Activating Prepaid Subscriptions

Deactivated subscription services are activated by the recurring activation process or following a payment made against the account. 
The process deactivates subscriptions that have been designated by the prepaid billing run due to insufficient funds.  Prepaid subscriptions can be deactivated based on the Day or Day and Hour on which they were initially activated.   Subscribers can stop the deactivation by making a payment to cover all service expenses.

Configuring and executing prepaid subscription deactivation process

The deactivation process is configured once and scheduled to be executed on a recurring basis, depending on business needs, according to the scheduling and throttling settings.

To create and execute the deactivation process:

1. Navigate to Deactivate Prepaid Subscriptions and click on NEW in the Actions menu of the Summary or Data Entry page.
2. Provide the required values (see 'Deactivate prepaid subscription process fields table') and SAVE the process.
   Provide scheduling and set up throttling settings to separate subscriptions into groups for deactivation.
3. Use the Actions menu to SUBMIT the process.
   A job is created and sent to the scheduler to be executed. If the process is recurring, the next deactivation job is scheduled when the current one is completed.

Deactivate prepaid subscription process fields

Life Cycle State: Can be 'Effective' or 'Not effective'. Only 'Effective' definitions can be submitted for execution.

Deactivation Method: select whether prepaid subscriptions should be deactivated based on the Day or Day and Hour on which they were initially activated. 

If the deactivation method is set to 'Day', a service marked for deactivation will be deactivated by the run, no matter what time it was initially activated on.

If the deactivation method is set to 'Day and Hour', a service marked for deactivation will not be deactivated if the run is executed before the time of day on which the service was initially activated.

Logging Method: select whether the Process Run Log will display the runs Processed with Errors or Processed Successfully and with Errors.

Input Settings

Subscription Action/Sub-action Type: the selected deactivation type will be applied on the deactivated subscription or service.  A default action type is assigned, if one is not configured.

Criteria

activation process also re-evaluates the status of subscription services that were classified as candidates for deactivation (during the billing run). It is possible to exclude from activation subscriptions that belong to specific groups, accounts receivable classifications (such as employees) and specific subscription types.

Activation always takes place on the subscription service level and not on the subscription level. Services taken into consideration are:

• Prepaid subscription services that were not effective for a period of time that is less than the specified threshold
• Prepaid subscription services that are effective and are classified as candidates for deactivation

Setting up the recurring activation process

Settings associated with the activation of services are accessed from the Subscription Activation Rules tab found in the Policies section of the billing definition.

Once the settings are defined, the activation process under Subscription Maintenance Utilities must be enabled. It is configured once and executed on a recurring basis.

1. Navigate to the Subscription Maintenance Utilities definition and click EDIT.
2. In the Schedule Subscription Activation tab, use MODIFY to ENABLE the process and provide the scheduling settings. 
3. Alternately, click on Run Now to execute instantly or CANCEL pending activation processes.

Deactivating Prepaid Subscriptions

Subscribers who have been marked by the prepaid billing process as candidates for deactivation are deactivated. The automatic deactivation process is also responsible to identify and process subscriptions that are owned by accounts with an overdue balance exceeding a predetermined threshold.

It is possible to exclude from deactivation subscriptions that belong to specific groups, accounts receivable classifications (such as employees) and specific subscription types.

Deactivation is always applied at the level of subscription services.  Deactivation can take into consideration the 'date and time' on which the services were activated (so that subscribers can benefit up to the last minute for the services they paid for), or just the 'date', in which case the service gets cut off at midnight Services taken into consideration are:

• All the prepaid subscription services that were classified as candidates for deactivation are identified, and grouped per account 

Ranking of Subscriptions and Services

Subscriptions and subscription services are ranked by various system processes such as activation and deactivation, to determine processing order.

Subscriptions inherit a ranking number from their subscription type, while services are ranked based on whether they are mandatory (higher ranking) or optional (lower ranking).  This is also defined in the subscription type.

Ranking is critical when services must be activated in an account or wallet with limited funds.

The system will prioritize subscriptions and consequently services with the highest ranking and activate those.

In case of deactivation, the system prioritizes subscriptions of the lowest ranking and deactivates its services accordingly.

Additional reference to ranking takes place to decide the order. Refer to the table below for more information.

Glossary