Subscriptions

To form the collection of items subscribed by a customer, Subscription is used. It holds all the applicable credits, recurring items and a trail of all ad-hoc charges to be listed in ensuing billing cycles.

To delineate the base cost and billing frequency, each Subscription should be linked to a plan. Any addons or coupons linked to it will also become a part of it. Information like duration of the subscription and trial period is innate from the plan but can be annulled at the Subscription-level.

In case subscribed items have any amendments like billing date, and planned amendments can be handled within the Subscription. In case the products can be shipped, then the shipping orders will be generated against it. Once an invoice is created for a subscription, the needed details on the charges are taken from the subscription.

Subscription Status

Future: The specific date in the future when the subscriptions will go into trial or active state.

In Trial: Subscriptions that are active but are in a trial mode.

Active: Subscriptions that are active and will be charged based on addons, plan and billing period.

Non Renewing: At the end of the existing term, non-renewing subscriptions will get cancelled.

Cancelled: Subscriptions that are inactive and will no longer renew. How charges, credits, etc. are managed on cancellation can be configured.

What Subscription Section contains?

All your subscriptions are listed in this section including a summary of each subscription.

Multiple actions like Change Subscription, Change Customer Details, Add Card, Add Shipping Address, Update Billing Info and Cancel Subscriptions can be performed with this option. Only Admins are allowed to perform bulk actions.

These actions can be performed by:

• Clicking the Actions option
• Selecting the customers and the operation you want to perform.

Cancel Subscription: subscription can be cancelled with this option. Add the required details in the Cancel Subscriptions dialog box and click Apply Changes.

Here you can Read more on cancelling subscriptions. For cancellation of subscriptions, go to More > Cancel Subscription option.

Changes Here you can read more on cancelling subscriptions. For cancellation of subscriptions, go to More > Cancel Subscription option.

Creating Subscriptions in ChargeMonk Site

To begin, use the Create New Subscription button.

For the creation of a new subscription use the New Subscription page. Below given is the information that you have to fill to generate a new subscription:

All customer related details like First Name, Last Name, Company Name and Email are captured by the Customer Details section, which is needed by ChargeMonk. To identify the subscription uniquely, the ID field is used. For additional information refer to our API.

The Subscription Details section captures information related to the plan you would like to subscribe the customer to:

• The Plan Name and Quantity sections are mandatory and are used to choose the quantity and plan that you are selling. The plan can be appended with an additional and addons in case coupons if applicable.
• The Unit Price segments help you to override the addon and the plan's price selected by you for this subscription. This segment is allowed in applicable cases only.
• The PO Number can also be identified in this segment. You can get more information on that here.

Start Date

Start Date is that date when subscription begins for the customer, which depends on the billing mode of your site. There is an impact of given start date on the statuses of the subscription:

Active: Subscription is used and paid by the customer. The date when the subscription status changes to active are the date when an invoice will be generated. The start date can be set as a date in the past, such as, any time before the time of the creation of the subscription, given that the date falls in between the existing billing cycle. This will be beneficial once you start offering the service but are generating the subscription later in ChargeMonk.

Future: With regards to the date of the creation of subscription, the start date will be in the future. On the given date the status will change to Active or Trial. On the date when the status of the subscription changes to Active, an invoice will get generated.

In Trial: In case the trial period is specified for the subscription on the start date, then the subscription's status will be "In Trial".

No. of Billing Cycles

The number of billing cycles option is used to set that number of occasions a customer will get charged. With this option, a different value for the number of billing cycles can be specified then the number you have configured in the plan already. The value that is filled in the new subscription will cancel the value that was configured in the plan already. For more details click here.

Assigning Payment Method to a Subscription

In case there are multiple payment modes available for a customer, ChargeMonk allows assigning a payment mode to a specific subscription exclusively. In case assigned, the payment mode will be tried for all the charges against the subscription.

Auto Collection for a Subscription

At the subscription and customer level, ChargeMonk allows the auto collection.

The Auto Collection option depicts that if the payments for the generated invoices for the subscription are automatically charged.

• When Auto Collection is in active mode (ON), then ChargeMonk will charge the payment method of the customer, i.e. primary or the one imposed automatically to the subscription once payment for the subscription is due.
• When Auto Collection is inactive mode (OFF), then ChargeMonk will not charge the payment mode of customer automatically once payment for the subscription is due.

When Auto Collection for the subscription has not configured
Auto Collection status will be referred by ChargeMonk at the Customer level to choose once the charge requires to be collected. Get more on Auto Collection for customers.

Visit the payment methods page to get more information about assigning a payment method to a subscription.

Is it possible to add my Addons at the time of sign up?

Yes. It is possible to select and add the recurring addons during sign up. The plan that has trial days left is not eligible to add non-recurring addons.

Generating Subscriptions for Plans that don't have Trial Period

In case of trial period has expired for your plan then you can generate subscription by turning Auto Collection to OFF. An offline subscription. will be created. When you generate a subscription then you can enter the card info using the option Add Credit Card within the subscription.

Another method of generating subscriptions using plans with an expired trial period is by using the hosted page URL plan. This will help you to add the credit card info when generating the subscription.

Is it possible to edit an existing subscription?

