Products Sharing Across Entities

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This feature is in Limited Availability. If you want to have access to the feature, submit a request at Zuora Global Support.

Multi-entity allows you to define products in the source entity and then share them with target entities. Zuora synchronizes the shared products to each target entities after sharing. The target entities can edit certain information of the shared products or perform certain operations for the shared products. Currently, only the global entity can share products with the other entities.

To share products across entities, you must be assigned the API Write Access platform permission. See User Roles for more information.

Products Sharing in the Source Entity

After you followed the procedures to share a product with a target entity, the following information of the shared product is automatically synchronized to the target entity:

Zuora synchronizes the prices of the shared products to the target entities based on the currency types. The price can be shared with a target entity if the following conditions are all met:

The currency type of the shared products is activated in the source entity
A price is specified with this currency type in the source entity
This currency type is also activated in the target entity

You can also activate currency types of the shared products after sharing:

Activate currency types in the source entity:
The prices are then synchronized to the target entities that have the same currency types activated.
Activate currency types in the target entity:
If the shared products contain the prices with these currency types, the prices are then synchronized to the target entity.

For example, in a source entity, you activate the US Dollar, Euro, and Pound Sterling currency types of the shared products. In a target entity, you only activate the Euro currency type. When you share products with the target entity, only the price with the Euro currency type is synchronized to the target entity. You can activate the Pound Sterling currency type in the target entity later. The price with the Pound Sterling currency type is then synchronized to the target entity.

Management of the Shared Products in the Source Entity

After sharing the products, you can create custom fields on the shared products in the source entity, but you are not allowed to do the following operations for the shared products:

Change the billing timing
Change the charge model
Remove the shared products, product rate plans, or product rate plan charges

You can update the shared products in the source entity after sharing in the following ways:

Create product rate plans
Create product rate plan charges
Edit certain information of the shared products that are controlled by the source entity

All the updates are automatically synchronized to the target entities.

All the settings and features that are related to the updates of the shared products in the target entity must be consistent with the ones in the source entity. For example, after sharing the product, you change the UOM value of the shared product to Each in the source entity. The UOM update will not be synchronized to the target entity if the Each unit is not activated in the target entity. See Configurations for Sharing in Target Entities for more information.

If you configure the related setting or get the feature enabled after updating the shared products in the source entity, the updates are still not synchronized to the target entity. To synchronize the missing shared information to the target entity, submit a request at Zuora Global Support.

Data Control on the Shared Products

After sharing products with other entities, you can configure how data is controlled on the shared products in the Product Attribute Control Level Setup setting from the Zuora UI. You can only configure this setting in the global entity.

To apply the control setting to your shared products, you must configure this setting before sharing the products. The setting is applied to all the shared products and all the entities in the entity hierarchy. If you change the setting later, the new setting is then applied to all the shared products. The new setting can only be applied to the product updates that are after the setting configuration. All the product updates that are before the setting configuration will not be applied.

For example,

The product category of a shared product is controlled by the target entity.
After sharing the product, change the product category in the source entity.
Change the control level of the product category to the source entity.

The change of the product category in the source entity is not synchronized to the target entity. Because the change of the product category is before the control level change. If you update the product category after the control level change, the update in the source entity is synchronized to the target entity.

This setting allows you to configure the product attributes control in the following product levels:

Product
Product Rate Plan
Product Rate Plan Charge
Product Rate Plan Charge Tier

Two options of the control level are provided in the setting. Either the source entity or the target entity can control the shared product attributes. The following product attributes can only be controlled by the source entity:

Product Rate Plan Charge: Charge Type
Product Rate Plan Charge: Charge Model
Product Rate Plan Charge: Billing Timing
Product Rate Plan Charge Tier: Currency

You can configure the control level for all the other product attributes based on your requirements.

By default:

SKU is controlled by the source entity.
All the other product attributes are controlled by the target entity.

For more information about how data is controlled on the shared products, see Data Control on Shared Objects. For more information about how to configure the Product Attribute Control Level Setup setting, see Configure Product Attribute Control Setting.

Product Attribute Control Groups

The settings of some product attributes are related to each other. So the control level of the correlated product attributes must be consistent. For example, if the product effective start date is controlled by the source entity, the product effective end date must be controlled by the source entity too.

The following table shows the correlated product attributes in groups. You must set the same control level for each group. An error message is displayed if the product attributes in a group are set to different control levels.

Group	Product Level	Attribute Name
Product effective start and end dates	Product	Effective End Date Effective Start Date
Product rate plan effective start and end dates	Product Rate Plan	Effective End Date Effective Start Date
Billing cycle type and date	Product Rate Plan Charge	Bill Cycle Day Bill Cycle Type Weekly Bill Cycle Day
Billing period	Product Rate Plan Charge	Billing Period Specific Billing Period
End date condition	Product Rate Plan Charge	End Date Condition Up To How Many Periods Up To Periods Type
Price change	Product Rate Plan Charge	Price Change Option Price Increase Option Price Increase Percentage Use Tenant Default For Price Change
Taxation	Product Rate Plan Charge	Tax Code Tax Mode Taxable
Overage Smoothing	Product Rate Plan Charge	Smoothing Model Number Of Period Overage Calculation Option Overage Unused Units Credit Option Unused Included Unit Price
Charge tier unit	Product Rate Plan Charge Tier	Ending Unit Included Units Starting Unit

Management of Shared Products in Target Entities

In each target entity, you can see the shared products are displayed in the product list in Product > Product Catalog in the left-hand navigation section.

You can do the following operations for the received products:

Clone
Export
Create custom fields
Create subscriptions
Create subscription amendments, such as changing the price of the received product.
Edit the target entity controlled information
Deactivate the currencies for the rate plans

But you are not allowed to do the following operations for the received products:

Delete
Edit the source entity controlled information

Each target entity can manage its received products independent of the other subscriber entities. You can perform the supported operations in a target entity without affecting the other entities.