Pin every renewal to the 1st, the 15th, or any fixed day of the month. Let customers pick when their subscription starts. Hold the order in a dedicated wc-scheduled status until the chosen date arrives. The logistics, accounting and support calendars all line up — one billing run, one shipping wave, one reconciliation pass.
The plugin's /start-date/ module gives you three orthogonal controls. Combine the ones you need; ignore the rest. Each is a separate admin toggle.
Pick a single day of the month (1–28, plus "last day") and every active subscription renews on that day. The first invoice is prorated; from then on every customer is on the same cycle.
Setting · Start subscription from certain date of month
A date picker shows up on the product page. The customer chooses when their subscription becomes effective — Monday morning, the start of the school year, after the holidays. You stay in control of the cap and the minimum lead-time.
Setting · Allow start date subscription
Until the chosen start date arrives, the order sits in a dedicated wc-scheduled order status (registered by the plugin, separate from the WooCommerce defaults). Payment is captured, inventory is reserved, but no recurring cycle has begun yet. The plugin transitions the order to active automatically on the start date.
Order status · wc-scheduled
All start-date controls live in one tab. Turn on what you need; the rest stays out of the customer's way.
Coffee, wine, beauty, meal kits. You pack and ship in batches on the 1st. Without an anchor day, every customer renews on a different date and you ship every single day of the month. With the anchor, you have one shipping wave — and the carrier discount that comes with it.
If renewals span the full month, every month-end close has straddling invoices to chase. Anchored billing means every renewal is in the same accounting period — VAT reporting, revenue recognition and reconciliation each get simpler.
A course starts in September, a yoga programme starts in January. Customers buy weeks in advance and the subscription should not start charging until kick-off. The customer-selectable start date plus wc-scheduled hold handles this without manual reconciliation.
You want every new member to feel part of the same cohort. Anchored billing makes "new this month" a meaningful concept — every member is on the same cycle, every renewal happens together.
When a customer signs up between two anchor dates, the plugin charges only the fraction of the period left until the next anchor — not a full cycle. From then on, the customer renews on the anchor day with everyone else.
| Scenario | Anchor day | Signup day | First invoice | Next renewal |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mid-month signup | 1 | 15 of the month | Half cycle | 1st of next month |
| Just before the anchor | 1 | 28 of the month | ~10% of cycle | 1st of next month |
| Customer-selectable future date | n/a | Order today, start in 3 weeks | Charged now, held in wc-scheduled | 3 weeks from now, then standard cycle |
The whole calendar in three toggles. No glue code, no monthly reconciliation hell.
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