Payments
When Your Trial Ends
Last updated 19 May 2026
When Your Trial Ends
Every new OpenChair venue gets a 14-day PRO trial with full access to every PRO feature. When the trial ends, your venue moves to the FREE plan. This guide explains exactly what changes, what's preserved, 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. All PRO features are unlocked, no credit card required.
- 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.
- Everything is preserved on downgrade. Restoring is instant if you upgrade later.
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: You're on the FREE plan. Your branding, services, and team are preserved. with Restore your full salon. |
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 branding, colours, and custom domain are paused. They're preserved and restore instantly when you upgrade.
- 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 active 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, commission, and invoicing lock — you can still see your historical data; new entries are gated.
- Intelligence locks. Reports, AI narratives, and the 90-day window all go quiet. The 7-day basic dashboard stays.
- Coach locks. The PRO Concierge 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.
- Upgrade to keep everything — opens Settings → Billing with PRO pre-selected and a
from=trial_wizardtag for attribution.
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. Your data is intact; only the FREE caps and lock states change.
What's preserved on downgrade
| 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 → Billing. The moment Stripe confirms the subscription:
- 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.
No reconfiguration, no re-imports, no re-uploads. Everything you had during the trial is exactly where you left it.
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. |
FAQ
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. All your data, settings, services, products, photos, and team are preserved. The wizard at /settings/plan walks you through exactly what changes so you can pick what stays active under FREE's caps.
Will I lose my client data, bookings, or history?
No. Every client record, booking, conversation, payment history, and report is preserved indefinitely. Nothing gets deleted on downgrade. Only Pro-only features lock; your day-to-day records stay.
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?
Instantly. The moment Stripe confirms your subscription, a server-side function restores every flagged service, product, photo, and team member. The UpgradeRestorationOverlay shows a quiet 2-second confirmation in your session. No re-config, no re-import.
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.
What if I can only afford to upgrade in a month or two?
The data preservation is indefinite. You can stay on FREE for as long as you want; your services, photos, team, and bookings will sit waiting. The day you upgrade, everything restores.