What This Helps You Do
A billing pause stops a member's next Stripe renewal and restarts student payment billing on a date you choose. Use it when a member takes time away, for example for travel or an injury, and should not be charged meanwhile.
Billing pause is opening to gyms in stages. If your member page says new pauses are not open for your gym yet, nothing has changed at Stripe and you can keep billing the member as usual.
A billing pause is separate from freezing access. A pause stops renewals and leaves check-in alone. Freezing access blocks ordinary check-in and leaves billing alone. Only the gym owner can do either.
Before You Start
- The member pays through a monthly Stripe subscription that MatAdmin manages, with one fixed price, no discount and no sales tax.
- The current month is fully paid and there is no other unpaid invoice. A pause does not forgive, refund or stop an unpaid invoice.
- You know the date the member should start paying again. Every pause needs a resume date, no more than 12 months after the pause starts.
Steps
- Open the member's profile and find Billing pause in Student Billing.
- Select Pause billing, choose a resume date and select Preview pause. MatAdmin checks the subscription with Stripe.
- Read the preview. It shows when billing pauses, when it resumes, when paid coverage ends and the estimated first charge after the pause. All times are in your gym's timezone, with the UTC time below.
- If your gym bills on a set day of the month, confirm that this member's renewal date moves to the resume date.
- Select Schedule pause. The profile then shows Stripe's answer, for example Pause scheduled.
What Happens Next
- The pause starts when the current paid period ends. There is no credit for unused time because nothing paid is skipped.
- Billing restarts at 9:00 AM gym time on the resume date. That date becomes the member's new renewal date each month.
- While the pause is in effect you can change the resume date, resume billing now or cancel the membership.
- Before the pause starts you can withdraw it, which lets the next renewal go ahead as normal, or cancel the membership. Dates cannot change before the pause starts; withdraw it and schedule a new one instead.
- MatAdmin does not email the member. Stripe sends its usual billing emails.
What Staff See
Staff and read-only users see the pause status, the pause and resume dates, when paid coverage ends and whether access is frozen. They cannot pause, change or end a pause, and they cannot freeze or unfreeze access.
Common Mistakes
- Using the Paused label. The Paused billing status label in Edit Member never stopped Stripe. For a member billed through Stripe, MatAdmin no longer offers it. Use Pause billing instead.
- Expecting a pause to freeze check-in. It does not. Freeze access separately in Edit Member if the member should not train.
- Expecting the first charge to wait for payment. If the first charge after the pause fails, billing stays paused and Stripe retries the same invoice. A late payment still covers the period from the resume date, and Stripe can add catch-up charges.
If Something Goes Wrong
The profile shows what Stripe reports, never a guess:
- First charge failed or Payment needs the member: billing stays paused until the member pays the same invoice. Ask the member to update their payment method.
- First charge expired: the unpaid charge was closed and that period is not paid. Select Restart billing to review a new charge.
- Active, not paid or Paid late, needs review: Stripe restarted billing without a normal payment. Contact MatAdmin support before changing the member's billing.
- Needs review: MatAdmin could not confirm Stripe's result yet. Do not change the member in Stripe meanwhile; contact support if it stays more than a day.
- Cancellation set in the billing portal or Portal cancellation undone: the member changed their subscription in the Stripe portal. An earlier pause does not come back after an undo; schedule a new pause if you need one.
- Paused in Stripe outside MatAdmin: someone paused collection in Stripe directly. MatAdmin shows the exact resume time Stripe holds and does not change it.
If the member was labeled Paused or Frozen before billing pause existed, the profile shows a one-time review notice. You can pause billing, remove the Paused label or keep the labels. Removing the Paused label changes only the label in MatAdmin: Stripe billing and access do not change. Keeping the labels changes nothing. Only Pause billing changes Stripe, and only once you confirm it.