Subscriptions & Renewals

How it works

The mechanics of this kit, plainly — what runs and when, where the data lands, and what you look at.

• Receipt sweep runs mondays · 8am and keeps the Subscriptions dashboard fresh. Weekly — reads the receipts, and the first run builds the whole inventory.
• What is captured lands in the Subscription register dataset, which lives at Data/Subscription Register in your vault — yours to open, search, and edit like any other file.
• What is captured lands in the Burn history dataset, which lives at Data/Burn History in your vault — yours to open, search, and edit like any other file.
• The Subscriptions dashboard reads from the dataset and shows, at a glance: monthly burn · on record · where it goes · how the burn has crept · renewing shortly · paying for, never mention · your yearly look · active vs cancelled · how this board works.

The wiring, in one breath: Subscription capture writes to Subscription register · Receipt sweep writes to Subscription register · Receipt sweep records Burn history · Subscription register shown by Subscriptions · Burn history shown by Subscriptions · Subscriptions kept fresh by Receipt sweep · Subscription capture given to Warden · Cancellation drafts given to Warden · Subscription review updates Subscription register · Subscription review given to Warden.

Getting the most from it

A kit earns its place when it changes what you look at and what you say, not when it is installed. This is the rhythm that makes it pay.

• Let the first sweep build the inventory from a year of receipts, then read the board for the monthly total — every cadence normalised to a month, so a yearly plan counts as a twelfth.
• Say sign-ups and cancellations as they happen. App-store and bank-debit subscriptions never email a receipt, so capture is how the register stays complete.
• Watch the "paying for, never mention" list — that is the zombie list. When you decide, ask for the cancellation and Warden drafts it; you send it.
• Check Burn history each quarter. The trend matters more than any one renewal.
• Tell Warden how long silence should count as a zombie, and what size of renewal deserves a card.
• Mention a free trial and the day it ends when you start one; the Receipt sweep also files the end date from the sign-up email. Renewing shortly lists it, and one ending within the week gets a card, so you decide before it starts charging.
• Once a year, open Your yearly look on the Subscriptions board. It takes every active subscription in turn and asks whether to keep it, think about it or cancel it, who uses it, and a note, saving each as you go. Nothing reminds you, so pick your moment. Deciding to cancel changes nothing until you tell Warden it is done, and it drafts the cancellation when you ask.
• Weighing a yearly plan against a monthly one? Give Warden the price from the service's own page and it sets it against what you pay now, a month at a time, with the working shown. It will not go looking for a cheaper plan or another service: that choice stays yours.

Make it yours

Nothing here is fixed. The pieces are ordinary agents, routines, datasets and dashboards, so anything you know about shaping those applies. Retire whatever earns nothing.

Things people usually change first

Say any of these in chat, or edit them on the kit’s page in the app.

• How big a renewal has to be before it is worth a card, and how many days ahead you want to know.
• How long something goes unmentioned before it counts as a zombie.
• Which categories you use, and what belongs in which.
• Who each subscription is for, in your own words: say it in chat, or change it on Your yearly look.
• When the weekly sweep runs — or turning the cards off and just keeping the board.

Your first run

Installing starts a short setup conversation — not a form. Answer roughly, correct later.

1. Adding the Kit offers the first sweep right away: connect your email on the same screen, start it with one tap, and watch it read back through a year of receipts and build the whole inventory — every price converted to what it costs per MONTH, so a yearly subscription is counted at a twelfth and the total is a number you can plan around. Prefer not to connect email? Name what you pay for instead, and Warden builds the register by hand.
2. When that first sweep finishes, Warden leaves a short note in your 1Presence inbox saying what it filed — how many subscriptions, across how many categories — and invites two minutes together: whose each one is, and the ones that never send a receipt — app-store and bank-only subscriptions the mailbox cannot see.
3. It will find things you had forgotten — that is the point, and the first run is usually the interesting one.
4. Mention a sign-up or a cancellation any time and the register keeps up without waiting for the Monday sweep.

Watch the first pass, then tell it what you would have done differently — that correction teaches it more than any setup could.

The essentials

Learning, preferences and run costs work the same in every kit — so they are covered once, in the Kits guide.

Living with a Kit — the Kits guide →

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