What happens if the team bill is unpaid

If a team that has been paying stops paying, or a team's free trial ends without anyone paying, the team is marked as lapsed. From that day, everyone keeps syncing as normal for 14 more days. If the team still hasn't paid after that, every sync on the team pauses until it does. Everyone stays on the team and on the team plan, and nobody is moved to their own plan or to Free. As soon as the team pays, every sync that paused starts again where it stopped.

Nothing is deleted by a pause. Calendars, connections, rules and the copies already made all stay as they are. This article covers when a team lapses, what members see, who is emailed, and how the Owner puts it right. A team whose free trial ends without a card is treated the same way; the only difference is the wording, described in "If the free trial ends without a card" below.

When does a team count as lapsed?

A team on its free trial lapses on the day the 30-day trial ends, if nobody has paid by then.

For a team that has been paying, a failed payment does not lapse a team straight away. When a renewal fails, our payment provider, Stripe, retries the card for a while. How long depends on our payment provider's settings, which we don't state here. While it is still trying, the team stays active and nothing changes for members. The team lapses only when Stripe has given up and the subscription has stopped, or ended.

GetCalendario checks every team every five minutes and moves it to the lapsed stage when its facts say so.

The 14 days

The 14 days start on the day the team lapses. During them:

• Everyone on the team keeps the team plan and everything it allows. Syncing carries on as normal.
• Nothing is switched off, paused or removed.
• The Owner can pay at any time.

When the 14 days run out: syncing pauses

14 days after the team lapses, every running sync on the team pauses. That covers every member and their secondary accounts, except a member who pays for a plan of their own (one they bought during the trial, for example): their syncs keep running on it.

• Everyone stays on the team and on the team plan. Nobody goes back to their own plan or to Free, so no rule is switched off, nothing is cut to a smaller plan, and no copies are removed.
• A sync someone had already paused keeps its own reason. When the team pays, only the syncs the pause stopped start again.
• No new sync can start, and Resume is not offered, until the team pays. A paused sync shows "Paused (by your team)" with the sentence "(Team name)'s team bill hasn't been paid, so syncing is paused until it is. Your team's Owner has been asked to pay."
• To keep a sync off when the team pays, open it on Home and choose Keep paused. It then shows "Paused (by you)", stays paused when the team pays, and you can resume it yourself after that.
• A sync whose calendar access stops working during the pause waits for the calendar to be reconnected, as it would at any other time. The team paying doesn't restart it until then.
• The weekly emails about held events and broken rules leave out syncs the pause has stopped. They pick up again once the team pays.
• Calendar Views and everything else are not affected by the pause.
• Nightly backups keep running for 30 days after syncing pauses, then stop until the team pays. Backups already made are kept, and nightly backups start again when the team pays.

The only way for members to go back to their own plan instead is for the Owner to close the team. See "If the team is closed" below.

Paying for yourself instead

The team gets a week to sort it out. Until 7 days after the team lapses, nobody on the team can start a plan of their own or leave the team: the plan buttons on Manage Plan and the team page say why, and give the day it becomes possible. Someone who runs the team can still remove people, and closing the team is never held up. Someone who already pays for a plan of their own keeps it, and can still change it.

From 7 days after the team lapses (People & Team shows the date), a member who would rather not wait can leave the team and pay for themselves. On People & Team, choose Pay for yourself instead. It asks first, then takes you off the team (the ordinary Leave) and opens Manage Plan, where you choose your plan. Your calendars, syncs and rules stay yours, and once you pay, your syncs run on your own plan. You can't buy a plan while you're still on the team: leaving is how. To come back later, you'd need to be invited again.

• The Owner can't leave, so this isn't offered to them. Their way out is paying for the team, or closing it.
• A Managed member (someone at a domain the team has verified) can't leave the team themselves, so it isn't offered to them either.
• Until then, the team page tells members the date it becomes possible.

Who is emailed

• When a payment first fails, the Owner, the Admins, and anyone allowed to manage billing get one email, "Your payment for (Team name) didn't go through", with the amount, the day Stripe tries again, and what happens if it stays unpaid. Those who can pay get an Update your card button. It comes once per failed payment, not on every retry. If Stripe isn't trying again, the team lapses at that moment and only the lapse email below is sent.
• When the team lapses, the Owner, the Admins, and anyone allowed to manage billing get an email saying the payment didn't go through (or, for a team on its trial, that the free trial has ended) and on which day syncing will pause. Those who can pay are told how; the others are asked to remind the Owner. An Admin or biller who could leave the team is also told the day from which they can pay for themselves instead.
• When syncing pauses, the Owner, the Admins, and anyone allowed to manage billing are told how to restart it. Every member whose syncs paused, and their secondary accounts, are told their syncs have paused and that the Owner has been asked to pay. A member who pays for a plan of their own isn't paused, so isn't emailed. Anyone who can leave the team is also told they can pay for themselves instead.
• When the team pays after a pause, the same people are emailed that syncing is back on. Someone who left the team in the meantime isn't.
• If the team pays during the 14 days, the people who were told it lapsed get an email saying it is sorted. Nobody else needs to hear about it.

