A plan tells SubsBase how often and how much to charge your customers. Plans can be created with free trials, optional products (called addons), setup fees, and more.

Your main Plans page contains a list of plans defined in your SubsBase account. You can select any plan name to view its detailed information, edit it, or change its active status.

To create a new plan in your SubsBase site, select Plans from the sidebar > click on "New Plans" button at the top right side > start your plan configuration > choose if you want this plan to be active or inactive from the toggle at the top right side > click "Save".

The main purpose of the Active/Inactive toggle is choosing whether to show the new created plan to your customers on the Plan Picker page or not. Accordingly, if you choose Active, the plan will be shown, and if you choose Inactive, it will not be shown on the Plan Picker page.

To Create a New Plan you will need to define the following parameters, where some are required and others are optional, as listed below: create new plan

Plan Info

plan info

Product Name

(Required)
This is just an internal name for your product to help you identify it on your SubsBase site. It is only shown to the admin portal users and will not be shown to your customers/subscribers. However, we recommend setting up a naming convention within your company to help differentiate between your products.

Plan Name

(Required)
This name describes your plan and will appear on the admin portal, customer portal, and the customer/subscriber's invoice.

Plan Code

(Required)
  • The plan code is the unique identifier of the plan. It is automatically generated based on the plan name that you specify.
    • For example, if the plan name is "Plan 01", the plan code will be "plan-01".
  • You can also modify this plan code as required. However, make sure it is written in lowercase alphanumeric characters only.

Invoice Name

(Optional)
This is the title of the invoice you want your customers/subscribers see when they receive the invoice. You can choose to name it a payment receipt instead of an invoice, for instance.

Accounting Code

(Optional)
This is a value to help identify plans in internal invoice exports. When you integrate with an accounting software, link the plan with its corresponding account to be able to know the plan's revenue through the accounting code.

Billing Model

Prepaid

  • You can charge your customers/subscribers in advance for your products and services that will be delivered on a regular basis.

Postpaid

  • You can charge your customers/subscribers based on usage or consumption of your products and services. Apart from a base charge, they pay for what they use when exceeding the base limit included in their subscription., at the end of each billing cycle.
  • Details of the usage/consumption are shown in a Payload: ➤{...} in the Usage Query in the Billing Cycle section, like the following example
{
siteId:"test-site",
customerId:"12345",
subscriptionId:"67890",
startDate:"2022-01-01T00:00:00.000Z",
endDate:"2022-01-31T00:00:00.000Z",
codes: [
     "plan-01",
     "addon-1",
     "addon-2"
   ]
}
  • The payload only include the details of the postpaid plans or addons.
    • For example, if you created a prepaid plan with postpaid addons, the payload will only include the codes of the postpaid addons.

Description

(Optional)
This is the additional details about your plan. If you choose to configure a plan's description, it will be displayed on: Checkout, Customer Portal, or/and Plan Picker.

Image URL

(Optional)
If you choose to configure a plan's image, it will be displayed on: Checkout, Customer Portal, or/and Plan Picker.

Enable Dunning

(Optional)
Although 'Enable Dunning' toggle is optional, but once it is enabled, selecting 'Dunning Profiles' will be (Required)
plan info enable dunning You can choose from the already created dunning profiles available in the drop-down menu, or create a new one in Settings > Dunning Profiles > +New Dunning Profile.

Request Email Verification

(Optional)
You can choose to ask your customers/subscribers to verify their emails during checkout sessions in order to be able to complete their payments.

Pricing

The price of the plan is set according to the pricing model you choose for your plan. pricing

Pricing Model

(Required)
pricing model SubsBase offers you six pricing models that can be used: Free, Fixed, Per Unit, Tiered, Volume and Stair Step.

Fixed

  • The fixed pricing model is for plans that have a fixed recurring charge at the end of each billing cycle.
  • However, you may want to add addons, which are additional charges you can include in your plan, whether on a regular basis (recurring) or for only one-time.

Per Unit

  • The per unit pricing model is used in plans where you charge your customers/subscribers for one unit of a product or service, at the end of the billing cycle.
    • For example, you may be offering a product for $10 per user per month, where the unit is the user, and the billing cycle is one month.
    • You may also charge your customers/subscribers $25 for 2GB per month. In this example, the charge is based on user consumption, where the unit is 2GB, and the billing cycle is one month.

Tiered

  • The tiered pricing model is used in plans where you sell your products and services within a specific price range (tier). Once your customers/subscribers fill up a tier, they move to the next one and they will be billed according to the number of purchases they make in those respective tiers.
  • Your customers/subscribers move to the next tier only when one tier is completely filled, where units are purchased from consecutive tiers, starting from the lowest. - For example, you sold 60 units to your customer/subscriber, and your tiered pricing model is as follow:
    Tiered Pricing ModelPrice / 1 month
    0-10 units$40
    11-30 units$25
    31 units onwards$15

So, you will charge the first 10 units at $40, the following 20 units will be charged at $25, and the remaining 30 units will be charged at $15.
The total monthly revenue would be: ($40x10) + ($25x20) + ($15x 30) = $1,350

Volume

  • The volume pricing model is quantity-based, however, the price per unit depends on the range within which the total quantity falls. So in this model, you will charge the units based on the price of the highest range/tier reached. - Taking the same example above, where you sold 60 units to your customer/subscriber, and your volume pricing model is as follow:
    Volume Pricing ModelPrice / 1 month
    0-10 units$40
    11-30 units$25
    31 units onwards$15

Here the total is calculated as ($15x60) based on the total number of units sold which falls under the 31 units onwards price range.
So the total monthly revenue would be: $15x60 = $300

Stair Step

  • The stair step pricing model charges a fixed price according to the highest range/tier reached. - Using the same example, where you sold 60 units to your customer/subscriber, and your stair stp pricing model is as follow:
    Stair Step Pricing ModelPrice / 1 month
    0-10 units$40
    11-30 units$25
    31 units onwards$15

So the total here will be $15 per month, where you will charge a fixed price based on the range/tier of units a customer/subscriber buys, regardless of whether a customer/subscriber buys 30, 40, or 50 units, they will pay $15.

