Goodwill Discount

Overview

What is it?

The Goodwill Discount workflow enables you to create a product amendment with a percent-based or fixed-amount rate plan charge to a list of subscriptions.

Why does it matter?

To quickly respond to the COVID-19 business impact, this workflow would allow you to provide your customers with a discount on their next invoice, and for several invoices in the future until a desired end date.

How does it work?

The Goodwill Discount Workflow iterates through a list of subscriptions and creates a product amendment with a discount rate plan charge for each subscription. Each subscription will be validated:

Is it an active subscription?
Is it on our list of Subscriptions?
Have we already applied a Goodwill Discount?

The next time you execute a bill run, the customer will see the discount.

There is flexibility in how the discount can be applied:

Should the discount apply to a one-time charge, a recurring charge, or a usage-based charge?
How long should the discount be applied for?

If you’re a Billing Operations analyst, here’s how this workflow works.

Getting started

As a reminder, please make all changes in your test environment first. Please make sure to test before executing the workflow in the Production environment. The changes in Production cannot be undone.

Step 1: Create a goodwill discount product
Create the Goodwill Discount product and rate plan.
Step 2: Create a list of subscriptions
Query your subscriptions and create a CSV file with the subscriptions that will be applied a discount to.
Step 3: Run a workflow to apply the discount
Create a workflow using the Goodwill Discount Rollout template to apply the discount changes.
Step 4 (optional): Run a workflow to stop the discount
Create a workflow using the Goodwill Discount Recall template to stop the discount applied.

Step 1: Create a goodwill discount product

In this step, we will set up a product which we will name, Goodwill Discount. You can provide your own name and description for the product, rate plans, and rate plan charges. When executing the workflow, you will need to enter the exact name of the rate plan. Note that we are defining two types of rate plans to support both a percent-based discount, as well as a fixed-amount discount. You may choose to set up only one type.

Steps	Description
Create a new Product	In Zuora, navigate to Product > Product Catalog, and click add new product.
Configure the Product	Name: Goodwill Discount Description: Temporary discount in response to the COVID-19 impact. The discount will be removed after the disruption has subsided. Effective Start Date: 6/1/2020 Effective End Date: 11/23/2020 Category: Add On Services Click save.
Add a Rate Plan #1	Click + add rate plan.
Configure the Rate Plan	Name: Goodwill Discount - Percent Description: Temporary discount in response to the COVID-19 impact. The discount will be removed after the disruption has subsided. Effective Start Date: 6/1/2020 Effective End Date: 11/23/2020 Click save.
Add a Rate Plan Charge	Click + add new under Recurring Charges / Period.
Configure the Rate Plan Charge	Charge Name: Goodwill Discount Description: Temporary discount in response to the COVID-19 impact. The discount will be removed after the disruption has subsided. * Charge Amount * Charge Model: Discount-Percentage Discount Percentage: 20% Discount Class: Apply Discount To: All charges in the subscription <check One-Time, Recurring, Usage> Product: -- Rate Plan: -- * Timing and Frequency of Charge * Trigger Condition: Upon Contract Effective End Date: Fixed period after Charge is triggered. 6 Billing Periods Billing Period: Month Billing Day: Default from Customer Account Billing Period Alignment: Align to Charge * Finance * Check Use discount specific accounting codes, rule and segment to manage revenue. Click save.
Add Rate Plan #2	In the Rate Plans section, click + add rate plan.
Configure the Rate Plan	Name: Goodwill Discount - Fixed Description: Temporary discount in response to the COVID-19 impact. The discount will be removed after the disruption has subsided. Effective Start Date: 6/1/2020 Effective End Date: 11/23/2020 Click save.
Add a Rate Plan Charge	In the rate plan that you just created, click + add new under Recurring Charges / Period.
Configure the Rate Plan Charge	Charge Name: Goodwill Discount Description: Temporary discount in response to the COVID-19 impact. The discount will be removed after the disruption has subsided. * Charge Amount * Charge Model: Discount-Fixed Amount Discount Percentage: 4.99 USD Discount Class: Apply Discount To: All charges in the subscription <Check One-Time, Recurring, and Usage> Product: -- Rate Plan: -- * Timing and Frequency of Charge * Trigger Condition: Upon Contract Effective End Date: Fixed period after Charge is triggered. 6 Billing Periods Billing Period: Month Billing Day: Default from Customer Account Billing Period Alignment: Align to Charge * Finance * Check Use discount specific accounting codes, rule and segment to manage revenue. Click save.

