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Firmhouse provides multiple ways to pause and resume subscriptions, giving you flexibility in how you manage customer accounts. You can pause subscriptions manually from the Portal, allow customers to pause their own subscriptions through the Self Service Center, set up automatic pausing for subscriptions without active products, or use the GraphQL API for programmatic control.

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Pausing a subscription from the Portal

To pause an active subscription, navigate to the subscription page in the Firmhouse Portal and select the “Pause subscription” button in the top right of the screen. Sub Page Pause Button A confirmation modal will appear explaining the effects of pausing. During the pause, the customer will not be charged and no new orders will be generated. To resume the subscription, simply navigate to the subscription detail page and click the button to resume. Pause Confirmation Modal

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Resuming a paused subscription

When a subscription is paused, a blue bar indicates the paused state on the subscription page. A “Resume” button appears that opens a confirmation modal when clicked. Paused Sub Resume Btn 1

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Pausing a subscription from the Self Service Center

This functionality is only available for smart Order-based projects.

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Steps

  1. Enable the functionality for your customers by finding the Customers can pause and resume their subscription checkbox under Self service center settings. Ssc Settings Pause
  2. The next time the customer visits their Self-Service Center, they will see the option to pause their subscription. Customer Ssc Pause
  3. Once selected, they will be prompted to confirm pausing their subscription. Customer Ssc Pause Confirmation
  4. The subscription will be paused and the customer can return at any time to resume their subscription. Customer Ssc Paused View
  5. When the customer is ready to return, they can resume at any time. Clicking “Resume subscription” will show them when their subscription will be active again. Ssc Resume Sub Modal 1

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Automatically pausing subscriptions without active products

This functionality is only available for smart Order-based projects. When customers are enabled to manage their products by themselves, it’s possible for them to remove all active products from their subscription. In this case, the subscription remains active even though there are no products left or future shipments scheduled, which can clutter analytics and make subscription management harder. To prevent this, Firmhouse offers an option to automatically pause subscriptions without active products every night. This functionality is enabled by default for smart order-based projects created after November 13, 2024. For existing projects, you can opt-in and enable this functionality if you’d like to take advantage of it.

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Steps

  1. Find the Pause subscriptions without products checkbox under Self service center settings. Ssc Settings Auto Pause Once enabled, subscriptions without any active products will automatically pause daily at 3:10 am. Products marked as inactive (owned/returned) or deleted from subscriptions are not considered active.
  2. If auto-pausing is enabled, customers will see a message in their dashboard letting them know. If they add new products before the scheduled pause, the message will disappear and the subscription will remain active. 1ssc Auto Pause Warning
  3. Paused subscriptions can be resumed through the usual SSC resume flow, provided you have the pause/resume option enabled.

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Pausing a subscription via API

Subscriptions can be paused via the pauseSubscription mutation. Please refer to the developer documentation for more details.

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Billing and orders upon resuming a subscription

Once a subscription is paused, no orders or payments will be created. When the subscription is resumed, the next order will be scheduled while maintaining the original timeline, ensuring the schedule continues seamlessly.

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Notifications and events

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Outgoing webhooks

You can take advantage of subscription paused and subscription resumed webhooks to set up additional automations.

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Email notifications

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Project events email notifications

If you have set up an email to receive project email notifications, you will receive an email when a subscription gets paused. Email Notification Settings

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Upcoming order emails when paused

Upcoming order emails are also sent out to paused customers. You can use the {{subscription.status}} liquid tag to conditionally adjust the email content for this use case. For example: 
{% if subscription.status == "paused" %}
  Your subscription is paused! Resume in the next few days to receive this order in time!
{% endif %}
You can adjust the email content from the Email configuration settings. Paused Sub Email Notification