Overview

• Termed services(billed on a recurrence basis) such as SVODs or TV channels,
• Usage services (billed based on usage) such as TVODs (i.e. film) (Optional)
• Hardware on which service signals are sent to; referred to as Installed Items in CRM.COM (Optional)
• Fees such as start up fee  (Optional)

In CRM.COM subscriptions are categorized to Normal and Prepaid which essentially describes the way they are billed. Normal subscriptions are funded by an account controlled by a credit limit and services are rated and billed either before or after their consumption In prepaid subscription customers subscribe for a set of services and pay them in advance, prior their consumption using wallet funds.

Setting Up Normal Subscriptions and Core Processes

Before you start using Normal Subscriptions set up the system to reflect your own business needs.

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Generic Settings

Normal Subscriptions usually have two main characteristics; binding period which defines the time that subscribers are binded to honor their contract, and billing frequency which defines how often a subscription will be billed. Through Generic Settings you can configure the available binding periods and billing frequencies. Once configured they must be added to billing term schemes through which they will be made available on subscriptions.

Billing Term Scheme

Normal billing term schemes establish rules for billing and paying normal subscriptions; for example, define whether the subscription will be billed before or after the bill is issued, whether the billing will be done using an anniversary cycle or all subscribers will be billed from the beginning till the end of the month etc.. You can create multiple billing term schemes and upon creation of the subscription, agents will be able to choose the one which is applicable to that subscription. It is however possible, to update the billing term scheme of the subscription at a later stage if required. Once configured, schemes are added to subscription type through which they are made available for selection in the subscription.

Billing & Payment Models 

 Through the billing term scheme you can create different billing models. Check them out below to decide which one best fits your business model:

• Pre-Billed - Pay before Bill: A model where services are billed before they have been used either anniversary or period based, and a bill is generated but only if the rated amount was already paid in advance.
  i.e. this model requires subscribers to have a registered credit card or other online payment method(i.e. PayPal), through which funds are automatically deducted
• Pre-Billed - Pay after Bill: A model where services are billed before they have been used either anniversary or period based, and a bill is generated which is expected to be paid afterwards
  This model is the most common model in cases where money is not required to be paid in advance
• Post-Billed - Pay after Bill: A model where services are billed after they have been used and a bill is generated which is expected to be paid afterwards
  This model is especially popular for summerhouse subscriptions where subscribers will only be active for a period which is not predetermined.

Anniversary versus Period Based billing

Anniversary based billing means that each subscriber is billed every month(usually its monthly), on the day of the month that they were activated. This requires billing run to be executed on a daily basis so that all subscribers are billed every month the same day they have subscribed.

If anniversary based billing is selected then it is possible to define the range of allowed billing cycle days (i.e. Cycle Day is the day your billing cycle begins) and you have the option for the date to be reset upon the execution of changes done on the subscription, such the addition or upgrade of a service

Period based billing on the other hand, will bill all subscribers on the same day of the month, regardless of the day that they have subscribed. The first time a subscriber is billed will either be billed for the remaining of the month and a month in advance or just until the end of the month (depending on the business model); this ensures that all subscribers will always be billed up to the same date and therefore the company will only need to execute one Billing Run per month.

If period based billing is selected then a specific billing cycle day must be set

Restrict time of allowed subscription changes and bill accordingly

In case that the Payment Model is set to pay before bill, i.e. you would like to take a payment before you proceed to changes on a subscription it is possible to define when changes can be done as well as how they will be billed. For example, if a customer would like to upgrade a service you can allow the service to be upgraded and bill immediately the difference between the old and new service however if the customer would like to downgrade the service you can allow the downgrade to take place only once the paid period is reached and bill for the new service,

This is possible through Billable event allowed performed date rules where you can select between 'Immediately' and 'At the end of the paid period' and Billing adjustment rules where you can choose between:

• Bill Full period where the service will be billed for one complete billing frequency
• Bill the difference where only the difference is billed between services is billed
• Bill until next billing period the service is billed till the date that the rest of the services are already billed
• No billing adjustment no billing takes place

Additional settings

In addition to defining the billing and payment model billing term schemes are also used to define the following 

• Allowed billing frequencies
• Allowed binding periods
• Which services are free of charge (i.e. free to air channels)
• Whether concurrent usage is allowed (Refer to B2B Subscriptions)
• Usage service billing rules

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Normal Billing Settings

Billing runs are responsible to bill subscriptions based on the billing model they have subscribed to (dictated by the billing term scheme). The result of a normal billing run is the bill. Through Billing settings you can define rules which will govern both billing runs and the generation of bills.

Rating of services

Rating is the process that decides the period and the amount for which services and hardware will be billed. Define how far ahead you would like to bill subscriptions and provide the default values for the bill as of day. Any services with rated to date before or equal to the bill as of date they will be billed.

Invoicing of services

Invoicing is the process where all services and hardware are grouped together in an invoice or a credit note in case that customer must be credited. It is possible to define a rating minimum amount. If the rating amount is less than that amount then the bill will not be issued.

