Introduction
Manage your subscription plan and access your billing information on the Billing & subscription page. This is where you upgrade from the trial plan, check your current subscription status, and manage payment methods.Accessing Billing Settings
- In the main sidebar, go to Settings
- Select Billing from the settings menu
Subscription Status
Trial Plan
When you first sign up for Bella Booking, you’re on the Trial plan. The billing page shows:- A message indicating you’re on the Trial plan
- Available subscription plans to upgrade to
- Pricing options in the currency Bella bills you in
- Businesses in Australia and New Zealand see pricing in AUD
- Businesses everywhere else see pricing in USD
- Bella bills you in that currency; once you have subscribed, invoices stay in it
Active Subscription
Once you’ve subscribed, the billing page displays:- Current Plan: Your active subscription plan
- Status: The subscription status badge:
- Active: Your plan is running.
- Payment failed: Update your payment method to keep your subscription.
- Unpaid, Paused or Cancelled: Your subscription isn’t active. Update your payment method to restart it.
- Other statuses may appear for specific situations
- Payment method & invoices: Button to open your Stripe billing portal
When the dashboard is locked
When an account has no access, the dashboard shows one of these screens:- Your trial has ended or Your subscription isn’t active: the owner is taken to Billing to choose a plan or restart the subscription. Team members see the screen and are asked to contact the business owner.
- Your account is suspended: our team has suspended the account, and Billing can’t lift that. The owner and team members see this screen on every page, Billing included. See “Your account is suspended”.
Billed monthly or annually
Professional can be billed once a year instead of every month: 950 a year against 99 a month, a saving of 238 over twelve months (about 20%). Those prices are the same number in AUD and USD, and Bella bills you in AUD in Australia and New Zealand, and USD everywhere else. It is the same Professional plan either way, so nothing about what you get changes. Solo and Starter are billed monthly only. To switch, go to Settings → Billing. The yearly option appears there only when it would genuinely cost you less than you pay today, and it shows the saving and the price before you confirm. Some cases go to our team instead: your subscription has a discount applied, it’s already scheduled to end, or the price you’re on is low enough that a year wouldn’t save you anything. Moving back from yearly to monthly is handled by our team too, because it can involve a refund. Contact us in any of those cases and we’ll go through your pricing with you. Paying yearly doesn’t change how your SMS allowance works: it still resets every month, on your billing day (see SMS allowance).Upgrading Your Plan
If you’re on the Trial plan:- Navigate to Settings → Billing
- Review the available subscription plans
- Select the plan that suits your business
- Complete the payment process through Stripe
- Your subscription becomes active immediately
Plans that don’t cover what you’re using
Every feature is unlocked during your trial, so by the time you choose a plan you may already be using something the smaller plans don’t include. Bella checks this before you pay, and there are two outcomes:- Clients are holding something only that feature can honour. An unspent gift card, a live membership, a package with sessions left, account credit or loyalty points. The plan is shown as Not available for your setup with the reason. Those balances belong to your clients, so a plan that can’t honour them isn’t offered.
- It’s a capability only your business uses. Forms, Reviews, Treatment plans, Add-ons, Smart pricing or API access. The plan stays available. Bella lists exactly what will switch off and asks you to confirm before checkout. Your data stays where it is, so upgrading later switches it back on.
Changing Plan Later
Already subscribed? Solo and Starter can move up a tier without leaving Bella:- Go to Settings → Billing → Change your plan
- Select Upgrade to the plan you want
- Check the confirmation: your new price, and when the difference is charged
- Enter a promotion code if you have one
- Confirm
Managing Your Subscription
Everything about your subscription happens on the Billing page itself:
Adding or removing a location is self-serve on the Professional plan: see Locations and your plan.
Cancelling
Select Cancel subscription. Bella shows you the main things that stop working and the date your access runs to, and asks why you’re leaving. Nothing changes on the day you cancel: your plan runs to the end of the period you’ve already paid for, and nothing is deleted. If you change your mind, Resume subscription appears in the same place until that date. Your price and billing date are unchanged, so there is nothing to set up again.Payment method and invoices
Payment method & invoices opens the Stripe billing portal, where you can:- Update your payment method
- View billing history and invoices
- Download receipts
- Update your billing address
What’s Included in Your Plan
Plans compared
Solo and Starter include the same features; Starter allows more team members and more SMS credits. Gift cards, client credit, packages, memberships, digital forms, treatment plans, service add-ons, smart pricing, loyalty and referrals, client reviews, advanced reports, attendance tracking and API access are on Professional only, and all of them are unlocked during your trial. The product shop is on every plan: clients pay for shop orders online, so it needs online payments connected, which every plan includes. Prices are on the pricing page.
Team Member Limit
Solo and Starter plans include a set number of team members; Professional is unlimited. Two things decide whether someone counts:- The limit applies per location. On a multi-location plan, each location gets the full allowance - a team member added at two locations uses one spot at each.
- Only team members who take appointments count. A team member counts if they appear on the scheduler or clients can book them online. Someone who is both hidden from the scheduler and not bookable online - a receptionist, manager or bookkeeper - doesn’t count towards the limit, so you can add as many of those as you need, even when your plan is full. Both settings are on the Add team member form: turn Hide from scheduler on and Online booking enabled off as you add them. Archived team members never count.