Once you open an existing subscription, various details can be viewed and actions you can be performed. A Subscription helps you to get all the information such as CC info, customer info, trial days remaining (when in the trial). Additionally, you can see subscription info, address, non-recurring items, current term charges/credits, transactions, and invoices. (In case you add the address of buyer then only the address section will appear. Once a one-time charge has been imposed with the help of the Add Charge option then only the non-recurring items will appear).

By using toolbar placed on the right, changes can be made:

Below given changes can be performed with the Actions option:

Change Subscription This option helps you to change more than one of the following features of the subscription :

• the subscribed plan
• the plan's price
• addons connected to the plan (only the mandatory addons can be removed through API)
• plan/addon quantities
• coupons or coupon codes
• no. of plan billing cycles
• PO Number

You can decide to either immediately apply the changes (the charges may be prorated then) or at the time of the next renewal.

Change Customer Details This option is used to edit customer details. The modification of subscription Id cannot happen.

Add/Update Credit Card This option helps you to append a new credit card number in case it is not available or updated, in case there is a change.

Add/Update Shipping Address This is used to add the shipping address of the customer. When you enter these details, it will be shown on the subscription as a new segment. All the address fields can be edited except for the used Label. It is possible to delete the address and update a new one if required.

Add/Update Billing Info You can see this option when you have enabled any of the billing address segments and can be used to add/edit the billing address of customers.

Cancel/Reactivate Subscription can be used to cancel or re-activate a subscription. You can cancel a subscription immediately or at the next renewal. Only subscriptions with CC info can be reactivated once it is cancelled. Learn more.

Add Charge allows you to add an extra charge to the subscription. It does not persist and is a one-time charge. Learn more.

Add AddonThis option can be used to add an extra non-recurring addon to the subscription. Learn more.

Coupon This option can be used to impose and redeem extra coupons on the current subscription. The coupons that are pertinent to the plan in this subscription will be appear only.

Change Start Date/Time This option is only shown when the subscription is in the "Future" state. The date/time when the subscription should begin to use this option can be change. In case you have to begin the subscription on the current day and if the billing mode of your ChargeMonk site is on the day-based, you can pick the current time/date.

In case the subscription was generated via the API and the trial period was specified then changing the start date will remove that trial period automatically. In such a case, only the trial period of the plan will be considered. Or else, the subscription will go into the "Active" state.

The Change Next Billing Date option will be visible on active subscriptions and can be used to amend the future renewal date/time. The date/time can be changed at an earlier or later point in time. On the specified date/time, the subscription will get updated.

Change Trial End This option will be visible only on the trial subscriptions. Also to extend the trial period this option can be used if required.

The details of the subscription have a Timeline section, which shows you the history of subscription.

Events like sign up, reactivation and cancellation appear here.

To add details specified to any particular subscription or as a tag you use to find the subscriptions using the filters, Comments are used. At the end of the subscription, the comments section is shown. It is available for invoices, subscriptions, transactions, addons, coupons, and plans.

Is it possible to change/override the price of the plan for a particular subscription?

Yes, but in ChargeMonk first the price overriding option has to be enabled.

Additionally, while changing the price of a plan, subscription's price change is permitted only when the subscription's plan pricing model is flat or per unit.

To change the new subscription's price while creating it or for a current subscription by updating it.

Price for a current subscription can be changed:

1. Go through the subscription details page and hit on Change Subscription placed under Actions.
2. On the window that appears, the price can be changed and, if pertinent, the quantity linked with the subscription.

When proration is activated, the generation of a new invoice for the subscription at the new price takes place. Refundable credits are increased for the period of the subscription left at the old rate and are imposed on the new invoice.

Searching subscriptions in the web interface

You can look for the subscriptions in the web interface by using the name, id or by managing the list based on display name or the date in the web interface.

An advanced filter option is also added to make your search easier.

Describe invoices and transactions?

The last section placed under a subscription encloses the information about the invoices and transactions regarding the selected subscription. Here recording of all payments related to the subscriptions is done.

Get more on invoices and transactions.

Is it possible to add coupons to the Subscriptions on the request of customers?

Yes, in your ChargeMonk it is possible to add coupons to the subscription on the request of customers.

Below given are three scenarios where the coupon can be added:

1. On generating a subscription

While generating a new subscription for your customers, if you want to add a coupon/coupon code for them, go to Subscription Details which is there in the ‘Create Subscription' page, and you can see the add Coupon/Coupon Code option.

2. During Subscription change

During a subscription change, in case you are applying the coupon on behalf of your customer, you can find that option in the Change Subscription page.

3. Append the Coupon/Coupon Code to the Subscription

At any instance in the billing cycle, if you want to add the coupon/coupon code for your customer, go to the respective Subscription, search the Apply Coupon/Coupon Code tab and add the Coupon/Coupon Code.

Can I send a quote to a customer so that they can review it before signing up?

Yes, to do that you have to enable quotes option to send the pricing quotes or pro forma invoices to your customers.

Is there any option to add the time when I specify information like "change next billing date" or "subscription start date"?

Your ChargeMonk site's billing mode manages if the billing is done to-the-calendar-day. In case you have the day based billing method set for your site then you will be unable to do amendments to the billing related times to a detail lesser than a calendar day.