Term Subscriptions are Subscriptions with an end date (expiration date). With Term Subscriptions you can set up Transactions and future Invoices. Conversely, Subscriptions without an end date are Evergreen Subscriptions. Unlike Term Subscriptions, Evergreen Subscriptions can be canceled any time by the User.
Term Subscription Workflow Example
A Sales Representative finalizes a Contract. The Customer accepts the terms and signs the Contract. The Sales Representative forwards the Contract to the Billing Manager, who uses Advanced Billing to input the terms of the Contract.
Evergreen Subscription Workflow Example
From your website, a Customer clicks through the Pricing page, signs up, and creates an account. This triggers an API call to Advanced Billing, creating a Subscription.
See Also: Term and Evergreen Subscription Options
Creating a Term Subscription
In Advanced Billing, every Subscription must have a Product and Product Price Points. For Term Subscriptions, the expiration date is set on the Product Price Point. So, when you create a Term Subscription in Advanced Billing, you simply enable the Expiration and an Expiration Interval Unit. An expiration date is then assigned to the Subscription.
At this point, the Product Price Point expiration parameters and the Subscription expiration date are different, meaning that the Subscription expiration date is not tied to and will not be influenced by the Product Price Point expiration.
See Also: Example on how to create a Term Subscription
Syncing with Maxio Platform
When you sync Advanced Billing with Maxio Platform, Contract Lines (that is, Transactions) are created (or updated) in alignment with the Term Subscription that is created/updated in Advanced Billing.
Notice that future Draft Invoices are also created/updated in alignment with term dates and subscription items for the Term Subscription.
Using Salesforce
Term Subscriptions can be created/updated through the Advanced Billing Salesforce Integration. You can set both the Subscription expiration date and the Billing Intervals in Components.
For Self-Service Users
From the Billing Portal in Advanced Billing, you can:
- Update Term Subscriptions (for example, Update Quantity);
- View and pay Invoices for Term Subscriptions.
Pricing
Advanced Billing handles pricing either through Price Points in the Product Catalog, or through Custom Pricing, which is Subscription-specific pricing not in the Catalog. Because Term Subscriptions are often custom-negotiated deals, we typically recommend using Custom Pricing.
Using Discounts/Coupons
For Term Subscriptions, use Discounts or Coupons to handle free time or discounted introductory rates. In this case, Discounts/Coupons are preferred over Trials because Trials imply optionality, and optionality is not available with Term Subscriptions.
You cannot use Trials with Term Subscriptions. Discounts/Coupons currently do not create Transactions.
Using Multi-Currency
If you use Multi-Currency, then you must use Definitive Pricing for Term Subscriptions. That is, Term Subscriptions cannot rely on variable exchange-rate-based pricing for secondary currencies.