---
title: Maintenance plans
customers-call-it: built-in automation
url: /docs/features/store/automations/store.maintenance-plans
---

# Maintenance plans

**Coming soon.** This isn't available to customers yet.

Thank customers when a plan renews and tell staff when a payment fails, using your chosen email templates. Both notices start paused; adding Maintenance plans sends nothing.

## What you'll notice

Subscriptions opens as a status board. The built-in automation contains **Thank the customer for renewing** and **Tell staff a payment failed**. They share one Maintenance plans identity. Each needs an Email sender and an accepted transactional template; the staff notice also needs an explicitly selected recipient.

## What it adds or changes

It powers Maintenance plans: the app lists the installed automation under that name.

## What it needs

What starts each stage:

- **Thank the customer for renewing** starts on A merchant plan renews.
- **Tell staff a payment failed** starts on A merchant plan payment fails.

## How it works

1. **Thank the customer for renewing**: Paused until configured: on a paid renewal, read the customer's current email and plan, then send your accepted transactional thank-you. No email address means no send. You can edit its steps.
2. **Tell staff a payment failed**: Paused until configured: when a native subscription payment fails, email your accepted transactional notice to the staff recipient you explicitly chose. Nothing retries or charges. You can edit its steps.

## What you can change

Open Store settings → Automations, or open **Maintenance plans** from the
built-in automations list. Choose **Use** beside a paused stage. The existing
stage settings form offers **From** (a ready sending address), **Email template**
(a transactional email title and accepted version), and, for the staff stage,
**Staff recipient** (a staff email address or a contact you choose). References
are kept behind these controls; no IDs or JSON need to be typed. Missing Email
options explain what to prepare and link to Email or its setup guide.
Choose **Switch on** explicitly to attach and enable that stage for future
events. Opening the editor or cancelling the form sends nothing. Empty,
invalid or unavailable choices cannot be saved.

Once attached, **Configure** changes those inputs without changing whether the
stage is on or off; its switch controls future event admissions. Both stages
keep the same **Maintenance plans** identity before and after configuration,
including while paused. On a narrow screen, select a stage heading to open its
overview and controls.

The supplied workflow reads the current Store customer and plan, then uses Email's reusable Send action. You can change the accepted workflow through the normal automation editor and its permission checks. Publishing affects future runs of this installed type; admitted runs retain their pinned version.

**Thank the customer for renewing** checks for a current customer email address
before sending. **Tell staff a payment failed** sends only to the staff recipient
you selected. Both notices use the current Store customer and plan. Your templates
can include the customer's name, plan and subscription status, plus the payment
amount and currency when available. These transactional notices do not give
permission to send marketing emails.

## Example

A fictional plumber chooses a sender and thank-you template for paid renewals, and a separate failure template addressed to their office. The customer thank-you skips a subscription whose customer has no email. Leaving the staff recipient unset keeps that stage unconfigured rather than sending to a guessed destination.

## Limits

- **Thank the customer for renewing**: Read a native subscription's current customer and plan and send an explicitly configured accepted transactional email through Email. No charge, retry, cancellation or subscription mutation.
- **Tell staff a payment failed**: Read a native subscription's current customer and plan and send an explicitly configured accepted transactional email through Email. No charge, retry, cancellation or subscription mutation.

These notices do not collect payment, retry a charge, cancel a subscription or book a visit. Email's normal readiness and recipient restrictions still apply. Native Store lifecycle events drive them; the separate Site subscriptions automation remains unchanged.

## Related

- [Maintenance plans](/docs/features/store/presets/store.maintenance-plans): Monthly or yearly plans, a subscription board and editable renewal notices