Zuora Release 2023.11.R1

Attribute-based Pricing feature available for early adopters

The current Zuora product catalog has powered the monetization strategies of subscription and non-subscription-based products. To provide the required flexibility to increasingly complex business needs and market trends in recent years, Zuora now provides the Attribute-based Pricing (ABP) feature. This new feature will help migrate the administration overhead that leads to needing a longer time for a product to go to the market. It can also ease the development work of integrating the Zuora product catalog with external systems.

For more information about this feature, see Attribute based pricing. For related APIs, see Product Rate Plan Definitions and Product Charge Definitions.

Support for checking discount applying mode through API

After subscribing to a percentage discount charge, you can check whether the percentage discount in the subscription is stacked or non-stacked through the isStackedDiscount field in the following API operations:

• List subscriptions by account key
• Retrieve a subscription by key
• Retrieve a subscription by key and version

For how to calculate the stacked and non-stacked discounts, see Discount charge models.

Standalone Orders feature available in Orders API

The Standalone Orders feature is now available through the Orders API operations. With this feature enabled, you can place a standalone order to subscribe without pre-defining a product catalog in Zuora Billing. You can create or update an account in the standalone order. You can also preview, retrieve, or update a standalone order. 

Note that integration with Zuora Revenue is currently not supported.

Scheduled orders available for early adopters

For a subscription, you can schedule one or more orders in a scheduler to be executed on future dates. The scheduler is formed by setting the statuses of the orders to scheduled and setting the scheduled execution dates of the orders as future dates during order creation.

For more information, see Scheduled orders and Manage scheduled orders.

Enhancements to Batch Update Price flow

We made the following enhancements to the Batch Update Price flow:

• You can update the price of the subscription rate charges in a subscription cohort for a specific currency when the corresponding product rate plan charge has multiple currencies defined in the product catalog.
• You can increase the price of the subscription rate plan charges in a subscription cohort by a positive percentage.
• The Price Update History page displays the currency and increased percentage.

For more information, see Batch update price.

Enhancement to Cancel & Write Off flow

In the Cancel & Write Off flow, you can choose to generate the final invoice through the Generate the final Invoice toggle. When cancelling a subscription in the middle of the billing period, you can set the toggle to Yes to avoid generating any billing documents after the subscription cancellation.

For more information, see Cancel subscriptions and write off all unpaid invoices.

REST API support for specifying invoice-level attributes

When creating a standalone invoice through the REST API, you can now define specific billing attributes at the invoice level. These attributes include:

• Bill To Contact
• Sold To Contact
• Invoice Template ID
• Sequence Set

This functionality is part of the Flexible Billing Attributes feature.

A billing rule called “Copy billing attributes from accounts to standalone invoices when no attributes are specified on standalone invoices” is introduced to offer flexibility in automatically setting the billing attributes if you do not specify them during invoice creation. By default, this billing rule is set to No.

For more information about this billing rule, see Define billing rules.

Enhancements to Multiple Currencies feature

We have introduced the following enhancements for the Multiple Currencies feature:

• When creating a standalone invoice through the Zuora UI, you can now specify a currency. This currency can be different from the default currency of the corresponding account. Previously, you could only use the default account currency in this scenario.
• A field named balance is introduced into the array of the metricsData object field for the Account object. You can use this new field to track the total balance for the account in different currencies. The metricsData field is available only if you have the Multiple Currencies feature.

Enhancements to E-Invoicing feature

We have introduced the following enhancements to the E-Invoicing feature through the Zuora UI to streamline your e-invoicing experience, including the operations, process, and e-invoice file template customization.

• Managing e-invoice file templates
  You can now manage e-invoice file templates directly through the Zuora UI for your billing documents. This enhancement includes creating e-invoice file templates, editing existing ones, and deleting e-invoice file templates.
• Previewing e-invoice file templates
  You can now easily preview an e-invoice file template by selecting a billing document.
• Viewing e-invoice file status
  On the details pages of invoices, credit memos, and debit memos, you can check the e-invoice file status. Additionally, you have the option to manually trigger e-invoice regeneration for failed documents directly through the Zuora UI.
• Downloading logs
  For troubleshooting purposes, you can download e-invoice file logs from the details pages of invoices, credit memos, and debit memos.
• Deleting e-invoicing service providers and business regions
  You also have the ability to delete existing e-invoicing service providers and business regions as needed.

These enhancements can help your e-invoicing experience become more efficient and user-friendly.

Digital Signature available for early adopters 

You can now use the Digital Signature function to enhance your electronic invoicing (e-invoicing) with digital signatures. This feature helps you ensure document authenticity, data integrity, legal compliance, fraud prevention, efficiency, and security. 

Note that Sovos is the exclusive service provider supporting the Digital Signature feature.

This feature is currently in the Early Adopter phase. We are actively soliciting feedback from a small set of early adopters before releasing it as generally available. If you want to join this early adopter program, submit a request at Zuora Global Support.

