a YEARLY plan with a tracked item (USERS) at a monthly frequency (isPerioidic = monthly Tracked Item)
Marc,
I have a sample YEARLY plan in my test account.
For the plan GOLD_YEARLY, I have a tracked item called USERS.
While the plan is yearly, we anticipate the tracked item of USERS to change monthly.
Can the "Is Periodic" checkbox to a monthly bill cycle?
Or if you are on a yearly plan, are tracked items also forced to be "Annual".
We expect a company to sign up for a yearly plan to get a 10% discount, but we anticipate that the number of users may go up/down on a monthly basis.
Any suggestions on how a yearly plan with a possible "monthly" item behaves? Or a simple solution.
thanks
Discussions are closed to public comments.
If you need help with Cheddar please
start a new discussion.
Keyboard shortcuts
Generic
| ? | Show this help |
|---|---|
| ESC | Blurs the current field |
Comment Form
| r | Focus the comment reply box |
|---|---|
| ^ + ↩ | Submit the comment |
You can use Command ⌘ instead of Control ^ on Mac
Support Staff 1 Posted by Marc Guyer on 14 Jul, 2010 09:59 PM
Only if the plan is monthly
Yes (or not periodic at all).
What are USERS? Are you trying to limit the total number (each month) and/or charge overage for the USERS?
2 Posted by Geoff Treitel on 15 Jul, 2010 03:05 PM
USERS are "Additional staff who can access the corporate account:/plan."
A good example of our plan types and the additional revenue we wish to generate for additional users/staff is here:
https://secure.freshbooks.com/pricing.php
And to paraphrase FreshBooks..
"If you need to add staff to your OSHAtrac PLAN, use the "Upgrade" link in your OSHAtrac account to add as many staff as you need at $1 each per month per staffer.
Yes we are trying to charge OVERAGES for the tracked item USERS. The PLAN type though is set to a YEARLY charge (for a 10% discount on price), but we expect additonal staff could be added/subtracted on a montly basis. We will use the API to add/subtract staffers from the tracked item USER- however I'm not sure since its a yearly plan if the tracked item USER can be billed monthly OR if each time a staff member is added/substracted as a tracked item USER- will there be a requirement to collect a full year payment for the added USER and then a refund issued if a staffer is subtracted from the tracked item USER.
side thought:
I realize after reading this that we seem to be trying to do a lot to collect $1 of revenue per month per user. That is the business requirement I have been given. Perhaps if this is a lot of programming work to integrate, I will suggest that the business unit consider a different price point for this service in our product.
thanks
Support Staff 3 Posted by Marc Guyer on 15 Jul, 2010 08:09 PM
Based on your description, for the yearly plan, the charge would be for $12, I would guess. It certainly doesn't make sense to charge the customer $1. The only way to do this is to wait until the customer's yearly payment comes due and settle up for the users they've added at that point.
By the way, if you ran a transaction for $1, you'd only get about $0.70 after transaction fees and interchange.
We do not recommend annual billing anyway. There is liability there... Also, customers typically don't go for it.
4 Posted by Geoff Treitel on 15 Jul, 2010 08:39 PM
Ok, I will bring these points to management's attention. The Return on Investment (ROI) of 70 cents on each dollar transaction should get someone's attention to rethink.
I was thinking of a work around to be for an ANNUAL plan that has some monthly features to divide and conquer..
A Corporate Annual Account must have 2 plans:
1 A YEARLY plan with a tracked item of USERS and a tracked items of SITES with no "overages" and "included" set at some number
then if they want to add/drop USERS each month...
2 A MONTHLY plan with tracked item of USERS with "Included" set to 0, an "Overage" set to $1.00, and thus a "Is Periodic" of monthly
Is this possible, 1 coroporate user but subscribed to two plans?
Sounds possible but a possible maintenance headache.
Support Staff 5 Posted by Marc Guyer on 16 Jul, 2010 08:34 PM
It's not possible to be subscribed to 2 plans simultaneously unless you use two unique customer accounts.
I don't think you want to use "is periodic" for the USERS item. Over time, you would add quantity to the USERS item as the customer needs more user accounts. At the end of the billing cycle, you want to charge for overage for USERS over the quantity included. After that bill, the customer still has the same number of USERS. You would simply continue to add (or removed) USERS based on the customer's needs. If the item was set to be periodic, CG will automatically set the customer's quantity of the USERS item back to zero.
I don't see a problem with using it in this way for the annual plan. Unless you expect a significant fluctuation in the number of users over time. You could use the system to track a "high water mark" for the item usage. Then they would be charged annually for the highest number of USERS throughout the year. Use the transaction post hook to trigger your app to update the customer's current USERS quantity immediately after an invoice bills.
6 Posted by Geoff Treitel on 16 Jul, 2010 09:23 PM
Good News!
Business Unit had decided to eliminate the ANNUAL plans for now!
Ring the bells, fire the cannons, send in the clowns.
I was thinking "is periodic" worked the reverse of how you describe above.
It sounds my understanding of "is periodic" is completely the reverse of how you all intend it to be used.
Last question, it sounds like I should NOT use "is periodic" for the MONTHLY plans either then ?
7 Posted by Geoff Treitel on 16 Jul, 2010 09:43 PM
as I change "is periodic" to NOT true for my plans and as I happily delete the annual plans...I noticed a typo in your question mark box definition of "is Periodic"
you all write..
"Otherwise, the item quantity is additive forever."
should "additive" be "added"?
Support Staff 8 Posted by Marc Guyer on 16 Jul, 2010 09:48 PM
No, "additive" is what we meant. "Added" could be used as well. However, neither is exactly accurate. You can think of this in a much simpler way: If an item is periodic, CG will reset customers' quantity for the item back to zero at the beginning of each billing period. If not, CG doesn't automatically do anything to the quantity. In that case, the only change to quantity occurs at your request, either by API or GUI.
Marc Guyer closed this discussion on 16 Jul, 2010 09:48 PM.
Geoff Treitel re-opened this discussion on 16 Jul, 2010 09:55 PM
9 Posted by Geoff Treitel on 16 Jul, 2010 09:55 PM
Got it. Thanks.
Marc Guyer closed this discussion on 16 Jul, 2010 10:01 PM.