> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.upmind.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.
# How to Manage Free Trials
> Setup, configure, and automate free trial offers for your products and services.
Free trials in Upmind let you offer products or services at no charge for a set period, giving clients a chance to evaluate before committing to a paid subscription. You can control what happens when the trial ends, pair trials with promotional discounts, and automate the process to reduce manual work.
Free trials apply to recurring payments (subscriptions) only. They are not available for one-time payment products.
## What is included in this guide
1. How to Enable a Free Trial for a Product
2. Trial Settings Explained
3. Client Experience During a Trial
4. How to Offer a Discount for Trial Continuations
5. How to Auto-Apply a Promotion
6. Trial Automation and Contract Settings
7. Requiring Payment Details for Free Trial Orders
## How to enable a free trial for a product
Before setting up a trial, make sure you have already [created a product](/using-upmind/product-management/how-to-create-products). If you have not, you can add a new [product category](/using-upmind/product-management/how-to-edit-a-product-category) and product first.
1. Go to **Settings > Product Catalogue** (or open **Store Catalogue** directly).
2. Select an existing product or create a new one.
3. Open the **Billing** tab, then expand **Product Trial**.
4. Toggle on **Support Trial Period**.
You will now see all the trial configuration options described below.
## Trial settings explained
### Forced trial
You can make a trial **optional** or **mandatory (forced)**.
* If the trial is **optional**, clients can choose to skip it when placing an order.
* If the trial is **forced**, all clients ordering that product will start on the trial, with no option to bypass it.
### Trial period duration (in days)
The number of days the free trial lasts before the end-of-trial action is triggered.
### Pre-expired notification (in days)
Set how many days before the trial ends you want to trigger configured actions, for example, sending reminder emails to clients.
### End of trial action
Choose what happens when the trial period finishes.
| **Action** | **What It Does** |
| ------------------------ | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| **Continue** *(default)* | The subscription carries on as normal. The client is charged at the standard price and billing cycle. |
| **Migrate** | The trial product migrates to a different product. Any associated change-product provisioning commands will run. Useful when you want to move clients to a different package or apply different resource limits. |
| **Cancel** | The trial is cancelled immediately when it ends. |
## Client experience during a trial
When a client is on an active trial, the trial status is visible in their client area. Clients can end the trial early at any time. Doing this triggers the end-of-trial action configured for that product (continue, migrate, or cancel).
## How to offer a discount for trial continuations
If you want to reward clients who choose to continue after a trial with a promotional discount, you can set this up through the Promotions section.
1. Go to **Settings > Promotion** (found under the products and promotions).
2. Click **Add Promotion** and configure the promotion details.
3. Choose the promotion type: **Custom condition per product**, which will apply to an individual promotion per product.
4. Then click on **Attach new product**.
5. Set the discount as a fixed amount or a percentage of the product price, tick the applicable conditions, and fill in the minimum and maximum quantity.
6. Click **Save**.
7. Under **Mandatory Products**, click **Manage Product.**
8. Tick the conditions that apply to the promotion, and click **Save**.
9. Set up the **Availability** and **Eligibility** rules, tick the applicable conditions, and click **Save**.
Clients can now use the promotion code when continuing a free trial product or service.
## How to auto-apply a promotion
To automatically apply a promotion without requiring clients to enter a code:
1. Go to **Settings > Business Settings** (under the E-commerce Settings heading).
2. Scroll down to **Applied Promotion**.
3. Toggle the setting to **ON**.
With this enabled, eligible promotions are applied automatically at checkout.
## Trial automation and contract settings
Upmind can automatically suspend, cancel, or terminate trial contracts that become overdue.
These settings are found at **Settings > Branding and Customisation > Subscription Options > Contract Settings**.
| **Setting** | **Description** |
| ----------------------------------------------------------------- | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| **Overdue Contract Suspension Delay Days (For Trial Products)** | Number of days a trial contract is overdue before it is automatically suspended. |
| **Overdue Contract Cancellation Delay Days (For Trial Products)** | Number of days a trial contract is overdue before it is automatically cancelled. |
| **Overdue Contract Termination Delay Days (For Trial Products)** | Number of days a trial contract is overdue before it is automatically terminated. |
Configuring these values keeps your trial subscriptions tidy without requiring manual intervention.
## Requiring payment details for free trial orders
Go to **Settings > E-commerce Settings > Order Options > Misc.**
The **Require Payment Details for Zero Amount Orders** setting controls whether clients must provide a payment method when checking out a free trial (or any 100% discounted order).
Setting this to `true` means that when a basket is converted to an invoice for a free trial, the client must add a saved payment method before completing the order. This makes sure the renewal invoice at the end of the trial can be charged automatically, without any manual follow-up.
This is recommended if your end-of-trial action is set to **Continue** and you want billing to be fully automated.