Prolonging a Subscription

Prolongation allows customers to extend a Subscription to the next Billing period with an automatically created Prolong Order and dedicated Payment. Prolongation makes it possible to pay for the next Billing period of a Subscription in advance to avoid the situation when on the Billing day, all Subscriptions of a customer attempt to access the Account balance for the next Billing period charges. 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 Billing day and does not depend on the Account balance.

Prolong Orders are created for a Subscription every month while the date in the Paid to attribute is less than the Expiration date. The Paid to attribute is not displayed in the current version and set automatically as follows:

• For Subscriptions with the CSP monthly billing type, the Paid to attribute is equal to the date of the next Billing day. These Subscriptions will have new Prolong Orders every month, but for the Expiration date, only a Renewal Order can be created.
• For Subscriptions with other billing types, the Paid to attribute is equal to the Expiration date. These Subscriptions do not have Prolong Orders, and for the Expiration date, only a Renewal Order can be created.

In this article:

Prolonging an active Subscription

The procedure of Subscription prolongation has the following rules:

• A Subscription has any status but Stopped or Deleted.
• The billing process attempts to create a Prolong Order for a Subscription every night before the specified number of days to the Paid to date. The number of days is specified in the Auto-renew point (days) parameter of the Subscription (see Viewing and updating Subscription's details). If Auto-renew point (days) is set to 0, the billing process attempts to create a Prolong Order on the Paid to date.
• For the Prolong Order, a Charge is created for the next Billing period. The Charge has the following attributes: operate_from = the start date of the next Billing period, operate_to = the last day of the next Billing period, and its amount depends on the Fixed Price option.
• 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 a prepaid Subscription, the Prolong Order is created with a linked Payment in the Waiting for payment status (Managing Orders):
  
  • The Payment can be merged with other Payments.
  • The Payment can be cancelled manually. In this case, the Prolong Order gets the Cancelled status.

  • The Payment is linked with the Charges of the next Billing period.

  • The Payment can be completed with an available Payment method or from the Account balance. When the Payment is completed, the Prolong Order gets the Completed status.
• For a postpaid Subscription, the Prolong Order is created without a linked Payment and then gets the Completed status automatically.
• 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 taking into account the Grace period parameter (see Viewing the List of Service Terms).
• A new Prolong Order is not created if there is a Prolong Order in the current Billing period in any status but Cancelled or Completed.
• If the billing process attempts to create a Prolong Order before the Paid to date and there is a Change Order or Switch plan Order in any status but Completed or Cancelled, the Prolong Order is not created.
• If the billing process attempts to create a Prolong Order on the Paid to date and there is a Change Order or Switch plan Order in one of the following statuses:
  • Provisioning, the Prolong Order is not created.
  • Waiting for payment, this Order gets the Cancelled status and the Prolong Order is created for the current configuration of the Subscription.
  • Provisioning failed, Cancelled, Completed, the Prolong Order is created for the current configuration of the Subscription.
• After completing the Payment, the Paid to date of the Subscription is updated and set equal to the next Billing day.

Prolonging a stopped Subscription

For Subscriptions in the Stopped status:

• A Prolong Order is not created automatically.
• The existing Prolong Order is not completed automatically so it remains in the Waiting for payment status as well as the linked Payment till the expiration date.
• Manual prolongation is available if a Prolong order was created previously but not completed.

To prolong a Subscription manually:

1. Sign in to the Operator Control Panel.
2. On the Navigation bar, go to Subscriptions (see Navigation). The Subscriptions page is displayed (see Viewing the list of Subscriptions).
3. Click the ID or Name of the required Subscription. The Subscription details page is displayed (see Viewing and updating Subscription's details).
4. On the Toolbar, click Prolong. The Prolong Order page is displayed. If the Prolong Order does not exist, it will be created in the Waiting for payment status as well as the linked Payment and Charges for the covered period:
   • If the current number of days before the next Billing day is greater than the number of days specified in the Auto-renew point (days) parameter of the Subscription, the platform prolongs the Subscription till the end of the current Billing period.
   • If the current number of days before the next Billing day is less than or equal to the number of days specified in the Auto-renew point (days) parameter of the Subscription, the platform prolongs the Subscription till the end of the next Billing period.
5. After completing the Payment, the Paid to date of the Subscription is updated and the Subscription gets the Active status.