Payment and invoices

Where to find everything

Settings → Subscription & billing. Only the owner can see this area. Managers have no access to invoices and payment details, and the tax adviser’s access certainly does not — the tax adviser receives payroll data, not the business’s payment method.

Directly in the app you can see:

• the current plan, the term, the number of seats billed and the billing interval
• the next charge with date, net amount, VAT and gross amount
• the stored payment method — only the type, the last four digits and, for cards, the expiry date
• the invoices with number, date, period, amount, status and PDF
• the Cancel at end of term or Withdraw cancellation button

For everything Stripe does better, there is the Open customer portal button: change the billing address, enter the VAT identification number, switch payment method. After saving, Stripe takes you back to the “Subscription & billing” tab.

Payment methods

Payment is handled entirely by Stripe. Which payment methods you can choose is shown on Stripe’s checkout page when you sign up; Zeitflex does not set this in the app. Zeitflex stores no card number and no account number — the only things shown are what Stripe itself allows to be displayed: the type of payment method, the last four digits and, for cards, the expiry date. If the card has expired, a notice appears in the tab before the next charge fails.

Invoices with open payment terms are not available in self-service. From 101 active employees, Enterprise applies with individual terms — contact via info@zeitflex.de or the support team.

The email before the first charge

Anyone who chose Starter or Pro when registering stores their payment details before the 14-day trial. After the trial, Stripe automatically charges the chosen price. So that this does not take anyone by surprise, Zeitflex sends an email to the owner three days before the end of the trial. It states:

• the date on which the trial ends and the first charge is made
• the chosen plan
• the net amount, calculated as price × number of employees × billing interval, “plus VAT”

The amount comes from the subscription at Stripe — that is, from the same source as the later invoice. If Zeitflex does not know the price or quantity, the email states no figure and refers to the “Subscription & billing” tab. If the end date is unknown, the email is not sent at all: we do not claim a deadline we do not know.

You do not need to do anything after this email. If you do not want to continue, cancel with one click by the stated date — then nothing is charged, and your business continues on the free plan. Your recorded times are kept in any case.

Anyone who chose Free when registering does not receive such an email, because nothing is charged.

What the invoice shows

Billing is per active employee — no base fee. The number of seats is compared daily with the number of your active employees and adjusted without an interim invoice:

• Growth during the current term costs nothing extra until the next invoice.
• Shrinking only becomes cheaper with the next invoice.
• If all employees are deactivated — seasonal break in construction, company holidays in hospitality — the minimum quantity of one seat is billed.
• More than 100 active employees continue to be billed as 100 seats; the business then belongs on an Enterprise contract. Nothing is blocked as a result.

With annual payment, the annual price is ten times the monthly price — two months are free.

VAT and billing address

Stripe calculates VAT automatically based on the billing address. That is why the address is mandatory at checkout: without a place of supply no tax can be calculated, and without the recipient’s address the invoice is incomplete under § 14 UStG (German VAT Act). In the same step, Stripe asks for the VAT identification number.

A business with a valid VAT ID in another EU country receives an invoice under the reverse-charge procedure, i.e. without VAT shown. In the app’s invoice list the tax line is then simply missing — it does not say “€0.00”, because that would be a statement about the tax liability that Zeitflex does not make.

Invoices

Invoices and receipts are issued by Stripe; Zeitflex itself does not send invoices. In the app you see the last twelve invoices by default, and up to 36 via Show older invoices. Each row shows the invoice number, date, service period, amount, status and a link to the PDF.

The status is one of five: Paid, Open (collection is still pending), Payment failed (an attempt has failed), Draft and Cancelled.

The links to the view and the PDF are only valid for a short time and are fetched fresh from Stripe each time — Zeitflex does not store them. Download the PDF if you want to keep it: invoices must be retained for ten years under § 147 AO (German Fiscal Code). After cancellation, the invoices remain visible in the tab.

When a payment fails

The process is staged and free of surprises:

1. An immediate email from Zeitflex to the owner: “The charge did not go through.” It states the outstanding amount, if Stripe provides it, and takes you to the payment method with one click. The most common reason is an expired or blocked card.
2. Retry attempts by Stripe over the following days. Your access does not change during this time — Zeitflex never downgrades on its own. The “Subscription & billing” tab shows “Please check” and the Check and change payment method button.
3. If the payment fails permanently, Stripe ends the subscription. Only this response sets the business back to the free plan.

Chargebacks

If you reverse a charge, we inform you immediately by email — not only in the monthly report. The reason: chargebacks have a deadline. Anyone who sees the case too late can no longer resolve it.

What happens:

• Your access remains. Time recording is a legal obligation — we do not block anything because of this.
• Referral bonuses from this payment are cancelled while the case is open.
• After the decision, a second email follows — either way. If the chargeback was decided in our favour, access and subscription continue unchanged; the cancelled bonus is checked manually and not automatically restored. If the amount remains charged back, please check your payment method so that the next charge goes through.

Incidentally, the most common cause of a chargeback is not intent but an accounts department that could not match the name on the bank statement. A phone call clears this up faster than a reversal.

Credit from referrals

Credit from the referral programme is held as credit on your customer account at Stripe and is automatically offset against the next invoice — you do not need to redeem anything. It appears as a separate box in the tab, and under “Next charge” you see “Including … credit applied”. There is no cash payout.

Cancelling

Cancel under Subscription & billing with Cancel at end of term or in Stripe’s customer portal. Both take effect at the end of the term already paid for; until then nothing changes. While the term is still running, you can withdraw the cancellation with one click. Once it has expired, the only option is a new subscription via the plan selection — the app says so, too, instead of trying it silently. What happens to your data afterwards is explained under Closing your account and taking your data with you.

Frequently asked questions

I have stored a new card in the customer portal — do I need to do anything else?

No. Stripe uses the new card at the next retry attempt on its own. As soon as the collection has succeeded, the invoice status in the app changes to “Paid” and the “Please check” notice disappears.

Why is the next charge lower than price times employees?

Two possible reasons, both shown in the tab: either credit from the referral programme was applied (“Including … credit applied”), or the seat count from the daily comparison is smaller than your headcount, because only active employees count.

Our accounts department needs the invoices but has no owner access.

Only the owner sees invoices — and there is exactly one per business. The owner role can neither be assigned nor removed via employee management; the only roles that can be assigned there are manager, employee and tax adviser access. A second owner access just for the accounts department is therefore not an option. Download the PDFs and pass them on. The tax adviser access from Inviting your tax adviser sees payroll data, not invoices.

My invoice shows no VAT — is that a mistake?

For a business with a valid VAT ID outside Germany but within the EU, this is the reverse-charge procedure: you owe the tax in your own country. Whether and how much VAT is shown is decided by Stripe based on your billing address and your VAT ID — Zeitflex does not recalculate anything alongside it. If the invoice looks wrong to you, first check the billing address in the customer portal and then get in touch with the invoice number.

Still stuck?

For questions about a specific invoice, contact the support team and quote the invoice number from the list. For switching between plans, see Changing your plan; for prices, Plans and prices.