For more information, see Digital Signature.

E-Invoicing support for Italy and Saudi Arabia

The E-Invoicing feature now supports electronic invoicing (e-invoicing) for both Italy and Saudi Arabia. This feature includes prebuilt partner connectors for e-invoicing solutions to ensure that your billing documents comply with the regulations in supported countries. Currently, our supported e-invoicing service partner is Sovos, and the integration extends to India, Italy, and Saudi Arabia.

For more information about this feature, see E-Invoicing. To explore specific configuration details for each country, see Manage country-specific configurations in Sovos.

Credit behavior changes in Billing Schedule  

The Billing Schedule feature requires that one-time charges be credited back if they are removed or canceled. If you set the Enable credit back for removing or canceling one-time charge billing rule to No, you cannot remove or cancel one-time charges.

However, if you want not to provide credit for one-time charges after they are billed, you can first set the billing rule to Yes as an alternative option. Then, in this case, you have to write off the corresponding credit memo.

Summary statement is now available in HTML templates

A Summary Statement allows you to consolidate and summarize transaction activity in the Billing product. This account level reporting helps you understand your subscribers’ financial health. Using a summary statement, you can generate customized documents for individual accounts using templates created in the HTML editor UI that will compile credit memo, debit memo, payments, and invoice information onto a summarized high level PDF.

Multiple language support for HTML billing document template is now available

Previously, Zuora translated text-based merge fields in the Word format to support customer communication profile locale. Now, it is possible to create and edit a merge field in HTML format manually by specifying an object and field name in the translation profile. If the translation profile lacks a column for the customer’s communication profile locale, the original untranslated value for the merge field will be utilised.

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Support for implementing Google Pay checkout through JavaScript SDK integration

You can now add Google Pay™ to your checkout flow by integrating with a JavaScript SDK provided by Zuora. For now, this feature is only supported on the Stripe v2 payment gateway integration. We are continuing to evaluate other payment gateways for Google Pay integration. If you have any requests on other gateways, please contact your Zuora account manager.

For more information, see Set up Google Pay with Zuora JavaScript SDK.

Enhancement to Zuora Fraud Protection configuration UI

We have revamped the UI for configuring Zuora Fraud Protection to make it easier and faster for you to set up fraud protection settings. For more information, see Enable and configure Zuora Fraud Protection.

Update in integration endpoint for Allpago

We have updated the production endpoint for the Allpago payment gateway integration.

For more information about the Allpago payment gateway integration, see Allpago Gateway Integration.

Enhancement to setting up custom payment method types

We have improved the procedure for setting up custom payment method types to support automated synchronization of the updates on settings of custom payment method types. Manual synchronization is no longer required. The Refresh Open Payment Method Types button is deprecated.

Enhancement to Journal Run

We improved the performance of Journal Run by implementing a new scalable solution. This month-end task now takes significantly less time to complete, allowing you to close the book faster.

All new tenants on Performance Booster or Performance Booster Elite will have the enhanced Journal Run enabled by default. Existing Performance Booster and Performance Booster Elite customers will be upgraded to Journal Run with improved performance beginning from the 2023.11.R1 release. For more information, see Performance Booster and Performance Booster Elite. If you need the enhanced Journal Run enabled in your tenant earlier, contact Zuora Global Support.

For more information, see Journal run.

Standalone Orders feature available in Finance Setting

The Standalone Orders feature is now available to create subscriptions to external product catalogues. When a transaction is created from a subscription charge created through a standalone order, financial reports populate the correct set of accounting codes and revenue recognition rule names.

To access Standalone Orders, navigate to Finance Settings > Manage Non-Subscription Items and Standalone Order.

If you want to access the feature, submit a request at Zuora Global Support.

Configure accounting code after tax code activation

To avoid blank accounting codes in your financial report, you must configure the Accounting Code after activating the Tax Code.

For more information, see Set up tax codes.

Revenue Detail Report in Trial Balance Run

When home currency is set in the currency conversion settings, the following fields are displayed in both home currency and transaction currency units in the Revenue Detail Report of Trial Balance Run:

• Recognized in All Accounting Periods 
• Recognized prior to this Accounting Period 
• Recognized in this Accounting Period 
• Recognized after this Accounting Period

To include these fields in your Revenue Detail Report, submit a request at Zuora Global Support.

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Zuora AI help for Revenue 

Zuora AI help is now available for Zuora Revenue. AI help brings enhanced in-tenant troubleshooting, including a ChatGPT-integrated chatbot to help you find solutions quickly. Click the Help icon  and type your question to view several related help articles and support tickets.

To converse with the new ChatGPT integrated chatbot, click the ZUORA AI button. Additionally, you may create a support ticket if you still need help finding the solution.

For more information, see Zuora AI help.

New platform permission available for Data Query

A new platform permission called "Run Data Queries (In UI Or API)" is now available. This permission allows you to control running data queries from the UI and control access to all Data Query API operations.

