Working with Billing Plans

From this page, you can define your Billing Plan, its billing periods and pricing structure, and add seasonal constraints,entitlements, and custom data. To work with a Billing Plan:

Select your starting point from the following options:
- To create a new Billing Plan, click the + New button and select Billing Plan.
- To duplicate an existing Billing Plan, select the relevant existing Billing Plan from Catalog > Billing Plans and click Duplicate.
- To edit an existing Billing Plan, select the relevant existing Billing Plan from Catalog > Billing Plans and click Edit. The Billing Plan page appears.
Define the Billing Plan fields as needed. Refer to the tables below for guidance regarding the fields.
When you’re done, click Save or Update. You can return and continue editing the saved Billing Plan at any time before it is activated. Note: You can edit the Billing Plan at any time prior to its use by subscriptions. It is important to understand that any changes will impact all subscriptions (existing and new) using the Billing plan. Please consider this before making a change. The user interface will show an orange caution at the top of the page stating that the Billing Plan is in use on Subscriptions
When the Billing Plan has been saved and completed, activate it by clicking Activate in the Actions panel on the right.
Disable the Billing Plan at any time, by clicking Disable in the Actions panel on the right. Note that the Billing Plan will no longer be offered to new customers (or appear in the catalog). However, existing subscriptions of the Billing Plan will continue uninterrupted.

Billing Plan Details Pane
Billing Plan Periods Pane
In the Billing Periods pane you can define multiple Billing Periods. For each, set a cycle length, which defines the length of the billing period; and the number of times to repeat the cycle, which defines the length of the subscription. Cycle length can be days, weeks, months, or years. Customers are billed on the first day of the billing cycle. Billing Periods are active sequentially, according to their order in the Billing Plan. The first Billing Period in the list will be in effect when the subscription is first purchased, and it will remain in effect until it completes its defined number of cycles.
Billing Plan Advanced Behavior Pane
The Advanced Behavior pane enables you to configure more complex billing scenarios. You can either use seasonal billing (bill and entitle during a specific season and not at other times of the year), or configure Subscribe to repeat billing periods in specific ways.
Billing Plan Entitlements Pane
Entitlements are IDs identifying the purchased billing plan or product and providing access to it. Use IDs from your system that provide subscribers access to the relevant products or services.Entitlements for a Billing Plan are controlled by the Advanced behavior of the Billing Plan. Advanced behavior can allow entitlements to be granted outside of the payment schedule of the billing plan. Season sets also can control when Entitlements are granted, allowing for entitlements to be granted uncoupled from the payment schedule
Custom Data
Custom data lets you store merchant-specific data to Products, Rate Plans, Billing Plans, Season Sets, Subscriptions, Accounts, and Payment Methods as a pair of matched text strings, called name-value pairs. These name-value pairs can help you categorize and sort aspects of your objects. Use Name to define a category, and Value to define a specific item in that category. For example, you could use name-value pairs to track your sales teams. Define a name-value pair with Office as the Name and the city in which the office is located as the Value.

