By default, a subscription automatically starts after a customer goes through your checkout process. However, Firmhouse offers the option to manually activate subscriptions. 

What is manual activation?

Manual activation is a way of preventing the customers subscription to be active right after sign up. Simply put: The customer signs up but no logistics process or recurring billing happens yet.

Why would you want to use manual activation?
Here are some reasons why our customers use manual activation:

How manual activation works

By default your project is set to automatically approve any new subscribers. If you want to change that, head to Subscription Model and scroll down to Activation Strategy.

Set it to "Manual activation".

You also have the option to perform background checks first. Read this article on how to set that up

Don't forget to save! Your project is now set to manually activate customers.

Now let's have a look at how you can activate or reject 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.

Tip: Set the filter at the top to "Inactive" in order 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:

Let's have a look at what happens when you activate a customer

Optional: Notify the customer via email

By default, the customer won't get notified about being activated. In case you would like to send an email whenever a customer gets activated, follow these steps:

Press save and you're done! Now every customer will receive an email once you accepted them.

Let's have a look at what happens when you reject a customer:

After rejecting a customer, these are the steps you have to take:

Refunding their initial payment

*[At the moment, per 21.05.24,] we do not automatically refund payments. We are looking forward to releasing this feature in the future! For now, you will have to manually refund the customer at the payment provider or from the "Payments" section."

Manually notify your customer about the rejection

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

Send an automated rejection e-mail via the Firmhouse platform

By default, we don't send any automated e-mails to your customer about their rejection. When you don't prefer to send a personal or manual notification, you can set up an automated rejection e-mail.

Setting up your automated customer rejection e-mail:

Press Save and you're done! Now every customer will receive an email once you rejected them.

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