Adding Subscription Periods to a Service Plan

You can add several subscription period options to a service plan:

• To offer customers a free trial as well as better deals on longer period subscriptions.
• For customers to be able to switch to another period when prolonging a subscription.

To add a subscription period to a service plan:

1. Open Products > Service Plans.
2. Select a service plan by clicking the respective link in the ID or in the Name column.

3. Switch to the Subscription Periods tab.

   For one-time fee service plans there are no subscription periods and subscription is not created. Therefore, the only subscription period available is zero hours, by default. You can specify only setup fee in this case since no renewals are planned. For all other types of service plans, subscription periods are configured as described below.

   Note: if you want to edit the fees for all the subscription periods that already added for a service plan, click the Mass Edit button.

4. Click Add New Subscription Period. The adding new subscription period dialog window is displayed. Fill out the form:
   • Select the Active checkbox to make subscription period available for use. Until subscription period is activated, it is presented in the list of subscription periods, but remains unavailable for customers and Billing configuration.

   • Type a new subscription period duration into the Period Duration field.
     

     Important: When adding subscription period to an OACI plan, we recommend you set its duration to 1 month.

• Select the Trial checkbox to offer a trial subscription period.

  Note:
  - A customer cannot prolong a subscription for another trial period, they can only renew it for another non-trial period. It makes sense creating short trial periods.
  - When configuring service terms, you can set grace and hold periods for trial subscriptions independently of regular ones.
  - Resource upgrade is not possible for trial subscriptions. Therefore, when preparing a trial period, configure resource rates in a way that does not suppose purchasing additional resource amounts. For example, set included units equal to maximum allowed units.

• Type a setup, recurring, renewal, and deposit fees into the Setup Fee, Recurring Fee, Renewal Fee and Deposit Fee fields respectively.

  • Type a free-form description into the Description field next to every price field. This description is shown in order.
    

    Note: All the Description fields are pre-filled with default text that starts with a placeholder. For domain service plans, a placeholder name is @@Subscription_Name@. For other types of service plans, a placeholder name is @@Subscription_Plan_Name@. The @@Subscription_Name@ placeholder is replaced with an actual domain name, and the @@Subscription_Plan_Name@ placeholder is replaced with an actual name of a service plan displayed in order details. We recommend you to keep using this placeholder in fee descriptions.

• If you want to charge a customer for subscription cancellation, enter the subscription cancellation charge into the Cancellation Fee field. The cancellation fee can be entered in one of the following ways:

  • Plan and Resource Rates until Expiration Date: With this option, a cancellation fee is charged for a period from the next billing date to the subscription expiration date (for Charge Before Billing Period plans). For a Charge After Billing Period plan, a cancellation fee will be taken for the remaining period from a cancellation date. In both cases, resources are also charged.
    

    Important: Avoid using the Plan and Resource Rate until Expiration Date option for Charge Before Subscription Period plans. It results in illogical behavior when no refund is configured. Use the Plan and Resource Rate until Expiration Date option only for the Charge Before Billing Period and Charge After Billing Period plans.
    

    Note: For service plans that use Rating Engine if cancellation fee is set to Plan and Resource Rates until Expiration Date, only No Refund can be selected for After Refund Period. To use other refund options, set cancellation fee to None.

  •  Custom: Enter explicit amount or use a formula that is based on placeholders.

    Note: You cannot use custom cancellation fee type for service plans that use Rating Engine.

    Compose a formula to calculate a cancellation fee depending on the actual subscription period used, the remaining unused period, and so on. The operations allowed in this formula are: +, -, *, /, and brackets (). You can use the following placeholders in this formula:

    • @@Subscription_SetupFee@: A subscription period setup fee.

    • @@Subscription_SubscriptionFee@: A subscription period recurring fee.

    • @@Subscription_RenewalFee@: A subscription period renewal fee.

    • @@Subscription_TransferFee@: A domain transfer fee (if applicable).

    • @@BillPerTillExp@: A number of remaining unused billing periods.
      

      Note: For example, the @@Subscription_SubscriptionFee@ * @@BillPerTillExp@ * 10 / 100 formula means that a cancellation fee is 10 %.
      

      Important: When setting the explicit amount, always use dots as separators (not commas) despite of a locale.

• Select the Show Zero Price checkbox to make a subscription period price description displayed in an order even if a price is zero. By default, zero prices are not displayed.

  Note: A zero line is included in an order when a resource or service quantity is non-zero while its price is zero (due to an applied discount or promotion).

• Type a sum into the Non Refundable Amount field. This sum is not refunded to a customer when they cancel a subscription.

• Enter a number of days a customer may claim a full money back (minus the non-refundable amount) into the Full Refund Period (days) field.

• Select one of the refund policies to use after a refund period is over from the After Refund Period menu:

  • Refund Prorated Recurring Fee: A customer is refunded in proportion to unused services (a refund is calculated based on the recurring fee paid minus the non-refundable amount);

  • No Refund: A customer is not refunded for the canceled subscription.

    Important:
    - A customer may be refunded for a service plan switching even if this option is set to No Refund.
    - We do not recommend you set the Full Refund Period (days) and the Non Refundable Amount parameters, if you prohibit refunding at all. We do not recommend to configure a refund for domain service plans. Generally, registrars do not return money for a domain registration.

• Optionally, 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 the subscription period. For more information on configuring notification schedules, refer to Managing Notifications.

• Type a free-form description of all the fees into the Period Fees Description field. This description is displayed to a customer in End-Customer Marketplace.

5. Click Finish.