Grace period and read-only mode

What it is

When a paid subscription’s recurring payment fails, the syndicate loses nothing. The payment is retried for around two weeks, and everything carries on as normal for the whole of that time. That window is the grace period. If the payment is never made, the syndicate moves to the free plan, and is then treated exactly like any other free syndicate.

The window belongs to the payment provider rather than to Syndik8. The provider decides when to try the card again and when to stop, and it publishes no schedule, so there is no deadline to show and no countdown anywhere in the app.

Read-only is a label two different situations share: a syndicate that is over the free plan, and a syndicate an admin has closed. They do not block the same things, so which situation you are in decides what you can still do. A failed payment is not itself one of them; it only matters because it can land a large syndicate on the free plan.

Read access is never revoked at any stage. You will always be able to look at your bookings, assets, maintenance, squawks, and financial history.

Who can use it

Admin: the only one shown the failed-payment warning; any admin can resolve the payment from the web version’s subscription settings. On the over-the-free-plan banner, admins are also the only ones given the two action buttons.
Member: not shown the warning. Members are unaffected while a payment is being retried, since nothing is restricted. The over-the-free-plan and closed banners are shown to everyone.

Where to find it

Dashboard tab: the failed-payment warning is drawn here, and nowhere else in the app. Admins only, and only while the provider is still trying to collect.
Top of every tab: the over-the-free-plan banner and the closed banner sit here, and name which situation the syndicate is in.
Subscription settings: /syndicates/:syndicateId/settings/subscription shows the current subscription status, including awaiting payment, cancelled, unpaid, or payment not completed. The warning card itself is not repeated here.

Fields / options

There are no fields to set. Grace and read-only are states driven by the subscription status the payment provider reports, and by the syndicate’s size against the free plan.

Behaviour rules

What a failed payment does

The payment provider retries a failed card for around two weeks. Throughout that time the subscription reads Awaiting payment and the syndicate keeps full access: bookings, usage logs, expenses, members and money all work exactly as normal. A card expiring is usually an oversight rather than a decision, so the window exists to let it resolve without disrupting the group.

It is time to pay, not free time. The amount owed does not shrink because it is settled late, and the next billing date does not move.

State	What admins see	What the syndicate can do
The payment is being retried	A red Payment failed card on the Dashboard, saying the payment will keep being tried for the next couple of weeks and that the syndicate will move to the free plan if the details are not updated. Dismissible for the session.	Everything, as normal.
The retries have stopped, still unpaid	The card is gone. If the syndicate is too large for the free plan, the over-the-plan banner takes its place.	Whatever the free plan allows, described below.

No countdown, and no date. The provider does not publish its retry schedule, so Syndik8 cannot say how many attempts are left or when the last one falls. The warning therefore reads the same on the first day as on the last, and it is worth acting on as soon as it appears.

There is no limit on how many times this can happen. A later failure gets the same window as the first.

Where the grace period leads

If the payment is never made, the provider stops retrying and the syndicate moves to the free plan. Nothing else happens to it directly, and there is no separate payment-failure lockout. Its size decides the rest:

Within the free plan (1 aircraft, up to 3 seat-consuming members): it becomes an ordinary free syndicate. Nothing is restricted, and it can carry on indefinitely.
Larger than the free plan: it becomes an over-the-plan syndicate, which is read-only on the rules below, with a retention deadline.

The move is not final. Putting the payment right from the subscription settings screen restores the paid plan and lifts any restriction that came with the drop, whether that means settling what is outstanding or subscribing again.

Two situations, two different rules

Before concluding that an action is unavailable, check which situation the syndicate is in. The banner names it.

Situation	What starts it	How it ends
Over the free plan	The syndicate is on the free plan with more than 1 aircraft, or more than 3 seat-consuming members.	Resubscribe, or trim back within the plan.
Closed	An admin deliberately closed the syndicate.	Reinstate it inside the retention window.

Over the free plan

The same new activity is blocked, with one deliberate exception: the steps a group needs in order to get back within the plan keep working. The principle is that you can settle up and tidy up, but you cannot start new spending.

