Create a Subscription

Create a Subscription by selecting a Customer, adding Plans, Products, or Offers, and configuring how and when it bills. This form is the same whether your Site bills on Relationship Invoicing (invoice-centric billing) or statement-based billing.

Before you begin

Make sure you have the following before you begin:

• A Customer record, or the information needed to create one.
• A Plan, Product, or Offer to bill, or Products only if you're building a Planless Subscription.
• Your preferred billing setup, such as automatic collection, remittance, or prepaid billing.

Step 1: Open the subscription form

Every new Subscription starts from the Subscription form.

To open the Subscription form

1. From Advanced Billing, go to Billing > Subscriptions.
2. Click Create Subscription.

The form is organized into five sections that update based on your selections, plus an always-visible Subscription Preview sidebar summarizing your Customer, Items, and Term choices as you build the Subscription.

Step 2: Select or create a Customer

Every Subscription is tied to a Customer, whether new or existing.

To select or create the Customer

1. In the Customer section, use the Find or Add a Customer… combo box to search for an existing Customer, or select Create New Customer to open the Create a Customer form.
2. Enter or review the Customer's details.

Review the Customer's email address and billing details carefully. Confirming this information now can help prevent invoicing issues later.

Step 3: Choose who pays for the subscription

If payer hierarchy is enabled for the Customer, select which account pays:

• One of the Customer's ancestor accounts, labeled by relationship and level (for example, "Acme Corp (1st Level Parent)").
• The Customer itself, labeled (Self). If billing consolidates through the Customer, select the nested Consolidate Invoices checkbox.

See Choose invoice consolidation options for the available invoice consolidation timing options.

Step 4: Finalize payment details

The Payment section sets how and when the Customer is charged.

To finalize payment details

1. Select the Gateway, if multiple gateways are enabled.
2. Choose the Currency for the Subscription.
3. Set the Collection Method:
   • Automatic to charge a stored payment method.
   • Remittance to collect payment manually.
   • Prepaid, if this option is available.
4. Add or select a Payment Method, if one is required for the selected collection method or payer setup.
5. Define Net Terms if you're using a remittance-based workflow.

Step 5: Configure subscription items

The Items section shows your selected catalog entries in a table. You can filter the catalog by Product Family using the filter in the top-right corner.

To add items to the Subscription

1. In the Items section, use the Find Catalog Item... combo box to search the Plans, Products, Offers, or Coupons tabs.
2. Choose how to build the Subscription:
   • Select a preconfigured Offer to apply its bundled pricing and discounts.
   • Select a Plan, then add Products, coupons, and trials individually.
   • Add Products only, with no Plan selected, to build a Planless Subscription. See Create a Planless Subscription for that procedure.
3. Adjust Quantity for Products with variable quantities. A Plan's quantity is fixed.
4. Review the Price (or List Price) and Total columns.
5. To remove an item, click its trash can icon.

When you select an Offer, its bundled items appear as indented rows you can't edit individually. Remove the entire Offer if you need to change its included items.

Step 6: Configure prepaid settings

Prepaid billing charges the Customer for units before they're used.

Only if the Subscription uses prepaid billing

1. Enter the Initial Charge.
2. Select Automatically Refill Subscription, if needed.
3. If auto-refill is selected, configure:
   • Minimum Balance, the balance that triggers a refill.
   • Refill Amount, the amount added when the refill occurs.

Step 7: Set the subscription schedule

The Schedule section controls when billing starts and how the term is structured.

To set the Subscription schedule

1. If your Site has Invoice-Centric Billing enabled and the start date isn't settled yet, select Date not known yet instead of entering dates below. This creates the Subscription in the Awaiting Signup Date state and hides the rest of the Schedule fields, along with Calendar Billing, Add Auto-Renewal, and the consolidated-billing date-alignment option. See Understand Awaiting Signup Date for the full behavior, then skip to Step 8 and follow the exceptions called out there and in Step 9. Otherwise, continue with the steps below.

2. Enter a Start Date and optional End Date.

3. Select Set to Evergreen if the Subscription shouldn't have a fixed expiration.

4. Select Add Auto-Renewal to configure renewal profiles and factors, if needed.

5. Select Set Calendar Billing if you need billing aligned to a specific day of the month.

6. If your Site has backdated usage settings enabled and at least one metered or event-based Component, optionally set an Invoice Issuance Mode:

   • Immediate — Invoices are issued right away.
   • Pending — Invoices with no metered Components still issue normally, but an Invoice with one or more metered Components goes into a Pending status instead.

   Leave this unchecked to use your Site's default Invoice Issuance Mode.

7. Select Add Trial to override the selected Product's default trial terms for this one Subscription. Enter the Trial Price, Trial Duration, and Trial Unit (Days or Months). See Understand Trialing Subscriptions for how trials behave once the Subscription is created.

Step 8: Set metadata and preview charges

The Metadata section finishes configuration with invoicing preferences and any custom fields your site requires.

To set metadata and preview the Subscription

1. Choose an Invoice Email preference: Use Site Default, Always Receives, or Never Receives.

2. Complete any required custom fields. See Add Metadata and Custom Fields to a Subscription for how custom fields work.

3. Click Preview Cost to open the Cost Preview and confirm the recurring fee, item charges, coupon savings, trial, and tax memos before you continue. See Understand the Subscription Preview for more on the preview sidebar.

   If you selected Date not known yet in Step 7, Preview Cost and Preview Billing Schedule are disabled — there's no start date to build a schedule from — so continue to Step 9 without previewing.

Step 9: Create and verify the subscription

This is the final step before the Subscription is created.

To create and verify the Subscription

1. Click Create Subscription.
2. Confirm that the Subscription was created successfully.
3. Save or copy the Subscription details for your records.

What to expect next

Confirm that the Subscription is set up the way you expect:

• Check the Subscription status.
• Confirm the next billing date. A Subscription created with Date not known yet shows no next billing date until someone sets its real start date.
• Confirm the payer and invoice routing.
• Verify the payment method and invoice email preference.
• If prepaid billing is used, confirm the balance and refill settings.

Related information

For more on the prepaid billing model referenced in Step 6, see Understand Prepaid Subscriptions.