How cut-off, charge and ship dates work

Every club ships on a fixed schedule. Each month's mailing has three dates:

Date	What happens
Cut-off	Last moment to join this mailing. Existing subscribers are charged for it.
Ship date	The day you post your mail.
Charge date	Same as the cut-off.

You set the schedule in Subscription → Shipping schedule: the ship day (1–28 of the month) and the cut-off days before shipment (1–28, default 7). For example, ship day 28 with a 7-day cut-off means the cut-off is the 21st.

When do subscribers pay?

• New subscribers pay for their first mailing immediately, at checkout. The checkout shows "Charged today · ships around [date]", and the welcome email repeats that date.
• After that, they're charged on each mailing's cut-off date. Everyone in your club renews on the same day.

Which mailing does a new subscriber get first?

• Join on or before the cut-off date → they're in that month's mailing.
• Join after the cut-off → their first mailing is the next one. They're charged for that one at checkout.

This is why, right after a cut-off, new subscribers appear in next month's list, not the current one.

The cut-off closes at midnight UTC

The cut-off date closes at 00:00 UTC, the start of that day in UTC. For you and your subscribers, that can be earlier than midnight:

Where	The cut-off "Oct 21" closes at
UK / Portugal (summer)	1:00 AM on Oct 21
Central Europe (summer)	2:00 AM on Oct 21
New York (summer)	8:00 PM on Oct 20
Chicago (summer)	7:00 PM on Oct 20
Los Angeles (summer)	5:00 PM on Oct 20

So for clubs in the Americas, someone joining on the evening before the cut-off date may already land in the next mailing. Their checkout page tells them exactly which mailing they're paying for.

Renewal charges start at the same time. Stripe usually takes about an hour to process them, so payments appear in your Stripe account shortly after.

Monthly or quarterly

In Shipping schedule → Mailing frequency you can choose Monthly or Quarterly (every 3 months). Choose before your first subscriber: it can't be changed afterwards.

Ending your club

Set a Last shipment month to run your club for a fixed period. After the final shipment, billing stops and the club closes to new members.

Changing your schedule later

Once subscribers have paid for a mailing, that mailing's date is locked to protect their order. You can still change your ship day and cut-off: future mailings (after the locked ones) move to the new dates, and subscribers' next charge moves with them. Your starting month and frequency can't change once the schedule is locked. Need something unusual? Contact us, we can often help.