Parent topic:Billing Plans

Billing Plan Details Pane

Field	Guidance	Relevancy
ID	Your unique ID for the Billing Plan. The ID can’t be changed or reused. Note: use of the forward slash character (/) in merchant identifiers is not allowed.	Required
Statement ID	A merchant-specified, payment processor-specific identifier that is sent with Transactions generated using this Billing Plan. The payment processor uses this value to determine the text displayed on the customer’s credit card statement associated with the transaction. Enter a value for the Statement ID only if you and your payment processor have agreed upon one. If you and your payment processor do not establish an ID, leave this field blank. Do not change this value after you first assign it unless you do so at the request of your payment processor. Note: Merchants who use the following payment processors may use this field for specific information: - Amazon - Compass - GlobalCollect - MeS - Orbital - PayU - WorldPay - Chase Paymentech - FDMS Payeezy - Stripe For more information, see Custom Billing Statement Identifier Requirements in the Subscribe Programming Guide.	Optional, leave blank if not required by your payment processor
Description	An informative description of the Billing Plan.	Optional
Email	Enter the number of days prior to the end of a billing cycle that you want a pre-billing notification sent to a customer. If Days Before Billing is empty or set to 0 (zero), no pre-billing notification is sent for this Billing Plan. Note: To send an email, an email template must be previously defined.	Optional
Skip the initial Billing Notification	Indicates whether a notification is sent to the customer for the first billing period. Use the toggle switch to select either Yes orNo. Default value is No.	Optional
Grace Period Override	Grace period is a merchant level setting, which defines the period that a subscription can stay active even if the recurring transaction billing failed. You can decide to override the global Grace Period setting and designate a grace period specifically for this Billing Plan. Define the number of days that the subscription using this billing plan stays active even if the billing attempt failed.	Optional
Status	Use the toggle switch to set the status of the billing plan to Active/Inactive. This field lets you manage when a billing plan is available to associate with a product or subscription. Default value is Inactive.	Optional
Bills In	Billing Plans can be priced in multiple currencies or Tokens or not at all. Use the toggle switch to select whether the billing plan is billed in Currency or Tokens. The default value is Currency. If you don’t want to associate a price for this billing plan, do nothing. Tip: If you’d like the billing plan priced, in the Actionspanel, select Manage Currency or Manage Tokens to add or remove currencies or tokens for pricing. The Currency and Token pricing are added in the Billing Periods pane. Note: When creating a subscription, the Billing Plan Bills In choice must be aligned to the subscription’s payment method.	Required
End Date	Click the calendar icon to specify when the billing plan ceases to be available. Leave this field blank if you want no end date for the billing plan.	Optional
Created On	A field created automatically once the billing plan is saved. This is the initial date on which the billing plan was created.	N/A
Tax Classification	Subscribe leverages its supported tax vendors (currently Avalara AvaTax and Vertex O Series) to calculate applicable taxes according to the tax classification value entered, your merchant nexus (may refer to your location, the type of business and product you sell, the regions in which you sell), and any unique tax rules configured by Vindicia for your business. In this field, enter the text string provided by your tax vendor for this billing plan (based on the type of related product such as physical goods, software, or electronic data). Your Vindicia implementation resource can assist you with identifying the proper value. Note: To access tax codes used by the Avalara AvaTax system, see https://taxcode.avatax.avalara.com.. For more details, refer to Avalara Avatax System Tax Codes.	Required for regions where tax is not inclusive and only if the billing plan is billed.
Parent topic:Working with Billing Plans

Billing Plan Periods Pane

In the Billing Periods pane you can define multiple Billing Periods. For each, set a cycle length, which defines the length of the billing period; and the number of times to repeat the cycle, which defines the length of the subscription. Cycle length can be days, weeks, months, or years. Customers are billed on the first day of the billing cycle. Billing Periods are active sequentially, according to their order in the Billing Plan. The first Billing Period in the list will be in effect when the subscription is first purchased, and it will remain in effect until it completes its defined number of cycles.

Field	Guidance	Relevancy
Cycle Length	Cycle length defines the duration until the next billing date. Enter a number and select a time frequency (Days, weeks, Months or Years) from the dropdown menu.	Required
Repeat Cycle	Enter the number of times to repeat the cycle. Select Unlimited to have the billing cycle repeat indefinitely, or select Times and enter a value. For example, a Repeat Cycle value of 4 with a Cycle Length of 3 Months defines a one year subscription that bills four times.	Required
Trial Period	Trial periods are free and override the price of the billing plan and/or product. If you wish to set a free trial period, use the toggle to select Yes. Then add a second billing period.	Optional
Email On First Bill	Select Yes to generate a customer notification on the first billing date of the period. If the Billing Period is free, select No to prevent your customer receiving contradictory billing notices. Default value is No.	Optional
Email Before Expiration	To send a warning notice indicating that the subscription is set to expire to your customers, enter a value for the number of days before this billing period ends. If you leave this field empty, no expiration notice is sent.	Optional
Manage Currenciesor Manage Tokens	If you would like to set a price for billing the billing plan by Currencies or by Tokens:1. Click Manage Currencies or Manage Tokensin the Actions panel. 2. Place your cursor in the box and select the relevant pricing options. 3. Enter the price of the Billing Plan in the currency box with the national flag icon representing each country. 4. If no price was entered, the Billing Period displays as Free.	Optional
Add Billing Period	Available when creating or editing the billing plan, click to add another billing period.	Optional
Parent topic:Working with Billing Plans

Billing Plan Advanced Behavior Pane

The Advanced Behavior pane enables you to configure more complex billing scenarios. You can either use seasonal billing (bill and entitle during a specific season and not at other times of the year), or configure Subscribe to repeat billing periods in specific ways.

