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Last updated: September 11, 2026
Applies to: Owner / Manager / Staff
PLUS Feature: No
Plan: All
Watch the video for where to click. Use this article for which door to use — Replace, Update, or End — what to do when Replace is missing, and how to handle checkout when the family has already paid for this month.
Five points in the narration need a caveat. Where the video and this article differ, the article is current.
| In the video | What to know |
|---|---|
| "Allows your clients to change" their subscription | Replace is staff-only. Families cannot replace their own enrollment. They may self-book a new enrollment, but that is a separate booking rather than a Replace |
| Book the new enrollment, then end the old one | That order only applies when the old subscription has no end date. If one is already set, Replace is hidden and you do not end it again — enroll the new offering separately with Book Appointment |
| "October is open, so we're in the clear" | True for the month already paid. The old subscription's open next-month invoice is often voided, and checkout creates a new invoice on the new service. A voided guitar bill sitting next to a new piano bill is expected, not an error |
| Mid-month, "proceed accordingly" | The old paid month is still not prorated or refunded. Discount the first invoice on the new subscription so you collect only the difference |
| No Replace for group classes | Still true. Use transfer to another group class instead |
Table of Contents
- Why you'd replace a subscription
- Which door to use
- When Replace is available
- If the subscription already has an end date
- Billing, checkout, and overlapping paid months
- How to replace a subscription
- What happens after a replace
- What carries over
- FAQ
- Related Articles
Why you'd replace a subscription
A subscription in Opus1 is not a note that says "piano, 30 minutes, Tuesdays." It is the enrollment itself: the service, the recurring calendar series, and the billing that invoices that family every cycle.
Students do not stay on one combination forever. They switch from guitar to piano, grow out of 30 minutes into 45, need a different teacher, a later pickup time, or a second location. Those are enrollment changes, not corrections to a billing form.
If you edit the payment plan on the same subscription with Update, the student is still enrolled in the old service. The calendar still books 30-minute piano. Invoices still describe 30-minute piano. The family asked for a different offering and you changed a price.
Replace is the door for "this student is staying, but what they are enrolled in is changing." In one flow you:
- Choose when the current enrollment ends
- Book the new service, teacher, time, and location
- Check out a new subscription, with a new plan and new invoices from that point on
Typical reasons to walk through this door:
| Family request | Why Replace, not Update |
|---|---|
| "Can we switch from guitar to piano?" | Instrument is the service, and a subscription is tied to one service. You enroll them in piano and end guitar |
| "She's ready for 45 minutes, not 30." | Duration lives on the service — Piano 30 versus Piano 45 — not as a setting on the subscription |
| "Can we keep Tuesdays but change teachers?" | The recurring series is part of the enrollment. Replace keeps the student and rebuilds the series |
| "Thursday 5pm doesn't work anymore." | Same idea: new day and time, same student, continuous enrollment |
| "He's moving to the downtown studio." | Location and room are booked with the series |
You can change only the service and keep the same teacher and Tuesday 4:00, or change several things at once. The flow is the same, and you are not required to keep the old day, time, teacher, or location.
Why not end them and enroll again as two separate jobs? You can, and you must when Replace is unavailable. Replace is the better door when it is available because it is one checkout, it can transfer unused service credits, and it links the old and new enrollments so reports do not read the student as a cancellation plus a brand-new start.
Which door to use
Most "how do I change this student's lessons?" questions are one of these five jobs.
| What you are trying to do | Use this | Why this door |
|---|---|---|
| Change instrument, lesson length, teacher, day, time, or location on a private lesson with no end date | Replace | Those fields are the enrollment. Replace ends the old subscription and starts a new one in one flow |
| Change price, payer, autopay, discounts, or a recurring invoice note on the same offering | Update | The student stays in Piano 30 on the same series. You are editing billing on that subscription |
| Pause for summer, travel, or injury, then return to the same enrollment | Hold | They stay enrolled. Lessons in the window cancel and billing follows the plan's hold rules |
| The student is not coming back | End | Ending is for leaving. Replace is for staying under a different offering |
| Move a group class student to another class, level, or program | Transfer to another group class | Replace is private-lesson only. Group classes have their own transfer flow |
Update versus Replace is the distinction worth getting right.
- Update cannot change the service. There is no field for switching a subscription from Guitar 30 to Piano 45. Change only the price on Guitar 30 and the student is still in guitar.
- Replace cannot skip checkout, and it does not rewrite or refund the old month's invoice. You are creating a new enrollment.
If the family asked for a sibling discount or a new card, stay in Update. If they asked for a different lesson, use Replace.
When Replace is available
Location: Client profile → Subscriptions → Update on that enrollment → the purple Replace button in the footer of Update Subscription:
Requires: Staff, Manager, or Owner who can book appointments. Families cannot replace their own subscription from self-booking.
