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Subscriptions

Subscriptions

A subscription is a collection of services a Contact subscribes to and is billed for on a recurring basis. Apart from the services provided, the subscription also outlines how and when the Contact will be billed, as well as the payment terms.


THE ESSENTIALS

Before covering how to manage subscriptions, let’s explain some key terms used throughout CRM.COM regarding subscriptions, services and billing.

SUBSCRIPTIONS

In CRM.COM, subscriptions group together services based on their billing terms, i.e. one subscription per billing cycle (e.g. monthly, quarterly etc.), account and billing model (pre-bill, post-bill). As a result, each Contact can have multiple subscriptions, and each one has a state reflecting the state of its services. Possible subscription states are:

  • Active - There’s at least one running service for the subscription (i.e. a service in an Effective state), which the Contact is still paying for.

  • Inactive - A subscription has non-churned services, but none of them are activated (i.e. may have Not Effective, Paused or Draft states).

  • Churned - All the subscription services have been discontinued either by the Contact or automatically due to business rules (i.e. all services have a state of Cancelled or Regretted).

Subscriber

A subscriber is a contact or an organisation that receives selected subscription services and is billed for them on a recurring basis.

A subscriber is categorised based on the state of their services as follows:

  • Active - The subscriber has at least one Effective or Paused service.

  • Inactive - All of the subscriber’s services are in a state of Not Effective.

  • Churned - All of the subscriber’s services have been Cancelled or Regretted.

Subscription Terms

Subscription terms represent the Contact's agreement with the service provider and include the following:

  • The agreement date

  • The billing cycle - i.e. how often the subscription is billed 

  • The billing day- the day of the week or month on which the billing cycle of a subscription begins

    • For weekly subscriptions, the billing day is one of the days of the week

    • For subscriptions with monthly cycles or cycles longer than a month, the billing day could be any day of the month from the 1st to the 31st

  • The preferred payment method - one of the Contact's defined payment methods acceptable by the organisation and used to fund the subscription.

Subscription Payment Method

The Contact can select from one of the organisation's accepted payment methods to fund each of their subscriptions. The chosen payment method is automatically be used to collect money during billing in order to avoid exceeding the credit limit. If a payment fails, the subscription remain unbilled/unpaid and therefore be eligible for disconnection.

If a subscription payment method is not specified, then the billing engine uses the Contact's primary payment method instead (if any) to fund the subscription. The CRM.COM Wallet is considered as the default primary payment method for all contacts, so billing also tries to use its funds if no other payment method is found for a contact.

Subscription Address

Represents the physical location where the subscription services are consumed, typically one of the Contact’s addresses.

Devices

An equally important aspect of a subscription is its associated devices, i.e. the hardware required to provision the service to the subscriber.

  • Any accompanying devices for a service can be specified in the dependency rules and are applicable for purchasing a termed, one-time, or even for consuming a usage service

  • The required devices can be sold, rented, or already owned by the Contact

    • Sold devices - The device can be purchased through the same order as the service and will be invoiced as part of the order's invoicing and not by the subscription billing run. The subscriber has ownership of the device only when it has been paid for.

    • Rented devices - The device can be rented either free of charge or at a fixed price charged on every billing cycle. Rented devices must be returned to the organisation upon terminating a subscription service.

  • Multiple services can be enabled via a single device, regardless of their subscription (i.e. the same device can be used to provision multiple subscriptions for the same Contact)

  • A device can only be associated with a single contact and located at one of the Contact’s physical addresses

Ordering

Subscription ordering is when a contact purchases new services or requests changes to existing ones. When an order is placed for a service, either a new subscription will be created or an existing one will be amended. A service could also be billed, paid for, and activated, subject to the service’s billing model.

SUBSCRIPTION SERVICES

Future Subscriptions and Services

Services can be scheduled to be added to a subscription on a future date. These subscriptions will be marked as Future Subscription in the user interface. Prior to their addition, users can view both the subscription and the scheduled services to be added. These scheduled actions will also affect upcoming billing, therefore, users can see when these services will take effect and how they will impact the contact’s billing.

Service Types and Subscription States

A subscription includes the services purchased by the Contact for a specific billing cycle. Subscription services adhere to the subscription's terms, which the subscriber and the service provider have agreed upon. A subscription service can be configured as one of the following types:

  • Termed Service - A service which is billed on a recurring basis, regardless of its usage

  • One-Time Service - A service provided upon request and billed on a one-off basis. The service is provisioned to the Contact for a specific period of time and then churned

In CRM.COM, subscription services are defined as products. Refer to the Product Catalogue manual for complete product types and configuration details.

Each service has its own state too, this reflects the overall state of the subscription:

  • Draft- The service has been ordered but never activated because of business rules that prevent the service from being activated (such as pending payment, missing product dependencies). Once limitations are settled, the service can be manually activated (become Effective) or, alternatively, be cancelled without applying the cancellation business rules.

  • Effective - The service is in use by the Contact, i.e. is being billed normally and paid for, or is in a trial period.

  • Not Effective - The service has been deactivated due to an outstanding balance, the service cannot be resumed until the Contact has settled the balance.

  • Paused - The service is temporarily discontinued for a period of time specified by the Contact, the service will not be billed for during this time. Pause periods can be configured in Settings.

  • Cancelled - The service has been terminated, either upon contact request or due to being deactivated for a long period of time. Configure the cancellation rules in Settings.

