WooCommerce subscriptions are built to be flexible. With auto-renewal, manual renewal, bank transfers and customer-driven invoicing, this flexibility is one of the features. And it’s important to have a clear view of what’s happening with your subscriptions, not just how they’re configured.
Introducing Subscription Health Check: A new look that can tell you. Find it at WooCommerce → Status → Subscriptions.
The tool currently has two views. Each one offers a different kind of information worth knowing about.
View 1: Supports auto-refresh
This view shows manual renewal subscriptions that have a tokenized payment method capable of handling automatic charges – meaning that the auto-billing infrastructure already exists, but the subscription isn’t using it.
It also shows recovery preferences. Not every manual subscription renewal is a problem here. Some were manually set by the customer. Some reflect the store-level settings that were in effect when the subscription was created. This context is visible in the tool.
One thing worth noting: when you update your store reset settings, the change only applies to new subscriptions. The existing ones remain as they were. In this view, you’ll find the ones you might want to return to and update.
View 2: Missing recovery
This view shows subscriptions that are not renewing when they should be. This is usually caused by a data integrity issue, such as event scheduler failures or a subscription affected by an error. If you’ve had gaps in your renewal revenue that you can’t explain, look here.
Regardless of which view you choose, it is important to note that the tool does not make changes automatically. Provides you with information; what you do with it is up to you. Before taking any action, review flagged subscriptions individually – some will be intentional and the tool is designed to help you tell the difference.
Update to the latest version of WooCommerce subscription from Control Panel → Updatethen head to WooCommerce → Status → Subscriptions.
These two views are just the beginning. Our goal is to provide you with an ongoing and reliable reading of your subscription status – not a one-time diagnosis – so we’ll be releasing more versions soon. As the tool grows, you’ll have a better understanding of what’s working and where to look when something isn’t working.
If you have questions or encounter something unexpected, the WooCommerce Happiness Engineering team can help.
Tim is part of the Payments product team at Woo, working on WooCommerce subscriptions, WooPayments, and how merchants discover and engage with payment solutions. It’s a SaaS e-commerce transplant trying to make a name for itself in the open source world. When he’s not working, he’s on a plane, at the theater or walking his dog.