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When Your Trial Ends
Your 14-day PRO trial ends with a guided wizard. Pick which services, products, photos and staff member stay active on FREE, and understand what can be restored if you later subscribe.
Last updated 15 September 2026
Every new OpenChair venue gets a 14-day PRO trial of released Pro features available to that venue. Preview features and controlled pilots require separate access confirmation. When the trial ends without a paid subscription, your venue moves to the FREE plan. This guide explains what changes and how to use the Trial Ending Wizard to pick what stays active.
Where to find it - Web: Settings → Plan. Mobile shows trial countdown only - all plan management is web-only (App Store and Google Play in-app billing rules).
TL;DR
- Trial lasts 14 days from venue creation, with no credit card required. Preview and pilot access is not guaranteed by starting a trial.
- A countdown banner appears 7 days before trial end with a Decide now button.
- The Trial Ending Wizard previews exactly what changes if you drop to FREE - your customers' view, your team's access, your own access.
- Downgrading does not itself delete records placed above Free limits. Retention and deletion terms still apply, and eligible retained items can be restored after you subscribe.
The trial countdown banner
A banner appears at the top of the app starting 7 days before your trial ends. Its tone changes as the deadline approaches:
| When | Banner state |
|---|---|
| More than 7 days left | Nothing shown. |
| 7-4 days left | Dismissible. Soft reminder with a See what changes button. |
| 3-2 days left | Not dismissible. Stays at the top of every page. |
| Last day | Bold: Your trial ends today. Big Decide now button. |
| First 30 days on FREE (post-rollback) | Different message explaining that the venue is on Free, with a path to review Pro. |
The banner CTAs route to Settings → Plan, which is the narrative home for tier state.
Trial Ending Wizard
Open the wizard from Settings → Plan → Preview your FREE plan. It opens in a wide responsive sheet (mobile shows it fullscreen). Three sections, in order of who notices first:
1. Your customers will notice
Read-only preview of the storefront-facing changes:
- Your storefront reverts to the default theme. Your saved branding, colours and custom-domain settings are paused while they remain retained, and can be reapplied after you subscribe.
- Services hidden - if you have more than 5 active services, the wizard tells you how many will be hidden from the public storefront. See Storefront on FREE for the visual changes.
- Portfolio photos hidden - if you have more than 12 published photos, the rest become hidden.
- Selling new gift cards pauses (purchase flow only - existing gift cards keep working).
- SMS and email campaigns stop - campaign sends are PRO-only.
2. Your team will notice (interactive)
This section appears only if you have more than one active staff member.
"FREE keeps one bookable team member. The others stay in your salon, their bookings and history preserved, but they can't sign in until you upgrade."
Pick which staff member stays active via a radio group. Your choice saves immediately (cross-device - pick it up on another device and continue). The selection becomes permanent at trial end; the other members' accounts are frozen but not deleted.
Owner profiles aren't selectable here - the owner is always retained separately.
3. You'll notice
Read-only summary of operator-side changes:
- Timesheet and invoicing lock - you can still see your historical data; new entries are gated. Commission setup, owner reports and personal earnings remain available; the commission Intelligence card locks with the rest of Intelligence.
- Intelligence locks. Reports, AI narratives, and the 90-day window all go quiet. The 7-day basic dashboard stays.
- Assistant locks. The PRO Assistant surface is unavailable until upgrade.
Wizard footer
Two buttons:
- Continue with FREE - closes the wizard. Doesn't trigger any destructive write. Useful when you've made your staff pick but aren't ready to commit yet.
- Keep Pro access - opens the reviewed plan decision in Settings → Plan & billing with
trial_wizardattribution preserved through Checkout.
Extending your trial
Owners can extend the trial by 7 days, once per venue. Available from Settings → Plan → Extend trial by 7 days while the trial is still active.
- One-time. You won't see the button again after using it.
- Adds 7 days from your current
trialEndsAt, not from today. If you have 3 days left, you'll have 10 after extending. - Refused if the trial has already ended - once on FREE, the path back is via upgrade.
What happens at trial end (mechanically)
When the trial-end timestamp passes, a Postgres function runs automatically (no manual trigger required):
- The venue's tier flips from
TRIALtoFREE. - Every service, product, portfolio photo, and team member beyond the FREE cap gets flagged
is_above_plan_limit = true. Nothing is deleted. - Memberships freeze (
is_frozen_for_plan_limit = true). - The storefront begins rendering with the vanilla theme on the next page load.
- A row is written to
venue_plan_change_logwithreason: "trial_end_auto"and metadata showing the counts flagged.
