WCS Extended Renewal Reminders

A WordPress plugin that extends WooCommerce Subscriptions manual renewal handling end-to-end: scheduling an early second reminder, auto-creating a pending renewal order with a login-free payment link, placing the subscription on-hold, detecting and notifying on overdue renewals, and correcting the billing schedule after a late payment. Includes admin UI enhancements for visibility into overdue subscriptions.

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Requirements

Dependency	Version
WordPress	6.0+
WooCommerce	8.0+
WooCommerce Subscriptions	5.0+ (premium)
Action Scheduler	3.6+ (bundled with WooCommerce)
PHP	8.0+

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Installation

1. Copy wcs-extended-renewal-reminders.php into wp-content/plugins/wcs-extended-renewal-reminders/.
2. Activate the plugin from Plugins → Installed Plugins.
3. No additional configuration is required. The plugin reads the renewal notification offset from WooCommerce → Settings → Subscriptions and derives all timing from it automatically.

Note: This plugin only acts on manual subscriptions (those not charged automatically by a payment gateway). Automatic subscriptions are never put on-hold or issued pending renewal orders by this plugin.

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How It Works

The plugin follows a single linear flow from the moment WCS fires a renewal reminder through to payment confirmation and schedule correction.

1. Early ("reminder") notification

The plugin replaces the WCS default notification scheduler with an extended subclass (WCS_Action_Scheduler_Customer_Notifications_Extended). For every renewal notification WCS schedules, the extended scheduler also schedules a second action:

woocommerce_scheduled_subscription_customer_notification_renewal_reminder

This fires at the midpoint between the standard reminder and the actual renewal date. For example, if WCS is configured to send a reminder 12 days before renewal, the reminder fires 6 days before renewal.

By default the early reminder sends the same email as the standard renewal notification. Hook woocommerce_subscription_customer_notification_renewal_reminder to substitute a custom template (see Hooks reference below).

2. Pending renewal order creation

When the standard WCS renewal reminder fires (priority 1, before the email is sent), the plugin creates a pending renewal order for the subscription if one does not already exist. The order is flagged with the _its_autologin_renewal meta key so downstream login-free payment link handlers can identify it.

Orders created via the admin Generate Renewal Order button are flagged the same way.

3. Subscription placed on-hold

After the reminder email has been sent (priority 20), the subscription is placed on-hold and the current next_payment date is snapshotted in _its_original_next_payment meta. This preserves the original billing schedule for correction after a late payment.

An overdue check is then scheduled via Action Scheduler for one day after the original due date.

4. Renewal email URL replacement

WCS renewal reminder emails normally contain an early-renewal URL (?subscription_renewal_early=ID). The plugin intercepts the composed email body via woocommerce_mail_content and replaces every occurrence of this URL with a clean /checkout/order-pay/ URL pointing to the pending renewal order. This makes the link compatible with login-free payment handling without any changes to that handler.

5. Overdue detection and notification

When the Action Scheduler overdue check fires, the plugin checks whether the renewal order is still pending or failed. If so — and if no overdue flag has been set yet — it:

• Sets _its_overdue_since meta on the subscription (timestamp, used to prevent duplicate notifications and to drive the admin UI).
• Adds an order note to the subscription.
• Sends a customer email containing a fresh payment link.
• Sends an admin email with links to the subscription and renewal order in WP Admin.

A daily Action Scheduler sweep (its_daily_overdue_check) also catches any on-hold subscription that became overdue via a path outside the normal reminder flow — for example, a subscription the admin put on-hold manually.

6. Billing schedule correction

When payment is eventually received, WCS recalculates next_payment from the payment date, which pushes the schedule forward if the payment was late. The plugin corrects this by calculating original_next_payment + 1 interval and updating the date if WCS set a different value. This correction fires on both:

• woocommerce_subscription_renewal_payment_complete (gateway-confirmed payment).
• woocommerce_order_status_changed to processing or completed (manual admin status change).

The _its_original_next_payment and _its_overdue_since meta keys are deleted after correction to keep the subscription clean for the next cycle.

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Admin UI

Overdue column

An Overdue column is added immediately after the Status column on the WooCommerce → Subscriptions list. Overdue subscriptions show a red OVERDUE badge with a tooltip displaying the date the flag was set. Non-overdue rows show a muted dash.

