Reference Name
This is an internal name for the Plan. It is not shown to customers.
Billing Period
Select the billing interval from the following selections: day, week, month, year. You can use the Billing Frequency field to “adjust” the Billing Period. For example, to create a Quarterly Billing Period, choose Month here and then enter 3 under Billing Frequency.
Billing Frequency
Select how often the subscription will be billed, based on the interval selected under
Billing Period.
For example, if you are selling a bi-weekly subscription, you will select “Week” under the Billing Period and enter 2 under “Billing Frequency” (the subscription will be charged every 2 weeks). Note that some payment gateways have restrictions on the frequency. For example,
Authorize.Net requires that the billing interval be between 7 and 365 day (i.e. you can't have a subscription shorter than a weekly subscription, if you are using Authorize.Net).
Total Billing Cycles (Bill until canceled?)
Enter the total number of billing cycles. For an ongoing subscription (a subscription that never ends), answer “Yes” to the question “Bill until canceled?”, or enter 0 if there is an input field. If the subscription does end after a certain number of billing occurrences, then enter that number here. For example, if you wanted to sell a 2-year subscription that is billed quarterly, you would enter:
Month under Billing Period
3 under Billing Frequency
8 under Total Billing Cycles (4 quarters a year, times 2 years).
Currency Code
Select the currency used by your store.
Is there a Trial period?
Indicate whether there is a Trial period or not. Note that a Trial does not have to be a “Free Trial”. In fact, the trial amount could be higher than the regular subscription amount (e.g. it may include an initial setup fee). You will specify the trial amount at the Package level.
Trial Billing Period
Select the billing interval (e.g. “Month”) for the Trial period. NOTE: with Authorize.Net, this is not supported: by default the Trial Billing Period is the same as the Billing Period.
Trial Billing Frequency
Select how often the subscription will be billed during the trial, based on the interval selected under Trial Billing Period. For example, if you want to offer a 3-month trial at a discounted price, you will select “Month” under the Trial Billing Period, enter 1 under “Trial Billing Frequency”, and enter 3 under Trial Total Billing Cycles. NOTE: with Authorize.Net, this is not supported: by default the Trial Billing Frequency is the same as the Billing Frequency.
Trial Total Billing Cycles
Enter the total number of billing cycles for the Trial Period. For a free 1-month trial, you would enter 1 here, 1 under Trial Billing Frequency, and “Month” under Trial Billing Period. NOTE: with Authorize.Net the Trial Billing Cycles (“Trial Occurrences” in the Authorize.Net documentation) are counted as part of the Total Billing Cycles (“Total Occurrences” in the Authorize.Net documentation).
Subscription Starts Immediately?
In most cases, you will answer “Yes” as the subscription will start at the time it is ordered. If there is a Trial Period, the subscription will start with the trial. Otherwise, if the subscription is set to start in the future (e.g. the first of January of the following year) select a Start Date in the corresponding field.
Start Date
Enter a Start Date if the subscription is not set to start immediately (i.e. at the time it is ordered). If there is a Trial Period, the Trial will start on the Start Date.