Step 1. Configure Billing Terms

Specify the service plan main settings and billing information:

General

Type a service plan name into the Name field. We strongly recommend that you use a descriptive enough name as it is the name that customer will see in the online shop.
Note: The service plan name must not exceed 250 characters.
Click the lens icon next to the Service Template field. From the window that opens, select a service template the new service plan will be based on. Service template determines resources that are provided to the subscriber to the service plan.
Click the lens icon next to the Plan Category field. From the window that opens, select a plan category which your new service plan will belong to. Plan category defines how the plan is to be taxed.
Select the service terms to use from the Service Terms list.
Type both short and long descriptions of the service plan into the Short Description and Long Description fields respectively. Both descriptions are shown to customer in the online store: short one - right in the service plan offering, long one - in the service plan details (when expanded). Both descriptions can be input in HTML format.
Service plan can be optionally included in a unique group. Unique group restricts combinations of service plans in a single subscription: service plans of the same unique group cannot be up-sales to each other. Click the lens icon next to the Unique Group field. From the window that opens, select a unique group the plan is to belong to.
Click the lens icon next to the Notification About Service Provisioning field. From the window that opens, select a notification template to be used to notify a customer on successful subscription creation. The setting is optional. Respective notification template and messages have to be created first. For information on managing notifications, refer to the Managing Notifications chapter.
Note: We recommend using standard welcome email templates shipped with Billing.
Each service plan can be assigned a default customer class. Each customer purchasing such a plan in the online store for the first time becomes a member of the class. Customers who already have a subscription keep their classes. Select a customer class to assign to the plan from the Customer Class list.
Important: If a service plan is subject to a promotion and the promotion has a customer class assigned to it, the customer will be assigned the customer class of the promotion, not of the service plan. For more details, refer to the Customer Class Assignment Priority section.

Billing Terms

Select the Published check box to make the service plan available for selling. Before a service plan is published, it remains in the system unavailable for selling and use. It is recommended not to select the check box, until the service plan is fully configured. Besides publishing, service plan has to be included in a sales category and the category has to be included in an online store screen - in order for the service plan to be actually shown to customer. For more information, refer to the CloudBlue Commerce Billing Online Store Guide.
Select the Attach Usage Statistics check box to collect usage statistics per instance. Collecting usage statistics per instance allows customers to receive an invoice that shows breakdown of costs by instance to get a better understanding how much each instance costs them.
Select a billing mode from the Billing Mode list. For information on available billing models, refer to Billing Models.
Select a billing period type from the Billing Period list. The following types are available:
- Monthly – the recurring fee is charged every month on the order date (in February, March, April, and the like);
- Quarterly – the recurring fee is charged every three months on the order date;
- Half-yearly – the recurring fee is charged every 6 months, that is, twice a year;
- Yearly – the recurring fee is charged every year on the order date (in 2016, on the order date in 2017, and the like);
- Custom – user-defined billing period, for which a custom number of months (or years) can be set.
In the Set Recurring Prices per field, choose:
- Billing Period, to set the recurring fees per billing period. All the recurring fees you set at the Specify Prices and Subscription Periods step will be considered as fees per your chosen billing period. For example, if you set the Recurring Fee to $10 (for any selected subscription duration – see the Specify Prices and Subscription Periods screen) and choose Half-yearly in the Billing Period field above, Billing will charge your customers the recurring fee of $10 every half year.
- Month, to set the recurring fees per month. All the recurring fees you set at the Specify Prices and Subscription Periods step will be considered as fees per month. For example, if you set the Recurring Fee to $10 (for any selected subscription duration – see the Specify Prices and Subscription Periods screen) and choose Half-yearly in the Billing Period field above, Billing will charge your customers the recurring fee of $10 per month * 6 months = $60 every half year.

Select the Align Billing Order with Statement Day checkbox to bill all customers who buy this service plan on fixed billing dates (usually the first days of the respective months). The fixed billing dates depend on the Billing Period you chose above and the Beginning of Financial Year setting. See Setting Financial Year Start Date.

Important: The Align Billing Order with Statement Day option applies only to Monthly, Quarterly, Half-yearly and Yearly options in the Billing Period field above. If you choose Custom in the Billing Period field, Billing will disregard the Align Billing Order with Statement Day setting.

When configuring a service plan with the active Align Billing Order with Statement Day option, you can set the date when statements will be generated independently of the customer class setting by selecting the New Day of Statement checkbox and specifying a new statement day.
Important: A statement date defined on the service plan level overrides the one defined in a customer class.

When configuring a service plan with the active Align Billing Order with Statement Day option, you can align the first sales order with a statement date by selecting the Align Sales Order with Statement Day checkbox.

Important: The Align Sales Order with Statement Day option applies only to Monthly option in the Billing Period field above, and only to the Charge Before Billing Period billing model.

