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Managing Subscriptions

JustOn Billing & Invoice Management implements subscriptions using a dedicated object that represents the periodic billing plan for a contracted product use. See the subscription as a "blueprint" for the future invoice: It combines the account information (buyer name, address, etc.) with the details of the products to be charged, like product name and description, price, price model, applicable discounts, etc.

Managing subscriptions includes the following main tasks:

Creating Subscriptions

There are two ways to create a subscription manually:

  • Creating a subscription manually from scratch, or
  • Cloning an existing subscription, copying the current configuration and any attached items and prices.

Info

JustOn also allows for building subscriptions automatically. For details, see Automatic Subscription Build.

Creating a Subscription From Scratch

You can create subscriptions in different contexts, either directly via the Subscriptions tab or from any other page that includes a related list of subscriptions, for example, a detail page for an account or a contract. Depending on the creation context, the new subscription may automatically be connected to an account.

To create a new subscription from the Subscriptions tab:

  1. Open the Subscriptions tab.
  2. Click New.
  3. Specify the details as required.

    Setting a legal address will overwrite the billing address from the associated account on invoice creation (see General Address Concepts).

  4. Click Save.

    This generates the new subscription, and you can proceed to add items (see Managing Subscription Items).

To create a subscription from a specific context:

  1. Open the detail page of the account, contract, etc., in the context of which you want to create the subscription.
  2. Scroll to the Subscriptions list.
  3. Click New.
  4. Specify the details as required.

    Setting a legal address will overwrite the billing address from the associated account on invoice creation (see General Address Concepts).

  5. Click Save.

    This generates the new subscription, and you can proceed to add items (see Managing Subscription Items).

Note

The Subscriptions list must be made available in the corresponding detail view. For details, see Managing Pages.

Creating Subscription From Individual Object

Note

Make sure that the automatic subscription build is enabled, and that the button to invoke the subscription creation from a source record is available. For details, see Automating Subscription Creation.

To generate a subscription from an accordingly configured object:

  1. Navigate to the object record for which you want to create a subscription.
  2. Click New Subscription.
  3. Select the subscription build filter.

    Be aware that individually creating a subscription from a single source record does not evaluate the filter condition (which is used to define the set of involved records on batch processing).

  4. Click Continue.

    This generates the new subscription, including all relevant data available from the source record and via the related account.

Cloning a Subscription

Certain business use cases require a subscription to be cloned. Cloning a subscription creates a copy of the current subscription, including the attached items. In addition, the following information is set by default:

  • the subscription name Autogenerate,
  • the status Draft,
  • the account, invoice template, contact data etc. as copied from the original subscription.

Upon cloning, you can modify this data as required.

To clone an existing subscription:

  1. Open the subscription that you want to copy.
  2. Click Clone.
  3. Edit the details as necessary.

    clone_subscr
    Cloning a subscription

  4. Click Clone.

    This generates the new subscription, including the selected items and their prices.

Activating Subscriptions

Unless otherwise defined upon creation, new subscriptions have the status Draft. To be considered in an invoice run, they must be set Active. To do so:

  1. Open the subscription that you want to activate.
  2. Click next to the current status and select Active from the drop-down list.

    Alternatively, you can click Edit in the detail view and then select Active from the Status drop-down list.

  3. Click Save.

    This activates the subscription, including it in the invoice run.

Info

In order to be considered by the invoice run, a subscription's start date must be within the invoice run period. This also applies to the start dates of the subscription items as well as to the transaction date. If there is no start date set, JustOn includes the subscription in the next invoice run.

Defining a Preferred Invoice Date

You can set up a subscription to only generate an invoice on a preferred date with a specific time interval, for example, on the 6th day of the month every three months. To do so:

  1. Open the subscription for which you want to set a preferred invoice date.
  2. Click Edit.
  3. Edit the details as necessary.

    • Preferred Invoice Date: Specifies that an invoice is generated if this date is before the invoice run end date; it will also be copied as the invoice date when the invoice in finalized
    • Billing Period: Specifies the number of months to set the next preferred date after the invoice has been finalized
  4. Click Save.

