About Subscription Billing Intervals

Important

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Subscription billing intervals determine the frequency of the subscription renewals in the subscription commerce platform. Based on the defined subscription billing intervals, you can configure subscriptions to renew automatically or manually There are two renewal types for subscriptions in the subscription commerce platform: automatic renewal and manual renewal. It is also possible to give customers a grace period if their payment Exchange of money for goods and services in an acceptable amount to the customer where the payment amount has been agreed upon in advance. The customer can only pay with an accepted payment method. Each payment has an individual payment cost. information is out-of-date. The following describes these options.

Tip

You can view the renewal type of a subscription in the Commerce Assistant. It is displayed on the Subscription Billing tab of the Purchase An order made by a customer and the records associated with it. Viewer. For information on how to get there, see Subscription Statuses and Update Options.

Auto-Renewal Automatic Renewal

This is a type of renewal in which the subscription automatically renews at the end of the subscription contract unless the customer An individual or business purchasing your product or service by placing an order through Cleverbridge. The customer is the end user of this product, as they are not allowed to resell the purchased products or services. A customer is unique per client. If a customer purchases products or services from two different clients, there are 2 separate records of said customer. explicitly deactivates it. Auto-renewal is the default for subscription products, and it requires no additional work for you or cleverbridge.Automatic renewal is the default for subscription products. On the checkout page for the subscription, a text informs customers that they will be automatically billed at regular intervals. They must confirm this by selecting a check box next to the text.

When the customer signs up with the check box selected, the subscription gets the Automatic renewal type. For auto-renewal subscriptions, the subscription status is Active and the subscription item A subscription item is component of a subscription with its own set of attributes including price, description and feature set. status is Active. For more information, see Subscription Statuses in Combination.

Manual Renewal

This is a type of renewal in which the customer must initiate the renewal of the subscription contract. There are two ways to set up this type of product:Since automatic renewal is the default for subscription products, the manual renewal type can only be set at the subscription level during the signup.

Normal product - In this case, you set the license key term to the desired renewal date. You are responsible for the renewal process and must notify the customer at time of the manual renewal.
Subscription product - This requires development work, and it can only be set at a product level. This frees you from additional work because customers can manually renew and are automatically notified to do so. However, once renewed, the subscription cannot go back to the status AwaitingReinstate, unless this is done manually in the Cleverbridge platform. The renewal, therefore, only applies to the first interval of the subscription.

For manual-renewal subscriptions, the subscription status is Deactivated, and the subscription item status is AwaitingReinstate. For more information, see Subscription Statuses in Combination.

When the customer signs up with the check box unselected, the subscription gets the Manual renewal type. In this case, the subscription expires, unless the customer explicitly decides to renew the subscription during the billing interval. For information on how to let customers renew their subscription manually, see Renew a Manual-Renewal Subscription Ahead of Schedule.

Note

In the Subscription Options tab in the Product Portal, you will find the option Sync next billing date with last payment date. This must be selected if time could expire between the expiration date of a subscription and a manual renewal. Otherwise, the customer will be billed for dates in which the subscription was inactive.

For example, if the option is not selected and a customer, who last paid on January 1st, reactivated a subscription on May 5th, they would be charged for missed payments on February 1st, March 1st, April 1st, and May 1st. This would happen even though the customer did not have an active subscription on these dates.

Grace Period

The grace period occurs when Cleverbridge does not receive payment for a subscription but the customer may still use the product. It allows you to set a certain number of days for the customer to update their payment information (in the case of online payment Stands for a group of payment options that do not require the customer to submit the payment in an extra step after submitting the order. Online payments include credit, debit cards, and digital wallets. With an online payment option, the product is delivered almost immediately (as soon as the payment is processed which usually does only take a few seconds). options) or make a payment (in the case of offline payment Offline payment stands for a group of payment options that do not involve online transactions like direct debit, wire transfers, and checks. With the order confirmation, the customer receives a link with information on how to make the payment. Ordered products are delivered as soon as Cleverbridge receives payment confirmation from the payment provider. options) before the subscription goes into the status Hold.

By default, subscriptions in the Cleverbridge platform do not go into a "Grace" period. This is a request that must be submitted to Client Experience.