When selling products to clients using the Stripe Integrated Payments add-on, the start date of the product can vary depending on how the product was sold to the client. This article explains the differences between client self-purchases and manual sales, and how these affect product start dates.
Client Self-Purchase
When a client self-purchases a product (through a product link/checkout link, Trainerize.me webpage, or by sharing a product offer in-app), the start date of the product is determined by the settings you configured during product setup.
When creating a product, you will set the start date for the product as shown below:
Manual Sale
When performing a manual sale to existing clients in your account, you have the flexibility to choose a specific start date for each sale. This allows you to customize the product start date to fit the client's needs, overriding the default product start settings indicated earlier.
Remember: Product automation (i.e. automating content delivery, programs, adding clients to groups, etc) depends on how you have set up your product automation settings. For more details on setting up and managing product automation, refer to the following help article: Product Automation - Automating Content Delivery and Meal Plan PDFs on Purchase of a Product
Products with "Next Monday" or "Fixed Start Date" Start
When you create a product with a start date of "Next Monday" or a fixed date, you may wonder what happens if a client purchases the product on that same day. Here's how it works:
Client Purchase on a Monday: If a client self-purchases the product on a Monday (in their local time), the product will start that same day. It will not defer to the following Monday.
Client Purchase on Fixed Start Date: If a client self-purchases the product on the fixed start date (in their local time), the product will start that day as long as the client purchases before 11:59 PM their local time. Clients are unable to purchase fixed start date products after the start date.
Effect on Auto-Messages: The time a client purchases a product relative to the product start date can impact any auto-messages set to go out on Day 1 of your program.
Example:
- You create a product with a start date of "Next Monday" and set up automation to subscribe clients to a Master Program.
- A client self-purchases the product at 8 PM on Monday (their local time).
- The client's product starts that day, and they are subscribed to the Master Program.
- Due to the late purchase time, the auto-messages scheduled for Day 1 of the program will not be sent if they were scheduled to go out at an earlier time
To ensure your clients receive all intended auto-messages, we suggest scheduling any important auto-messages for the beginning of a Master Program to go out on Day 2. This helps avoid any issues with clients missing messages due to purchases later in the day. For more information on this, visit: Why Didn't the Auto Message on the First Day of the Program Send Out to My Client?
