Client's overdue payment blocking all projects - no org access to resolve

2 replies

Last updated: Apr 13, 2023

Hi there, we have a sanity account and one of our clients who have a sanity organization in our account have not paid their invoices or removed their billing details and we are getting a notification on our sanity account "All projects are blocked from all further use due to payments overdue. Resolve payment". We don't even have permissions in their organization to access members anymore. What does this mean and how to we resolve this. HELP!

AI Update

I understand this is a stressful situation! When you see "All projects are blocked from all further use due to payments overdue. Resolve payment," it means the client's organization has outstanding invoices that must be paid before any projects can be accessed again. This blocks all functionality for everyone in that organization.

What's Happening

When a Sanity organization has overdue payments, the entire organization gets blocked - all projects within it become inaccessible. Since organizations are the top-level billing entities in Sanity, this affects everyone associated with that organization, including you as a partner/agency.

The fact that you've lost access to the organization's members section indicates comprehensive blocking that occurs during billing issues.

Important: This will only block the specific organization with overdue payments, not other organizations you're a member or owner of.

How to Resolve This Immediately

Since you no longer have the necessary permissions (Admin or Billing Manager role) to update payment information yourself, you need direct support intervention:

Contact Sanity Support:

Email: support@sanity.io
Explain you're a partner/agency with a client organization that has overdue payments
Mention you've lost access to manage the organization and can't resolve payment yourself
Provide the organization ID if you have it

Include in your support request:

Your account details
The affected client organization name/ID
That you're seeing the "All projects are blocked" message
That you no longer have permissions to access members or billing settings
Whether you need to transfer billing responsibility or remove the organization from your account

Understanding the Payment Process

Based on Sanity's billing guidance, once access is restored, payments can be made by:

Logging into sanity.io/manage
Navigating to the organization (not the project page)
Clicking on the Billing tab
Selecting Invoices on the left-hand side
Finding outstanding invoices with status "Payment" or "Pending"
Downloading the Invoice PDF and clicking "Pay Online"
Following the Stripe Payment UI steps

However, you need to be an Admin or Billing Manager on the organization (not just the project) to access these settings - which is why you need support intervention.

Possible Solutions Sanity Support Can Help With

Restore temporary access so billing details can be updated
Transfer the organization to the client's own account
Remove the organization from your account if the client relationship has ended
Set up payment arrangements if needed

For Future Prevention

Consider having clients create their own Sanity organizations where they manage their own billing, while you maintain developer/admin access. This provides clearer separation of billing responsibility and makes client handoffs easier. As noted in Sanity's agency guidance, separate organizations per client offer better resource tracking and simplified billing.

Act quickly - contact support@sanity.io right away with all the details. The support team handles these situations regularly and can resolve this promptly.

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2 replies

Hello, this means that the organization that you never transferred ownership to the client will be blocked for lack of payment. I recommend getting in contact with the client and letting them know they need to pay their outstanding balance.
If you provide me with the organizationID I can try to take a closer look.

For some more context on how billing updates are made and how to pay outstanding balances on the org in question here is some more information:

First, in order to update your billing information you will need to be an administrator on the organization itself in order to update the billing information to start. It is important that you are navigating to the sanity manage organization’s page and not the project page (as there are no billing details on the project page). Once logged in as an admin for the Organization, you will be able to go to sanity.io/manage , select the organization, and then select the Billing tab. From there, you can update the billing information (including the billing email address for future invoices and notices). If you instead see tabs like Plan, Usage, Access, Datasets, etc., it means you’re on a project (rather than the organization) page, in which case there should be a small hyperlink to the organization above the large project name at the top of the page.

If you do not have access to the organization or if your role on the organization (which not necessarily the same as a role on one the projects within said org) is anything other than Admin or Billing Manager you will be unable to make any billing related changes to the organization. You will need to have a current Admin invite you to the organization as an Admin or a Billing Manager. This can be done by having them head to the manage page for the organization and select the “invite members” button.

Once the information has been updated, here are the steps you can follow to review and/or make outstanding or pending payments (pending payments will sometimes show up in this state but will need to be paid as they have not been charged):

(Please note you will need to be an admin or a billing manager on the organization, not just the project)

1. Log into Sanity.io/Manage

2. Navigate to the organization

3. Click on the Billing tab

4. Click on Invoices on the left-hand side

5. All outstanding invoices will be available for payment with the status “Payment” or “Pending”

6. Download the Invoice PDF and open it

7. Click on “Pay Online”

8. Follow the steps in the Stripe Payment UI

To be clear, this will not block other organizations that you are a member or owner of, just the one in question that has a lack of payment.

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