Partner billing: who your customers pay
Your customers either pay Storage Studio directly, and you earn commission, or you bill them yourself and we invoice you a wholesale price for each renewal. Which applies is part of your agreement, and each customer moves at their next billing period after a 7-day notice.
There are two ways the customers you bring can pay for a Storage Studio subscription. Which one applies to you is part of your agreement with us, and you'll find it under Terms in the partner portal.
The two ways
| Your customers pay us directly | You bill your customers | |
|---|---|---|
| Who charges the customer | We do, through our secure checkout | You do, on your own terms |
| What you get | Commission on their payments, paid out monthly | The difference between your price and our wholesale price |
| What we send you | A payout with a statement | An invoice for each customer renewal |
| Billing page in the portal | Only if you've billed customers before | Yes |
Paying us directly is the usual way, and what every partner starts on.
When you bill your customers
Three days before each of your customers renews, we invoice you the wholesale price: the list price less the wholesale discount in your agreement. The invoice is due within the number of days your agreement sets, and your customer's licence is extended as soon as the invoice is raised — they never wait on the payment between us. Any tax that applies is shown on the invoice; see Partner payouts and tax.
The Billing page in the portal shows:
- Customers you bill and how many are switching at their next billing period;
- You owe — the total of your open invoices;
- Your customers — each one's plan, who bills them, and their next renewal, with any change that's coming and its date;
- Your invoices — each with its period, amount, status and due date, and Pay now on an open one.
When the way of paying changes
When your agreement changes from one way to the other, nothing happens to a customer mid-period. Each customer moves at the start of their own next billing period, and we email them at least 7 days before:
- Moving to you billing them: we tell them their billing is moving to you, and that we won't charge their card again. The period they've already paid us for runs to its end.
- Moving to them paying us: we ask them to add a card before the date, through a link to our secure checkout. Nothing is charged before the date.
If a customer's next period starts in less than 7 days, their move waits one more period, so nobody is ever given short notice. Customers are told about the change and nothing else — the app looks and works the same for them. What they see is described in If you came to us through a partner.
Questions about an invoice: email partners@storagestudio.us.
See also: The partner portal, Partner payouts and tax.