Due now and closing date should be explained at checkout

[novoselt]

I was about to buy a license and got to this screen: While I secretly know that my closing date is close and soon I will be charged the full amount, how can I guess it from this page? What if I don't know yet anything about the closing date?

I would:

• mention the explicit date for "then" which is of course the next closing date
• change line breaks that are a bit weird
• NOT mention USD, actually, just keep the $ sign - in reality subscriptions are purchased with CoCalc credits

[novoselt]

An alternative that we have discussed elsewhere:

• always charge the payment method for exactly one full month/year at the start of the subscription, i.e. demand a commitment for that period
• once the money hit the account, charge it for whatever is the remaining portion of the current period (even if it has changed since the purchase due to delays in bank processing)
• the rest of the money is on the account and the second payment may be less than the full period

[williamstein]

Yet another option we've discussed:

• have every single subscription have its own billing date

I'm sure some people would really be annoyed by this. It would also be a complicated code change.

[novoselt]

Most of our big customers use term licenses (or should do so). So I doubt there will be a lot of annoyed people. But for other reasons we have discussed as well I think the choice should be between two options only: 1) each subscription has its own date - this is pretty standard and very easy to understand, even if some people may not like it 2) have the closing date on the first of the month - this is also very easy to understand and it is standard, the first payment should cover THE NEXT month/year plus the rest of the current month.