Read only is a hold on making new work, not a lock on your data. Everything the business has ever created stays readable, exportable and printable, and it stays that way indefinitely: nothing is deleted, and there is no clock counting down to a purge.
How an account gets there
Three routes, all of them about money.
| Reason | What happened |
|---|---|
| Trial ended | The 14 day trial ran out with no card attached. |
| Unpaid | A renewal failed and the seven day grace period passed. |
| Cancelled | The subscription was cancelled and the paid period ended. |
The Plan tab names which one it is and what to do about it, and a banner says the same across every screen in the console.
What still works
- Every read in the console, and the organisation export for anyone whose role can export. Quotes, invoices, contracts, the calendar, the whole pipeline, all of it. Inventory stock, availability and gear assignments stay readable within your role's permissions. The account pages work in full.
- Inbound email keeps syncing, so the mailbox goes on filling and nothing is missed.
- Public enquiry forms and their website embeds keep taking leads.
- Clients carry on in the portal. Quotes, invoices, questionnaires and contracts already sent stay visible, and invoices stay payable.
- On Studio and House, existing custom portal domains and their HTTPS renewal keep working during the hold.
- Account emails to the owners. Trial warnings, the read-only notice and owner invitations are never held back, because they are the way out.
What is blocked
Anything that creates or changes something. Sending a quote, issuing an invoice, moving a card, editing a contact, saving a setting: all refused with a plan message rather than a mysterious error.
AI writes stop as well. The Arby button disappears, and a saved brief on an enquiry or booking still reads but cannot be written or refreshed until the account is active again.
Inventory changes are blocked too, including stock edits, reservations, checkout and returns. Restore the account before recording these changes. The crew gear checks still apply: a member with reserved or checked-out gear cannot leave, be removed or delete their profile until the assignments are cleared.
Work that leaves the building on its own is held too. Group emails, reminders, appointment reminders and generated contract documents complete without sending, and automation runs are recorded as skipped rather than run. Nothing goes out under a lapsed subscription and nothing piles up waiting to: restoring the account does not replay them.
A scheduled email that comes due during the hold is marked failed, with "The account is read-only. Add payment details, then retry." on the thread. Retry it once the account is active again. See Scheduled sends.
The account pages, owner invitations, leaving an organisation or deleting one, and dealing with your own invitations elsewhere stay open. You can also disconnect a custom portal domain with Manage organisation settings permission, including to prepare for a downgrade. Adding, checking or activating a domain stays blocked. See Client portal settings.
Your clients are not the ones who did not pay
Nothing about read only reaches a couple or a customer. The portal, the enquiry forms and every public link behave exactly as they did the week before.
Getting back
An owner opens the Plan tab and presses Add payment details, or pays the outstanding invoice through Change plan or payment details. Stripe tells Arbour, and the account is active again within moments, in the state it was left in.
Everyone else in the business sees the banner naming an owner to ask. Members cannot lift it themselves, and there is nothing to tidy up afterwards: the work that was refused becomes possible again. Plans and billing has the detail on cards and invoices.