Step 2: Create a list of subscriptions

In this step, determine which subscriptions you want to apply the Goodwill Discount for.

Step	Description
Create your list of subscriptions	Create a CSV file to capture your list of subscriptions. Your file should include: Account: Number, Subscription: Name, Account: Name Here is an example CSV file that you can view or download: Goodwill_Discount_example.csv You must replace the values of these fields with data that is available on your tenant. Otherwise, the workflow will fail. You can use Datasource Export to create your file.

Step

Description

Create your list of subscriptions

Create a CSV file to capture your list of subscriptions. Your file should include:

Account: Number, Subscription: Name, Account: Name

Here is an example CSV file that you can view or download: Goodwill_Discount_example.csv

You must replace the values of these fields with data that is available on your tenant. Otherwise, the workflow will fail.

You can use Datasource Export to create your file.

Step 3: Run a workflow to apply the discount

In this step, we will set up a new workflow using the template “Goodwill Discount Rollout” to apply the discount.

Steps	Description
Navigate to Workflow	Navigate to Platform > Workflow > Workflows.
Create a new workflow	Click + and select From Template > COVID-19 > Goodwill Discount Rollout.
Open the workflow	Click the workflow you just created, and you will see the following.
Workflow tasks overview	You will notice a number of tasks in this workflow: • Goodwill Discount Rollout: This is the starting point; clicking on the arrow will open up a prompt to enter the list of subscriptions (CSV file), and other input parameters. • Valid Parameters: Validation check on the input parameters. • Run with Orders Feature?: Determines whether you are using Orders or Subscribe/Amend. • JSONize any input Subs: This task creates a JSON from the input file. • Retrieve the RatePlan for Input Discount: This task retrieves the rate plan that we created in Step 1. • Retrieve RatePlanCharge for Input Discount: This task retrieves the rate plan charge we created in Step 1. This will be used to create the product amendment. • Pick Applicable Subscriptions: This task will query Zuora subscriptions and determine whether they meet the criteria. • For each Subscription: This task will iterate through each of the subscription and create a new product amendment for the goodwill discount rate plan charge. • Summary of Amendments/Orders: This task will summarize the number of Amendments/Orders that are created. • Retrieve Skipped Subs: This task will create an output file that lists all the subscriptions that were skipped (no discounts applied).
Input parameters (part 1 of 2)	Click the arrow in the first green box. When prompted to confirm, click OK. A new workflow run window will open. Let’s start with the following parameters: 1. The first checkbox indicates that you are aware of the terms of use. 2. Click Choose File and select the CSV file you created in Step 2. Note that a file is needed to execute the workflow. The file will require a column with the name “Subscription: Name”. If the file is empty, the discount will be applied to all subscriptions. 3. Specify the name of the discount that you want to apply. There are two options for the value: Goodwill Discount - Percent or Goodwill Discount - Fixed. Click on the value field to change. 4. There are 3 questions to indicate which charges to apply the discount: recurring, usage, one-time. Check an option to indicate that you want the discount to be applied to that type of charge.
Input parameters (part 2 of 2)	The uses FixedPeriod option indicates when the discount will end. If the option is unchecked, the discount will continue to be applied until the subscription ends. If it is checked, the discount will be applied for the fixed period amount that is indicated in the “Goodwill Discount - Fixed” rate plan. The UpToPeriods option allows you to define the number of billing periods to apply the discount to. If you left the previous option checked, you can leave this parameter as 0. In this case, we defined the number of billings periods to 6 in Step 1. The amendment contract effective date indicates the date of the amendment. If you execute the workflow today, the amendment will be effective today. You can specify a future date. The skipContractEffDateValidation option allows you to support the following use case: If you indicated a future date to apply the discount to 7/15/20 (future dated amendment effective date), And you have a subscription that terminates on 7/10/20 (before the effective date of the amendment), The workflow will allow you to apply the amendment to this subscription with an effective date of 7/10/20, OR, allow you to skip this subscription and not apply the discount by typing in ‘SKIP’ in the value field. The justTestNDebug? option allows you to test out the workflow without making any changes to the subscription. If this option is checked, Workflow will prepare amendments for up to 5 subscriptions, but will not execute any changes. Note: This option is checked by default. Leave the option checked while you test the workflow. Make sure you uncheck it when you are ready to apply the changes.
Execute the workflow	Data changes caused by workflows cannot be undone. Zuora recommends that you fully test your workflows in the Zuora API Sandbox environment before running them in the Production environment. After you click Run, the workflow will start to execute. You can view the results in Run History. Clicking on Tasks will show you the results of each task. If you do not have Orders enabled on your tenant, the Run with Orders? validation will result in an error. This is expected, and does not impact the results of the workflow.
View list of subscriptions	You can view the list of subscriptions that were updated. Click the Tasks tab (see the previous step). To be able to view all columns, click the eye icon, and select all applicable columns. Next, find the task Pick Applicable Subscriptions, and on the far left column, click the kebab menu, and you will be able to download the file. The resulting file will look like the following: Note that this is not the original CSV input file, but rather the resulting file created by the workflow.

