Prolonging a Subscription

Prolongation is available for Subscriptions with fixed monthly payments only.

Prolongation allows customers to extend a Subscription to the next Billing period (or a month) with a Prolong Order and linked dedicated Payment. Prolongation makes it possible to pay for the next period of a Subscription in advance to avoid the situation when on the Paid to date, other Subscriptions of a customer may attempt to access the Account balance. If the Account balance does not have sufficient funds for all Subscriptions, some of them will stop, and the customer cannot choose which of them. At the same time, a prolonged Subscription continues working after the Paid to date and does not depend on the Account balance. Manual prolonging also allows customers to change the amount of Resources.

A Prolong Order is created as delayed (Delayed = Yes and Provisioning date = the Paid to date) if all of the following terms are met:

  • A Prolong Order is created before the Paid to date.
  • The amount of Resources in the Order is increased or decreased.

In other cases, a Prolong Order is created with the following parameters: Delayed = No, Provisioning date = the Order creation date.

Those customers, who prefer to pay for their Subscriptions from the Account balance rather than with the dedicated Payments, may just ignore Prolong Orders and continue using the Account balance. On the Paid to dates, Prolong Orders will be completed via the Account balance automatically.

The Reseller can activate automatic joining in a single Payment all Payments for Prolong Orders and Renewal Orders automatically created for an Account by the billing process on the same night.

For postpaid Subscriptions, Prolong Orders do not have linked Payments, so they are completed automatically right after creation.

In this article:

Automatic prolonging an active Subscription

Automatic prolonging a Subscription has the following rules:

  • A Subscription has the Active or Waiting for manual approve status.
  • The platform attempts to create a Prolong Order for a Subscription every night before the fixed number of days to the Paid to date while the Paid to date is less than the subscription expiration date.
  • For a new Subscription, the Paid to date depends on the Plan terms: it may be set to the next Billing day or a month after the Subscription start date. Then the Paid to date is updated with every successful prolongation.
  • After completing the final Prolong Order for a Subscription, the Paid to date is set to the Subscription expiration date. For a Subscription with the expiration date close to the Billing day, the final Prolong Order is created for an extended period. It includes the whole next month and the rest of another Billing period with the expiration date. Otherwise, a Prolong Order would be created too close to the next Billing day, and it would not be enough time to pay for the prolongation.
  • The expiration date of the Prolong Order is set to the last day of the period covered by the Prolong Order.
  • The Prolong Order is created in the Waiting for payment status.
  • For the prepaid Subscriptions, the Prolong Order is created with a linked Payment in the Waiting for payment status (see Managing Payments). The Payment can be completed with an available Payment method or from the Account balance.
  • For postpaid Subscriptions, the Prolong Order is created without linked Payment so that it is completed automatically right after creating.
  • On the Paid to date, the platform attempts to complete from the Account balance the existing Prolong Order in the Waiting for payment status. If the Account balance does not have sufficient funds, the Subscription stops. However, if the Reseller allowed the grace period, the Subscription gets the Graced status and continues working until the grace period ends. Except for prolonging, all operations with the Subscription become not available. During the grace period, the platform performs daily attempts to complete from the Account balance the existing unpaid Prolong Order. It means that if an Account during the grace period tops up the Account balance with sufficient funds, the unpaid Prolong Order will be automatically completed on the next day.
  • After completing the Payment, the Paid to date of the Subscription is set equal to the last day of the period covered by the Prolong Order.

For Subscriptions in the Stopped status:

  • A Prolong Order is not created automatically.
  • The existing Prolong Order is not completed automatically, so it and the linked Payment remain in the Waiting for payment status until the end of the period covered by the Prolong Order.
  • Manual prolongation is available if a Prolong order was created previously but not completed.

Manual prolonging a Subscription with optional changing the amount of Resources

Manual prolonging is available only for the following Subscriptions:

  • In the Active status without the unprocessed Change Order, Renewal Order, or Switch Order.
  • In the Stopped status — instead of activating if the Subscription was not prolonged on time.
  • In the Graced status without the unprocessed Prolong Order.

To prolong a Subscription manually with optional changing the amount of Resources:

  1. Sign in to the Customer Control Panel (see Signing in to the Customer Control Panel). The Subscriptions page is displayed (see Viewing the list of Subscriptions).

  2. Next, depending on the following terms:

    • If the Subscription does not have the Prolong Order in the Waiting for payment or Waiting for provisioning status:

      1. In the block of the required Subscription, click Prolong. The confirmation window is displayed with information about the required payment for the operation.

      2. In the confirmation window, click OK.

        For the period when the manual prolonging is not available, the Prolong button is not displayed.

    • If the Subscription already has the Prolong Order in the Waiting for payment or Waiting for provisioning status:

      1. Go to the page of the Payment linked to the Prolong Order (see Viewing Payment Details). 

      2. On the Payment page, click Edit and confirm the operation (see Editing a Payment).

        For a manually stopped Subscription, the Edit button on the page of the Payment linked to the Prolong Order is not displayed until the Paid to.

    The page of a new Prolong Order is displayed.



  3. Optionally, change the amount of Resources (for the general description of the procedure, see Changing amount of Resources).

    Depending on the Plan terms, decreasing the amount of Resources may not be available.

    For Subscriptions in the Graced status, changing the amount of Resources in a Prolong Order is not available.

  4. Check the subscription cost and taxes:
    • Prices and total cost do not include taxes — taxes will be calculated and added to the Order amount on the confirmation step.
    • Prices and total cost include taxes — taxes are already included in the prices.
  5. Click Next. The Order confirmation page is displayed.
  6. On the Order confirmation page:
    1. Check the following Order information:
      • The list of the ordered items, their quantity, and cost.
      • The applied taxes:
        • If the order subtotal does not include taxes, the displayed amount does not include the sum of taxes from the list.
        • If the order subtotal includes taxes, the sum of taxes from the list is already included in the displayed amount.
      • The list of taxes — the name, rate, and amount of every tax applied to the order items.
      • The total amount of the Order.

        On the Subscription configuration steps, all prices are displayed in the Plan currency. On the Order confirmation step, all prices are displayed in the Reseller currency that will be used in the Order, Charges, and Payments for the Subscription. For actual information about currency exchange rates, see Screen Layout.

        If confirmation of an Order is not available, a message explaining the reason is displayed, and the Submit button is not available.

        For a Prolong Order created manually, the covered period depends on the Plan terms. For a Subscription with the expiration date close to the Billing day, the final Prolong Order is created for an extended period. It includes the whole next month and the rest of another Billing period with the expiration date. Otherwise, a Prolong Order would be created too close to the next Billing day, and it would not be enough time to pay for the prolongation.

    2. Optionally, in the Promo code field, enter a Promo code and click Apply to apply a discount.

      If the Subscription was ordered at the individual prices via Operator Control Panel, the Promo code field is hidden because the promo codes are not applicable to these Subscriptions.

    3. Click Confirm. A Prolong Order will be created as well as the linked Payment and Charges for the covered period.

  7. Complete the Payment (see Completing a Payment). After provisioning the Prolong Order (immediately after completing the Payment or on the Provisioning date — for a delayed Order), the new Paid to date is set for the Subscription taking into account the period covered by the Order. If the Subscription is stopped, it gets the Active status.