Upgrading and Downgrading a Service

Move a service to another plan or another billing cycle from one tab, with the unused part of the current term priced automatically, so a plan change never becomes a manual credit calculation.

Opening the Screen

Open a service from Orders › Services, then pick the Upgrade/Downgrade tab: {admin}/services/detail?id={service}&content=upgrade

The tab is rendered only for a service that is not a domain and whose status is not cancelled. A domain is renewed and transferred, never re-planned, and a cancelled service has no term left to price.

Even when present, the tab can open showing only Upgrade/Downgrade is disabled for this service type. Two switches control that: the system-wide plan-change switch, and the Order Upgrades option of the product group the service belongs to. For a fixed group (hosting, server, software) that flag sits on the group's settings page; a service sold from a custom category reads it from that category.

What Is on the Screen

A read-only summary at the top, two action cards below it. The action cards are rendered only for staff who may operate on services.

Pending Request

A yellow strip appears when this service already has a plan change that has not finished: waiting for approval, being applied, or scheduled. It shows the type and state, repeats the last message returned, and offers View for {admin}/services/updowngrades. While it is on screen both Start Upgrade and Start Downgrade are disabled: one service carries one plan change at a time.

Current Plan

Names the product the service is sold as today, with its billing cycle underneath. The info button beside the name opens that product's edit page in a new tab, the quickest way to check what the plan contains before replacing it. Renewal Date is when the running term started, Due Date when it ends.

Usage Summary

Used Duration and Used Amount are the consumed part of the term; Remaining Duration and Remaining Amount are what the customer paid for but has not used. The split is a daily rate: the service amount divided by the days between the two dates. The remaining amount is the credit applied to every plan option below, so a service mid-term is quoted differently from one that just renewed. All four stay at zero when there is no amount or no valid term.

Upgrade

Start Upgrade loads the eligible plans and reveals the form. The list is the upgrade list configured on the current product plus the current product itself, so a cycle change stays possible, narrowed to active plans whose price is not below the current service amount. The current product on its current cycle is always dropped, because that is not a change. When Upgrade Only on the Same Server is enabled in the hosting or server group settings, plans that would move the account to another server are dropped too. Choosing a plan and a cycle reveals Price Difference: the plan price minus the unused amount, plus tax where the billing address is taxed, minus any reseller discount. The VAT Included note appears only when tax was added.

Everything starts from that upgrade list, so a product with none configured offers nothing at all: both cards come back empty and even a cycle change is out of reach until the product is given one.

Downgrade

Mirrors the upgrade card from Start Downgrade, with the list filtered the other way: plans whose price is not above the current service amount. Price Difference carries a minus sign here because it is money leaving the business, and neither tax nor a reseller discount touches it. That figure is the settlement itself: the gap between the unused amount and the price of the plan being moved to, not the unused amount on its own. Two decisions are unique to this card: Refund Type settles that amount, Schedule Downgrade settles the timing.

Scheduled Downgrade Waiting

Once a downgrade is scheduled the form is replaced by Target Plan, the Scheduled For block and a Cancel Scheduled Downgrade button, while the upgrade card is replaced by Upgrade is temporarily unavailable because a downgrade has been scheduled. Please cancel the scheduled downgrade first. A schedule locks the whole tab until it is applied or cancelled.

Process Guides

The question-mark button in each card header opens a step-by-step guide: six steps for the upgrade, seven for the downgrade. If the service has an active recurring payment agreement, both guides warn that it is cancelled when the change is applied.

Fields

Tasks

Upgrading a plan and invoicing the difference

1. Open the Upgrade/Downgrade tab and press Start Upgrade in the Upgrade card.
2. Choose the target in Upgrade To, a cycle in Pricing & Period, and read Price Difference.
3. Turn on Invoice Generation, leave Invoice Status on Unpaid, and turn on Send Notification if the customer should be told.
4. Press Upgrade at the bottom of the card. The invoice is created and you land on the upgrade list; the plan changes once it is paid. To hand the change straight to the automation job instead, leave invoice generation off or set the status to Paid; it is applied within a few minutes.

Changing only the billing cycle

1. Open the card matching the direction of the price change: Upgrade when the new cycle costs more, Downgrade when it costs less.
2. In Upgrade To or Downgrade To, pick the plan the service is already on; the list keeps it so this is possible.
3. Pick the new cycle in Pricing & Period and submit. Only price and cycle change: module and server stay put, so no command reaches the server and the account is never rebuilt.

Downgrading now and returning the unused amount

1. Press Start Downgrade in the Downgrade card, then choose the target plan and cycle.
2. Pick a Refund Type. Apply as Credit keeps the money inside the account instead of moving it through a gateway.
3. Leave Schedule Downgrade off and press Downgrade. The credit reaches the customer balance and is recorded as an expense at once, and the plan change is queued for the automation job.

Scheduling a downgrade for the end of the term

1. Fill the Downgrade card the same way, including Refund Type.
2. Turn on Schedule Downgrade and press Downgrade.
3. The tab now shows the target plan and a Cancel Scheduled Downgrade button, the upgrade card is locked, and the change runs at the due date. The refund is settled when the schedule activates, not now.

Cancelling a scheduled downgrade

1. Open the Upgrade/Downgrade tab of the service.
2. Press Cancel Scheduled Downgrade in the Downgrade card.
3. The page reloads with both cards back to normal, the request is marked cancelled in the central list, and the cancellation reaches the activity log.

Confirming a server or module change

1. Open a hosting or server service that runs on an automation module, then submit a change whose target plan sits on a different module or a different server.
2. Instead of applying, the Server/Module Change Warning window opens: the current account will be terminated and a new one created on the new infrastructure.
3. Press Apply in that window to continue, or close it to abandon the change. Nothing is recorded until you confirm. Any other service type, and a service with no module on one of the two sides, records the change and queues it without this window.

Things to Watch

Required Privileges

Reading the tab needs SERVICES_LOOK or SERVICES_OPERATION: either one on its own opens the service record. The Upgrade and Downgrade cards are rendered only for staff holding SERVICES_OPERATION, which is also required to submit a change and to cancel a scheduled downgrade.

Related Articles

• Upgrades and Downgrades
• Service Detail Overview
• Product Upgrade Options
• Invoice Detail Overview