Field	Guidance	Relevancy
Season Sets
Use a Season Set	Seasonal billing enables you to bill and entitle during a specific season and not at other times of the year. If you wish to use a predefined season set, use the toggle to select Yes. The default value is No.	Optional
Season Sets	Select (or remove) a predefined season set from the Season Sets dropdown menu.	Optional
Active	Specify the number of days before and/or after the season for which you want the entitlement active.	Optional
Grant Entitlements Through Offseason	Grants entitlements continuously.	Optional
Repeat Season Every __ Days before Season Begins	Define how many days prior to the season start date to repeat season set	Optional
Repeat Billing Plan
Repeat Billing Plan	Specify how many times the billing plan can repeat. Select from Forever — repeat the billing plan in a continuous loop or enter the number of Times to repeat the set of billing periods. This field is available only if billing periods were not set to Unlimited.	Required
Entitlement
Type of Entitlement	You can uncouple the entitlement from the billing period using custom entitlements. Standardentitlement is active for the duration of the billing period. Custom entitlement lets you grant entitlements Forever to allow entitlements to always be granted, or specify the duration of the entitlement by entering a number in the available field and selecting a period (days, weeks, months, years) For example 13 Months. This grants entitlements based on the custom schedule and ignores the billing periods.	Optional

Parent topic:Working with Billing Plans

Billing Plan Entitlements Pane

Entitlements are IDs identifying the purchased billing plan or product and providing access to it. Use IDs from your system that provide subscribers access to the relevant products or services.Entitlements for a Billing Plan are controlled by the Advanced behavior of the Billing Plan. Advanced behavior can allow entitlements to be granted outside of the payment schedule of the billing plan. Season sets also can control when Entitlements are granted, allowing for entitlements to be granted uncoupled from the payment schedule

Field	Guidance	Relevancy
Select	1. Place your cursor in the selection box and select from pre-defined Entitlements. 2. You can select multiple Entitlements per billing plan. 3. Click X to remove.	Optional
Create New	1. Create a new Entitlement by entering an ID and a description in the corresponding fields. 2. Click Create. The newly defined Entitlement is added to the Select Entitlement list.	Optional
Parent topic:Working with Billing Plans

Custom Data

Custom data lets you store merchant-specific data to Products, Rate Plans, Billing Plans, Season Sets, Subscriptions, Accounts, and Payment Methods as a pair of matched text strings, called name-value pairs. These name-value pairs can help you categorize and sort aspects of your objects. Use Name to define a category, and Value to define a specific item in that category. For example, you could use name-value pairs to track your sales teams. Define a name-value pair with Office as the Name and the city in which the office is located as the Value.

Field	Guidance	Relevancy
Name	Name is the field for defining metadata. It is unique and once submitted can’t be changed. 1. Place your cursor in the selection box and either select from existing Names or enter a new Name. 2. For a new entry , click Create New: 3. Enter a Value for the Name. 4. Click Add to save this pair. Note: - Name field is limited to 255 characters. - System generated parameters use the prefix vin in the name field.	Required if adding custom data
Value	1. Once you’ve selected/created a Name 2. Enter the category’s Value in the corresponding field. 3. Click Add to save this pair. Note: Value field is limited to 255 characters.	Required if adding custom data
Parent topic:Working with Billing Plans

Home

Guides

APIs

Billing Plan Details Pane

Billing Plan Periods Pane

Billing Plan Advanced Behavior Pane

Billing Plan Entitlements Pane

Custom Data

​Billing Plan Details Pane

​Billing Plan Periods Pane

​Billing Plan Advanced Behavior Pane

​Billing Plan Entitlements Pane

​Custom Data

Billing Plan Details Pane

Billing Plan Periods Pane

Billing Plan Advanced Behavior Pane

Billing Plan Entitlements Pane

Custom Data