SMS Allowance
Every subscription plan includes an allowance of SMS credits. One credit is one SMS segment sent to one client in most countries; texts to some countries use 2 or 4 credits per segment. About 160 characters per segment, or about 70 with emoji. Longer texts use one extra credit per extra segment. The allowance resets every month, on the same day of the month as your billing date, whether you’re billed monthly or annually: a business billed on the 8th gets a fresh allowance on the 8th of every month (in a shorter month, on the last day). The exact number depends on your plan and is shown live on Settings → SMS credits (and on Settings → Billing), with the next reset date beside it, so you always see your current allowance and how much you’ve used. For the character rules and worked examples, see How SMS credits are counted.- Trial: the Trial plan includes 30 SMS credits per month, resetting on the day of the month you signed up.
- Multi-location plans: your per-location allowance is multiplied by the number of locations on your plan.
SMS Credit Packs
If you reach your monthly SMS limit, you can purchase additional SMS credit packs (paid plans only; credit packs aren’t available during the trial). Pack sizes and prices are shown live in Settings → SMS credits (and on the public pricing page) in the currency Bella bills you in (AUD in Australia and New Zealand, USD elsewhere) - typically three one-time packs (around 200 / 500 / 1,000 credits). Prices come from Stripe and can change; always confirm the figure shown at purchase. Buying packs needs the messaging Manage billing permission (Owners have it by default).- Availability: Anytime from Settings → SMS credits on a paid plan (not during the trial)
- Usage: Credits are added immediately and do not expire
- Auto-top-up: Optional - charges your saved card for your chosen pack when both your monthly allowance and additional credits are exhausted
- Go to Settings → SMS credits
- Choose a credit pack size
- Complete payment through Stripe
Refer a business
Every business has its own referral code and link in Settings → Billing, under Refer a business. When another business joins with them, you both get Bella credit:- The business that joins gets $150 Bella credit as soon as the code is applied. On a single-location plan, that covers its first month with Messages Plus.
- You get $150 Bella credit once that business has paid its first bill: the first invoice its own credit doesn’t fully cover. There’s no limit on how many businesses you can refer.
Sharing your code
Under Refer a business, select Copy link, Copy code or Copy message. A business that signs up from your link has your code applied for it, whether it signs up with an email address or with Google or Apple. Your Bella credit shows the credit on your account now. The list below it shows each business that joined with your code, by the date it joined, never by name:- On credit: it has joined and hasn’t paid its first bill yet.
- Credit added: it has paid its first bill, and your $150 is on your account. The bell tells you when this happens.
- Left: it stopped before paying its first bill.
Joining with another business’s code
If you signed up from another business’s link, its code is already applied. Otherwise, before you choose a plan, open Settings → Billing, enter the code under Referred by another business? and select Apply code.- A code can be applied once, only before your first plan, and never your own.
- The credit goes on before your first invoice, so it pays that invoice first. Anything left comes off your next invoices.
FAQs
Q: Can team members access billing settings? A: The account owner has the Billing permission by default. You can grant it to another role from Settings → Team permissions. Buying SMS credit packs is a separate tick: messaging Manage billing. Q: What payment methods are accepted? A: Bella Booking uses Stripe for payments, which accepts major credit cards (Visa, Mastercard, American Express) and other payment methods depending on your region. Q: How do I update my payment method? A: Click Payment method & invoices to open the Stripe portal, where you can add or update payment methods. Q: What happens if my payment fails? A: Your subscription status changes to Payment failed. Update your payment method to keep your subscription. When Stripe is down to its last two tries, anyone with the Billing permission sees a notice that stays until they dismiss it and comes back after each further failed try; its Update payment method button opens the Stripe billing portal, and its Message us link opens a chat with us if you’re having trouble with billing or need more time. If the trial has ended, choose a plan. If the subscription isn’t active, open Billing. Q: Why is a plan showing as “Not available for your setup”? A: That plan doesn’t cover something you’re currently using, and the card says which. It’s either a client-held balance (gift cards, memberships, packages, account credit or loyalty points), your team size, or your number of locations. Clear the reason (for example, let the gift card balances be redeemed, or archive a team member) or choose a plan that covers it. Q: Can I cancel my subscription? A: Yes. Go to Settings → Billing and select Cancel subscription. Bella shows you the main things that stop working, asks why you’re leaving, and confirms the date your access runs to. Your access continues until the end of the current billing period, and nothing is deleted. Changed your mind? The same section shows Resume subscription until that date, and nothing will have moved. If you also want to delete your account and all data, see Account Deletion after cancelling your subscription. Q: What actually stops working when I cancel? A: At the end of your paid period: your online booking page stops taking appointments, appointment reminders and confirmations stop sending, and your team members lose access to the dashboard. Your booking page also stops selling gift cards and products, taking waitlist requests and letting clients reschedule online. It asks clients to contact you directly instead, and if clients have booked through it, search engines can keep showing it for 90 days. Your clients, appointments and records are not deleted when the plan ends; see the next question for how long Bella keeps an account without a plan. Q: What happens to my data if my trial ends and I don’t choose a plan? A: Nothing is deleted when a trial or a plan ends. Your services, forms, clients and everything else you set up stay in place, and choosing a plan opens the account again as you left it. An account left without a plan is kept for 65 days after the trial ended, or 90 days after a paid plan ended. After that, if nobody has used it and nothing in it has changed for that long, Bella permanently deletes the account and all its data. Using the account, such as signing in, restarts the count. If you need longer before choosing a plan, message us. Q: How do I delete my account? A: Account deletion depends on your subscription status:- Trial users: Go to Settings → Business settings → Danger zone → Request account deletion.
- Subscribed users: First cancel your subscription via Settings → Billing → Cancel subscription, then request account deletion from Settings → Business settings → Danger zone.