Trial

The trial stage is your single most critical conversion point. India SaaS typically offers 14 or 30-day trials. Best practice: require a payment method at trial start (reduces failed dunning later), use behavioural triggers to identify activated vs unactivated trial users by Day 7, and deploy a targeted conversion sequence for unactivated users. Trial-to-paid conversion rates in India B2B SaaS range from 15–35%; below 15% indicates onboarding or product-fit problems rather than pricing issues.

Active

The steady state. Monitor health signals continuously: login frequency, feature adoption, support ticket volume. An Active subscriber with a declining health score is a future Past Due or Cancelled account — intervene proactively. Annual Active subscribers should receive a renewal readiness check 90 days before renewal, not 30 days.

Past Due

A customer whose payment has failed but who has not yet cancelled. This is a critical revenue recovery window. In India, 60–70% of Past Due accounts are recoverable with proper dunning — many failures are involuntary (expired card, UPI mandate issue, insufficient balance) rather than intentional cancellation. The dunning sequence must start within 1 hour of failure.

Cancelled

Customer has explicitly cancelled or been offboarded after failed dunning. Immediately: send a cancellation confirmation, offer a pause option (for customers who cite temporary budget concerns), and begin win-back sequence scheduling. Capture cancellation reason for product telemetry — voluntary churn reasons are your most direct product roadmap input.

Reactivated

A former customer who returns — the highest-value acquisition motion. Reactivated customers typically have 50–70% lower CAC than new customers, onboard 3–5× faster (they know the product), and retain better in their second tenure. Offer a compelling reactivation incentive (2 months free, waived onboarding fee) and assign a personal CSM for the first 30 days.

Failed Payment Recovery Sequences

Dunning is the process of attempting to recover revenue from failed payments. A well-designed dunning sequence recovers 60–75% of initially failed payments. The standard India dunning sequence:

• Hour 1: Automatic retry (many failures are transient network errors — retry immediately recovers 15–20%)
• Day 1: Email notification to customer with payment update link; SMS alert for high-value accounts
• Day 3: WhatsApp message with direct payment link (highest response rate channel in India)
• Day 7: Second automatic retry + email with urgency framing ("Your account will be suspended in 7 days")
• Day 10: Personal email from CSM or account manager for accounts >₹5,000/month
• Day 14: Final warning; account access suspension at Day 14 (access restriction dramatically increases payment urgency)
• Day 21: Final recovery attempt; account cancelled if no payment; begin win-back sequence

India-Specific: UPI Mandate Expiry and NACH Failure

UPI AutoPay mandates in India expire after 1 year (₹5,000 limit) or must be re-authorised if the bank changes. NACH (National Automated Clearing House) mandates fail when customers switch banks, change account numbers, or when banks reject debit for insufficient balance. Build proactive mandate health monitoring: flag all mandates expiring in the next 60 days and trigger a re-authorisation request via WhatsApp 30 days before expiry. This can recover 40–60% of at-risk mandates before they fail.

RBI Recurring Payment Mandate

The Reserve Bank of India's recurring payment mandate regulations (effective October 2021) require that all recurring domestic transactions above ₹5,000 go through an Additional Factor of Authentication (AFA) — meaning customers must re-authenticate each payment, defeating the purpose of automated recurring billing. This is the biggest operational challenge for India SaaS subscription businesses.

Practical Implications

For plans priced above ₹5,000/month, NACH (bank mandate, not UPI) is the only viable automated recurring payment method for domestic India customers. For sub-₹5,000 plans, UPI AutoPay via NPCI is excellent — fast, reliable, and familiar to India consumers. For international customers, Stripe or Paddle handle SCA compliance automatically.

Cardless EMI and BNPL

India's cardless EMI market (ZestMoney, LazyPay, Simpl, Bajaj Finserv EMI Network) is increasingly relevant for subscription businesses with higher price points. Offering 3/6/12 month EMI on annual plans can dramatically improve annual plan conversion for price-sensitive SMB customers. The vendor bears the EMI cost (typically 1.5–2.5% per month) but gains the annual cash upfront.

Proration Logic

When a customer upgrades mid-cycle, they should pay only for the remaining time on the higher-cost plan. Proration formula: Upgrade credit = (Days remaining in period ÷ Total days in period) × Old plan price. Additional charge = New plan price − Upgrade credit for the remaining days. This must be handled automatically by your billing system — manual proration is error-prone and creates customer trust issues.

Mid-Cycle Changes

Two approaches: (1) Immediate proration — customer is charged the prorated difference immediately and the new plan takes effect now. Best for upgrades. (2) Deferred change — the new plan takes effect at the next billing cycle. Best for downgrades, as it avoids confusing refunds and maintains cash flow. Build your UI to clearly communicate which approach applies and show the exact amounts before the customer confirms.

Annual-to-Monthly Conversions

A customer downgrading from annual to monthly is a churn precursor 60% of the time. Treat every annual-to-monthly downgrade request as a churn risk event. Trigger immediate CS outreach, understand the concern (budget? feature gap? team restructuring?), and offer a pause option or partial refund to retain the annual commitment. Never make it easier to downgrade than to stay — add friction through a CS call requirement for annual plans above ₹1L/year.

MRR Movements (The 5 Buckets)

Track MRR changes monthly across five buckets:

• New MRR: Revenue from customers who were not customers in the prior month
• Expansion MRR: Revenue increase from existing customers (upgrades, seat additions, usage growth)
• Contraction MRR: Revenue decrease from existing customers (downgrades, seat reductions)
• Churned MRR: Revenue lost from customers who cancelled entirely
• Reactivation MRR: Revenue from previously churned customers who returned

Net New MRR = New + Expansion + Reactivation − Contraction − Churned. This is your core growth health signal. A business where Expansion + Reactivation > Contraction + Churned has negative net churn — the existing customer base grows without new acquisition.

ARR and Renewal Rate

Annual Recurring Revenue (ARR) = MRR × 12. For businesses with both monthly and annual subscribers, ARR is more meaningful than a simple MRR × 12 because annual contracts are contractually committed. Renewal rate = value of contracts renewed ÷ value of contracts up for renewal. Target renewal rate for India SaaS: >85% by value; >80% by logo. Below 70% by value is a serious red flag requiring immediate CS investment.

Corpfy's Subscription Management dashboard tracks every customer subscription — plan tier, MRR, renewal date, health status — alongside a renewal calendar and NRR (Net Revenue Retention) calculation. NRR is the single metric that distinguishes a good SaaS business from a great one: NRR >110% means you grow revenue even with zero new customers.

What you get in the dashboard