How to Handle Grace Periods in Upmind

A grace period is the window of time between an invoice’s due date and the moment a service is suspended, cancelled, or terminated/closed. It gives clients extra time to pay without immediately losing access to their services. There are two ways to manage grace periods in Upmind:

1. Automation intervals - Let the system handle suspension, cancellation, and termination automatically based on your configured timers.
2. Manual status changes - Override the status on a specific contract product yourself and manage the lifecycle by hand until the invoice is paid.

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Using automation intervals

Upmind lets you configure automation intervals at three levels. Each level overrides the one above it, giving you fine-grained control over individual products or even specific client subscriptions. The level hierarchy

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Setting the brand-level automation interval

This is your global default. Every product and client falls under these settings unless a lower level overrides them.

1. Go to Settings > Subscription Options under Branding & Customisation.

2. Locate the automation interval fields under Contract Settings (Suspension, Cancellation, and Termination).

3. Set the number of days after the invoice due date for each action to trigger.
4. Click Save.

The image below shows how the intervals will appear for a product.

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Setting the product-level automation interval

Use this when you want a specific product to behave differently from your brand default. A common use case is domain names, which often require longer grace periods than hosting products.

1. Go to Settings > Product Catalogue under Products and Promotions, or open the product directly from the Store Catalogue.

2. Select the product you want to configure.
3. Open the Product Automation tab.
4. Adjust the Suspend, Cancel, and Close intervals to override the brand defaults.

5. You can also set it to follow the interval values of the brand settings.

6. Click Save.

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Setting the contract product-level automation interval

This gives you the most granular control. Use it when you need a custom grace period for a single client’s specific service, without changing the product settings for everyone else.

1. Go to Clients and open the relevant client account.

2. Under Products & Services, find the contract product you want to adjust.
3. Open the Settings tab of that contract product.

4. Override the Suspend, Cancel, and Close intervals as needed.

5. Click Save.

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Manually changing contract product status

If you want to hold off on suspension or cancellation for a specific client while waiting for payment, you can manually set the contract product status. This immediately overrides automation. The system will not run any automated suspend, cancel, or close actions while a manual status is in place.

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How to manually change a contract product status

1. Go to Clients and open the client’s account.
2. Under Products & Services, select the contract product.
3. On the Overview tab, locate the current status field.

4. Click the status and select the new status from the dropdown.

Available manual statuses:

• Active - Service is live and accessible.
• Suspended - Service is restricted but recoverable.
• Lapsed - Service has expired. This is often used for domains past their renewal date.
• Cancelled - Service is marked as cancelled.

5. Confirm the change.

The status updates immediately, and automation is paused for that contract product.

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Switching back to system status after payment

This step is easy to miss. Once a manual status is applied, Upmind will not resume automated actions on its own. After the client pays their invoice, a staff member must manually return the contract product to system-controlled status. After payment is confirmed:

1. Open the client’s account and navigate to the contract product.
2. On the Overview tab, restore the system status to Active (or the appropriate status).

3. If you want automation to resume normally, make sure the status reflects the system state, not a manual override.

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Example cases

Waiting on a bank transfer A client is paying through bank transfer, and the funds haven’t cleared yet. Their invoice is already overdue. You don’t want the system to suspend their hosting account while you wait. Set the contract product status to Active manually. This holds automation. Once the transfer is confirmed and the invoice is marked paid, switch the status back, and automation resumes from that point. Negotiated payment arrangement A long-term client has asked for two extra weeks to pay their renewal invoice. Your brand-level automation would suspend them for 7 days. Rather than adjusting your brand or product automation settings (which affect other clients), manually set this client’s contract product status to Active. Add an internal note with the agreed payment date. When payment comes in, revert the status. Client disputes an invoice A client raises a billing dispute, and you agree to pause their account status while it’s being reviewed. Set the contract product to Active manually so no automated actions run during the dispute window. Once resolved, whether they pay or you cancel, update the status accordingly.

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Choosing between automation intervals and manual status