How do I switch or cancel my plan?

When to switch plans

The four plans (Free, Starter, Business, Growth) differ primarily on monthly document quota, storage, and team seats. The right plan is the one whose document quota covers an honest month of your real intake. You can change plans as often as you like; there's no penalty.

Upgrading — immediate

1. Open Settings → Billing and pick the higher plan.
2. Confirm. If you're coming from Free, Stripe asks for payment details now.
3. The new plan is active immediately — quota, seats, and features unlock within seconds.
4. You're charged a prorated amount for the partial period; from the next renewal you pay the full new-plan price. See prorated billing when you upgrade mid-month for the math.

If your card is declined, the upgrade doesn't apply — you stay on the previous plan, with a banner prompting you to fix the payment method. No partial-state upgrades.

Downgrading — scheduled for period end

Downgrades never cut short what you've paid for:

1. Pick the lower plan in Settings → Billing.
2. The change is scheduled for the end of your current billing period (a Stripe subscription schedule under the hood). Until then you keep every current-plan feature and the full quota.
3. The UI makes the pending state obvious: the target plan's card shows a "Scheduled — switches at period end" badge, and a banner reads "Scheduled: switches to plan on date".
4. Changed your mind? Click Cancel scheduled change any time before the date — "Scheduled change canceled — you'll stay on your current plan."

On the switch date the new plan (and its price) takes over automatically. There are no prorated refunds for the unused higher-tier time, because there is no unused time — you keep the higher tier until the period ends.

Cancelling

Cancel keeps your access until the end of the paid period, then drops you to Free — data intact, no further charges. Two details worth knowing:

• Cancel releases a pending downgrade first. A subscription can't be both "downgrading to Starter" and "cancelling" — if you cancel while a downgrade is scheduled, the scheduled change is released and the cancellation takes its place. That's also why plan changes while a cancellation is pending answer with: "You have a cancellation scheduled. Reactivate your subscription first, then change your plan."
• Reactivate is one click. While a cancelled subscription is still in its paid period, you can reactivate it without a new checkout — access is uninterrupted.

Free is the "cancelled" state; nothing is deleted. If you want your data gone too, that's a separate flow — see delete your account and export your data.

Friendly errors instead of dead ends

Plan changes never fail with a cryptic crash. The cases you might hit:

• Subscription already expired — you're routed to a fresh checkout ("resubscribe") instead of a broken modify.
• Payment needs attention — you're routed to the Stripe billing portal to fix the card or confirm an authentication challenge.
• "Managed by Apple" — you subscribed on iPhone via in-app purchase; plan changes and cancellation happen in the App Store (Settings → your name → Subscriptions). See subscribing on iOS.
• "Managed by operator" — your plan was granted by TaxItEasy staff (e.g. a courtesy plan); write to support to change it.

If a payment fails mid-subscription, you'll get reminder emails (days 1, 3, and 7) and an in-app banner; paying the open invoice restores everything immediately.

Seats, and what happens when you hit the limit

A seat is an active team member or a pending invitation — invites count the moment they're sent, not when accepted. Your tax advisor never uses a seat; advisor access is free external access on every plan.

If you invite someone beyond your plan's seat count, the invite modal doesn't just fail: it explains the limit inline and shows an Upgrade plan button straight to Billing. Upgrade, then send the invite again — upgrades apply immediately.

What happens to quota after a downgrade

Nothing is deleted. Existing documents stay accessible, searchable, and exportable. Only new monthly intake is capped at the lower quota — if you've already passed it, uploads pause until the next monthly reset, with a friendly notice rather than an error wall.

EU VAT and reverse charge

If you're a VAT-registered EU business outside Cyprus (our company seat), add your VAT ID at checkout. Your invoice then shows VAT 0% with the reverse-charge clause, and you account for VAT in your own filing. Past invoices are downloadable any time from Settings → Billing.

Annual vs monthly

Annual billing is roughly 17% cheaper (two months free). Switching monthly → annual applies as an upgrade (immediate, prorated); annual → monthly applies at the end of the annual period. See annual vs monthly billing.

Related

• Prorated billing when you upgrade mid-month — the math
• Annual vs monthly billing — when to pick which
• Subscribing on iOS (in-app purchase) — Apple-managed subscriptions
• Understanding your document counter — what counts toward the limit
• Delete your account and export your data — beyond cancellation