On the team page, the line at the top says when syncing will pause, and then that it has paused.

What the Owner needs to do

The Owner, or anyone the Owner has given the billing ability, opens the team page and presses Pay for your team. The button shows while the team is on trial or lapsed. It takes you to a payment page. Once the payment goes through, the team moves back to active. If syncing had paused, every sync the pause stopped starts again and catches up from where it stopped.

Two cases to be aware of:

• If the team still has a subscription that is live, the button refuses and asks you to refresh the page.
• If an old subscription is stuck unpaid, it is ended first and a fresh one is started.

To change the card on a team that is still paying, use Card and invoices on the team page. Replacing an expiring card before it fails avoids all of this. See also What happens if your card expires for personal accounts.

Pressing the button needs the billing ability. See How team billing works.

Leaving or being removed during a lapse

People who leave a lapsed team, or are removed from it, keep the team's features only until the lapse's 14 days end, not for a further 14. Once syncing has paused, someone who leaves goes straight to their own plan or Free, and their syncs start again on that plan. When that plan is smaller, the extra connections are paused and the extra rules are switched off, and copies of events outside the smaller plan's window are removed from the other calendar. Nothing is deleted. See Leaving, removing and releasing team members.

Nobody joins while syncing is paused

While a team's syncing is paused, nobody can join it. Invitations can't be sent or accepted, reminders wait, join requests can't be made or approved (a request already waiting stays waiting, and can be approved once the team has paid), nobody is brought in by the company's domain, and nobody can be added directly. Each says "(Team name)'s syncing is paused until its team bill is paid, so nobody can join the team right now." (or, after a free trial, "...until its team plan is started..."). The Owner and Admins still see the team page; the Invitations tab says the same. Someone the team removed can still be restored, and is paused with everyone else.

If the free trial ends without a card

A team whose free trial ends without anyone paying is paused in exactly the same way as a team whose payment failed. If the 30-day trial ends and nobody has paid, the team lapses the same day and everyone keeps syncing on the team plan for 14 more days. After that every sync on the team pauses until someone starts the team plan with Pay for your team. Nobody is moved to their own plan or to Free, no rule is switched off, and no copies are removed.

Because a team on its trial never had a payment to fail, its emails and its team page talk about the trial instead:

• When the trial ends, the Owner, the Admins, and anyone allowed to manage billing get an email titled "(Team name)'s free team trial has ended", with the day syncing will pause. Those who can pay are told to start the team plan with Pay for your team; the others are asked to remind the Owner.
• When syncing pauses, the same people as for a paid team are emailed. Members are told the trial has ended, their syncs have paused, and the Owner has been asked to start the team plan.
• When the team plan starts, everyone is emailed that syncing is back on if it had paused. If it starts during the 14 days, the people who were told the trial ended get an email saying the team plan has started.
• A paused sync shows "(Team name)'s free team trial has ended, so syncing is paused until the team plan is started. Your team's Owner has been asked to start it."
• The line at the top of the team page says "Your free team trial has ended." and when syncing will pause, then that it has paused.

As with a paid team, from 7 days after the trial ended (People & Team shows the date) a member can leave and pay for themselves instead (see "Paying for yourself instead" above), and the Owner closing the team sends everyone back to their own plan or Free. See How the team trial works.

If the Owner cancels the subscription

Cancelling the team's subscription on the billing page is not a missed payment: it closes the team. Nothing lapses or pauses, and nobody is told a payment didn't go through. Cancelled to end at the end of the period already paid, the team keeps its plan until that day and then closes. Cancelled straight away, it closes straight away. See How to close a team. When our payment provider ends a subscription itself because payments kept failing, the team lapses as described above.

If the team is closed

Closing a team is a separate decision by the Owner, and it is the one way a lapsed team's members go back to their own plan. Nothing more is charged after that: the subscription ends at the close of the period already paid, or straight away if a payment was overdue, and there is no refund for the period already paid. A paused team's syncs are no longer paused once it starts closing. Members then go to their own plan or Free. Accounts at the team's verified company domains are handled according to the Owner's choice, as described in How to close a team.