Assembling

Assembling is the process where all invoices an credit notes created by the billing run are placed together. Through the assembling settings you can define whether rounding is applied as well as Exceptional settings which will alert you in case the conditions are met

• Maximum credited amount: The credit amount that when exceeded results in a bill being classified as Exceptional. 
• Maximum debited amount: A value reflecting an account's credit limit, that when exceeded by a new bill, results to the bill being classified as Exceptional.   

Formatting

Formatting actually is the formatting of the bill. Through settings, you can define how information will appear on the bills. i.e

Bill Check Digit Generation

You can select how the check digit added to the bill will be generated which can be based on the bill number, accounts receivable or bill amount.

Refer to Normal Subscription Billing for more information on how CRM.COM handles billing of normal subscriptions.

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Activating normal subscription services

Subscriptions are created either in a draft or effective state. In case that the subscription is Draft, no money is yet paid and no signals sent to the customer's device. It is possible to activate a subscription at a later stage using the 'Activate Subscription' subscription action in which case, the subscription will be billable.

Billing of normal subscriptions services

Subscriptions are billed through the Normal Billing Run, which is configured once and executed as often as scheduled.

Refer to Normal Subscription Billing for more information.

Deactivating normal subscriptions services

Subscribers who do not have sufficient funds in their accounts to pay for the subscriptions are deactivated by the automatic deactivation process. The 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 of the day that the services must be deactivated. Services taken into consideration are: 

• Normal subscription services that were classified as candidates for deactivation
• Normal subscription services that were not classified as candidates for deactivation, but are owned by an account with an overdue balance that is more than the specified threshold.

Setting up the Deactivation Recurring Process

Settings associated with the deactivation of services are accessed from the 'Subscription Deactivation' found in the Subscription and Billing Policies. Once the settings are defined the deactivation process under Subscription Maintenance Utilities must be enabled. It is configured once and executed on a recurring basis.

1. Navigate to Billing > Subscriptions > Subscription Maintenance Utilities and click EDIT. 
2. In the Schedule Normal Subscription Deactivation tab, use MODIFY to ENABLE the process and provide the scheduling settings.
   Use Throttling settings' to define the number of subscriptions to be deactivated in every batch and the time between each batch in order to avoid a long deactivation queue when sent to the provider for deactivations
3. Alternately click on Run Now to execute instantly or CANCEL pending deactivation processes.

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Reactivating inactive normal subscription services

Deactivated subscription services are activated by the recurring activation process or following a payment made against the account. The 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:

• Normal subscription services that were not effective for a period that is less than the specified threshold, given that their account overdue balance is less than the specified threshold.
• Normal subscription services that are effective and are classified as candidates for deactivation, given that their account overdue balance is less than the specified threshold. 

Setting up the Activation Recurring Process

Settings associated with the activation of services accessed from the 'Subscription Activation' found in the Subscription and Billing Policies. 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 Billing > Subscriptions > Subscriptions Maintenance Utilities 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

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Paying for a subscription

CRM.COM supports multiple ways of paying for a subscription. Cash, Direct Debit, Credit Card or other supported online payment methods. Depending on the payment model of the subscription payments may have to be done upfront (before the subscription is created or updated) or after the bill is created; this means that the account must either have enough funds to cover for the payment or a card/online payment must be available from where money will be directly deducted. Payments required upon the execution of a subscription action (i.e. adding a new service) can be done straight from the subscription action screen.

Recurring card(online) payments

It is possible for customers that choose to pay with credit cards or other online payments to provide their information and whenever a payment is required it will be done automatically. This provides your customers with the security of an uninterrupted service due to payment failures. In order to enable recurring payments, the information (i.e card details or PayPal account) must be provided and saved on the subscriber's account, and enabled to be used for recurring payments.

Handling failed recurring payments 

In case a payment fails, a grace period can be extended to customers who settle their dues through recurring payments (protecting them from immediate deactivation). It is also possible to deactivate the service only until the payment is effected successfully (short-term deactivation). To enable this option go to Subscription and Billing Policies and in the Subscription Deactivation tab set the following parameter accordingly: On Recurring Payment Failure Exception (either with Grace period or Short Term Deactivation)

Paying with a different card than the one defined as recurring

By default, whenever money is needed the system will deduct money from the card which is set to be used for 'Recurring payments'. If however, the customer wishes to pay with a different card, it is possible by selecting it at the time of the payment. If a card is not specified, the card that is authorized for recurring payments will be charged.

Paying with other means

If account funds are insufficient to cover a requested subscription change or the activation of a new subscription and there is no registered card used for recurring payments, a customer can manually submit a payment. To do this, use the Pay Now option, which is available in subscription actions that require payment and proceed to make the payment. This would usually be used in cases where cash is provided by the customer.

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Additional Processes and Automations for Normal Subscriptions

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Business Flows