Why metered usage charges don't appear on invoices for prepaid wallet customers

On prepaid wallet plans, metered usage charges need to be configured as pay-in-arrears and invoiceable to generate invoices and deduct from the wallet balance. If a metered charge is set to pay-in-advance and non-invoiceable instead, events are ingested and tracked normally, but fees accumulate in a pending state, never invoiced and never deducted from the real wallet balance, even though the ongoing balance shown in the UI appears to decrease. A pay-in-advance charge that's also invoiceable behaves differently: it generates a per-event invoice immediately and does debit the wallet.

How it works

A wallet shows two balances. Balance is the real wallet balance, what's actually been debited. Ongoing balance is a virtual projection accounting for usage in the current period; it's informational only and doesn't reflect committed debits. If charges are pay-in-advance and non-invoiceable, only the ongoing balance changes. The actual balance stays untouched, and end-of-period invoices contain only the subscription fee, because all usage fees remain pending.

How to confirm the cause

In the plan attached to the customer's subscription, inspect each charge. Metered charges on prepaid wallet plans should show Pay in arrears. If any metered charge shows Pay in advance and is non-invoiceable, that's the cause. Check whether a backlog of pending fees with no invoice attached has accumulated over time.

How to resolve the issue

Update the affected charges on the plan to Pay in arrears. This applies to future billing periods only; historical pending fees won't automatically resolve. If a backlog of pending fees has accumulated, contact Lago support for manual intervention. Retroactively applying these fees needs careful review to avoid making wallet balances go negative unexpectedly.

This article reflects guidance drawn from customer case resolutions. It is not officially supported documentation and may not apply to all situations.