Setup Cost

(Required)
  • Setup cost is a one-time transaction charged at the beginning of a subscription billing cycle.
  • It's a (Required) field that must be filled out with a value. So if you do not want to include a setup cost in your plan, you just enter a zero (0) as a setup cost.

Price

(Required)
Based on the pricing model that you choose, you can specify the price for the plan's price point.

Billing Cycle

The billing cycle is the recurring date on which you issue invoices to your customers/subscribers. billing cycle

Billing Every

(Required)
  • Here you specify the billing period for when your customers/subscribers should be charged.
    Once a plan is created, and it has active subscriptions, you cannot edit any field in the Pricing and Billing Cycle sections.

Term Limit

(Required)
  • Term limit determines whether the subscription will be automatically renewed for another billing cycle/term or cancelled at the end of the current billing cycle/term.
  • If you want the subscription to be automatically renewed, you just enter a zero (0) as a term limit, and the Actions field will be marked as "Auto Renew" by default, after saving your plan.

Actions

(Required)
  • These are the actions that will be taken if you specified the Term Limit with a value that is equal to or greater than one.
  • Once the term limit is specified, there will be two available actions that you can choose from (Auto Renew or Cancel).
  • So what is the difference between the "Auto Renew" action when your term limit is zero and when it is equal or greater than one?
    • When the term limit is zero and the action is "Auto Renew", then the billing cycle will have an unlimited auto renewal, until you or your customer/subscriber cancel the subscription.
    • When the term limit is equal to or greater than one, and the action is "Auto Renew", the billing cycle will have an unlimited auto renewal, however it will depend on term limit you specified in the Term Limit field.
      • For example, if you want to create a five-year contract that bills the customer/subscriber quarterly. You will specify your fields as follows: - Bill Every: 3 months - Term Limit: 5 - ​Actions: Auto Renew In the above example, the plan's subscriptions will be expired (and marked as "Cancelled") after the completion of the five terms. Then, the plan's subscriptions will be automatically renewed and added as new subscriptions on the same plan (and marked as "Active"). This process will be automatically renewed until you or your customer/subscriber cancel the subscription.

Info Fields

When creating a plan, you specify the required info fields (like name and email) that your customers/subscribers have to fill out during the checkout session in order to be able to pay invoices. info fields

Trial Settings

  • You can offer your customers/subscribers a trial period that can be customized as you want, with an option to require the credit card info or not.
    The paid subscription will begin at the end of the trial period.
    trial settings

Tax Settings

  • SubsBase enables you to collect taxes on your invoices.
  • You can choose how your plans should be taxed by configuring the fields in the Tax Settings section.
  • The value/price that you quote for your product or service in SubsBase is set to Tax-Exclusive by default, where tax is applied on top of the product or service price. tax settings
    We are not taxation experts, SubsBase only enables business to comply with sales tax and VAT laws. Please contact a tax professional to advise you on which laws apply to your business in the areas you serve.

Extra Fee Settings

  • SubsBase enables you to configure a fixed or percentage-based extra fees on your products and services.
  • You can choose to apply the extra fees on a regular basis or under certain conditions as per your specifications when turning the "Apply When..." toggle on. extra fee settings

Addons

  • Addons are additional products or services that are not part of the base subscribed plan.
  • These items are made available to customers/subscribers when they add/buy the addon along with their subscribed plan.
  • A plan may contain one or more addons. You can either choose from existing addons that were already created and used across multiple plans, or you can create new ones that are specific to one plan and its subscriptions. addons 01

Name

(Required)
This name describes your addon and will appear on the admin portal, customer portal, and the customer/subscriber's invoice.

Code

(Optional)
  • The code is the unique identifier of the addon. It is automatically generated based on the addon name that you specify.
    • For example, if the addon name is "Extra Units", the plan code will be "extra-units".

Addons Rules

addons rules

Max Total Addons Quantity

(Optional)
  • This rule lets you define the maximum quantity of allowed addons per plan.
    • For example, if your plan includes five addons, and you specify your maximum total addons quantity for three, this means that you are allowing your customers/subscribers to choose only three addons per plan.

Exact Total Addons Quantity

(Optional)
  • This rule lets you define the exact quantity of allowed addons per plan.
    • For example, if your plan includes two addons, and you specify your exact total addons quantity for two, this means that your customers/subscribers must add this exact quantity of addons per plan.

Future Start Settings

  • You can choose to have the subscription start right away, with a trial period, or on a scheduled future start date.
  • If you select this option, the subscription will be created immediately, but the invoice will not be sent until the future start date.
  • If the subscription has a future start date and a trial period at the same time, the trial period will start on the future start date you specified. future start settings
    Although 'Future Start Settings' is optional, but once you +Add one or more, selecting 'Display Text' will be (Required)

Pause Settings

You can choose to pause an active subscription and skip its future renewals temporarily.

A paused subscription is not considered churned.
pause settings
Although 'Pause Settings' is optional, but once you +Add one or more, selecting 'Display Text' will be (Required)