Billing schedules

Every subscription plan has a schedule: the rule that decides when each subscriber is charged. There are two, and for most stores the choice is obvious once you see them side by side.

Rolling or Fixed calendar

Rolling — from each customer’s signup date. The normal subscription. Each customer’s clock starts the day they sign up: someone who subscribes on the 8th is charged on the 8th of every month, someone who joins on the 20th on the 20th. Use it for everyday products — coffee, vitamins, pet food, skincare refills.

Fixed calendar — everyone bills on the same dates. Every subscriber is charged on the same day, no matter when they joined. Use it when you ship the same thing to everyone at once — a monthly snack box, a quarterly beauty box, a seasonal gift crate.

The reason to choose a fixed calendar is operational, not financial. On Rolling, a box that goes to 400 subscribers goes out as 400 separate orders spread across the month, and you’re buying stock and packing every day. On a fixed calendar, the same 400 orders arrive on one day: you buy once, pack once and ship in one batch.

If you only sell “every month from signup” subscriptions, leave the schedule on Rolling and you can ignore the rest of this page. Every plan created before fixed calendars existed is Rolling, and nothing changed for the subscribers already on them.

Which plan you need

• Rolling works on every Curobi plan, including Free.
• Fixed calendar needs Pro. It isn’t included in the Free plan’s 14-day trial — the trial unlocks Curated Boxes, but not a fixed calendar for them.
• Below Pro, the Schedule section shows a Pro feature badge, a short explanation and a View Pro plan button instead of the settings. Your plans bill on each customer’s own dates (Rolling), and you can still create and edit everything else about a plan. Curobi refuses to save a fixed calendar on a plan below Pro.

If you move below Pro

A plan that’s already on a fixed calendar keeps charging everyone on the same dates, and your subscribers notice nothing. That’s because the calendar travels with each subscription in Shopify, and Shopify is what bills it — a downgrade doesn’t reach in and change subscriptions that already exist.

What you lose is the ability to change it:

• You can still edit the plan’s name, discount and products, and save. The calendar stays exactly as it is.
• To change the dates, or to switch the plan back to Rolling, move back to Pro. Switching to Rolling is a change to the calendar too, so it’s locked along with the dates.
• New plans you create bill from each customer’s signup date.

Set up a fixed calendar

Open Subscription plans, then open a plan (or click Create plan) and scroll to the Schedule section. Choose Fixed calendar and fill in the settings below. Curated Boxes and Build-a-Box have the same section in the box editor — see Box programs.

The settings, one by one

Why the settings work the way they do

The charge day stops at 28 because every month has a 28th, February included. “Everyone pays on the 31st” can’t be true in a month that has 30 days, so Curobi doesn’t let you promise it. If you want the end of the month, use 28; if you want the start, use 1.

A ship day on or before the charge day means next month because a batch can’t ship before it’s been paid for. A ship day of the 5th on a plan that charges on the 25th can only sensibly be the 5th of the month after the charge. The same rule covers a ship day that equals the charge day: if your boxes go out the same day you charge, leave Ship day empty rather than typing the charge day in, which would push shipping out by a month.

Late orders wait for the next batch because the cutoff exists to give you a fixed headcount to buy and pack for. If orders could keep joining right up to the charge day, the number you packed for would change after you’d packed. The cutoff closes the batch a few days early, and anyone who orders after it is moved to the next one rather than turned away.

Unticked months follow the plan’s frequency. On a plan that renews every month, unticked means every month. On a plan that renews every 2 or 3 months, unticked fixes the day but not the month: each subscriber renews on that day every 2 or 3 months, counted from their own start, so your subscribers end up spread across different months. If you want everyone in the same months, tick them.

Check the preview before you save

The grey preview box under the settings shows two things:

• What customers see at checkout — the exact sentence shoppers see at checkout. Read it back to yourself; if it sounds wrong, your settings are wrong.
• Next charge days — the next few dates Curobi will charge everyone. A quick sanity check before you save.

Worked examples

Monthly snack box

Charge day 1, no ship day, all months unticked, cutoff 3, Waits and ships with the next charge day’s batch. Everyone pays on the 1st and the box ships the same day. Anyone who orders less than 3 days before the 1st goes into the following month’s box.