    The subscription is considered in an invoice run if the invoice run end date is after the preferred invoice date. When finalizing the resulting invoice, the preferred invoice date is copied to the invoice as invoice date if the preferred invoice date is the current or a future date. The next preferred invoice date of the subscription is calculated by adding the billing period months to the last preferred invoice date.

Configuring Subscription Auto-Renewal

Auto-renewal parameters

The following settings control the automatic subscription renewal:

Field Description
Auto-Renewal Defines the number of days or months (like 30d or 12m) to extend the subscription, setting up the subscription for automatic renewal.
You can modify the picklist values (always using the pattern x(d|m)) according to your requirements, see Modifying Picklist Values.
Cancellation Terms Defines the cancellation period in days or months for a subscription. If empty, a value of 0 is taken by default.
Renewal Date Specifies the next renewal date. If the subscription is set up for automatic renewal, the date is automatically calculated like:
End Date - Cancellation Terms + Grace Period.
If the subscription has no end date, the field is empty.

The grace period is controlled via the corresponding global setting. Click to enter Setup, then open Custom Settings > Global Settings > Manage > Edit, and set a value for Grace Period. If left empty, 0 is used by default.

To set up a subscription for automatic renewal:

  1. Open the subscription that you want to be extended automatically.
  2. Click Edit.
  3. Specify the auto-renewal, cancellation terms and renewal date as necessary.
  4. Click Save.

    This makes the subscription subject to automatic renewal. JustOn schedules the corresponding job to run daily in order to extend all auto-renewal subscriptions when the renewal date is reached.

    Optionally, JustOn can merge items during the automatic subscription renewal. To use this option, it must be enabled accordingly (see Enabling Item Merge)

Info

For the automatic subscription renewal to run, the following conditions must be met:

  • Subscription is set Active.
  • End Date is set.
  • Auto-Renewal is set.
  • Renewal Date is set and less or equal to the current date.

Updating Subscription and Subscription Items

Info

The automatic subscription update functionality is available as of JustOn 2.43.

Certain business use cases require existing subscriptions or subscription items to be updated, for example, after the value of a source object field has changed.

Note

Make sure that the subscription update is enabled. For details, see Enabling Subscription and Subscription Items Update.

  1. Open the subscription that you want to be updated.
  2. Select the ON_UpdateSubscription checkbox, and click Save.

    As an alternative, you can set up a flow to have the checkbox selected automatically when certain conditions are met.

  3. Execute the subscription builder as set up for the corresponding source object.

    For details, see Enabling Subscription Generation.

    This triggers the automatic subscription update. The subscription builder copies the specified fields to be updated. After completing the update, the subscription builder deselects the checkbox ON_UpdateSubscription and sets a date in ON_LastSubscriptionUpdate.

Configuring Subscription Price Increases

Certain business use cases require the prices for subscription items to be increased automatically on a regular basis.

The following subscription details control this behavior:

Field Description
Price Increase Specifies the percentage value by which to increase the prices of this subscription. Note that the price increase affects all items equally.
Price Increase Date Specifies the date (MM-dd) on which the price increase is made effective.
Price increase concepts

The subscription price increase feature makes use of price tier groups. If set up accordingly, a scheduled job duplicates the latest price tier group and increases the price of all subscription items by the defined percentage value once a year at the defined date.

For Price Increase Date, the following options are available by default:

Value Description
01-01 January 1st
06-01 June 1st
Start Date Month and day of the subscription start date
End Date Month and day of the subscription end date

You can add more month/day combinations to the picklist. For details, see Adding Price Increase Date Options.

The price increase considers subscriptions and items if the following conditions are true:

  • The subscription status is Active
  • The corresponding price increase settings at the subscription are set
  • The subscription end date is empty or after the current date
  • The item status is Active
  • The item end date is empty or after the current date
  • The item has price tiers whose

    • End date is empty
    • Start date is empty or at least nine months in the past from the current date

Once set up properly, JustOn creates the new price tier groups at the earliest nine months before the price increase becomes valid (according to the value in Price Increase Date).

