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+# Phase 2: Subscriber and Billing Core - Context
+
+**Gathered:** 2026-03-04
+**Status:** Ready for planning
+
+
+## Phase Boundary
+
+Subscriber management (registration, plan assignment, status lifecycle), billing engine (prepaid/postpaid invoice generation), payment recording (cash/bank, partial, overpayment), and the double-entry accounting ledger (Chart of Accounts, JournalEntryService, manual entries). No collector workflows, no ticketing, no reports beyond outstanding balance — those are later phases.
+
+
+
+
+## Implementation Decisions
+
+### Subscriber Lifecycle
+- Statuses: Active, Suspended, Cancelled
+- Suspension triggers: both automatic (configurable days overdue per tenant) AND manual (staff can suspend/unsuspend anytime)
+- Auto-suspend threshold is a per-tenant setting (each ISP configures their own overdue days)
+- Reactivation requires full payment of outstanding balance — no reactivation with unpaid debt
+- Cancellation is reversible — cancelled subscribers can be reactivated with their full history intact (not a new record)
+
+### Billing Models
+- Prepaid = pay before the service period starts; postpaid = use service, get billed after
+- Invoice generation is anniversary-based (each subscriber billed on their signup date, not a fixed monthly date)
+- Prepaid invoices generated X days before the billing date to give subscribers time to pay
+- Plan changes take effect on the next billing cycle — no proration needed
+- No load-based/usage-based billing — this is flat monthly plans only
+
+### Payment Recording
+- Payment fields: Claude's discretion on the right set (amount, method, reference, date, invoice allocation are expected)
+- Overpayment creates a credit balance that auto-applies to the next invoice
+- Partial payments supported — applied to oldest unpaid invoice first (FIFO)
+- Payment voids/reversals allowed for Admin and Office Staff — implemented as reversing journal entries (no deletion)
+- Idempotency keys on payment creation to prevent double-recording
+
+### Chart of Accounts & Ledger
+- Pre-configured ISP-specific Chart of Accounts auto-provisioned at tenant signup — not customizable in v1
+- Journal entries visible to Admin only — staff sees only reports and summaries
+- Manual journal entries (e.g., cash-on-hand to bank) use maker-checker workflow — one person creates, another approves
+- Accounting periods enforced — Admin can close a month, no entries allowed in closed periods
+- All journal entries are immutable — corrections via reversing entries only
+- All balances derived from journal entry history — no mutable balance fields anywhere
+
+### Claude's Discretion
+- Payment input fields (reasonable set expected)
+- Pre-configured COA account list (standard ISP accounts: revenue, COGS, operating expenses, assets, liabilities, equity)
+- Prepaid invoice lead time (how many days before billing date)
+- Invoice numbering scheme
+- Outstanding balance report layout and filters
+- Service plan fields beyond name, speed, and monthly price
+
+
+
+
+## Specific Ideas
+
+- Small ISPs often have one person doing everything — the maker-checker workflow should be optional or have a "self-approve" override for single-person operations
+- FIFO payment allocation is how most Philippine ISPs work — collectors in the field just collect whatever the subscriber can pay and it goes to the oldest bill
+- Credit balance is important because some subscribers prepay multiple months when they have cash on hand
+
+
+
+
+## Deferred Ideas
+
+None — discussion stayed within phase scope
+
+
+
+---
+
+*Phase: 02-subscriber-and-billing-core*
+*Context gathered: 2026-03-04*