Billing and Subscription

V2 company billing

The V2 Billing page is for the company owner. It shows the subscription status and billing history, links to hosted platform invoices when available, and summarizes stored-file usage and approximate AI usage. Use Storage and Attachments for storage details.

Online subscription checkout is not available while the subscription price, trial terms, and platform billing configuration remain undecided. This page does not promise a plan price or trial length. Once checkout is enabled, it opens the provider-hosted checkout. A retry keeps the original attempt terms; expired attempts can be retried safely, while an attempt whose result cannot be confirmed is held for reconciliation instead of starting another checkout. When subscription management is available, the owner portal is bound to the company's verified billing customer. This platform subscription flow is separate from Stripe customer payments used to collect payments for estimates and invoices.

This V2 billing foundation is pending production activation. It does not add SMS, add-on, or referral purchases, automatic dunning, or account suspension.

Clean Estimate V1 reference

The rest of this article preserves retired V1 subscription, plan-management, SMS-credit, referral-credit, payment-method, and invoice-history instructions. Those controls and purchase workflows are not current V2 functionality.

Plans and Pricing Tiers

CE Pro offers tiered subscription plans designed for different business sizes and needs. Each tier unlocks additional features and higher usage limits.

Plan Comparison

Billing Frequency

All plans are available on monthly or annual billing. Annual billing provides a discount compared to the month-to-month rate. Your billing frequency is shown on the Subscription card.

Subscription Card

The Subscription card displays your current plan details at a glance:

• Plan Name -- Your current subscription tier.
• Status Badge -- Active, Invite Only, Past Due, or Cancelled.
• Billing Period -- Monthly or Annual, with the next billing date.
• Access Info -- If your organization is in prelaunch access, the card may show onboarding or billing status details.

Tip: If your status shows Past Due, update your payment method immediately through the Stripe portal to avoid service interruption.

Upgrading Your Plan

1. Open the Settings section in the sidebar and click Billing.
2. Click Manage Subscription on the Subscription card.
3. The Stripe customer portal opens in a new tab.
4. Select the plan you want to upgrade to.
5. Confirm the change.

When you upgrade mid-cycle, Stripe prorates the charges. You are credited for the unused portion of your current plan and charged the prorated amount for the new plan. The change takes effect immediately.

What Happens After Upgrading

• New features unlock instantly.
• Higher usage limits apply immediately.
• Your next invoice reflects the new plan price.
• Your billing date does not change.

Downgrading Your Plan

1. Open the Settings section in the sidebar and click Billing.
2. Click Manage Subscription.
3. In the Stripe portal, select a lower-tier plan.
4. Confirm the change.

Downgrades take effect at the end of your current billing cycle. You retain access to all features of your current plan until the cycle ends.

What to Check Before Downgrading

• Team members -- If your current team size exceeds the lower plan's limit, you need to remove team members first.
• Active modules -- Modules not included in the lower plan will be disabled at the end of the cycle. Export any data you need beforehand.
• Webhook and API access -- If moving to a plan without API access, active webhooks will stop firing.

SMS Add-On Credits

The SMS Add-on card shows the status of your text messaging capability:

• Status -- Active or Inactive. Active means you can send SMS messages from CE Pro.
• Messages Used This Month -- A count of SMS messages sent during the current billing cycle.
• Credit Balance -- If your plan uses SMS credits, this shows your remaining balance.

How SMS Credits Work

SMS credits are consumed each time CE Pro sends a text message. Each outbound message costs one credit. Inbound messages (customer replies) do not consume credits.

If your plan includes SMS, credits replenish at the start of each billing cycle. If SMS is an add-on for your plan tier, you purchase credit bundles through the Stripe portal.

Purchasing Additional SMS Credits

1. Click Manage Subscription on the Subscription card.
2. In the Stripe portal, find the SMS add-on section.
3. Select a credit bundle.
4. Complete the purchase.

Credits are added to your account immediately.

Tip: Monitor your SMS usage throughout the month. If you run automated follow-up sequences, usage can increase quickly during busy seasons.

AI Usage Card

The AI Usage card summarizes metered AI activity for the current month; provider-cost figures are estimates and are separate from CleanEstimate subscription billing.

• Input Tokens -- The number of tokens sent to AI models.
• Output Tokens -- The number of tokens generated by AI models.
• Images -- The number of AI image operations (photo estimates, mockups).
• Estimated cost -- An approximate provider-cost amount, not a subscription balance or a record of charges.

For the monthly AI usage limit and how Warn, Block, and Allow overage work, see AI Credits.

Referral Program

The Referral card displays your referral program details:

• Referral Code -- Your unique code. Share it with other service business owners.
• Referral Link -- A shareable URL that includes your code.
• Total Referrals -- The number of businesses that signed up using your code.
• Credited -- Referrals that have been confirmed and applied as account credits.
• Pending -- Referrals that signed up but have not yet qualified.
• Earned -- The total dollar amount you have earned through referrals.

