Customer self-service billing portal is accessible

Without a self-service billing portal, every payment-method update, card expiration, and address change becomes a support ticket — and a meaningful percentage of involuntary churn comes from expired cards that users would have replaced themselves if given the option. Enterprise buyers specifically screen for self-service billing during procurement because their finance teams refuse to route routine card updates through a vendor's support queue.

Wire up Stripe Customer Portal and surface a Manage Billing button in account settings. Create app/api/billing/portal/route.ts that calls stripe.billingPortal.sessions.create({ customer: user.stripe_customer_id, return_url }) and redirects to session.url. Configure the portal features in the Stripe Dashboard under Settings → Billing → Customer portal.

• ID: customer-portal

• Severity: low

• What to look for: Look for Stripe Customer Portal integration (stripe.billingPortal.sessions.create()), a link to the billing portal in the user's account settings, or a custom billing management page where users can update payment methods, view invoices, and manage their subscription. Check that the portal link is accessible without requiring a support ticket.

• Pass criteria: Count every billing self-service mechanism. Users can access billing self-service through at least 1 of: Stripe Customer Portal, a custom billing page with equivalent capabilities, or a clearly documented process for managing billing.

• Fail criteria: No billing self-service exists — users must contact support to update payment methods or access invoices.

• Skip (N/A) when: No subscription billing detected.

• Detail on fail: "No billing portal or self-service billing management found — users cannot update payment methods without support intervention" or "Billing settings page exists in UI but links to a dead route"

• Remediation: Integrate Stripe Customer Portal — it requires minimal code and provides payment method management, invoice history, and subscription management out of the box:

  // app/api/billing/portal/route.ts
  export async function POST(req: Request) {
    const user = await getCurrentUser()
    const session = await stripe.billingPortal.sessions.create({
      customer: user.stripe_customer_id,
      return_url: `${process.env.NEXT_PUBLIC_APP_URL}/settings/billing`,
    })
    redirect(session.url)
  }
  

  Add a "Manage Billing" button in your account settings that calls this endpoint.