Home Billing & Subscription Management Handling payment issues: grace periods and read-only state

Handling payment issues: grace periods and read-only state

Last updated on May 19, 2026

Handling payment issues: grace periods and read-only state

If a subscription payment fails, Timether gives your workspace time to resolve the issue before limiting access.

This helps prevent sudden disruption and gives the workspace Owner a chance to update payment details, retry the payment, or fix any billing problem.

What happens when a renewal payment fails?

When a subscription renewal payment fails, Timether starts a 14-day grace period.

During this grace period, your workspace remains active.

You can continue to:

  • Start and save timers

  • Create time entries

  • Edit time entries

  • Manage projects

  • Manage clients

  • Manage tags

  • Invite and manage members, depending on your role

  • Use reports and timesheets

  • Continue normal workspace activity

You may see billing warnings inside the workspace during this period. These warnings are shown so the workspace Owner knows that payment needs attention.

What is the grace period?

The grace period is a temporary 14-day window after a failed subscription renewal payment.

During this time, Timether does not immediately block your team from working.

This gives the Owner enough time to update the payment method or resolve the failed payment through the billing portal.

Who can fix the billing issue?

Billing issues must be handled by the workspace Owner.

Only the Owner can access subscription settings, manage billing, and open the secure Dodo Customer Portal.

Managers, Members, and Viewers may see workspace warnings, but they cannot update payment details unless they are also the Owner.

What happens if the grace period expires?

If the 14-day grace period ends and the payment has still not been completed, the workspace will switch to a read-only state.

In read-only mode, your historical data remains safe and visible, but new changes are blocked.

This means you can still view existing information, but you cannot create or update workspace data until billing is resolved.

What is blocked in read-only state?

When a workspace is read-only, write actions are blocked.

This may include:

  • Starting timers

  • Saving active timers

  • Creating manual time entries

  • Editing time entries

  • Deleting time entries

  • Creating or editing projects

  • Creating or editing clients

  • Creating or editing tags

  • Creating invoices

  • Updating workspace data

The exact action may depend on your role and the area of the app you are using, but the main rule is that new writes are not allowed while the workspace is in read-only mode.

What remains available?

Your historical workspace data remains intact.

You can still view existing records, such as:

  • Past time entries

  • Timesheets

  • Reports

  • Clients

  • Projects

  • Tags

  • Invoices

  • Workspace history

Timether does not delete your data because of a failed payment. The read-only state is used to pause new activity until the subscription issue is resolved.

API behavior in read-only state

If your workspace uses API integrations, write requests will also be blocked while the workspace is in read-only mode.

API integrations may receive a billing_read_only error.

This means the workspace cannot accept write actions through the API until the billing issue is fixed.

Read access may still be available, depending on the API endpoint and permissions.

How to restore active access

To restore full workspace access, the workspace Owner should update the billing details through the Dodo Customer Portal.

To resolve the issue:

  1. Go to Workspace Settings.

  2. Open Billing or Subscription Settings.

  3. Click Manage Billing.

  4. Open the secure Dodo Customer Portal.

  5. Update the payment method or billing details.

  6. Complete the failed payment or allow the renewal to retry.

Once the payment is successful, Timether will restore active access to the workspace.

When access is restored

After the billing issue is resolved, the workspace should return to active status immediately.

Once restored, users can continue creating and updating workspace data as usual.

Timers, time entries, projects, clients, reports, invoices, and API integrations can continue working normally based on the workspace plan and user permissions.

Why Timether uses read-only mode

Read-only mode protects your data while preventing unpaid subscription usage from continuing indefinitely.

It also helps avoid panic because your historical records are not removed or hidden.

Even if the workspace becomes read-only, your previous time tracking, invoices, reports, and workspace records remain available for review.