How to Synchronize Renewals with WooCommerce Subscriptions!

In this guide, you will learn how to synchronize renewals when using WooCommerce Subscriptions.

Synchronization will allow you to set the renewal date of all your renewals for orders going forward to a set day of the month, such as the first of the month, instead of on the day of the month that each customer ordered.

Here is a quick visual.

You can also set it up so that it prorates the first month’s payment. This is the 3rd example in the diagram above.

For example, I sell a maintenance package that costs $250 per month.

And … I synchronize my renewals to be the 1st of every month.

This means that on 1st of every month I automatically am paid by my customers.

If a customer orders on March 10th, they are charged $177. Then, pay $20 on April 1st … then May 1st and so forth until they cancel.

If you are more of a visual learner, feel free to instead follow along with my video tutorial, where I outline everything described below.

Let’s jump into it!

Enable Synchronization of Renewals in WooCommerce

In its default state, WooCommerce Subscriptions will bill renewals on the day of the month that your customer ordered.

So, if you have three customers, with one ordering on September 5, a second ordering on October 15, and a third ordering on November 25, every month you would get a renewal on the 5th, 15th and 25th.

To synchronize your renewals to the same day of the month, the first thing that you must do is turn synchronization on.

Go to WooCommerce > Settings and click on the Subscriptions tab. About halfway down the page you will find the Synchronization heading.

There you will find the option Synchronize renewals. Click on Align Subscription Renewal Day.

Now, when a customer selects one of your subscription products in your WooCommerce site, they will see that the product will renew automatically on the first day of every month.

Quick Note: Changing this setting will not affect your existing subscription orders. So, if you already have orders that renew on different days of the month, they will continue to renew on these different days. To change this, you will have to edit every existing subscription. But this is not recommended unless you have a very good reason to do so. If you must check out my tutorial on bulk updating subscriptions.

Set the Synchronization Day for Each of Your Products (Optional)

If you don’t want your subscription products to renew on the first day of the month, you must set up the synchronization day for each subscription product that you would like to apply this feature.

You do this by selecting the Products menu option from your WordPress Dashboard and clicking All Products. Then, edit the subscription product that you want to apply synchronization by clicking the Edit option underneath the product.

In the Edit product page, go to the General tab and you will see the Synchronize renewals dropdown box. The default value is the Do not synchronize, but you can synchronize your renewals to a different day by selecting this day from the dropdown list. For example, set to the 15th day of the month.

In most cases I always set to the 1st day of the month if I am using synchronization but everyone has a different use case.

If you have a Variable Subscription Product, you have to click the Variations tab.

Then, click into each specific Variation.

Scroll down until you see the Synchronize renewals option. For example:

Enable Prorated Initial Payments (Optional)

By default, WooCommerce will not charge the initial payment of the subscription, regardless of the day of the order. So, if your subscription product costs $100, the first month’s charge will be $0 whether they ordered it on the first day of the month or the last. But you can change this.

First, go back to the Synchronization heading in the Subscription tab of your WooCommerce settings. Underneath Synchronize renewals, you will find the option Prorate First Renewal.

By default, this is set to Never (do not charge any recurring amount), but you can change this to one of the following options:

• Never (charge the full recurring amount at sign-up): You will charge your customer the full subscription price at sign-up. You have a subscription product that costs $100 and renews on the 1st of each month. If a customer signs up on any day besides the 1st they pay the full price. For example, if I sign up on May 25th I pay $100 … on June 1st $100 … July 1st $100 and so forth.
• For Virtual Subscription Products Only: For non-physical subscription products, such as eBooks and software, you will charge your customer the prorated price at sign-up. So, if your subscription product costs $100, their first payment will be $100 if they buy it on the first day of the month but only $50 if they buy it on the 15th of the month. However, for physical products, they will pay the full price at sign-up.
• For All Subscription Products: For all subscription products, you will charge the prorated price at sign-up.