To manage the price increase options:

  1. Open the subscription for which you want to configure a price increase.
  2. Click Edit.
  3. Specify the price increase and price increase date as necessary.
  4. Click Save.

    JustOn creates the new price tier groups at the earliest nine months before the price increase becomes valid.

Note

For the automatic price increase to become effective, there must be set up the corresponding scheduled job.

Price increase example

This section shows a price increase example, illustrating its behavior.

Subscription settings

Field Example Value
Price Increase 5%
Price Increase Date 06-01

Corresponding price tier group before the price increase

Quantity Price Start Date End Date
100 10,00 - -
1000 9,50 - -
- 9,00 - -

Price tier groups after the price increase

(1) Existing price tier group

Quantity Price Start Date End Date
100 10,00 - 2017-05-31
1000 9,50 - 2017-05-31
- 9,00 - 2017-05-31

(2) New price tier group

Quantity Price Start Date End Date
100 10,50 2017-06-01 -
1000 9,975 2017-06-01 -
- 9,45 2017-06-01 -

Using Installments

To support staged payment plans for invoices, JustOn Billing & Invoice Management allows for setting up installments, which represent models for intended payment plans.

If this feature is enabled, you can configure an installment for a subscription. When executing an invoice run, JustOn consequently produces an invoice with the payment plan (installments) set up.

Installment Examples

This section summarizes some examples for the installment configuration, illustrating its behavior.

Four equally distributed monthly installments

Invoice

Field Value
Grand Total 100,00
Payment Due Date 2017-12-05
Installment Type Four by Month

Installment custom setting

Field Value
Name Four by Month
Period 1m(4)
Rate
Amount
Title Installment [PosNo]

Resulting payment plan

Title Date Amount Rate
Installment 1 2017-12-05 25,00
Installment 2 2018-01-05 25,00
Installment 3 2018-02-05 25,00
Installment 4 2018-03-05 25,00
Five equally distributed monthly installments, due end of month, overwritten titles

Invoice

Field Value
Grand Total 100,00
Payment Due Date 2017-12-31
Installment Type Five by Month

Installment custom setting

Field Value
Name Five by Month
Period 1m(5)
Rate
Amount
Title Installment [PosNo]
Title1__c First Rate
TitleLast__c Last Rate

Resulting payment plan

Title Date Amount Rate
First Rate 2017-12-31 20,00
Installment 1 2018-01-31 20,00
Installment 2 2018-02-28 20,00
Installment 3 2018-03-31 20,00
Last Rate 2018-04-30 20,00
Three installments, distributed by rate, regular period

Invoice

Field Value
Grand Total 100,00
Payment Due Date 2017-12-05
Installment Type Three by Two Months

Installment custom setting

Field Value
Name Three by Two Months
Period 2m(3)
Rate 20,30,50
Amount
Title Installment [PosNo]

Resulting payment plan

Title Date Amount Rate
Installment 1 2017-12-05 20,00 20
Installment 2 2018-02-05 30,00 30
Installment 3 2018-04-05 50,00 50
Three installments, distributed by rate, irregular dates

Invoice

Field Value
Grand Total 100,00
Payment Due Date 2018-03-15
Invoice Date 2018-03-01
Payment Due 14 (days)
Installment Type Three Irregular

Installment custom setting

Field Value
Name Three Irregular
Period 17d,103d,0d
Rate 20,30,50
Amount
Title Installment [PosNo]

Since the first installment is bound to the payment due date – or, with Date Reference, to a custom date –, the first date definition in Period determines the date of the second installment, the second that of the third, etc. However, you still need as many date definitions as intended installments. We recommend to use 0d as the last one to complete the number.

