What is a billing anchor?
How does a billing anchor work?
With an anchor, renewals snap to the anchor day instead of the signup date. The first order can ship right away, with the first renewal on the next anchor, or wait for the anchor itself.
Example (made-up dates): a monthly box is anchored to the 2nd of the month. A customer subscribes on March 20. Their checkout order ships right away, and every renewal bills on the 2nd: April 2, May 2 and so on. A customer who subscribes on March 28 also renews on April 2, so both boxes are packed in the same batch.
Why do billing anchors matter for subscriptions?
They turn renewals spread across the month into one predictable batch. That matters when you produce, buy or pack to a schedule: a farm box harvested on Mondays, a monthly edition printed once, a kitchen cooking for one delivery day. The catch is the gap between checkout and the first renewal, which can be very short. A cutoff solves that.
How does Zubs handle billing anchors?
In Zubs you anchor each delivery interval of a subscription plan to a weekday, a day of the month or a day of the year, and decide whether the first order ships at once or on the anchor. A cutoff moves sign-ups close to the anchor into the next cycle, so nobody is billed twice within a few days.
Bottom line
A billing anchor puts all renewals on the same day. Pair it with a cutoff so new subscribers aren’t billed twice within a few days.
Frequently asked questions
- What's the difference between a billing anchor and a billing date?
- The billing date is when one order is charged. The anchor is the rule that decides which day that is.
- Can different delivery intervals have different anchors?
- In Zubs, yes. Each delivery interval in a subscription plan can have its own anchor.
- Is a billing anchor the same as a cutoff?
- No. The anchor is the billing day; the cutoff is the deadline before it.