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.
Note: You can also switch a subscription 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
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. |
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.
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.
- Promotion code: If a promotion is applied to the service plan to which you are switching your subscription, enter the promotion code.
- Duration: Select your desired subscription period.
- Click Next to proceed to the final step of the wizard.
- 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.
Changing 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. This option is supported only for switching between 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 DUMMYGATE are not allowed. For more information about limitations, please see Configuring Resource Upgrades and Adding Allowed Upgrades/Downgrades.