Tutorial - Check plan cancellation eligibility

When users downgrade or cancel plans, you want to check that they are able to do so without exceeding usage limits of the plan they are downgrading to.

In this tutorial, we’ll focus on how to deny cancellations for Enterprise plans, ensuring that customers who have signed legal agreements can only cancel by contacting support - while still allowing self-serve cancellation for other plans.

What you need

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• A Kinde account (Sign up for free)
• A GitHub account (Sign up for free)
• A Stripe account (Sign up for free)
• A running Kinde project, such as the Kinde NextJS starter kit

Step 1: Set up Kinde billing

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Part 1: Set up plans

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1. Sign in to Kinde and then switch to a non-production environment. This allows you to use Stripe payments in test mode.
2. Go to Settings > Billing and select Connect Stripe account and follow the Stripe configuration steps.
3. Scroll down the page and select Show the pricing table when customers sign up and select Save.
4. Go to Billing > Add a plan.
   1. Select This plan is for: Users.
   2. Enter a Name (e.g, SDR Enterprise Standard), optional Description.
   3. Key (e.g, enterprise)
   4. Select the Default currency.
   5. Select Save
5. Under the Fixed charges section, select Add charge.
   1. Enter a Name (Enterprise Standard), add Line item description (Enterprise Standard Plan).
   2. Enter a Price: (e.g, 15,000)
   3. Select Save.
6. Select Publish.

Part 2: Set up pricing table

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1. Go to Billing > Pricing tables and select Add pricing table.
2. Select the Generate option and select Next.
3. Select User plans and select Save.
4. Select the three dots next to the pricing table you created and select Edit pricing table.
5. Select Make live and select Save.
6. Go to Settings > Self-serve portal.
7. Enter http://localhost:3000/dashboard in the Return URL field.
8. From User self-management section, switch on Billing, select Save. This will let your users change pricing plans from the self-serve portal.

Step 2: Create the workflow code

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1. Fork the workflow base template repo into your GitHub account by selecting Use this template > Create a new repository.

2. Clone the repo into your computer with the following Git command.

   git clone https://github.com/your_github_username/workflow-base-template.git

3. Change into the directory.

   cd workflow-base-template

4. Remove the sample workflow with the command.

   rm -rf kindeSrc/environment/workflows/postUserAuthentication

5. Create a new workflow with the following command.

   You can name it anything that resonates with your project structure; we are calling it denyPlanCancel.

   mkdir kindeSrc/environment/workflows/denyPlanCancel
   touch kindeSrc/environment/workflows/denyPlanCancel/Workflow.ts

6. Open the new file with your preferred code editor (e.g., VS Code) and add the following workflow code into the file and save changes.

   import {
     onPlanCancellationRequest,
     WorkflowSettings,
     WorkflowTrigger,
     denyPlanCancellation,
     getEnvironmentVariable,
   } from "@kinde/infrastructure"
   
   // The setting for this workflow
   export const workflowSettings: WorkflowSettings = {
     id: "onUserPlanCancellationRequest",
     trigger: WorkflowTrigger.PlanCancellationRequest,
     name: "Deny Plan Cancellation",
     failurePolicy: {
       action: "stop",
     },
     bindings: {
       "kinde.plan": {},
       "kinde.env": {},
       url: {},
     },
   }
   
   // The workflow code to be executed when the event is triggered
   export default async function Workflow(event: onPlanCancellationRequest) {
     const { currentPlanCode } = event.context.billing
   
     // Configurable list of enterprise-like SKUs (comma-separated), default to "enterprise"
     const ENTERPRISE_CODES = (
       getEnvironmentVariable("ENTERPRISE_PLAN_CODES").value || "enterprise"
     )
       .split(",")
       .map((s) => s.trim().toLowerCase())
   
     const isEnterprise =
       !!currentPlanCode &&
       ENTERPRISE_CODES.includes(String(currentPlanCode).toLowerCase())
   
     if (isEnterprise) {
       denyPlanCancellation(
         "Your subscription is managed by our team. To make changes, please contact support."
       )
     }
   }

   Optional: Install the Kinde infrastructure dependency with the following bash command for TypeScript intellisense.

   npm install

7. Run the following git commands in your terminal to push the changes to your GitHub repo:

   git add .
   git commit -m "add new deny plan cancellation workflow"
   git push

Code explanation

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Here’s a quick breakdown of what the code does.

Imports

The top of the file brings in useful methods and types from the @kinde/infrastructure package:

• onPlanCancellationRequest – the event type for plan cancellation requests.
• WorkflowSettings and WorkflowTrigger – used to configure when the workflow runs.
• denyPlanCancellation – stops a cancellation and shows a message to the user.
• getEnvironmentVariable – retrieves environment variables set in the Kinde dashboard.

Workflow settings

The workflowSettings object defines how and when the workflow executes:

• id is a unique identifier for the workflow.
• trigger is set to PlanCancellationRequest, meaning the workflow runs whenever a customer tries to cancel their plan.
• name is for easy reference in the dashboard.
• failurePolicy with action: "stop" ensures the workflow halts cleanly if something goes wrong.
• bindings enable access to Kinde plan info, environment variables, and URLs inside the workflow.

Main workflow logic

The Workflow function is executed on each cancellation attempt:

1. It extracts the currentPlanCode from the billing context.

2. It loads a configurable list of Enterprise-like SKUs from the ENTERPRISE_PLAN_CODES environment variable. If none is set, it defaults to "enterprise".

   • The list is split by commas, trimmed, and converted to lowercase for reliable matching.

3. It checks whether the current plan matches one of the Enterprise SKUs.

4. If the plan is Enterprise, it calls denyPlanCancellation() and shows a custom message to the user:

   “Your subscription is managed by our team. To make changes, please contact support.”

Result

Enterprise customers won’t be able to cancel through the self-serve portal. Instead, they’ll see a clear message directing them to sales or support. All other customers (Free, Pro, etc.) continue with the normal cancellation flow.

Step 3: Deploy the workflow code

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1. Go to Workflows.

2. If you already have your workflow repo connected, go straight to step 4.

3. Select Connect repo > Connect GitHub and follow the onboarding flow to authorize Kinde to access your GitHub account.

   

4. From the dropdown, select your GitHub repository that contains the Kinde workflow code, choose the main branch, and click Next.

   If you already have a repo connected and want to change it, go to Settings > Git repo > Change repo.

5. Select Sync code to pull your latest workflow code from GitHub into your Kinde project.

6. Go to Workflows to see your workflow listed inside the dashboard.

   

7. Go to Settings > Env variables and select Add environment variable.

   1. Enter the Key: ENTERPRISE_PLAN_CODES
   2. Enter all of your plan codes you don’t want the user to cancel in comma-separated values (e.g: enterprise,enterprise_plus)
   3. Select Save.

Step 4: Test the workflow

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1. Setup a sample Kinde project and run it.

2. Open your Kinde project and go through the sign up process. You will see the plan selection page.

   

3. Select the SDR Enterprise Standard plan. Use sample credit card numbers:

   • Card number: 4242 4242 4242 4242
   • Validity: 12/34
   • CVC: 123

4. Now select My Account > Plan > Cancel plan. You will be restricted from canceling the plan with the message:

Your subscription is managed by our team. To make changes, please contact support.

Well done!

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By adding a workflow to handle cancellation requests, you can create clear rules for cancelling plans directly in the self-serve portal.

In our example, we blocked Enterprise customers from canceling on their own, ensuring they follow the proper sales and support channels defined in their agreements. With Kinde, you can combine these types of rules with your other billing workflows to build a billing experience that fits your business model.