Gilbert

Getting Started

Set up your first subscription with Gilbert

This guide walks you through creating your first subscription in Gilbert. By the end, you'll have a working billing setup with a customer, product, and active subscription.

Prerequisites

Before you begin, make sure you have:

Step 1: Set Up Your Business

When you first log in, Gilbert will guide you through setting up your business profile:

  1. Enter your business name and legal details
  2. Add your business address
  3. Choose your default currency

Your business details will appear on all invoices you generate.

Your VAT number can be configured later in Settings once your account is set up.

Step 2: Create a Product

Products represent what you sell. To create your first product:

  1. Navigate to Products in the sidebar
  2. Click Create Product
  3. Enter a name (e.g., "Website Hosting" or "CRM Software")
  4. Add a description (optional but recommended)
  5. Click Save
Create products for each distinct offering in your catalog. You can add multiple prices to a single product.

Step 3: Add a Price

Prices are the foundation of billing in Gilbert. Every charge to a customer must be based on a price — subscriptions cannot exist without at least one price attached.

Prices define how much you charge for a product. Each product can have multiple prices for different billing intervals, currencies, or customer segments.

  1. Open your product
  2. Click Add Price
  3. Choose the pricing type:
    • One-time - Single charge
    • Recurring - Regular billing (daily, weekly, monthly, yearly)
  4. Enter the amount and currency
  5. Click Save

Example: Billing intervals

A "Website Hosting" product might have:

  • Monthly price: €29/month
  • Yearly price: €290/year (saves €58)

Example: Multiple currencies

If you serve customers across different regions, create separate prices for each currency:

  • EUR price: €29/month (for EU customers)
  • DKK price: 219 kr/month (for Danish customers)
  • USD price: $32/month (for US customers)
Each price is tied to a single currency. To offer the same product in multiple currencies, create a separate price for each currency you want to support.

Step 4: Create a Plan Optional Recommended

Plans are templates that bundle one or more prices together for a specific currency and billing interval. They ensure consistency, speed up subscription creation, and let you name your offerings clearly (e.g., "Starter", "Professional", "Enterprise").

Each plan defines:

  • A currency and billing interval — all prices in a plan must match these
  • An optional trial period for new subscriptions

To create a plan:

  1. Navigate to Plans in the sidebar
  2. Click Create Plan
  3. Enter a name (e.g., "Professional Monthly")
  4. Select the currency (e.g., EUR, USD) and billing interval (e.g., monthly, yearly) — these determine which prices can be added to the plan
  5. Add one or more prices to the plan. Gilbert filters your price catalog to only show prices that match the plan's currency and billing interval
    • Set default quantities for each price if customers typically need more than one unit
  6. Optionally, configure a default trial period (e.g., 14 days) that will automatically apply to new subscriptions created from this plan
  7. Click Save
Create separate plans for each billing interval. For example, a "Professional" tier with monthly and yearly options would be two plans: "Professional Monthly" and "Professional Yearly".

Step 5: Create a Customer

Customers are the businesses or individuals you bill:

  1. Navigate to Customers in the sidebar
  2. Click Create Customer
  3. Enter customer details:
    • Name
    • Email address
    • Billing address
  4. For B2B customers, add their VAT number
  5. Click Save
When you add a VAT number, Gilbert automatically validates it against the EU VIES database and applies the correct tax treatment.

Step 6: Create a Subscription

Now you're ready to create a subscription. Gilbert offers two approaches:

Use a pre-configured plan for fast, consistent subscription creation.

  1. Navigate to Subscriptions in the sidebar
  2. Click Create Subscription
  3. Select Plan-based as the subscription type
  4. Select the customer
  5. Choose a plan — the currency, billing interval, and prices are pre-configured
  6. Review the invoice preview to verify the pricing
  7. Click Create subscription
New subscriptions are created in Draft state, giving you a chance to review before going live.

To activate, open the subscription and click Activate. You'll be prompted to set a trial period:

  • Plan default — Uses the trial period configured in the plan (if any)
  • None — First invoice is issued immediately upon activation
  • Custom — Set a specific trial duration (e.g., 14 days)

During a trial, the customer can use the subscription but won't be invoiced until the trial ends.

Once activated, Gilbert will automatically generate invoices according to the billing schedule.

What's Next?

Once a subscription is active, Gilbert takes care of the rest — invoices are generated automatically at each billing period and customers receive their invoice by email.

To learn more:

Introduction

Learn how to use Gilbert for subscription billing

Customers

Managing your business clients in Gilbert