Resulting payment plan

Title Date Amount Rate
Installment 1 2018-03-15 20,00 20
Installment 2 2018-04-01 30,00 30
Installment 3 2018-07-13 50,00 50
Four installments, irregular dates, with custom date as anchor

Invoice

Field Value
Grand Total 1000,00
Payment Due Date 2021-07-15
Invoice Date 2021-07-01
Date1__c 2021-07-30
Installment Type Four Irregular

Installment custom setting

Field Value
Name Four Irregular
Period 30d,90d,180d,0d
Date Reference Date1__c(4)
Rate
Amount
Title Installment [PosNo]

Since the first installment is bound to the payment due date – or, with Date Reference, to a custom date –, the first date definition in Period determines the date of the second installment, the second that of the third, etc. However, you still need as many date definitions as intended installments. We recommend to use 0d as the last one to complete the number.

Resulting payment plan

Title Date Amount Rate
Installment 1 2021-07-30 250,00
Installment 2 2021-08-29 250,00
Installment 3 2021-11-27 250,00
Installment 4 2022-05-26 250,00
Three installments with fixed first amount, regular period

Invoice

Field Value
Grand Total 100,00
Payment Due Date 2017-12-05
Installment Type 30 Deposit

Installment custom setting

Field Value
Name 30 Deposit
Period 20d(3)
Rate
Amount 30
Title Installment [PosNo]

Resulting payment plan

Title Date Amount Rate
Installment 1 2017-12-05 30,00
Installment 2 2017-12-25 35,00
Installment 3 2018-08-14 35,00
Existing pre-payment, four equally distributed monthly installments

Invoice with prepaid balance

Field Value
Grand Total 100,00
Date 2018-06-01
Payment Due Date 2018-07-31
Prepayment -40,00
Installment Type Four by Month

Installment custom setting

Field Value
Name Four by Month
Period 1m(4)
Rate
Amount
Title Installment [PosNo]

Resulting payment plan

Title Date Amount Open Payment Amount Rate
Installment 1 2018-07-31 25,00 0,00
Installment 2 2018-08-31 25,00 10,00
Installment 3 2018-09-30 25,00 25,00
Installment 4 2018-10-31 25,00 25,00
Four equally distributed installments with custom date as anchor

Invoice

Field Value
Grand Total 100,00
Payment Due Date 2017-12-05
Date1__c 2018-02-01
Installment Type Different Anchor

Installment custom setting

Field Value
Name Different Anchor
Period 1m(4)
Date Reference Date1__c(4)
Rate
Amount
Title Installment [PosNo]

Resulting payment plan

Title Date Amount Rate
Installment 1 2018-02-01 25,00
Installment 2 2018-03-01 25,00
Installment 3 2018-04-01 25,00
Installment 4 2018-05-01 25,00
Four equally distributed installments with custom dates

Invoice

Field Value
Grand Total 100,00
Payment Due Date 2017-12-05
Date1__c 2018-02-03
Date2__c 2018-05-07
Date3__c 2018-11-13
Date4__c 2019-05-19
Installment Type Four custom dates

Installment custom setting

Field Value
Name Four custom dates
Period 0m(4) or
fix,fix,fix,fix
Date Reference Date1__c,Date2__c,Date3__c,Date4__c
Rate
Amount
Title Installment [PosNo]

Resulting payment plan

Title Date Amount Rate
Installment 1 2018-02-03 25,00
Installment 2 2018-05-07 25,00
Installment 3 2018-11-13 25,00
Installment 4 2019-05-19 25,00
Four equally distributed installments, first with custom date, others based on payment due date

Invoice

Field Value
Grand Total 100,00
Payment Due Date 2018-03-01
Date1__c 2018-02-03
Installment Type One custom date

Installment custom setting

Field Value
Name One custom date
Period fix,15d(3)
Date Reference Date1__c
Rate
Amount
Title Installment [PosNo]

Resulting payment plan

Title Date Amount Rate
Installment 1 2018-02-03 25,00
Installment 2 2018-03-01 25,00
Installment 3 2018-03-16 25,00
Installment 4 2018-03-31 25,00
Four installments, distributed by rate, last with custom date, others based on payment due date

Invoice

Field Value
Grand Total 100,00
Payment Due Date 2018-03-01
Date1__c 2019-12-31
Installment Type Last custom date

Installment custom setting

Field Value
Name Last custom date
Period 1m(3),fix
Date Reference PaymentDueDate__c(3),Date1__c
Rate 20(3)
Amount
Title Installment [PosNo]

Resulting payment plan

Title Date Amount Rate
Installment 1 2018-03-01 20,00
Installment 2 2018-04-01 20,00
Installment 3 2018-05-01 20,00
Installment 4 2019-12-31 40,00
Installments created per service month from invoice line item service periods

Assume an invoice (with a payment due of 10) created for a recurring item with a billing factor of 12.

