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You can define a perpetually free subscription that can be offered to VIPs using the Subscribe Portal.
  • Use Case Number: 2-1-04
  • **Completed By:**Business Manager
  • Estimated Completion Time: <1 day

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Basic Scenario

An eligible user (VIP) chooses the free product for purchase.

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Design Approach

A subscription offering consists of two main components. The Product, which includes pricing and entitlement formation, and the Billing Plan, which defines the frequency of recurrence. For more information about Subscribe Products, see the Products chapter in the Subscribe Portal User Guide. For more information about Subscribe Billing Plans, see the Billing Plans chapter.

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Tasks

To create the free Subscription, perform the following tasks: Parent topic:VIP Subscriptions

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Configure Free Billing Plans Using the Subscribe Portal

Determine which Subscriptions are perpetually free to VIPs. To configure free Billing Plans for VIP Subscriptions:
  1. In Subscribe Merchant Portal 2.0, 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 (for which there are no live subscriptions), select the relevant existing Billing Plan from Catalog > Billing Plans and click Edit. Note: You can edit the Billing Plan as long as it has not been used as part of a subscription.
  2. Define the following Billing Plan fields in the Details Pane:
    1. In the ID field , enter your unique Billing Plan ID. The Billing Plan ID uniquely identifies this Billing Plan within Subscribe. The value can be any alphanumeric value up to 255 characters.
    2. In the Description field, enter a meaningful description for the Billing Plan. The Billing Plan Description is a free form text field up to 255 characters long.
    3. For Status Toggle, decide whether to set to Active or leave Inactive. Only an Active Billing Plan becomes part of the Product Catalog and can be used for subscriptions.
  3. In the Billing Periods pane:
    1. Set the Cycle Length to 1 and from the drop-down list, select Years to recur once per year. Tip: Vindicia recommends using an annual Billing Plan for VIP subscriptions to reduce processing.
    2. In the Repeat Cycle field, select the Unlimited radio button. Associated subscriptions will recur indefinitely following the free trial period.
  4. Click Save or Update to save the Billing Plan in Subscribe. The product catalog is defined in Subscribe with a free recurring Billing Plan.
Parent topic:Configure Perpetually Free Subscription Products for VIPs

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Configure Free Products Using the Subscribe Portal

To configure free Products for VIP Subscriptions:
  1. In Subscribe Merchant Portal 2.0, select your starting point from the following options:
    • To create a new product, click the + New button and select Product.
    • To duplicate an existing product, select the relevant existing product from Catalog > Products and click Duplicate.
    • To edit an existing product, select the relevant existing product from Catalog > Products and click Edit.
  2. Define the following Product fields in the Details Pane:
    1. In the ID field , enter your unique product identifier. Also knows as a SKU, this value uniquely identifies this product in Subscribe. It can be any alphanumeric value up to 255 characters.
    2. In the Status field, use the toggle switch to set the status of the Product toActive by moving to the right or Inactive to the left. By default, set to Active.
    3. In the Tax Classification field, enter the required classification ​provided by your tax vendor for this product. For more details, see the Avalara Avatax System Tax Codes list. This field only appears if Taxation has been activated.
  3. Define the following Product fields in theDescriptions pane:
    1. Click Add to add a description.
    2. In the Description field, enter a meaningful product description (up to 255 characters long).
    3. In the Language field, select the desired language for the description from the drop-down list.
    4. To add additional Description entries in different languages, repeat these steps. You can define multiple descriptions in different languages at this time or come back later to add additional descriptions.
  4. Define the following Product fields in the Pricing pane: The Pricing pane governs the product price and associated currencies and Tokens:
    1. Toggle to define the Pricing Mechanism. For this use case, toggle right for currency/token Standard Pricing. By default, field is set to Standard Pricing.
    2. Select Add Currency/Manage Currencies to define the relevant currencies. The Manage Currencies dialog box appears. Even though this is a free product, you need to create an entry for each relevant currency. Only one currency will be accepted for the subscription.
    3. Place your cursor in the selection box and select a currency using its ISO three-lettered currency code. For example, select USD for US dollars. When finished, click Submit.
    4. In the Amount field for the defined Currencies, enter 0.00.
  5. Define the following Product fields in the Entitlements pane:
    • Select existing Entitlements by placing cursor in the Select field and selecting the relevant existing entitlement entries. Note: Each Product can have from 0 to N Entitlements. Subscribe uses the Entitlement Identifier to identify content to the CMS/OVP.
    • Create New Entitlement entries by entering an entitlement identifier in the ID field, a Description in the corresponding field and clicking Create. Note: The newly created entitlements are added to the Select entitlement list for the Product. They can also be reused for other products.
  6. When you’re done, click Save or Update.
  7. Repeat the steps above for each VIP Product you want to define. The product catalog is defined in Subscribe with free products.
Parent topic:Configure Perpetually Free Subscription Products for VIPs