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Basic information for subscriptions

Zuora

Basic information for subscriptions

Overview

You must enter basic information when creating a subscription. This article explains how to set termed or evergreen subscriptions, renewals, and other basic information.

Basic Information for Subscriptions

You can specify the terms for your subscription by entering information for each field under Basic Information. The Notes, Subscription Number, and Term Start Date fields are optional (Subscription Number and Term Start Date are located in the Additional Fields section). All other fields are required.

Termed and Evergreen Subscriptions

The Term Setting specifies if a subscription has a set term after which it expires or if the subscription is evergreen and never expires. Evergreen subscriptions have no end date, which means your customer will be automatically billed until the subscription is canceled. A termed subscription expires after the number of periods specified in the initial term, and can be set to renew for additional renewal terms.

  • An Evergreen subscription never expires and does not require renewal.
  • Term subscription has a pre-defined Initial Term, Renewal Setting, Term Start Date, Term End Date, and Renewal Term. You can set term subscriptions to renew automatically (Auto Renew).

Subscription Information Fields

When you create a subscription, Zuora Billing requires information for all of the fields listed in this section (with the exception of Notes, which is an optional field). Some fields obtain initial values from your default subscription settings. Use the Define Default Subscription Settings page to configure the default subscription settings.

Field Description

Customer Name

The name of the customer account (also referred to as a billing account) that is subscribing to your products or services.

There are two ways to search for the customer name. You can use the type-ahead search by entering a few letters of the customer account name and Zuora Billing will provide a narrowed down list of possibilities. Or you can type in the full or partial customer name and click Search. Zuora Billing will populate all of the matching customer names in a list, from which you can select the applicable customer account name.

Term Setting

Set the subscription as Termed or Evergreen.

  • Termed subscription expires at the end of its initial term and can be renewed.
  • An Evergreen subscription never expires and does not require renewal.

Initial Term

The length of the period for the first subscription term. This field obtains initial values from your default subscription settings. These settings are made using the Zuora Billing Admin Default Subscription Settings.

You can use an amendment to change the initial term, if required.

Initial Term Period Type

The period type for the first subscription term.

Select one of the following:

  • Month(s)
  • Year(s)
  • Day(s)
  • Week(s)
Renewal Setting

If you set the Term Setting to Termed, you must also select one of the following Renewal Setting options:

  • Renew With Specific Term: If you select this option, you must also set the Renewal Term. The subscription remains termed when it is renewed. The subscription will renew for the number of months specified by the Renewal Term.
  • Renew To Evergreen: If you select this option, the subscription automatically changes from termed to evergreen when it is renewed. A renewal term is not required for evergreen subscriptions.

Renewal Term

This is the length of the periods your subscription will renew for after the initial term ends. This field obtains initial values from your default subscription settings. These settings are made using the Zuora Billing Admin Default Subscription Settings.

You can use an amendment to change the renewal term for a specific subscription.

Renewal Term Period Type

The period type for the subscription renewal term. 

Select one of the following:

  • Month(s)
  • Year(s)
  • Day(s)
  • Week(s)
Auto Renew

When the initial term for a subscription is over, the subscription will automatically renew if Auto Renew is set to Yes.

If you set Auto Renew to No, the subscription will expire after the initial term is over. Your customer will not be billed beyond the initial term.

See Renewing Subscriptions Automatically for more information.

Last Booking Date

The last booking date of a subscription. This field is writable only when the subscription is newly created as a first version subscription. The value of this field is as follows:

  • For a new subscription created by the Subscribe and Amend APIs, this field has the value of the subscription creation date.
  • For a subscription changed by an amendment, this field has the value of the amendment booking date.
  • For a subscription created or changed by an order, this field has the value of the order date.

Currency

This is the currency that your subscription is billed in. This value is set using the Zuora Billing Customize Currencies settings.

You can set a Currency value that can be different from the currency value set while creating the customer account. You must have the Multiple Currencies feature enabled to change the currency value.

Invoice the Subscription Separately

Use this setting to specify on a per-subscription basis whether the subscription should be invoiced separately. If you do not enable this feature, all subscriptions within a customer account will be invoiced together, and the total charges will be aggregated into a single invoice. If you set a subscription to be invoiced separately, all charges generated from that subscription will be collected into a dedicated invoice.

See Invoicing Subscriptions Separately for more information.

Quote Number

The unique identifier of the Quote.

This field is used in the Zuora Reporting Data Sources to report on Subscription metrics.

If the subscription was originated from Zuora Quotes, the value is populated with the value from Zuora Quotes.

Quote Type

The Quote type that represents the subscription lifecycle stage such as New, Amendment, Renew or Cancel. 

This field is used in the Zuora Reporting Data Sources to report on Subscription metrics.

If the subscription was originated from Zuora Quotes, the value is populated with the value from Zuora Quotes.

Quote Business Type

The specific identifier for the type of business transaction the Quote represents such as New, Upsell, Downsell, Renewal or Churn.  

This field is used in the Zuora Reporting Data Sources to report on Subscription metrics.

If the subscription was originated from Zuora Quotes, the value is populated with the value from Zuora Quotes.

Opportunity Name

The unique identifier of the Opportunity. 

This field is used in the Zuora Reporting Data Sources to report on Subscription metrics.

If the subscription was originated from Zuora Quotes, the value is populated with the value from Zuora Quotes.

Opportunity Close Date

The closing date of the Opportunity. 

This field is used in the Zuora Reporting Data Sources to report on Subscription metrics.

If the subscription was originated from Zuora Quotes, the value is populated with the value from Zuora Quotes.

Cpq Bundle Json ID

This field is used to store the Bundle product structures from Zuora Quotes if you utilize Bundling in Salesforce. 
The field value is used internally, and you must not change the value in this field.

Subscription Number

The subscription number is an alphanumeric number that uniquely identifies each subscription. This number is auto-generated. If you need to use your own subscription number (for example, you have an order number that is created when the order is placed from your Web site), you can replace the auto-generated subscription number with a unique number that is not already being used by another subscription. This can only be done while the subscription is in the draft state. Once a subscription is active, a subscription number is assigned and cannot be replaced, renamed, or used again.

You can also override them by defining the prefix. See Define Numbering and SKU Formats for more information.

Term Start Date

This is the date your subscription term begins. By default, the billing term starts when the contract becomes effective (this is set when saving the subscription). You can use this field to override the default value.