Quarterly candle box

Charge day 15, ship day 1, tick Feb, May, Aug and Nov, cutoff 7, Waits and ships with the next charge day’s batch.

• Everyone is charged on 15 Feb, 15 May, 15 Aug and 15 Nov.
• Boxes ship on the 1st of the following month (the ship day is before the charge day).
• Anyone who orders after 8 Feb is put into the May batch.
• A customer who signs up in March pays at checkout and receives their first box with the 1 June shipment.

Coffee club that ships right away

Charge day 10, cutoff 0, Ships right away, then renews on the charge day. A new customer gets a bag straight away, then falls in step with everyone else on the 10th.

What changes once a plan is on a fixed calendar

• The plan page shows a Next charge day card once you’ve saved: the next charge date, its ship date, how many renewals are due that day, and how many new subscribers have joined since the last charge day.
• Skip moves a subscriber to the next charge date on the calendar, not “one month later”. The plan only bills on its own dates, so a skip lands on the next one. On a quarterly plan, that means skipping a whole season.
• Reschedule moves forward to a charge date. When a customer picks a new date in the customer portal, Curobi moves it forward to the next charge date on or after the day they picked.
• The storefront shows when to order. Under the frequency selector, the widget shows a line such as “Order by Nov 15 · ships Dec 1”, and the sentence from What customers see at checkout appears at checkout.
• Reporting reads as the calendar. A plan that charges in four chosen months is labelled “4 times a year · Feb, May, Aug and Nov 15”, and its revenue is counted as four charges a year.

Box programs on a fixed calendar

Curated Boxes and Build-a-Box have the same Schedule section in the box editor, with the same settings and the same Pro requirement. Mix & Match bundles don’t have one.

• The schedule drives the box’s selling plan. Save it on a subscription box and the box’s subscription bills on that calendar. If you set a schedule before the box is sold as a subscription, it carries over when you make it one.
• The period picker lists charge days. Instead of calendar months, the editor offers the next four charge days with their ship dates — for example “Nov 15, 2026 charge · ships Dec 1, 2026 (November 2026 box)”. Each box is named for the month it’s charged in, so the November box is the one that goes out with the 15 November charge.
• One-time box orders join a season. Someone who buys the box as a one-time purchase gets the box for the season their order falls into, using the same order cutoff as subscribers. The order is tagged curobi-season:YYYY-MM so you can see which season it belongs to.

During the Free plan’s trial you can open the Curated Boxes editor, but the Schedule section is locked with no save button.

Limits

• Fixed calendar needs the Pro plan. See Which plan you need.
• Monthly plans only. A charge day of the month only means something on a plan that renews in months, so weekly and yearly plans stay Rolling.
• A plan that charges in chosen months can’t also be prepaid. Use pay-as-you-go for a quarterly or seasonal plan.
• Switching a plan between Rolling and Fixed calendar affects new signups only. Existing subscriptions keep their current dates, just as with any other plan edit.

FAQ

Can I charge on the 30th?

No. The charge day is capped at 28 so every month has it. Use 28 or 1.

What if a customer signs up on the charge day itself?

With a cutoff of 0, they join that day’s batch. With any cutoff above 0, they join the next one.

Do customers pay twice if they sign up just before a charge day?

No. They pay once at checkout for their first box, and the next charge is the following charge day on the calendar.

I’m not on Pro. Why can’t I see the Fixed calendar settings?

Fixed calendar is a Pro feature. Below Pro, the Schedule section shows a View Pro plan button instead of the settings. Rolling plans work on every plan.

Can I try a fixed calendar during the free trial?

No. The 14-day trial on the Free plan includes Curated Boxes but not fixed-calendar schedules.

What happens to my fixed-calendar plans if I downgrade from Pro?

They keep charging on the same dates, and your subscribers notice nothing. You can’t change the calendar, or switch it to Rolling, until you’re back on Pro. You can still edit the plan’s other settings. See If you move below Pro.

Does the customer see any of this?

Yes. The sentence under What customers see at checkout appears at checkout, and the “Order by … · ships …” hint appears on the product page.

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