Advanced Billing needs a Product's status or amount reported before it can apply a charge to a Subscription, and what that status tracks and which actions are available both depend on the Product's type.
Product status and available actions
A Product's status represents how usage or allocation is tracked for that Subscription, depending on the Product type.
The Product status may refer to one of the following:
- Quantity used for quantity-based Products
- Amount allocated or recorded for metered and prepaid Products
- Enabled or disabled for on/off Products
In the application, you can perform the following actions for a Product:
- View History - View the amounts and dates when a Product was used.
- Update Price Point - Update the Price Point currently applied to the Product.
- Change Global Product Pricing/Details - Update the Product's name, description, unit price, or other configuration details.
The following options are available only for specific Product types:
- Update Quantity - Change the quantity allocated to a Product. This option appears only for recurring or one-time quantity-based Products.
- Toggle On/Off - Set a Product to "on" or "off." This option appears only for on/off Products.
- Purchase Prepaid Units - Purchase a set number of prepaid units and choose a proration strategy. This option appears only for prepaid Products.
- Record Usage - Record usage for the current billing period. This option appears only for metered and prepaid Products. Recorded usage isn't charged immediately.
Products are generally billed in advance on the same billing cycle as the associated Plan. The exception is metered Products, which are billed in arrears.
See Configure Custom Pricing for Products for how to set custom pricing per Subscription.
Product billing examples
The following examples illustrate how Products are used and when charges are applied to a Subscription Invoice.
Quantity-based example
Quantity-based Products renew and apply charges at the beginning of each billing period. You can also apply prorated charges when allocating a quantity-based Product mid-period.
For example:
- A subscriber purchases a Plan on the 23rd of the month.
- The Plan is on a monthly billing cycle.
- The Subscription renews on the 23rd of each month.
- Advanced Billing evaluates the allocated quantity on the renewal date and bills accordingly.
- The allocated quantity does not reset to zero at the end of the billing period.
Metered example
Metered Products track usage throughout the billing period. Advanced Billing calculates total usage at the end of the period and applies charges at renewal. Usage then resets to zero at the start of the next billing period.
For example:
- A subscriber signs up on January 1.
- On January 10, you record 10 units of usage.
- On January 20, you record another 10 units of usage.
- On February 1, the Subscription renews.
- The renewal Invoice includes the Plan charge plus 20 units of metered usage.
- Metered usage resets to zero for the new billing period.
Prepaid examples
Prepaid Products involve two steps:
- Purchase an allocation of units.
- Record usage as units are consumed.
If recorded usage exceeds the allocated units, overage pricing applies.
For recurring prepaid allocations:
- A subscriber joins on March 15 with a monthly Plan.
- On March 16, they purchase 100 units and use 101 units. They have zero allocations remaining and one unit in overage.
- They later purchase 200 additional units. They now have 200 allocations and one unit in overage.
- They record 199 additional units of usage. One allocated unit remains, and one unit remains in overage.
- The day before renewal, they record 50 more units. Allocations are reduced to zero, and overage increases to 50 units total.
- On April 15, the Subscription renews. The renewal Invoice includes:
- The Plan charge for April 15 through May 15
- 50 units billed as overage
- 300 recurring allocation units for the new billing period
For a prepaid Product with a 10-day expiration interval and rollover enabled:
- On November 8, a Subscription is created with an allocation of 500 units.
- On November 11, 200 units are used. 300 allocated units remain.
- On November 18, the allocation expires.
- On December 1, 200 units are recorded. Because the allocation expired, these units are treated as overage.
- On December 8, the Subscription renews. The renewal Invoice includes:
- The Plan charge for December 8 through January 8
- 200 units billed as overage
- No recurring allocation, because the Product isn't recurring
- No rollover of the remaining 100 unused units, because the allocation expired
For how to view the amounts and dates a Product's usage was recorded, see Track Product Usage for a Subscription.
For how Product charges accrue differently depending on whether a Subscription is Automatic, Remittance, or Prepaid, see Manage Product Allocations for Different Payment Methods.
For how to record usage and allocations correctly so invoice totals come out right, see Report Product Usage and Allocations.
For how proration is configured for quantity-based and on/off Products, see Configure Proration Schemes for Products.
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