Overview
Sometimes a subscription's activity log shows a skipped billing attempt. This is usually Appstle's duplicate billing protection working as intended. It is not a failed payment, and the customer is not charged twice.
Why it happens
Appstle blocks a second charge on the same subscription when either of these is true:
Another billing attempt already happened within about 24 hours (about 3 hours for daily plans).
An order was already placed successfully for the same billing date.
This covers scheduled billing, retry / dunning attempts, and Bill now (immediate) attempts.
Common situations:
Someone on your team uses Bill now on the same day the subscription was already billed.
The billing date is moved to today after a scheduled attempt has already run.
A retry and a scheduled attempt overlap.
Another app or API call triggers billing for the same subscription close together.
What you'll see
The activity log shows an event like Billing attempt skipped, with a message such as:
"Multiple billing attempts were detected for the same billing date, so this attempt was skipped to prevent duplicate charges."
"Found an already placed order on the same billing date."
No second charge is made.
What to do
Open the subscription and check Orders / past orders to confirm the first attempt for that period already created an order.
If it did, you don't need to do anything.
If you still need another order right away, create it manually in Shopify, or wait until outside the protection window before using Bill now again.
Can I turn this off? Duplicate billing protection is on by default for every store. Merchants can't change it in the Appstle admin. If your workflow regularly needs more than one order per subscription in a short window, contact Appstle Support and we'll review your setup with you.
Need help?
You can chat with us live from the Appstle Subscriptions admin app or email [email protected].