See how these settings influence the system behavior

Here, you can see how a delay in paying Sales Order or provisioning affects order detail recalculation depending on combination of these settings. The following precondition is applied: a Sales Order is placed on 06 Jan 2021 and the order is completed on 08 Jan 2021, a statement date is 24 Jan 2021.

Settings	System behavior
Align Billing Order with Statement Day is NOT selected Align Sales Order with Statement Day is NOT selected	The Sales Order is calculated from 06 Jan 2021 to 06 Feb 2021. The Sales Order is recalculated from 08 Jan 2021 to 08 Feb 2021 after the provisioning is completed. The first Billing Order is calculated from 08 Feb 2021 to 08 Mar 2021.
Align Billing Order with Statement Day is selected Align Sales Order with Statement Day is NOT selected	The Sales Order is calculated from 06 Jan 2021 to 06 Feb 2021. The Sales Order is recalculated from 08 Jan 2021 to 08 Feb 2021 after the provisioning is completed. The first Billing Order is calculated from 08 Feb 2021 to 24 Feb 2021.
Align Billing Order with Statement Day is selected Align Sales Order with Statement Day is selected	The Sales Order is calculated from 06 Jan 2021 to 24 Jan 2021. The Sales Order is recalculated from 08 Jan 2021 to 24 Jan 2021 after the provisioning is completed. The first Billing Order is calculated from 24 Jan 2021 to 24 Feb 2021.

Note: For more details, refer to Order Proration.

When configuring a service plan with the active Align Billing Order with Statement Day option, you can provide a first period (up to the next billing date) for free by selecting the First Billing Period For Free checkbox.

Important: The First Billing Period For Free option applies to the Charge Before Billing Period and Charge Before Subscription Period billing models.
If the Before Subscription Period billing model is used, a customer pays for the last part of a subscription period starting from the second billing period.
The First Billing Period For Free option can be applied with the Align Billing Order with Statement Day option or without.

See how these settings influence the system behavior

Here, you can see how a Sales Order and free billing period are calculated depending on combination of these settings. The following precondition is applied: a Sales Order is placed on 06 Jan 2021, the next billing date is 24 Jan 2021.

Settings	System behavior
The statement date is 24 Billing model is Charge Before Billing Period Align Billing Order with Statement Day is selected Align Sales Order with Statement Day is NOT selected First Billing Period For Free is selected	The Sales Order is calculated from 06 Jan 2021 to 06 Feb 2021. The Subscription is free up to 24 Jan 2021.
The statement date is 24 Billing model is Charge Before Billing Period Align Billing Order with Statement Day is selected Align Sales Order with Statement Day is selected First Billing Period For Free is selected	The Sales Order is calculated from 06 Jan 2021 to 24 Jan 2021. The Subscription is free up to 24 Jan 2021.
The Subscription Period is 1 year Billing model is Charge Before Subscription Period Align Billing Order with Statement Day is selected First Billing Period For Free is selected	The Sales Order is calculated from 06 Jan 2021 to 06 Jan 2022. The Subscription is free up to 24 Jan 2021.

Note: For more details, refer to Order Proration.

Use the Autorenewal list to renew the subscriptions to service plan automatically. This is a default setting that can be changed for each subscription individually. Define the number of days before expiration date, when the expiring subscription is to be renewed automatically, with the help of the Renew Point (days) field. This is a default value that can be changed for each subscription individually. For more details, see Configuring Auto-Renewal for Service Plan Subscriptions.

Note: If you enable automatic renewal for a service plan, you can enable or disable automatic renewal for individual subscription periods configured for the service plan. This can be useful, for example, if you want free trial subscriptions to be automatically converted to paid subscriptions at the end of the trial period. You can also choose to which of the configured commercial periods free trial subscriptions will be automatically switched. If you disable automatic renewal for a service plan, the Autorenewal functionality will not be available at the level of individual subscription periods.
Click the lens icon next to the Notification Schedule field. From the window that opens, select a notification schedule to use. The notification schedule will be assigned to every subscription for all service plan subscription periods. If you specify individual notification schedule for a subscription period, service plan level notification schedule is ignored.

Advanced Properties

Input a service plan show priority into the Listing Priority field. The highest priority is '1'. Service plan with the highest priority will be shown in the topmost position of its sales category in Online Store and UX1 for Customers. If a service plan is included into some Unique Group, the Listing Priority option regulates the position of that plan within the Unique Group, not within the sales category.

Note: Let's assume, you have in a sales category the plans that are not included to any unique group, and plans that are included to a unique group. In this case, in online store this sales category will be displayed as follows: first, the plans with no unique group assigned will be listed (according to their listing priority), and then, the plans with unique group assigned will be listed (according to their listing priority).
Select an image to be displayed next to this service plan in online store.

When finished, click Next to proceed.