A customer's subscription to a service plan can be switched to another service plan. For that, you must configure the allowed upgrade options as described in Configuring Allowed Upgrades/Downgrades for a Service Plan. The billing period and resources are changed as described below. All the other settings and options of the subscription remain intact.
Switching from Trial to Paid through Auto-Renewal: Implications and Limitations
Switching to another service plan can also be configured as automatic prolongation of a subscription with changing from a subscription period of one service plan to a subscription period of another service plan. However, there are limitations for trial subscriptions:
- For trial subscriptions, automatic prolongation is only possible with automatic switching to a paid subscription. For prolongation, you can choose any paid period of the same service plan. However, you cannot choose paid periods of another service plan and switch to it automatically. Switching to another service plan is a manual procedure.
- Automatic prolongation of a trial subscription with switching to another trial subscription is impossible. However, you can manually switch one trial subscription to another without extending the trial period.
- If you configure a trial subscription to automatically renew and switch to a paid subscription when the trial period is over, you will not be able to switch such a subscription to a paid subscription manually. You either will have to wait for the automatic switching when the trial period is over or will have to cancel the trial subscription and create a new paid subscription. However, if for a trial period autorenewal to a paid period is not enabled, you can manually switch a trial subscription to a paid subscription either by switching to another service plan or by switching to another subscription period.
You can also switch a subscription manually from its current subscription period to another one of its configured periods, including switching from a trial period to another trial period. For more information, please see Switching to Another Subscription Period.
Billing Period Implications
The Billing Period of the new plan can differ from the billing period of the old plan. The new billing period comes into effect after next recurring billing after the upgrade. In the table below you may find two examples of billing period change.
|
Parameter |
Old Plan |
New Plan |
Upgrade Date |
Result |
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Billing Period |
5th of each month |
Quarterly |
15th of May |
The next billing after update is made on 5th of June and the next billing after that is on 5th of September. |
|
Billing Period |
Quarterly. Next billing date on 20th of July |
10th of each month |
15th of May |
The next billing after update is still on the 20th July and the next billing after that is on 10th of August. |
How Switching Service Plans Affects Resources
Resources included in both the old and in the new plan get their included value and upper and lower limits updated. Resources, included in the new plan but not in the old plan, are added with included value and upper and lower limits of the new plan. Resources, included in the old plan but not in the new plan, get their included value and upper and lower limits set to zero and respective services are disabled. No billing is done for the included resources.
If a minimum or included amount of a target resource is greater or equal to an amount of the source resource, the minimum or included amount is taken for the target resource. If an amount of a source resource exceeds the maximum amount of a target resource, the maximum amount is taken for the target resource.
Usage for resources included in both old and new plan are set to zero.
If the new service plan supports resources purchased under the old service plan in addition to its included resources, they are preserved under the new service plan.
Measurable resources are billed for depending on usage (overuse). For information about overuse period calculation, please see Overuse Period Calculation in case of Plan Switch.
Switching to Another Service Plan
To switch the service plan of a subscription to another service plan:
- Go to Operations > Customers. Click the necessary customer in the Account ID or the Account Name column.
- Switch to the Subscriptions tab. Click the necessary subscription in the ID or the Plan column.
- Click Switch Plan. In the list of allowed options, select your desired service plan. Click Choose Service Plan to finalize your choice.
- In the New Subscription Period Start Date field, select where to start counting the new subscription period:
- Start Date of Current Subscription Period. When the service plan is changed, the new subscription period is counted from the beginning of the old subscription period. For example, a customer subscribes to a service plan for 1 year. After 6 months the customer decides to change the service plan to another one with the subscription period of 2 years. As a result, the subscription will end in 2-0.5=1.5 years.
- Date of Upgrade (default). After the service plan is changed, the new subscription period is counted from the date of the change.
- Duration: Select your desired subscription period.
- Click Next to proceed to the final step of the wizard.
- Promotion code: If a promotion is applied to the service plan to which you are switching your subscription, enter the promotion code.
- If a refund is due, in Refund Information, select one of the following:
- Create a Credit Memo. When the service plan is changed, the money will be added to the customer's balance.
- Create a Refund. After the service plan is changed, the money will be returned to the customer.
- Review the order details. Then click Place Order.
The newly created order has the status New. To finish the service plan change, approve the order as follows:
- Switch to the Orders tab. Click the newly created order.
- Click Approve Order (or Open Order). Approve Order is shown for downgrade orders while Open Order for upgrade orders only.
Note: For more details, refer to Order Proration.
How to Manually Change the Service Plan of a Trial Subscription
To allow your customers to change the service plan of a trial subscription:
- Make sure that the source service plan is automatically renewable.
- Make sure that the possible upgrade options for the source service plan are configured.
After you allow them to make such changes, your customers can switch their trial subscription to another service plan from the UX1 for Customers control panel only if their trial subscription is active.
However, to offer any of your customers more time for evaluation on a case-by-case basis, you can also switch to another service plan their trial subscription in the Graced status from the Provider Control Panel or UX1 control panel.
Important: This option is supported only for switching between different service plans; subscription periods cannot be changed.
Your customers will not be billed for services within their service plan limits while their trial subscription is in the Graced status. However, they will be billed for resource overuse during the trial period; corresponding details will be included in the upgrade order.
If a customer has an unpaid order for their trial subscription, switching to another service plan is still possible. However, after switching to a paid subscription, their account and subscription will be in the Credit Hold status.
Note: Upgrades or downgrades of service plans provisioned through PEMGATE to service plans provisioned through the other gate are not allowed. For more information about limitations, please see Configuring Resource Upgrades and Adding Allowed Upgrades or Downgrades.