Payment Flow

SubsTrack automates reminders and tracks who has paid. Here’s the full flow.

Overview

1. Billing period — Created automatically (or manually) for each month.
2. Reminders — Sent by email (and optionally Telegram) to members who haven’t paid.
3. Member confirms — Member clicks “I’ve paid” in the email or Telegram.
4. Admin verifies — You confirm the payment in the dashboard or in Telegram.
5. Done — Status is set to confirmed; no more reminders for that period.

Billing periods

• One billing period per group per month (or per cycle).
• Each period has a total price and a payment entry per member with:
  • Amount they owe
  • Status: pending → member_confirmed → confirmed (or overdue / waived)

Periods are created automatically by a cron job after the group’s billing day. You can also create or edit periods manually for variable billing.

Reminders

• When — After the grace period (e.g. 3 days) following the billing day. Exact time depends on the server’s cron schedule (e.g. daily at 10:00).
• Who — Only members with status pending or overdue.
• Channels — Email always (if the member has an email). Telegram if they’ve linked their account and have Telegram enabled.

The reminder includes:

• Group name and period (e.g. “March 2026”)
• Amount they owe
• Your payment link
• Button or link: “I’ve paid”

Confirming payment (member)

Two ways:

1. Email — Click the “I’ve paid” link in the reminder. The link is unique and expires after a few days.
2. Telegram — Tap the “I’ve paid” button under the reminder message.

After that, their status becomes member_confirmed. They may see a message like “Waiting for admin verification.”

Verifying payment (admin)

When a member confirms, you get a notification (email and/or Telegram) with something like: “Alice says they paid 3 € for YouTube Premium — March 2026.”

You can then:

1. Dashboard — Open the group → Billing / History → find the period and member → Confirm or Reject.
2. Telegram — Use the Confirm / Reject buttons in the bot message.

• Confirm — Status becomes confirmed. No more reminders for that payment.
• Reject — Status goes back to pending; they’ll get reminders again.

Only you (the admin) can confirm; members cannot confirm for each other.

Statuses

Status	Meaning
pending	Not paid yet; will receive reminders.
member_confirmed	Member said they paid; waiting for your verification.
confirmed	You verified the payment. Done.
overdue	Still not paid after a long time (e.g. 14+ days); reminders continue.
waived	You waived this member’s payment for this period.

Follow-up reminders

A separate job can send follow-up reminders (e.g. every 3 days) to members who are still pending, and nudge you when there are payments in member_confirmed waiting for your verification.

Summary

• Reminders are automatic; members get email (and optionally Telegram).
• Members confirm with one click; you verify in the app or Telegram.
• Until you confirm, they stay in “member_confirmed” and you may get nudges to verify.