Subscriptions
📘 Note In roadmap communications, Order Management is referred to as the CSR Portal.
A subscription lets recurring orders and payments spread over time, providing flexibility in how you sell your products. Use subscriptions for large and complicated orders, orders that need to be shipped in sequence, magazine or grocery subscriptions, or expensive items.
A Customer Service Representative (CSR) configures a subscription to generate recurring payments. The Subscription payment plansSubscription payment plans scheduled job handles subscription processing.
View subscriptions
Click Subscriptions on the Order ManagementOrder Management page.
Choose the subscription you want to view. The information displays in the following tabs:
- Summary – General information, such as market and currency, order number, created date, items, shipping, and discount information.
- Form Details – Shipping address and method, line items, discounts, and payments.
- Contact Details – Customer name and email address. View and edit customer information by clicking Edit next to Customer Information.
- Settings – Information about the subscription, such as cycle length and start date.
Filter subscriptions by search, Created On timeframe, or Market. Use the Columns icon to choose what columns to display in the table.
Filter by customer name or email
Search for subscriptions by customer name (partial match) or email address (exact match). Go to the Search box and begin entering the customer's first name or exact email address. Use % to search for any consecutive string of letters or numbers. Press Enter to execute the search.
Filter by Created on
Filter the Order Management page using the Created On filter. This filter gives you options to filter by a specific Start Date and End Date, or you can use one of the default options. Click Apply to see the results.
Filter by Market
Filter subscriptions by market. Select Any (default), Default Market, or a specific market such as USA, Australia, or Germany.
Create a subscription
- From the Order Management page, click Subscriptions.
- Click Create New Subscription.
- In the Create New Subscription dialog, complete the following fields:
- Choose Site – Select the site that the subscription belongs to (such as episerver_reference_commerce_site).
- Choose Market – Select the market that the subscription is sold in. The market controls the currency, language, and tax rules applied to the order.
- Choose customer (required) – Select the customer who owns the subscription.
- New Customer – Click to create a new customer record first.
- Click Create New Subscription to save the subscription, or Cancel to discard. The Create Subscription window displays the Form Details tab.
- Select Edit from the options menu (...).
- Enter the subscription shipping address and shipping method.
- Click Save.
- Click Add Line Items in the Line Items section.
- In the Product Variant field, enter a search phrase of three or more characters, such as the entire SKU (for example, SKU-44477844) or part of the item name (for example, boot). Search results display — select the line item you want to add. Click More Details to view the product page on your ecommerce website in a new tab.
- Choose a quantity and price. The default placed price displays, but you can change it.
- Click Add Line Item.
- Open the Settings tab and set the cycles and parameters for the subscription:
- Last Transaction Date – Logs the last transaction date. Leave the date and time fields as is when you create the subscription.
- Completed Cycles – Tallies the number of completed cycles since the subscription was created. When initially creating the subscription, set this field to 0.
- Cycle Length – Entering a value of 1 or higher determines the unit of time for the Plan Cycle. For example, if the Plan Cycle is Daily and the Cycle Length is 3, a transaction occurs every three days.
- Plan Cycle – Determines how often the customer is charged. Options include:
- None – No recurring payment is created. The system charges the customer once when it creates the initial purchase order.
- Days – Recurring payment happens daily from the start date.
- Weeks – Recurring payment happens weekly from the start date.
- Months – Recurring payment happens monthly from the start date.
- Years – Recurring payment happens annually from the start date.
- Custom1 or Custom2 – Placeholders for developers to create custom cycles.
- Max Cycles – Determines the maximum number of cycles. For example, if set to 2, the subscription stops after two transaction cycles. Set to 0 for an indefinite plan.
- Start Date – Set the start date and time when recurring transactions begin.
- End Date – Set the end date and time when recurring transactions end.
- Is Active – Select the checkbox to enable the subscription. Leave the checkbox empty to create the subscription and enable it later.
- Click Create Subscription.
Subscription orders
After you create a subscription, the Orders tab displays on the Subscription Details page. The Orders History shows processed purchase orders from this subscription.
The subscription begins when the system generates the first purchase order. Create the purchase order manually or by running the subscription scheduled job (requires administration access).
Create the first purchase order manually
- Click Subscriptions from the Order Management page.
- Choose the subscription you want to create the first purchase order for.
- On the Subscription Details page, open the Form Details tab.
- Click Add Payment.
- Select a billing address and payment method.
- Click Save.
- Click Create First Purchase Order.
The Create First Purchase Order button disappears after you create the first purchase order manually or when the subscription scheduled job runs and generates the first purchase order.
The generated purchase order number includes the parent ID of the subscription. For example, if the subscription parent ID is 35, subsequent purchase orders are numbered as PO35XXX.
When you add a payment to a subscription, the system does not charge the customer. The subscription collects payment information until it is converted to a purchase order. The system charges the customer when it generates the purchase order for the first time (and through subsequent orders).
Edit a subscription
- Click Subscriptions from the Order Management page.
- Click the subscription you want to edit and make your changes. You can add and edit line items and change the subscription settings and shipping information.
Cancel a subscription
- Click Subscriptions from the Order Management page.
- Click the subscription you want to cancel.
- Click Cancel Subscription on the Subscription Details page.
Convert a cart to a subscription
A shopping cart is typically converted to a purchase order when a customer proceeds to checkout and finalizes the purchase. You can also convert a cart to a subscription for further processing — for example, to generate recurring payments for the products added to the cart.
Select Convert To Subscription in Cart Details to convert a cart to a subscription.