Every new company gets its first two weeks free, whatever discount it has. You add a card at the end of setup and nothing is charged that day; Stripe takes the first month or year when the two weeks are up, with any discount on that charge. Until your card is saved, your company is setting up: you can get everything ready, but nothing is recorded yet.

What happens for a new company

When a new company's admin signs in, ARC opens the setup wizard, which asks one question at a time — your company, your homes and their beds, your team, any children, the terms, then payment. The whole path is in Set up your company with the setup wizard.

While the company is setting up:

you can only use the wizard. The rest of the admin area opens once your card is saved;
daily recording, and anything else that writes to a young person's record, waits until then;
staff cannot sign in. Anyone who isn't a company admin sees a page saying the home isn't live yet. Staff invites you add in the wizard are held and emailed once the card is saved.

Once Stripe confirms the card, your company and every home go live. The screen reads "Payment received. Your homes are open and your team's invites are on their way."

Paying

The wizard's last two screens are the terms and the payment. You cannot pay until you have agreed the Customer Agreement and the Data Processing Agreement for your company.

Choose Monthly or Annual. Annual is shown with a "2 months free" badge.
Add a discount code, if you have one, with Got a discount code? and Apply. If a code can't be used, ARC says why. The total updates to show what it takes off, which home it applies to (or the whole subscription), and for how long.
Due today reads £0.00, with the first charge and its date underneath — for example "Free for 14 days, then £348.00 on 4 November 2026."
Select Add your card and a card form appears on the same screen. Card details go straight to Stripe and never reach ARC, and Stripe keeps the card for the first charge and every renewal.

If you add a home during the two weeks, it goes live straight away and is billed with the rest when the free period ends.

If your homes are not registered with Ofsted yet, they can go on the Prepare plan at £29 a month. The two weeks free apply to it as well, and it is monthly only.

If the payment doesn't go through

Card declined: "Your card was declined". Try again in the form, or with a different card.
Changed your mind: Start over cancels the payment in progress so you can change your homes, billing period or code. Nothing is charged for a payment you start over.

While a payment is in progress the screens are locked and your homes can't be added, archived or changed, because Stripe is already holding an invoice for exactly those homes.

Coming back after cancelling

If your subscription has ended, the company admin page shows "Your subscription has ended" with a Pay and restart button, and Resubscribe on the billing screen goes to the same place. The page is headed Restart your subscription: choose the period, enter any code, pay the card form shown on the page, and your account opens again once the payment is through.