  • Regretted - The Contact has changed their mind about purchasing a subscription service and has requested its termination. Based on business rules, a service can be regretted within a defined time frame since its activation (e.g. within 15 days of purchasing). Successfully regretted subscriptions are entirely refundable.

Trial Period

A temporary period whereby a contact can try a service free of charge (with no billing or contract obligations) before being billed for it. The trial period for a service is defined in its price terms and is effective once a contact has purchased the service.

A contact has the right to cancel the service at any given time during the trial period without penalties or any other restrictions whatsoever. At the end of the trial period, the service becomes a paid service, and its billing cycle begins. Contacts may request for a trial period extension, but this can only be performed once and for a specific period of time.

Service Termed Period

A service’s termed period covers a number of billing cycles and begins on the date the service is activated for the first time or immediately after the end of a trial period. The termed period defines the duration a service will be used for before it is auto-renewed or expired. A termed period can be:

  • Automatically renewed at the end of the termed period

  • Renewed upon contact request before the service expires

Auto-Renewal & Expiration

A service is either auto-renewed at the end of its termed period, meaning that it remains active and is billed for the next period, or it expires and is deactivated (not auto-renewable) at the end of the termed period.

Contract Period

A service may have a contract period, during which the Contact is obliged to follow the service provider’s business rules, such as restrictions on when the service can be cancelled. Likewise, the service owner ensures that the service cost will not be affected if a price increases during the contract period. The contract period is specified in the service price terms.

Service Bundles

Subscription services can be sold individually or as a bundle. A subscription service bundle can have a fixed or a flexible composition:

  • Fixed - A fixed service bundle includes a set of subscription services which can’t be altered at a fixed price. The Contact is billed for and provisioned the contents of the bundle.

  • Flexible - A flexible service bundle includes a set of mandatory services that can’t be altered and are charged for at a specific price. However, add-on services (with or without an additional price) can be selected and added to the flexible bundle. The additional services can be added and removed at the discretion of the Contact, and the Contact is billed for and provisioned the contents of the bundle, including any add-ons.

Quantity

A service can have a quantity and be delivered via multiple devices, to multiple locations, or to multiple users. The service’s quantity can be changed anytime, and billing will be adjusted accordingly.

Service Locations

A service can be consumed at multiple contact locations. In such cases, a service is ordered with a quantity representing the number of locations at which it will be provisioned. Once subscribed to the service, the Contact can optionally specify at which specific location(s) the service will be delivered. Service locations must be selected from the Contact’s list of available addresses.

Service Activation & De-activation

The back-end service delivery process manages service (re)-activations and de-activations.

A service is a candidate for de-activation when:

  • It’s in an Effective state, and there’s an outstanding balance with no grace period

  • The service has passed its billed up to date

  • The service is funded by an account, the account has an outstanding balance, and if there’s a threshold defined in the business rules, then the outstanding amount exceeds the threshold amount

  • When the service is funded by the CRM.COM Wallet, and there are insufficient Open or Commerce funds in the wallet

  • All payment retries have failed

A service, on the other hand, is a candidate for (re)-activation when

  • It’s in either Draft or Not Effective state

  • Its funding entity can fund it i.e.

    • The account is settled, or if not, its outstanding amount is less than the threshold amount defined in business rules

    • The CRM.COM wallet has sufficient Open/Commerce money to activate the service for one more billing cycle

BILLING

The billing process bills a subscription according to its billing terms (e.g. billing cycle, billing day) and, most importantly, bills the services included in the subscription, based on their price terms.

The billing process can issue an invoice and/or credit note for a subscription. For example, it might credit the contact if a service is cancelled. The billing process always ensures that the contact’s credit limit is not exceeded. If issuing the invoice would surpass the contact’s credit limit, the billing process will consume the contact’s account funds (if available). If the account funds are insufficient to cover the invoice, the automated payment process will attempt to collect payment using the contact’s chosen online payment method. If the necessary amount is successfully obtained, the invoice is issued and posted, allowing the contact to continue using the service. However, if the payment fails, the invoice is issued but not posted, making the service eligible for deactivation according to the configured business rules.

Recurring billing is triggered according to configured billing rules; at the beginning of the billing cycle or a number of days before. The process runs on a daily basis and identifies if there are services to be billed. Its time of execution is not configurable.

Real-time billing is triggered upon performing various billable events such as new purchases, service or device amendments, applicable fees etc. Real-time billing is also triggered when usage charge limits are reached.

Some basic billing terms are explained here below, however, billing is covered in depth in the Billing manual.

Billing Cycle

The time interval for which a subscription and its services are billed on a recurring basis, for example, monthly or quarterly.

Billing Term Period

A service's billing period is the length of time for which the service will be billed. Therefore, a billing period covers a number of billing cycles in the case of termed services, or it has the same duration as a one-time service’s duration. At the end of the billing period, the service is either auto-renewed or expired.

Usage Charge Limits

Usage charge limits are a global business rule defining the maximum allowed non-billed amount of money or quantity which can be consumed. Once this threshold is reached, the Contact will be immediately invoiced for this non-billed usage up until that point in time, even though the Contact is not due to be billed yet (i.e. prior to the end of the billing cycle).

Usage Allowance

Restrictions on the services and non-traceable physical goods a contact can consume, as well as the usage quantities (amount of money or units of measurement) which can be consumed within a period of time. Usage allowance is determined by a service’s price.