# Quantity Unit Price Billing Factor Service Period Start Service Period End Tax Rate Pos Total (net)
1 1 100,00 12 2019-04-15 2020-04-14 19% 1200,00
Subtotal Net 1200,00
Tax 228,00
Grand Total 1428,00

For service month-based installments to work with one-time items, the billing factor and the billing unit must be empty.

Applying this installment custom setting

Field Value
Period Service Month
Rate
Amount
Title Installment [PosNo]

Produces the following payment plan (note that the installment date is calculated using ServicePeriodStart + PaymentDue):

Title Service Period Start Service Period End Date Amount
Installment 1 2019-04-15 2019-05-14 2019-04-25 119,00
Installment 2 2019-05-15 2019-06-14 2019-05-25 119,00
Installment 3 2019-06-15 2019-07-14 2019-06-25 119,00
...
Installment 12 2020-03-15 2020-04-14 2020-03-25 119,00

To display the service period in the installment table on the invoice PDF, specify the following configuration in the Installment Columns Template field: Title__c;ServicePeriodStart__c;ServicePeriodEnd__c;Date__c;Amount__c.

Installments created per service quarter from invoice line item service periods (using a JSON configuration)

Invoice

Field Value
Grand Total 166,00
Installment Type Custom
CustomInstallment__c {
  "period":"Service Quarter",
  "titles":{
    "default":{
      "default":"Installment [PosNo]"
    }
  }
}

Invoice line items

# Quantity Price Service Period Start Service Period End
1 1 120,00 2019-04-01 2019-09-31
2 1 46,00 2019-04-01 2019-05-31

The service period of the first invoice line item spans two quarters, so the price of 120,00 will be distributed over two installments of 60,00 each. The service period of the second invoice line item is within the first quarter, so the complete price of 46,00 is added to the first installment, which results in 106,00:

Title Service Period Start Service Period End Amount
Installment 1 2019-04-01 2019-06-30 106,00
Installment 2 2019-07-01 2019-09-31 60,00

To display the service period in the installment table on the invoice PDF, specify the following configuration in the Installment Columns Template field: Title__c;ServicePeriodStart__c;ServicePeriodEnd__c;Amount__c.

Activating Installment

To activate a defined payment plan, you add an installment type to a subscription.

  1. Open the subscription for which you want to define installments.
  2. Click next to the Installment Type field and select the intended payment plan from the drop-down list.

    Alternatively, you can click Edit in the detail view and then select the payment plan from the Installment Type picklist.

  3. Click Save.

    This activates the selected installment type, which triggers the generation of the corresponding payment plan when creating the invoice.

Canceling a Subscription

Canceling a subscription clears the renewal date and updates the end date if

  • the old end date is empty – the new end date will be

    Cancellation Date + Cancellation Terms

  • the cancellation date is after or equal to the renewal date – the new end date will be

    old End Date + Auto Renewal

To cancel a subscription with immediate effect:

  1. Open the subscription that you want to cancel.
  2. Click next to the current status and select Canceled from the drop-down list.

    Alternatively, you can click Edit in the detail view and then select Canceled from the Status drop-down list.

  3. Click Save.

    This sets the cancellation date to the current date.

To cancel a subscription for a future date:

  1. Open the subscription that you want to cancel.
  2. Click next to the Cancellation Date field and specify the date as required.

    Alternatively, you can click Edit in the detail view and then specify the cancellation date.

  3. Click Save.

    This sets the status Canceled on the specified date.

