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Ordering Consumption Schedules with Evergreen Subscriptions
Evergreen subscriptions are useful when you want to invoice a customer’s usage until they cancel the service. (Salesforce Billing Managed Package)
When a sales rep orders an evergreen subscription product related to a consumption schedule, Salesforce Billing performs the following process.
- Creates 12 usage summaries.
- Each summary’s length is equal to the consumption schedule’s term and term unit.
- The first usage summary inherits its start date from the parent order product’s start date.
When the sales rep is ready to upload usage outside the original 12 summaries, they can create a usage record related to the evergreen subscription order product. Salesforce Billing then evaluates whether the usage date falls within an active usage summary. If it doesn’t, Salesforce Billing creates a usage summary. The new usage summary follows the same billing periods as the order product’s previous summaries.
For example, let’s say our previous 12 summaries had a one-month term, began on the first of the month, and ran from 01/01/20 through 12/31/20. If the sales rep uploads usage with a usage date of 03/20/21, Salesforce Billing creates a usage summary for 03/01/21 through 03/31/21 and assigns it the new usage.
Let’s look at a few ways Salesforce Billing creates usage summaries for evergreen subscriptions based on the consumption schedule’s term. The parent evergreen order product bills monthly in arrears, with a start date of 04/01/2020. Remember, usage summaries have their own next billing dates, which are inherited from the summary end date.
| Consumption Schedule Term | Resulting Usage Summaries | First Summary Start Date | First Summary End Date | First Summary Next Billing Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 Month | 12 One-Month Summaries | 04/01/20 | 04/30/20 | 04/30/20 |
| 2 Months | 12 Two-Month Summaries | 04/01/20 | 05/31/20 | 05/31/20 |
| 1 Quarter | 12 Three-Month Summaries | 04/01/20 | 06/30/20 | 06/30/20 |
| 2 Quarters | 12 Six-Month Summaries | 04/01/20 | 09/30/20 | 09/30/20 |
During an invoice run, or when you bill an order, Salesforce Billing looks at the next billing dates on order products and usage summaries independently. Sometimes, the first billing period for your evergreen subscription order product and your first usage summary can end up on different invoices based on their next billing dates.
For example, let’s say we ordered the evergreen subscription with the 2-month consumption schedule. If an invoice run with a target date of 04/30/20 evaluates our order, it picks up the order product. But it doesn’t pick up any of our usage summaries because the earliest summary has a next billing date of 05/31/20.
To include the order product and usage summary on the same invoice, configure the consumption schedule so that its term matches the billing frequency of your order product’s term. In this case, we create a consumption schedule with a billing term of 1 and a billing term unit of Month. When a sales rep orders the product, Salesforce Billing creates a one-month usage summary each month during your order product's term, totaling 12.
| Usage Summary | Summary Start Date | Summary End Date | Next Billing Date | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 04/01/20 | 04/30/20 | 04/30/20 | New |
| 2 | 05/01/20 | 05/30/20 | 05/30/20 | New |
| ... | ... | ... | ... | ... |
| 12 | 12/01/20 | 12/31/20 | 12/31/20 | New |
Because our order product’s initial next billing date falls on 04/30/20, an invoice run with a target date of 04/30/20 picks up the order product and the first usage summary. Further invoice runs will continue to pick up the order product and the monthly usage summary records at the same time, unless a user overrides one of the next billing dates.
When an invoice run picks up a usage summary for invoicing, Salesforce Billing updates the summary’s invoice run processing status to show its position in the invoicing process. The usage summary’s invoice run processing status updates independently from the parent order product’s invoice run processing status.