This permission is enabled for all existing Platform user roles by default, including the Standard User role, or any custom Platform roles. Current users of any Platform user roles will have the same capabilities as before. After the introduction of this new permission, tenant administrators can enable or disable this permission for existing or new Platform roles to control access to Data Query as needed.

The existing "Data Query UI Access" permission controls access to the Data Query UI, such as the SAVED QUERIES, HISTORY, or the Create Data Query page.

The following table lists the required permissions for different actions through the UI or API:

Product Rate Plan data source available in Reporting UI

From this release, you can export the Product Rate Plan data source from the UI by navigating to Reporting > Data Sources. Previously, you could only export this data source through the Zuora API.

Report runs support Multi-Org

If you have the Multi-Org feature enabled, report runs or scheduled report runs are linked to the selected organization units when the runs are created.

On the Manage Report Runs page, you can find report runs or scheduled report runs that exactly match the currently selected organization units.

For example, suppose that you have a Report Run A linked to Org X and a Report Run B linked to the unit combination of Org Y and Org Z:

• If you select Org X in the organization switcher, you can find Report Run A on the Manage Report Runs page.
• If you select only Org Y or select the unit combination of Org X and Org Y in the organization switcher, you can find nothing on the Manage Report Runs page because there is no exact match between any report run and these unit combinations.

For more information about Multi-Org and report runs, see Overview of Multi-Org and Manage Report Runs.

New standard reports for MRR forecasting available in Reporting

The following new standard reports for MRR forecasting are now available in Reporting:

• MRR Changes Forecast Report
• MRR Forecast Report

You can find these reports under the Standard Reports > Booking > Outcomes category on the Reporting page.

For more information, see Standard Reports.

Condition builder available for custom events and custom scheduled events

You can now use the condition builder to define conditions for custom events or custom scheduled events in the Zuora UI.

The condition builder is provided in addition to the existing JEXL-expression-based approach for defining conditions.

For more information, see Define conditions with the condition builder.

Enhancements to the Async API Request callout notifications

When making asynchronous requests, you might want to track whether your request succeeded or failed by setting up callout notifications based on the Async Request Succeeded and Async Request Failed standard events.

We have now enhanced the callout payload for the Async Request Succeeded event by making the following updates:

• Adding a request.trackId field, which value is the zuora-track-id value if you have specified it in the request header.
• Updating the request.url field to include the full path of the asynchronous request.
• Adding a data field that contains the response body.

We have enhanced the callout payload for the Async Request Failed event by making the following updates:

• Adding a request.trackId field, which value is the zuora-track-id value if you have specified it in the request header.
• Updating the request.url field to include the full path of the asynchronous request.

For more information, see Making Asynchronous Requests.

Subscription of HPM Threat Report

In the HPM Threat Detection dashboard, you can now preview and subscribe to the HPM Threat Report to timely detect bot attacks that happened on your hosted payment pages. After subscribing to the report, the following information will be sent to the work email of the current user when possible bot attacks are detected:

• Bot attack patterns
• Security settings during the attack
• Recommended actions

For more information, see HPM Threat Detection dashboard.

Increased maximum number limits for data query jobs against Zuora Warehouse

The following maximum number limits on data query jobs against Zuora Warehouse are now increased:

You can create data query jobs against Zuora Warehouse only if you have the Zuora Warehouse feature enabled for your tenant.

For more information about these limitations, see Query Processing Limitations.

Support for two standard objects in Zuora Secure Data Share for Snowflake

Zuora Secure Data Share for Snowflake now supports the following standard objects:

• UpdaterBatch
• UpdaterDetail

These objects are not synced to Snowflake by default. If you want to sync these objects, submit a request at Zuora Global Support.

Zuora Multi-Org available for early adopters

Zuora Multi-Org, a core platform capability, allows you to build and secure your organizational hierarchy based on your business structure. While consolidating your company’s billing, revenue, sales and financials at scale under a single tenant, Zuora Multi-Org gives you a unified view of your overall business performance. 

After enabling Multi-Org, you can manage multiple org units, otherwise known as subsidiaries, brands or business units, as independent org units (entities) within a single tenant. You can configure and manage org unit-specific settings, including users, products, customer accounts, accounting periods, and so on. Multi-Org will provide data segmentation by org units, making it feasible for customers to assess the business performance of individual org units. 

Zuora Multi-Org aims to improve the overall functionality of your Zuora environment with the following capabilities:

• Create an organizational hierarchy centered around your parent company with complete support for global billing and other financial services from Zuora 
• Maintain user and data segmentation to secure financial and billing configuration and transactional data with organizational separation
• Define org unit-specific functional currency with foreign exchange conversion while also supporting a single reporting currency and multiple transactional currencies
• Configure product visibility and rate plans to one or more org units in the org hierarchy, with a single, unified global product catalog
• Create roll-up reporting from the transactional currencies to the functional currency per org unit and the reporting currency of the parent company
• Integrate seamlessly across Zuora Billing and Zuora Revenue.

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