Combine same-day subscription orders
Combine a customer's same-day subscription renewals into one order with one charge: what combines, what doesn't, and how to explain any order.
When a customer has more than one subscription due to bill on the same day, Combine Same-Day Orders merges them into a single order, with one charge and one order number.
That means fewer duplicate shipping charges, less transaction noise, and a cleaner order history for the customer.
Turn on combining
If you change this setting on a live billing day, save it before renewals start processing.
What combines
Subscriptions on the same schedule. Subscriptions with the same frequency, for example two monthly subscriptions started on the same day, bill together every cycle. The customer gets one order and one charge each cycle, with all products included.
Subscriptions on different schedules. Subscriptions with different frequencies, for example one weekly and one monthly, combine only on the days their billing dates coincide. Each subscription keeps its own schedule and next billing date: combining an order never changes when a subscription renews next.
Subscriptions going to different addresses. A combined order has one delivery address, so only subscriptions delivering to the same address and recipient are combined. A customer who sends one subscription home and another to the office receives a separate order for each, delivered where it should go.
Why subscriptions did or didn't combine
Use this section to explain any combined order, or any pair of orders that a customer expected to arrive as one.
Every condition that has to be true
Two or more subscriptions combine into one order only when all of these hold:
Combine same-day subscription orders is enabled and saved in Billing Settings.
They belong to the same customer.
Their billing dates fall on the same day. Subscriptions on different frequencies only qualify on the days their dates happen to coincide.
They deliver to the same address and the same recipient.
Each subscription is active, not cancelled.
The products on each subscription are in stock that day.
At least one subscription in the group has a valid payment method to carry the charge.
Miss any one of these and the subscriptions bill on their own, each generating its own order as it normally would.
Reasons a subscription is billed on its own
Two orders on the same day, different delivery addresses
A combined order has a single delivery address, so subscriptions going to different addresses or recipients are never combined. Each is delivered where it should go.
Two orders on the same day, same address
Something dropped one subscription out of the group. Check its timeline: the most common causes are an out-of-stock product or a cancelled contract.
A subscription was left out of an otherwise combined order
Its products were out of stock that day. It drops out, enters dunning, and its timeline records that the combination failed. The rest of the group processes without it.
A cancelled subscription didn't combine
Cancelled contracts are never pulled into a combined order.
Nothing is combining at all
Combining is off, or the change wasn't saved. Check the pill beside Combine Same-Day Orders in Billing Settings.
Subscriptions on different frequencies rarely combine
That's expected. They combine only on the days their billing dates coincide, which for a weekly and a monthly subscription is occasional by nature.
The customer expected combining but their dates never line up
Combining never moves a billing date. If two subscriptions are scheduled days apart, they simply never qualify.
What doesn't stop a subscription combining
These are the assumptions that most often send people looking in the wrong place:
An expired or failing card. The subscription still joins the group. Roadmap bills the combined order against a subscription that has a valid payment method, so one bad card doesn't strand the rest.
Being in dunning. A subscription already retrying can still be combined. It just won't be the one chosen to carry the charge if it's on its final retry.
Different billing frequencies. Different schedules combine whenever their dates coincide; they're only excluded on the days they don't.
Discounts on a subscription. Discounted subscriptions combine like any other, and their discounts carry into the order.
Different products or quantities. Nothing about the contents affects whether subscriptions combine.
Where the answer is recorded
Every subscription's timeline records what happened to it that billing day, and it's the authority when you're reconstructing an order:
When a combination worked: Order #2711 was billed successfully by combining this subscription with subscriptions #49996366111, #49976377631 into a single order.
When it didn't: Attempted to combine this subscription with subscription #49996366111 for billing, but the combination failed. This subscription will be billed separately.
How combining works
When the setting is on, Roadmap:
Finds all billing cycles due that day for the same customer.
Groups them by billing date, delivery address, and recipient.
Picks a subscription in the group with a valid payment method to carry the charge.
Creates one order with the line items from every subscription in the group.
Keeps that order linked to each subscription it came from.
Each subscription keeps its own record, its own schedule, and its own cycle numbering, so its past and upcoming cycles still read in sequence whether it billed alone or as part of a combined order. Discounts are tracked per subscription as normal.
Shipping and discounts
A combined order always takes the best shipping offer among the subscriptions in it, so the customer is never worse off for having their orders combined. If one subscription in the group carries free shipping, the combined order ships free.
Each subscription's own discount usage still counts up as normal, so a discount limited to a number of cycles decrements for that subscription when the combined order processes.
How a combined order shows in the admin
In Shopify, the order is tagged so you can find and report on it:
bundled-subscription-ordermarks it as a combined subscription order.A
subscription:<id>tag is added for each subscription included, so every contract in the order is identifiable from the order itself.
On the subscription, the cycle that combined carries a blue Bundled badge beside its date, next to the order number and total. Cycles that billed on their own show Billed instead.
On the timeline, each subscription records the combined order or the failed attempt, in the wording shown above.
Frequently asked questions
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