Built-in Membership Billing Emails

When you use Benecaster’s built-in membership, the plugin sends five automated billing emails on your behalf. You control whether each email is sent, and you can change what they say two ways: with the Email Editor add-on, which lets you edit subject lines and body copy from the admin without touching code, or with 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.

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The Five 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.

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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).

Includes the predicted charge amount. The email states the amount the subscriber can expect to be charged at renewal — their tier’s price for their billing cadence, plus the price of any buy-up they currently hold, formatted the same way as the Payment Receipt email’s amount (e.g. “USD 12.00”). ⚠ This is a prediction from Benecaster’s own stored tier and buy-up prices, not a read of an actual Stripe invoice — there isn’t one yet at reminder time. If a price is edited between the reminder going out and the renewal actually happening, the two can disagree; Stripe’s invoice, not this email, is the source of truth for what is actually charged.

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)

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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.

Subscribers can update their payment method at any time during the retry window by visiting their account page. Including a direct link to the account page in this email (or using the Email Editor add-on to add one) gives subscribers the fastest path to resolving the failed charge.

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Cancellation Confirmation

When it sends: Immediately when a subscriber requests cancellation through their account page — before the billing period ends.

The email confirms that the request was received, states the exact date access ends, and includes a link to resume the subscription in case the subscriber changes their mind. This is not the same as the Subscription Cancelled email — this one fires at the moment of the request, while the subscriber still has access.

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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.

A cancelled subscription is marked cancelled, not erased. The record stays so you keep the subscriber’s billing history, and so that someone who cancelled can be told apart from someone who never subscribed at all — which matters if they come back.

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Configuring Email Settings per Show

Each email has its own on/off toggle in Benecaster → Shows → [Your Show] → Subscription → Subscriber Billing Emails. All five are enabled by default.

This section only appears while the show’s membership plugin is Built-in Membership — switch to MemberPress, WooCommerce Subscriptions, Paid Memberships Pro, Restrict Content Pro, or no plugin at all, and it’s hidden, since those payment processors send their own billing emails. Your saved toggle values are kept either way and come back if you switch to Built-in Membership again later.

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.

If you’d switched one of these off before and it kept arriving anyway, that’s fixed — a switch you turn off here now stays off for real. If you’d come to rely on that email still sending despite the switch being off, you’ll need to turn it back on.

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Default Email Content

The samples below show what subscribers receive with the out-of-the-box templates. Placeholder values (name, amounts, dates) are illustrative — the real emails populate from your show and the subscriber’s account.

Payment Receipt — default copy

Subject: Your [My Podcast] receipt — $12.00

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Hi Jane,

Your payment of $12.00 for My Podcast (Premium) has been processed successfully.

[View invoice →] [Download PDF →]

Invoice: INV-0042 · Next renewal: 1 March 2027

Thanks for being a subscriber.

— My Podcast

[Unsubscribe]

Renewal Reminder — default copy

Subject: Your My Podcast subscription renews in 7 days

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Hi Jane,

Just a heads up — your Premium subscription to My Podcast renews on 1 March 2027. We’ll charge your card automatically; there’s nothing you need to do.

If anything has changed, you can update your payment method or cancel from your account page before the renewal date.

[Go to my account →]

— My Podcast

[Unsubscribe]

Payment Failed — default copy

Subject: Action needed — My Podcast payment couldn’t go through

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Hi Jane,

We weren’t able to charge your card for your Premium subscription to My Podcast. Don’t worry — your feed access continues while we retry the payment over the next few weeks.

If you’d like to update your payment details now, you can do that from your account page:

[Update payment method →]

If the payment still can’t go through after several retries, your subscription will end and you’ll receive a cancellation notice.

— My Podcast

[Unsubscribe]

Cancellation Confirmation — default copy

Subject: Your My Podcast cancellation is confirmed

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Hi Jane,

We’ve received your cancellation request for your Premium subscription to My Podcast. Your access continues until 28 February 2027 — nothing changes until then.

Changed your mind? You can resume your subscription any time before that date:

[Resume subscription →]

— My Podcast

[Unsubscribe]

Subscription Cancelled — default copy

Subject: Your My Podcast subscription has ended

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Hi Jane,

Your Premium subscription to My Podcast has now ended. Your feed access has been removed.

If you’d like to start a new subscription at any time, you’re always welcome back.

[Subscribe again →]

— My Podcast

[Unsubscribe]

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Customizing 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/cancellation-confirmation.php
{theme}/benecaster/emails/subscription-cancelled.php

Each template receives the standard global merge tags plus type-specific variables. See Customizing Email Templates for the full variable reference.

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Email Editor Add-on

When the Email Editor add-on is installed, all five billing email types appear in the template manager. You can customize subject lines, preview text, and body content without writing PHP. The add-on also adds a Logs tab showing per-subscriber email history with the option to resend individual emails. It discovers the billing email types automatically through Benecaster’s benecaster_managed_email_types filter — there is nothing to register by hand.