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Glossary

Billing Cutoff

Also known as: Cutoff date, Lock date

A billing cutoff is the point before a subscription renewal after which the contents of the next box are locked and can no longer be edited — it exists so the merchant can finalise picking, packing, and stock while still giving subscribers as long as possible to change their mind.

Any box that lets customers choose its contents has to answer one operational question: how late can someone change the order? Too late, and the warehouse is repacking boxes that are already picked. Too early, and subscribers find their box locked for weeks before it ships, which is exactly the loss of control that drives cancellations.

The cutoff is where those two pressures are resolved. Set it against real fulfilment lead times rather than a round number, communicate it in the portal so a subscriber can see the date they have, and keep skip available after the cutoff even when editing is closed — skipping a delivery is a stock decision the warehouse can absorb far more easily than a re-pick.

Curobi's build-your-own boxes carry per-item limits and a billing cutoff, so the box locks on a schedule the merchant sets rather than at an arbitrary moment before renewal.

Related terms

  • Build-Your-Own Box — A build-your-own box (BYOB) is a subscription in which the customer assembles their own recurring box from a set of eligible products each cycle — for example choosing which coffee bags go in this month's shipment — usually within a per-item limit and before a billing cutoff.
  • Curated Box — A curated box is a subscription box whose contents the merchant selects and rotates on a schedule — the customer subscribes to the experience and the merchant decides what ships each cycle, such as a monthly coffee sampler that changes every month.
  • Skip vs Pause — Skipping omits one scheduled delivery and its charge while leaving the subscription and its cadence intact, whereas pausing suspends the subscription indefinitely or until a chosen date — skip answers "not this month", pause answers "not for a while".
  • Subscription Box — A subscription box is a recurring package of physical products delivered on a schedule — weekly, monthly, or another cadence — which the merchant either curates or lets the customer build, and which the customer pays for automatically each cycle.

← All subscription commerce terms