The Replace button appears only when all of the following are true:
| Requirement | If it is not true |
|---|---|
| Private lesson (appointment) service | Group class enrollments use transfer to another group class. Subscription-only charges such as dues or rentals cannot be replaced this way |
| Subscription is pending or active | Ended enrollments cannot be replaced. Enroll a new series instead |
| No end date on the subscription | Replace is not available. This is the most common reason the button is missing |
| Service requires booking | Without a calendar series there is nothing to replace |
If Replace is missing, check for an end date on that row before looking for a setting to change.
If the subscription already has an end date
Replace only works when the current subscription has no end date. If End was already used, or the enrollment was created with an end date — a term, a prepaid package with a stop date, a student finishing in December — the Replace button is hidden and Opus1 rejects the replace with Cannot replace subscriptions that have an end date.
An end date cannot be cleared to unlock Replace, and support cannot run Replace on an enrollment that has one. The path is two steps:
- End the current subscription if it is still open past the day you want it to stop. If it already ends on the right day, leave it. Once an end date is set you can only move it sooner, never later — see How do I end a subscription?.
- Enroll the student again with Book Appointment, from the calendar or the profile: new service, teacher, time, and payment plan.
That is a real enrollment rather than a shortcut around Replace, and you still check out the new subscription. Unused service credits do not get the transfer toggle on this path, so do not expire them when you end. Reassign them to the new subscription after checkout, or leave them on the person and apply them at the new checkout if the new service accepts them.
Use this path when the row already shows an end date and Replace is missing, when you ended someone for a term and they are continuing under a different instrument or duration, or when the change needs to happen now.
Billing, checkout, and overlapping paid months
Replace is a new enrollment, so Opus1 takes you through checkout. The screen says so before you continue:
Current subscription will end on [date] and a new subscription will start on [date] Note: Invoice for current subscription will not be prorated (or refunded if already paid)
Take that note literally.
What billing does
| Piece | What happens |
|---|---|
| Old subscription | Ends on the date you chose, either End current subscription now or the Current subscription end date |
| Old invoices already paid, or carrying any payment | Stay as they are. No proration, no card refund |
| Old open invoices due after the end date with no payment yet | Can be voided when the old subscription ends |
| New subscription | Starts on the first lesson you booked. All future invoices come from this enrollment and its plan |
| First invoice on the new subscription | Created at checkout like any other enrollment, and may prorate if the new plan prorates a mid-cycle start |
That last row is where families get charged twice if you do not plan for it.
If they already paid the month you are replacing
Maya paid September for Piano 30. On September 12 the family asks to move her to Piano 45.
- September's Piano 30 invoice does not shrink. They already paid it.
- Checkout for Piano 45 creates a new first invoice on the new subscription.
- Charge that new invoice in full for September and they have paid twice for overlapping days.
Discount the first invoice on the new subscription, or apply account credit, so you collect only the difference — the upgrade from 30 to 45 for the rest of the month, or nothing at all if your policy is that the new rate starts next cycle.
Do that at checkout on the new enrollment, as a one-time or recurring discount on that quote, rather than by editing the old paid invoice.
Prefer a month boundary when you can
The Replace screen defaults to ending the old subscription at the end of this month and starting the new series on the matching weekday next month. That default exists to keep "last month of guitar" and "first month of piano" on separate invoices, so you are not overlapping a paid period.
| Timing | When to use it | What to watch |
|---|---|---|
| End of this month → start next month (the default) | An instrument or duration change that can wait for the next cycle | Cleanest. The old month stays on the old plan and the new month bills the new plan. Still confirm nothing extra is due at checkout |
| End now → start now (mid-month) | They need the new instrument or length this week | The old paid invoice is not refunded. Discount the first new invoice for the overlap, or enroll and pay later and adjust before charging |
| End on a chosen future date | They finish this offering through a specific lesson, then switch | Set the new start on or after that end date. If the new start falls in a month they already prepaid, discount that first new invoice |
Mid-month replaces are allowed. They are only harder to get right on the money.
Checkout is required
On the payment step you choose a payment plan for the new service — Piano 45's plans, not Guitar 30's. Then:
| Button | Use it when |
|---|---|
| Enroll and pay later | You want the new subscription on the books and will collect on your usual cycle. The better default when they already paid this month and you are discounting or delaying the new first invoice |
| Checkout | You intend to charge the new first invoice immediately — an upgrade difference, a new rate, or a new card |
Skip first month proration appears only on plans that prorate a mid-cycle start, and turning it on charges a full first period. If the family already paid this month, skipping proration makes the double charge worse. Leave proration on, or discount, rather than charging a full extra month.
Turn on Do not notify the client if you are correcting a staff mistake and do not want the family receiving end-and-enroll emails.
How to replace a subscription
Confirm three things with the family before you start: the last lesson on the old offering, the first lesson on the new one, and whether this month is already paid.
1. Open the client profile
Go to the student who is enrolled — the lesson student, not only the payer, if those are different people.
2. Open Update on that subscription
Scroll to Subscriptions and click Update on the specific enrollment you are changing, since a student can have more than one.
If you only need a new price or payer, stop here and use Update.