Step 4 (optional): Run a workflow to stop the discount

In this step, we will set up a new workflow using the template “Goodwill Discount Recall” to stop the discount.

Steps	Description
Navigate to Workflow	Navigate to Platform > Workflow > Workflows tab.
Create a new workflow	Click on + and select From Template > COVID-19 > Goodwill Discount Recall.
Open the workflow	Click on the workflow, and you will see the following.
Workflow tasks overview	You will notice a number of tasks in this workflow, which are similar to the workflow tasks in Step 3. Goodwill Discount Recall: This is the starting point; clicking on the arrow will open up a prompt to enter the list of subscriptions (CSV file), and other input parameters. Valid Parameters: Validation check on the input parameters. Run with Orders Feature?: Determines whether you are using Orders or Subscribe/Amend. JSONize any input Subs: This task creates a JSON from the input file. Retrieve the RatePlan for Input Discount: This task retrieves the rate plan that we created in Step 1. Pick Applicable Subscriptions: This task will query Zuora subscriptions and determine whether they meet the criteria. For each Subscription: This task will iterate through each of the subscriptions and remove the product amendment for the goodwill discount rate plan charge. Retrieve Skipped Subs: This task will create an output file that lists all the subscriptions that were skipped (no discounts applied).
Input parameters	Click on the arrow of the first green box。 When prompted to confirm, click OK. A new workflow run window will open. The first checkbox indicates that you are aware of the terms of use. Click Choose File and select the CSV file you created in Step 2. Note that a file is needed to execute the workflow. The file will require a column with the name “Subscription: Name”. If the file is empty, the discount will be applied to all subscriptions. Specify the name of the discount that you want to apply. There are two options for the value: Goodwill Discount - Percent or Goodwill Discount - Fixed. Click on the value field to change. The amendment contract effective date indicates the date of the amendment. If you execute the workflow today, the amendment will be effective today. You can specify a future date. The skipContractEffDateValidation option allows you to support the following use case: If you indicated a future date to apply the discount to 7/15/20 (future dated amendment effective date), And you have a subscription that terminates on 7/10/20 (before the effective date of the amendment), The workflow will allow you to apply the amendment to this subscription with an effective date of 7/10/20, OR, allow you to skip this subscription and not apply the discount by typing in ‘SKIP’ in the value field. The justTestNDebug? option allows you to test out the workflow without making any changes to the subscription. If this option is checked, Workflow will prepare amendments for up to 5 subscriptions, but will not execute any changes. Note: This option is checked by default. Leave the option checked while you test the workflow. Make sure you uncheck it when you are ready to apply the changes.
Execute the workflow	Data changes caused by workflows cannot be undone. Zuora recommends that you fully test your workflows in the Zuora API Sandbox environment before running them in the Production environment. After you click Run, the workflow will start to execute. You can view the results in Run History. Select the Tasks tab to show the results of each task. If you do not have Orders enabled on your tenant, the Run with Orders? validation will result in an error. This is expected, and does not impact the results of the workflow.