You'll see the post-rollback banner the next time you load the app. The downgrade operation changes Free caps and lock states rather than deleting the affected rows. OpenChair's retention and deletion terms continue to apply.
What the downgrade keeps in place
The table describes the downgrade operation. It does not promise indefinite retention. Records remain subject to OpenChair's retention and deletion terms, lawful holds and technical backup expiry.
| What | Preserved? |
|---|---|
| Clients, bookings, payment history | Yes |
| Services / products / photos beyond the FREE cap | Yes - flagged hidden, not deleted |
| Brand voice persona, voice settings | Yes |
| Custom domain settings | Yes (paused, not removed) |
| Storefront theme + logo + fonts + custom OG card | Yes (paused; FREE renders vanilla theme) |
| Memberships | Yes (frozen, no new sign-ups, existing members not billed) |
| Recurring booking series | Active series stop generating future bookings; existing bookings unaffected |
| Reports & Intelligence history | Yes (PRO-only views lock; 7-day basic dashboard stays) |
| Wallet balance and Spark allocations | Yes |
| Quick replies, brand voice, business memory | Yes |
| Onboarding completion state | Yes |
Restoring on upgrade
Subscribe to PRO from Settings → Plan & billing after reviewing Monthly or Yearly commitment terms. After Stripe confirms the subscription, OpenChair starts the following restoration:
- A server-side function (
restore_venue_from_free) flips everyis_above_plan_limit = truerow back to false on services, products, photos, and staff. - Memberships unfreeze.
- Your storefront theme, logo, custom domain, fonts, and OG card restore on the next render.
- The UpgradeRestorationOverlay appears in your session - a quiet 2-second confirmation:
- 0ms: "PRO is on. Restoring your salon…"
- 1.5s: "Done. Welcome back."
- 2.8s: dismisses.
Items retained and flagged only because of Free limits should not need to be re-imported or uploaded. Review the restored venue before relying on it, and contact support if an expected item does not return.
Audit log
Every tier transition writes to venue_plan_change_log with:
- The previous tier and the new tier
- A reason (
trial_end_auto,upgrade,downgrade_owner,trial_extension,stripe_failed_payment, etc.) - Who triggered it (system, owner, admin, Stripe webhook)
- Metadata (counts flagged, previous and new trial end dates, etc.)
The log is server-side and read-only for support. Contact us if you need a specific transition reviewed.
Common mistakes
| Problem | What to check |
|---|---|
| Wizard isn't showing the staff section | The section only appears if you have more than 1 active staff member. Solo venues skip it. |
| I picked a staff member but the trial ended without my pick saving | The pick saves on selection (toast confirms "Active staff pick saved"). If you don't see the toast, try again from a stable connection. |
| My trial ended but the banner says "Restore your full salon" - what happened? | You're now on FREE. The post-rollback banner appears for 30 days. Click Restore your full salon to upgrade and get everything back. |
| Trial says ended but I still see PRO features | Browser cache. Refresh the page or sign out and back in. The server-side function fires at the exact trial-end timestamp; your client just needs to re-sync. |
| Extend trial button is missing | Either you've already used your extension, or the trial has already ended. Once on FREE, the path back is upgrade only. |
| OG card on storefront is still showing my custom one after trial end | The OG image is cached on a 7-day window. It refreshes on the next regeneration. |
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Common questions
- What happens at the end of my trial?
- Your venue moves to the FREE plan. Active subscriptions cancel; your storefront reverts to the default theme; Pro-only features lock. Downgrading does not itself delete the records placed above Free limits. The wizard at /settings/plan walks you through what changes so you can pick what stays active under Free caps. Records remain subject to OpenChair's retention and deletion terms.
- Will I lose my client data, bookings, or history?
- Downgrading does not itself delete your underlying client records, bookings or history. Pro-only features lock and Free limits apply. Data remains subject to OpenChair's retention terms.
- Can I extend my trial?
- Yes, once. Owners can extend the trial by 7 days from Settings → Plan. The extension is one-time per venue and only available while the trial is still active.
- How fast do things come back if I upgrade later?
- After Stripe confirms your subscription, OpenChair automatically starts restoring eligible services, products, photos and team members that were flagged only because of Free limits. Your storefront settings apply on the next render. Contact support if a previously retained item does not return as expected.
- What does the trial-ending banner mean?
- It's a countdown that appears 7 days before your trial ends. From day 7 it's dismissible; from day 3 it stays put; on the last day it reads 'Your trial ends today' with a Decide now button. It's the system's way of telling you the wizard is waiting.