Row highlighting

Rows for overdue subscriptions are highlighted with a light red background (#fff0f0) via inline CSS injected into admin_footer-edit.php. The highlight deepens on hover (#ffe0e0).

Overdue filter view

An Overdue link is added to the status filter tabs at the top of the subscription list, showing the current count. Clicking it filters the list to overdue subscriptions only.

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Hooks Reference

Actions you can hook

Hook	Parameters	Description
woocommerce_subscription_customer_notification_renewal_reminder	WC_Subscription $subscription, string $next_payment_date	Fires when the early reminder is due. Hook here to send a custom email. If nothing is hooked, the plugin falls back to the standard WCS renewal notification email.
its_check_overdue_renewal	int $subscription_id, int $renewal_order_id	Action Scheduler action. Called one day after the renewal due date. Can be unscheduled if you want to suppress automatic overdue handling.
its_daily_overdue_check	—	Action Scheduler recurring action. Fires daily to catch any subscriptions missed by the per-subscription scheduled check.

Actions used internally (can be unhooked)

Hook	Type	Priority	Description
plugins_loaded	action	10	Defines and installs the extended notification scheduler
woocommerce_scheduled_subscription_customer_notification_renewal	action	1	Creates the pending renewal order
woocommerce_scheduled_subscription_customer_notification_renewal	action	20	Places the subscription on-hold and schedules the overdue check
woocommerce_generated_manual_renewal_order	action	10	Flags admin-generated renewal orders
woocommerce_mail_content	filter	10	Rewrites the renewal URL in outgoing emails
woocommerce_subscription_renewal_payment_complete	action	10	Clears the overdue flag
woocommerce_subscription_renewal_payment_complete	action	10	Corrects the billing schedule after payment
woocommerce_order_status_changed	action	10	Corrects the billing schedule on manual order status change
init	action	default	Registers the daily overdue check with Action Scheduler if not already registered

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Subscription Meta Keys

Key	Type	Description
_its_autologin_renewal	string ('1')	Set on pending renewal orders created by this plugin. Used by login-free payment link handlers to identify plugin-created orders.
_its_original_next_payment	string (MySQL datetime)	Snapshot of next_payment taken when the subscription is placed on-hold. Deleted after payment and schedule correction.
_its_overdue_since	string (MySQL datetime)	Set when the overdue notification fires. Prevents duplicate notifications. Drives the admin Overdue column and filter. Deleted after payment and schedule correction.

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Frequently Asked Questions

Does this affect automatic (gateway-charged) subscriptions?
No. Every entry point is gated by $subscription->is_manual(). Automatic subscriptions are never put on-hold, never issued a pending renewal order, and never flagged as overdue by this plugin.

What if a subscription already has a pending renewal order when the reminder fires?
The plugin detects it via its_get_pending_renewal_order() and skips order creation. The existing order is used for the payment URL and overdue check instead.

Can I use a custom email template for the early reminder?
Yes. Hook woocommerce_subscription_customer_notification_renewal_reminder with your own handler. As long as something is hooked to that action, the plugin's fallback (which re-fires the standard WCS renewal email) will not run.

What happens if order creation fails?
The error is logged to the WooCommerce logger under the wcs-extended-reminders source. The subscription is not placed on-hold and no overdue check is scheduled for that cycle. The daily sweep will pick it up the following day if the subscription is on-hold by other means.

Will overdue emails be sent more than once?
No. The _its_overdue_since meta key is checked before any notification is sent. Once set, neither the per-subscription scheduled check nor the daily sweep will send another notification.

What if the admin clears _its_overdue_since manually?
The daily sweep will treat the subscription as not-yet-notified and send a fresh overdue notification on its next run. This is intentional — clearing the flag is the supported way to re-send an overdue notice.

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Changelog

1.0

• Initial release, extracted and consolidated from the theme extension (auto-create-renewal-order.php) and the notification functionality previously bundled in WCS Price Sync.
• All Action Scheduler actions re-grouped under wcs-extended-reminders.
• Debug error_log() calls removed from production code.
• Text domain updated to wcs-extended-reminders throughout.

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License

GPL v2 or later — see https://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-2.0.html

Author: Frey Mansikkaniemi · frey.hk