Referral credits are applied as discounts on future invoices. They do not expire as long as your account remains active.

Tip: Share your referral link with other service business owners at trade shows, in online communities, or through industry groups.

Viewing Invoices

The Invoice History table shows all past billing invoices from CE Pro. Each row includes:

• Invoice Number -- The unique identifier.
• Amount -- The dollar amount charged.
• Status -- Paid, Open, or Failed.
• Date -- The date the invoice was issued.
• Download -- A link to download the invoice as a PDF.

Click the Download link on any row to save a PDF copy for your records or accountant.

Failed Invoices

If an invoice shows a Failed status, it means the charge was declined. Common causes:

• Expired credit card.
• Insufficient funds.
• Bank-level fraud block.

Update your payment method through the Stripe portal to resolve failed charges. CE Pro retries failed charges automatically for up to 7 days.

Managing Payment Methods

All payment method management is handled through the Stripe customer portal.

Office Payment Collection (V1)

V1 workflow boundary: Current V2 can collect a required signed-estimate deposit and can send a standalone invoice whose remaining balance the customer pays through hosted Stripe Checkout. It also supports job-to-invoice creation, reviewed email/SMS delivery, governed admin partial/split cash, check, ACH, external, and hosted-Stripe collection through Open secure card checkout, and controlled refunds. Hosted card links settle only from the verified webhook and never expose raw card entry to Clean Estimate. Copied links use the customer-safe invoice/confirmation return instead of admin sign-in; freeform staff payment references stay office-only. Embedded keyed-card entry, tips, credits/write-offs, and mobile collection remain V1-only parity work. See Invoices and Payments for the current V2 workflow.

Estimate-side payment collection now authorizes through the same estimate-friendly permission path as the rest of the estimating workspace, so office users with estimate access can open the modal without hitting a 403.

Updating Your Payment Method

1. Open the Settings section in the sidebar and click Billing.
2. Click Manage Subscription.
3. In the Stripe portal, click Payment Methods.
4. Add a new card or bank account.
5. Set it as your default payment method.
6. Remove outdated payment methods if desired.

The Manage Billing button now opens the Stripe portal using the current site origin, so a stale app URL setting is less likely to block the return link.

Accepted Payment Methods

CE Pro accepts the following through Stripe:

• Credit cards (Visa, Mastercard, American Express, Discover).
• Debit cards.
• ACH bank transfers (where available).

Stripe Portal Access

The Stripe customer portal is a secure, hosted page provided by Stripe. It handles all sensitive payment information. CE Pro never stores your full credit card number or bank account details.

From the Stripe portal you can:

• View and update payment methods.
• Change your subscription plan.
• View and download invoices.
• Cancel your subscription.
• Update your billing address.

If the portal is temporarily unavailable, the Billing page now returns a setup or availability message instead of a generic failure. The most common causes are:

• Stripe is not configured for the environment yet.
• The workspace does not have a Stripe customer id yet.
• Stripe Billing Portal configuration is missing or still being updated.

The page now distinguishes between the most common Stripe portal problems:

• Missing billing customer -- the workspace's Stripe customer id no longer exists in Stripe.
• Portal configuration issue -- the Stripe Billing Portal has not been configured for the account yet.
• Invalid return URL -- the app URL configuration is malformed, so Stripe cannot redirect back to CE Pro after portal actions.

Self-Serve Trial and Early Access

CleanEstimate Pro now supports direct self-serve workspace creation from /signup, while support can still provision selected organizations through early-access workflows when needed.

For self-serve organizations:

• The signup flow creates the owner account, organization, owner membership, starter setup data, and a 14-day trial.
• The owner is signed in and sent to /onboarding to finish company info, services, and pricing setup.
• Billing details and plan selection can be completed before the trial ends.

For support-provisioned organizations:

• Early access invitations may still be issued manually for selected accounts.
• CleanEstimate Pro provisions the organization first and then emails the account owner an invite link.
• If that invite link expires or gets used already, the recovery flow now keeps you on the workspace-activation path. Use the same invited email address to send yourself a fresh setup link instead of joining the waitlist again.
• Newly provisioned trial workspaces default to a 14-day trial window unless CE Pro support assigns a different onboarding length manually. Existing trial end dates are not shortened by this change.
• Access and feature availability may vary while the platform is still rolling out.

Tips

• Check the Billing page after onboarding to confirm your subscription status and payment method details.
• Download invoice PDFs at the end of each month for your accounting records.
• Monitor AI usage if you use features like the photo estimator, AI lead scoring, or AI-generated proposal text. Heavy usage can consume credits quickly.
• If CE Pro support provisions your workspace manually, watch for your onboarding email. Once your workspace is provisioned, the invite email is your path into the account.
• If you refer other businesses, check the Referral card periodically to track your earned credits.