Your project is now set to manually activate customers.

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Accepting or rejecting a customer

Once a new customer signs up they will show up in your Customers overview. You will get the option to either Activate or Reject this customer. Customers overview with activate/reject options Set the filter at the top to “Inactive” to only see customers that have yet to be accepted or rejected. If you need more details about the customers, click on the record to go into its detail page. You will also be able to Activate or Reject the subscription there. Customer detail page with activate/reject buttons Acceptance checks panel

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Activating a customer

When you activate a customer, the logistics flow (if set up) will get initiated and the product starts to get shipped. Based on your payment setup, the customer will get charged, and the status will get set to “Activated”.

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Optional: Notify the customer via email

By default, the customer won’t get notified about being activated. To send an email whenever a customer gets activated:

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Steps

  1. Go to “Email configuration” in the sidebar
  2. Find the email “Activation confirmation”
  3. Enable the email
  4. Write the email that you would like to send out (click on “Load example content” to speed up the process)
Press save and you’re done! Now every customer will receive an email once you accepted them.

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Rejecting a customer

When you reject a customer, the status will get set to “Rejected” and the customer will never get charged with any further payments. After rejecting a customer, you need to refund the initial/first payment for the customer’s subscription and notify the customer about the rejection (which can be done automatically).

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Refunding their initial payment

Currently, Firmhouse does not automatically refund payments. You will need to manually refund the customer at the payment provider or from the “Payments” section. Payments section with refund option

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Manually notify your customer about the rejection

You’ll need to notify your customer about the rejection. Some merchants do this manually to add a personal note or answer questions the customer might have. A personal approach can be very beneficial and customer-friendly.

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Send an automated rejection email

By default, Firmhouse doesn’t send any automated emails to your customer about their rejection. To set up an automated rejection email:

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Steps

  1. Go to Email configuration in the sidebar under Settings
  2. Find the email Rejection
  3. Enable the email by enabling the option shown above the email designer
  4. Design your email using the HTML email designer
Press Save and you’re done! Now every customer will receive an email once you rejected them. When setting up your rejection email, consider clicking “Load Example content” to display a template to customize, adding a simple way for your customers to contact you about the rejection, and mentioning that the refund for their payment might take a couple of days to arrive.