Still allowed:

Recording a payment a member has already made, so a balance can be cleared.
Finalising a flight that has already been flown, so a booking stops counting as unresolved.
Cancelling a cash call that nobody has paid against yet.
Removing a member and archiving an aircraft, the two ways back within the plan.

Still refused:

Raising a new cash call. A cash call creates a liability the syndicate did not have before, which is new spending rather than tidying up.
Approving an expense. Approval posts a new credit to the ledger, so it is refused for the same reason. The claim stays pending and can be approved once the syndicate is back within the plan.
Ordinary new activity: creating or editing bookings and usage logs, submitting expenses, adding members or aircraft, and new maintenance items or squawks.

Settle first, then trim. Removing a member is still refused while that member owes money, or has a past flight that has not been finalised, or has a future booking with usage already logged against it. So the order matters: record the payment or finalise the flight first, then remove the member. Both of those steps do work while the syndicate is over the free plan, which is what makes the sequence possible. See remove a member for the full list of what holds a removal up.

Closed

A closed syndicate’s ledger is frozen absolutely. Nobody can add, change, or delete a charge or a payment, admins included. The refusal comes from the server rather than from the app, so there is no route around it.

Nothing should be left to settle in any case: a syndicate cannot be closed while a member still owes a balance, or while a flight is waiting to be finalised. Those have to be cleared before the closure is accepted. See close a syndicate.

Money already in motion still lands. A Direct Debit collection or a card payment that was in flight when the syndicate closed completes on its own, and a payment dispute that arrives afterwards is still recorded, so the ledger keeps agreeing with the bank. That is the payment provider finishing work it had already started, not a person writing to closed books.

What read-only still allows, in both situations

Reading every screen: calendar, bookings, balances, transactions, maintenance, squawks.
Exporting and viewing ICS feeds for bookings already in the system.
Logging in and out.
Taking the way out the banner offers: resolving the payment or resubscribing from the web subscription settings screen, or reinstating a closed syndicate.

Resolving a failed payment or a read-only state

An admin resolves the failure from the web version’s subscription settings. A successful payment clears the warning immediately and billing carries on, and the same route works after the syndicate has already dropped to the free plan and been restricted for being too large.

Lapsed or cancelled subscriptions

A subscription set to cancel at the end of the current period shows a warning on the subscription settings screen with the end date. What happens when it ends depends on the syndicate’s size:

Within the free-tier limits (1 aircraft, 3 members): the syndicate simply drops back to the free tier and carries on. Nothing is restricted.
Over the free-tier limits: the syndicate goes read-only straight away. This differs from a failed payment (above), which keeps full access for as long as the payment is being retried. A voluntary cancellation is a decision rather than an accident, and it comes with an end date the admin already knows about, so there is nothing for a grace window to rescue.

The same immediate read-only applies whenever a paid syndicate reverts to the free tier while over the limits, however that happens.

Getting back to normal. An over-limit read-only syndicate has two ways out, and the banner shows both:

Resubscribe from the web subscription settings. Full read-write returns as soon as the payment goes through.
Reduce members or aircraft until the syndicate is back within 1 aircraft and 3 members. Removing a member or archiving an aircraft lifts the restriction automatically once you are within the limits. Removing members and archiving aircraft stay available while read-only, precisely so you can trim.

A member cannot be removed while they still owe money, or still have a past flight awaiting finalisation, or a future booking with usage already logged against it. Clear that first: recording a payment and finalising a flight both work while the syndicate is over the free plan, so the sequence is always available. See bring a syndicate within the free plan.

If nothing is done. The syndicate’s data is kept and stays readable for a retention period, so there is time to decide. That window is at least 30 days, and longer if money has moved recently (the same window a closed syndicate gets, for payment-dispute cover). If the syndicate is still over the limits and still on the free tier at the end of that window, it is removed. Admins are notified when the syndicate first goes read-only, so the countdown never starts silently.

Free-tier syndicates

Syndicates on the free tier have no recurring payment, so there is nothing to fail and no grace period to enter. It applies only to syndicates on a paid subscription. The over-the-free-plan rules are the other way round: they apply only to a free-tier syndicate, and only while it is larger than the plan allows. A paid syndicate whose payment is never settled passes from the first to the second, by way of the retry window.