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Plan upgrade w/ items

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Charlie

18 Nov, 2010 05:57 PM

Hi,

I have several plans - basic plan and premium plan. They both allow additional items.

basic $4/m, for each additional items, we charge $2
premium $6/m, for each additional items, we charge $3

I found when a user upgrade from Basic plan to Premium plan, I expect both monthly charge and additional item charge will be prorated, the unused part will be credit as store credit, then start the new plan with new charge.
For eg, when a user (with 2 additional items) upgrade from basic to premium in 15th of a month, I expect CG will credit ($4+$2x2)/2 = $4, then charge $6+$3x2. So the actual charge for credit card should be $12-$4 = $8

But what I noticed that CG does not do refund on additional items. So what really happened is CG credited $4/2, then change $6+$3x2, and the real charge for credit card is $12-$2 = $10.

Is there anyway to let CG works as we expected when user doing upgrading/downgrading with tracked items?

1. Support Staff 1 Posted by Marc Guyer on 18 Nov, 2010 07:19 PM

   

   Hi Charlie -- CG does not prorate tracked item charges. There is no clear way to do this for everyone's model. You can, however, use the custom charges/credits to handle the prorating according to your specifications and your billing model. Based on your example, you would simply add a custom credit in the amount of -$2 to prorate the items when changing plans.

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2. 2 Posted by Charlie on 18 Nov, 2010 07:30 PM

   

   The example was extremely simplified. In real life, it will be awkward to prorate and custom credit. Even I could do it in my code, it will still be a mess on customers' invoice.

   Others may have different requirements. However, would it make sense to have an option on tracked item, to specify whether we would like to prorate charges for tracked item when user change plans? Technically I do not see a problem to implement this "feature". I will appreciate it if you guys could implement it.

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3. Support Staff 3 Posted by Marc Guyer on 18 Nov, 2010 07:43 PM

   

   We have considered the feature and determined that there are too many ways to do it. In other words, any mechanism we developed would be useful for too small a percentage of customers to be worth the trouble. You appear to be using the system to create an "add-on" to the subscription. In your case, it is fairly straightforward -- the prorate would be the same as it is for the base recurring fee. However, tracked items is an extremely flexible system with many other implementations. For example, when using an "included quantity" and charging for overage, there's no way for CG to know if it should prorate the included quantity, the overage, the overage amount or some combination. There are countless ways.
   

   That said, we do have plans in the near future to create a more structured interface for tracked item configuration. Among other things, you would be able to specify that a tracked item is used in a certain way. With this information, there will be potential for more clarity in prorate methods for tracked items. For now, it is what it is.

   As far as the customer's invoice is concerned, adding a credit for your tracked item prorate would simply add one more line item to the invoice. The additional line item would be in the same format as the credit that CG creates for the recurring fee. I wouldn't consider this a "mess". If CG did it automatically, this would still be the case.

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4. 4 Posted by Charlie on 18 Nov, 2010 07:56 PM

   

   Thanks for prompt response.

   So when my customer change plans, I will do two things. I will calculate the item proration and issue a custom credit. Then I will report to CG so CG will calculate the new monthly charge based on the existing plan charge and prorate the monthly fee. Will the customer see two invoices for this plan change, or just one? In other word, will my custom credit be on a different invoice?

   For your plan to create a more structured interface for tracked item configuration, do you have a timetable? Will it be weeks or months? If it will be soon, I might be able to wait for it.

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5. Support Staff 5 Posted by Marc Guyer on 19 Nov, 2010 02:35 PM

   

   Will the customer see two invoices for this plan change, or just one? In other word, will my custom credit be on a different invoice?

   If you issue the credit before the plan change and you are also using the built-in prorate option on plan change, then your credit will be on the current invoice which is transacted on plan change. Then, billing cycle will start over and the current invoice will be "normal".

   For your plan to create a more structured interface for tracked item configuration, do you have a timetable? Will it be weeks or months? If it will be soon, I might be able to wait for it.

   We don't have a firm timetable but we'll be working on it over the next couple of months. Our hope is to have it available sometime in early 2011.

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6. Dean closed this discussion on 16 Jan, 2013 03:01 PM.