WooCommerce for Subscription payments

What WooCommerce does on Booknetic SaaS

Booknetic SaaS uses WooCommerce as a balance / deposit top-up rail for your tenants.

The flow is:

1. A tenant clicks Add Deposit in their Billing panel.
2. They are redirected to your WooCommerce store with a hidden Booknetic-managed product added to their cart for the deposit amount.
3. They check out using whichever WooCommerce payment gateway you've enabled (Stripe-for-WC, PayPal-for-WC, Bank Transfer, COD, regional gateways, etc.).
4. When the WooCommerce order reaches a status you've marked as "successful", Booknetic credits the deposit amount to the tenant's balance.
5. The tenant pays for plans by choosing Balance as the payment method during plan selection or renewal.

WooCommerce is not a subscription gateway on Booknetic SaaS. It does not store a card token and does not auto-charge tenants at renewal. If you need true card-on-file auto-renewal, configure Stripe or PayPal under Settings → Payment methods — those are the subscription gateways. WooCommerce sits next to them as a way to top up balance.

When to enable WooCommerce on your platform

The most common reason: you want to accept payment methods that Stripe and PayPal don't cover — bank transfer, cash on delivery, regional gateways, or any other WooCommerce-supported gateway. By letting tenants top up their balance through WooCommerce, you get the full range of WC-compatible payment methods on top of the auto-recurring Stripe / PayPal path.

This integration is for tenants already on your platform; it isn't a customer acquisition channel.

Platform-owner setup

Prerequisites:

• WooCommerce 7.0+ installed and active on the same WordPress site as Booknetic SaaS.
• At least one WooCommerce payment gateway configured and enabled.
• The WooCommerce currency matches your Booknetic SaaS platform currency (Booknetic SaaS → Settings → Payment settings → General).

Steps:

1. In Booknetic SaaS → Settings → Payment settings → Payment methods → WooCommerce, toggle WooCommerce ON.
2. The first time you enable it, Booknetic creates a hidden WooCommerce product called "Booknetic SaaS" in your store. This product is excluded from search and catalog listings — tenants only reach it through the Add Deposit redirect. Don't delete it manually; if you do, Booknetic will recreate it the next time a tenant adds a deposit.
3. Pick the Redirect to target:
   • Cart page — the tenant is redirected to the WooCommerce cart with the deposit product pre-added.
   • Checkout page — the tenant skips Cart and lands directly on Checkout. (Recommended for one-click flows.)
4. Pick the Successful order statuses — Booknetic credits the tenant's balance only when the WooCommerce order reaches one of these statuses. Default: Processing, On hold, Completed.
   • Bank-transfer setup tip: the default list includes "On hold", which is the WooCommerce default status for bank-transfer orders. If you want to credit balance only after you've manually confirmed the transfer arrived, remove "On hold" from this list — then the order has to reach "Completed" (after your manual confirmation) before the balance is credited.
5. Save.

Tenant — top up the balance

From the tenant's panel:

1. Open Billing → Add Deposit.
2. Pick a plan and billing cycle (monthly or annual) to calculate the deposit amount, or enter a custom amount.
3. Click Add Deposit.
4. The tenant is redirected to the WooCommerce Cart or Checkout (whichever you chose in setup step 3), with the hidden Booknetic SaaS deposit product already added at the deposit amount.
5. The tenant completes checkout through any of the WooCommerce gateways you've enabled.
6. When the WooCommerce order reaches a status on your Successful order statuses list, Booknetic credits the balance and a corresponding row appears in the tenant's Billing → Payments.

Tenant — pay a plan from balance

1. Tenant → Billing → Upgrade Plan (or wait for the next renewal).
2. Pick a plan and billing cycle.
3. The payment method picker shows whichever methods you've enabled — typically Credit Card (Stripe), PayPal, and Balance. The tenant picks Balance.
4. Booknetic deducts the plan fee from the tenant's balance and activates or renews the plan.

Renewal — how a tenant on balance renews

To reduce the "ran out of balance" support volume, configure a workflow notification a few days before renewal that warns tenants whose balance is below the upcoming renewal amount.

Refunds and chargebacks — important behavior

Important note: WooCommerce refunds do not automatically reduce tenant balance — manual adjustment required.

Booknetic credits balance forward when a WooCommerce order succeeds, but the reverse — reducing balance when the WC order is refunded — is not automatic. You have to manually adjust the tenant's balance to match.

Build this manual adjustment step into your refund workflow.

Common setup blockers