3. Click Replace
In the footer of Update Subscription, click Replace. Opus1 opens the Replace Subscription booking flow, pre-filled with the current service, teacher, location, room, student, payer, and weekly time.
If Replace is not there, the subscription already has an end date, or it is not a private-lesson enrollment.
4. Set when the current enrollment ends
Under Current Subscription:
| Control | What it does |
|---|---|
| End current subscription now | Ends the old enrollment immediately |
| Current subscription end date | With the toggle off, pick the last day of the old offering. Defaults to the end of the current month |
| Transfer associated service credits to the new subscription | On by default. Unused makeup and service credits move to the new enrollment. Turn it off if those credits should stay behind, or do not apply to the new instrument |
Read the summary line: Current subscription will end on … and a new subscription will start on …
5. Set the new enrollment
Under New Subscription, change only what needs to change:
- Service — Piano 45 instead of Piano 30, or guitar instead of piano. This is the instrument or duration change
- Location and room
- Start — the first lesson on the new offering. Defaults to the same weekday and time next month
- Staff — a new teacher, or keep the current one
- The recurring rule, if they are changing cadence
Leaving teacher, day, and time alone and changing only the service is fine. So is changing all of them in one pass.
6. Continue to payment and check out
Click Replace Subscription, not Book Appointment, then:
- Choose an applicable payment plan on the new service
- Re-apply autopay, discounts, and payer as needed. Recurring discounts from the old subscription do not copy
- If they already paid the overlapping month, discount the first new invoice, or use Enroll and pay later and adjust it before charging
- Confirm Transfer associated service credits still matches what you want
- Submit with Enroll and pay later or Checkout
On success you get the usual booking confirmation. The old row shows an end date, and a new subscription appears for the new service.
What happens after a replace
| Area | Effect |
|---|---|
| Old subscription | Ends on the date you chose, linked as replaced by the new enrollment |
| New subscription | Starts on the first new lesson. Future invoices come from this subscription |
| Calendar | Lessons after the old end date are cleared from the old series. The new recurring series is booked from the new start |
| Service credits | Follow the new subscription if you left the transfer toggle on |
| Paid invoices on the old enrollment | Unchanged, with no refund to the card |
| Open invoices on the old enrollment due after the end date with no payment | Often voided. Seeing a voided invoice on the old service alongside a new one on the new service is expected. Review Invoices anyway |
| Reporting | Replace links the two enrollments, so dashboard start and end counts do not read this as a new student plus a cancellation the way a disconnected end-and-reenroll can. On Reporting: Subscriptions, Include replaced / replacing is off by default so those rows do not clutter a date filter |
| Notifications | Follow checkout, including Do not notify if you turned it on |
Open the profile afterwards and check four things: the new subscription, the new series on the calendar, this month's invoices, and credits.
What carries over
A replaced subscription is a new enrollment, so most settings are chosen again at checkout.
| Carries over, or stays on the person | Set again on the new subscription | Does not come over |
|---|---|---|
| Client and payer records — cards on file, household, tags | Payment plan and price | Recurring discounts entered on the old subscription |
| Service credits, if Transfer associated service credits is on | Autopay, reminders, secondary payer | The hold on the old enrollment. Place a new hold on the new subscription if they still need a pause, remembering a hold cannot start in its first calendar month — see How do I use subscription holds? |
| Teacher, time, room, and location — pre-filled, but change them if the family asked | Paid invoices, which stay on the old subscription | |
| Recurring invoice notes | Custom plan edits that existed only on the old subscription |
If the family is owed money because of an overlapping prepaid month, that is a discount, monetary credit, or refund you issue. Replace will not create it for you.
FAQ
Why don't I see a Replace button? The subscription already has an end date, it is a group class, it is already ended, or it is not an appointment that requires booking. For an end date, end if needed and enroll separately. For a class, use transfer to another group class.
They already paid this month. Will Replace refund the old invoice and bill the new rate? No. Opus1 does not prorate or refund the old invoice. Discount the first invoice on the new subscription, or enroll and pay later and adjust it, so you do not collect for that month twice.
We only wanted a different teacher, same 30-minute piano. Is that still Replace? Yes, because you are changing the ongoing series. Keep the same service under New Subscription and change staff, and the time if needed. Update will not rebuild the calendar series.
Will this look like the student quit in our stats? No. A linked Replace is excluded from the start and end counts that ignore replacements. An unlinked end plus a new enrollment can read as churn plus a new start, which is one reason to use Replace when the button is available.
The student is on hold. Can I replace? If Replace is visible, replacing ends the held enrollment and starts a new one, and the hold dates do not copy. After checkout, place a new hold on the new subscription if they still need the pause — noting that a hold cannot start in the new subscription's first calendar month.
Related Articles
Other ways to change an enrollment
- How do I end a subscription? — when the student is leaving
- How do I use subscription holds? — pausing rather than changing
- How do I transfer a client to another group class? — the group class equivalent
- How do I batch update my clients' subscriptions?
- How do I add a recurring discount to a subscription?
Billing after the change