Welcome to the first installment of our how-to manuals for Tridens Monetization and EV Charge! This guide will teach you how to set up a monthly subscription plan in Tridens Monetization.
As the name implies, with a monthly subscription plan, customers can subscribe to a plan and have it renewed automatically every month. In Monetization, there are four steps required to create a monthly subscription plan, they are:
- Create the necessary objects based on how you want to configure the product
- Create a monthly product
- Attach the product to a bundle
- Create a monthly plan
Step 1: Create the necessary objects
Based on the product configuration will determine the object you’ll be creating. However, a monthly subscription product must have an object that will determine its reoccurrence; this object is known as an event type in Monetization. In addition, we’ll be creating a bill item and tax object.
Create an event type
The event type is found in Monetization under Business configuration > Charging. Give the event type a name, code, and description. The interval unit should be set to months, the interval duration should be set to one, and the interval time should be set to 12:00 AM.
The above configuration, once given to a subscription product, means the product will renew every month at 12:00 AM.
Create a bill item
We are creating a bill item to determine how the product will be presented on the bill/invoice. The bill item is found in Monetization under Business configuration > Finance. Give the bill item a name, code, description, and type.
It is vital to enable the Included on invoice toggle switch so that the bill item will be included on the generated invoice JSON, which can then be shown in the invoice template.
Create a tax
We are creating a tax to determine the product taxes. The tax is found in Monetization under Business configuration > Finance. Give the tax a name, code, description, and validity period. Set the provider to be a percentage with a value of 15.
The above configuration means that we created a percentage tax of 15%, which can then be given to a product resource price.
We are not going to be creating any more objects in Monetization. However, other objects that should have been made before creating a product are a resource, tax supplier, and general ledger.
Let’s create the monthly product.
Step 2: Create a monthly product
When creating a plan, what determines whether it is a monthly plan is based on how you configure the product. The product section is found in Monetization under Catalog > Products; it is divided into four sections.
- Info section
- Configuration section
- Proration section
- Summary section
Product info section
The product info section should contain basic information about the product: name, code, and description.
Product configuration section
The product configuration section is used to determine how the product will behave. For instance, is it a subscription or a one-time product? Let’s start from top-to-bottom while creating our monthly subscription product.
Set the product type to subscription and choose the monthly event type you created. These two settings signify that the product is a subscription and should renew every month (based on the event type configuration).
Set the duration to zero. The duration is used to typify how many cycles a subscription product should be valid. For our case, it means how many months. For example, setting the duration to 3 means the product will be valid for one month in 3 cycles. We are, however, setting the duration to zero, which typifies that product as an infinite cycle.
Set the cycle to arrear. Setting the cycle to arrear means that the customer will be billed after the first cycle of the product ends and not immediately after the product purchase.
Set the priority to zero, the product quantity to one, and the price type to debit. Setting the price type to debit for this product means that the resource attached to the product will be impacted positively (that is, the customer has to pay for it). For example, if the price of the resource is 20 euro, if the customer purchases the product, they’ll have to pay 20 euro.
Choose the bill item you created and select a tax supplier and general ledger. For this guide, our product will not include a service.
To conclude this section, select a resource that will be impacted when the product is purchased. Inside the product resource version, include a price, and select the tax that was created.
Product proration section
Under the proration section, set the value to Full amount. This means that the customer will be billed in total amount, irrespective of the date in the month the product was purchased.
After reviewing the product, and creating the monthly product, we can now create a monthly subscription plan. Actually, no! Since only a bundle can be attached to a plan, we have to insert the product we created into a bundle and then create the plan.
Step 3: Insert the monthly product into a bundle
The bundle section is found in Monetization under Catalog > Packages. Give the bundle a name, code, and validity period. Also, select the product we created earlier.
Step 4: Insert the bundle into a plan
The final step is to insert the bundle into a plan. The plan section is found in Monetization under Catalog > Packages. Give the plan a name, code, description, and validity period. Also, select the bundle created earlier and choose the supported payment types.
Conclusion
A plan is what customers subscribe to consume a service(s) or use a product resource(s). Creating a monthly subscription plan is determined mainly by how you configure the product, and how you configure a product to be reoccurring is also based on a particular object called the event type.
In addition, a product can only be given to a plan through a bundle. In subsequent guides, you’ll learn how to configure a service product.
