Built-in Membership Billing Emails
When you use Benecaster’s built-in membership, the plugin sends four automated billing emails on your behalf. You control whether each email is sent, and you can customise the templates using the same PHP override system as your other emails.
These emails are only sent to subscribers managed through Benecaster’s built-in membership — subscribers on external bridges (MemberPress, WooCommerce Subscriptions, etc.) receive billing emails from their membership plugin, not from Benecaster.
The Four Billing Emails
Payment Receipt
When it sends: After every successful payment — the initial subscription and every renewal.
The receipt includes the invoice amount, an invoice number, a link to view the full invoice on Stripe’s hosted invoice page, a PDF download link, and the subscriber’s next renewal date.
Renewal Reminder
When it sends: A configurable number of days before the subscriber’s billing period ends (default 7 days, adjustable to 1–30 days per show).
The reminder is skipped automatically for:
- Subscribers who have already cancelled (the period is ending by design)
- Subscribers with a payment failure in progress (the payment-failed email handles their situation)
Payment Failed
When it sends: Once when a payment fails — not on every retry attempt. Stripe typically retries a failed payment up to four times over roughly three weeks. This email sends when the first attempt fails; it does not repeat while Stripe keeps retrying.
The email reassures subscribers that their feed access continues while Stripe retries. The subscription is internally marked as overdue but the subscriber can still download episodes. If all retries are exhausted and Stripe cancels the subscription, the subscriber receives the Subscription Cancelled email at that point.
Subscription Cancelled
When it sends: When the subscription reaches a terminal cancelled state — either because the subscriber’s billing period ended after requesting cancellation, or because all Stripe payment retries were exhausted.
This is different from a cancellation request. When a subscriber cancels through their account page, Benecaster schedules the cancellation for the end of their billing period. The Subscription Cancelled email sends when the period ends and Stripe confirms the subscription is closed.
Configuring Email Settings per Show
Each email has its own on/off toggle in Benecaster → Shows → [Your Show] → Subscription → Subscriber Billing Emails. All four are enabled by default.
| Toggle | Default |
|---|---|
| Payment receipt | On |
| Renewal reminder | On |
| Payment failed | On |
| Subscription cancelled | On |
The renewal reminder section also shows a Days before renewal field (1–30, default 7). This input is greyed out when the renewal reminder toggle is off.
Disabling an email type suppresses it for all subscribers on that show. If you use a third-party email platform to manage billing communications, disable the relevant Benecaster emails to avoid duplicates.
Customising the Templates
Billing email templates can be overridden using the standard PHP template override system. Copy the template into your theme:
{theme}/benecaster/emails/subscription-receipt.php
{theme}/benecaster/emails/renewal-reminder.php
{theme}/benecaster/emails/payment-failed.php
{theme}/benecaster/emails/subscription-cancelled.php
Each template receives the standard global merge tags plus type-specific variables. See Customising Email Templates for the full variable reference.
Email Editor Add-on
When the Email Editor add-on is installed, all four billing email types appear in the template manager. You can customise subject lines, preview text, and body content without writing PHP. The add-on auto-discovers these types via Benecaster’s benecaster_managed_email_types filter once feature/built-in-membership-portal-emails is on master.