Info

The software continues to process canceled subscriptions in the invoice run until their end date is reached. Canceled subscriptions without end date, however, are ignored.

Using Subscription-Based Metrics

Service companies (SaaS, professional services, etc.) usually generate recurring revenue based on subscriptions with their customers. JustOn Billing & Invoice Management supports subscription billing with recurring and transactional (usage-based) items. Now the companies need continuous reporting about subscription-based KPIs, too – like, for example, MRR (monthly recurring revenue) or Churn (rate of discontinued subscriptions or lost revenue).

For analytics and reporting purposes, JustOn Billing & Invoice Management introduces specific metric objects that can be set up to track billing-relevant changes: account metrics, subscription metrics and cash metrics. The metric records can give valuable insights into your business by displaying the recurring revenue for the current or a future date, recurring changes (like growth or churn), or expected cash flow on a monthly basis. That is, they provide previews of expected revenues based on current subscriptions but do not track generated revenues. For details, see KPI Reporting Support in JustOn.

Subscription Metrics

Subscription metrics track changes to recurring or transactional items, like creation, termination, price/quantity modifications, to display the recurring revenue or growth/churn rates for individual subscriptions on a monthly base, producing MRR values. Subscription metrics are related to the account and the subscription.

The subscription includes the field Initial MRR. It shows the sum of the initial MRR values of active recurring items at the subscription start.

You can define additional fields on the subscription that summarize subscription metric data. Use this to calculate the current or future MRR values, like Current MRR or MRR in One Year.

Example metrics-related fields on subscriptions
Field Purpose
Last MRR Update Shows the date on which the MRR fields were last calculated.
Current MRR Shows the current MRR over all recurring items.
MRR in One Year Shows the MRR in one year, based on the last MRR update.

The MRR fields are set up individually for your org by an administrator. Be aware that the field labels as well as the count/month configuration may vary.

Subscription metrics generation

Generally, the following item actions produce new or changed metric records:

  • Creating a recurring item
  • Creating a transactional item with expected revenue
  • Ending a subscription or item using an end date

    You can set the end date retroactively within one month to trigger the end metric creation.

  • Deactivating an item

  • Changing the price/quantity of an item

To actually create or update subscription metric records, you schedule the subscription metric builder job.

For examples, see Subscription Metrics Examples.

You can access the individual subscription metric records via the corresponding related list on the subscription if set up accordingly.

Note

Do not delete items from active subscriptions when using subscription metrics, as this would break the metrics. Instead, deactivate the item or set an end date, as described in Terminating Item.

To actually create or update subscription metric records, your org typically requires the subscription metric builder job to be scheduled. The changes are always based on the previously tracked metrics.

If set up accordingly, you can create or update subscription metrics for a single subscription manually:

  1. Open the subscription for which you want to create or update metrics.
  2. Click Update Metrics.

    This calls the subscription metric builder job, which triggers the asynchronous generation of subscription metrics. That is, it may take some seconds until the new metrics are built.

Cash Metrics

Cash metrics display a business's expected cash flow. They track current changes to the amount of one-time, recurring and transactional items of active subscriptions. That is, they produce a cash flow forecast based on current data, but do not show the actual cash flow history.

One cash metric record corresponds to a monthly invoice run for a subscription. That is, JustOn "simulates" an invoice run per month and aggregates the amount of the resulting invoice line items for each subscription in the Amount field of the cash metric record.

Cash metrics are related to the account and the subscription.

Typically, you want JustOn to run the cash metric algorithm when the subscription or a related item changes. To this end, you create dedicated flows that run on subscriptions and items.

The conditions that trigger cash metric updates may include

  • Modified start/end date or activation status for subscriptions
  • Modified next billing date, start/end date, activation status, billing period or modified quantity, price or discount values for items

You can access the cash metrics records via the corresponding related list on the subscription if set up accordingly.

Info

To actually create or update cash metric records, your org requires the corresponding flows to be set up.

Next steps:

Managing Subscription Items
Managing Item Pricing
Managing Invoice Runs
Manually Creating Invoices