Creating a service term

To create a new service term:

1. Go to Service Terms (Navigation). The list of service terms is displayed (see Viewing the list of service terms).
2. Click Create. The New Service Term page is displayed.
3. Configure the service term settings in the following groups:
   
4. Click Create. The service term is created and displayed in the list.

Service term information

In the Service term information group:

1. In the Name field, enter the name of the service term.

2. In the Key field, enter the key of the service term. Only lowercase characters, numbers, and underscores are allowed.

   The key is used for synchronizing service terms among vendors, distributors, and resellers that have delegated plans, so the key must be unique. On the upstream reseller level, for a new service term, it is possible to specify only the Key value that is not used in service terms of all downstream resellers.

3. In the Stop subscription type list, select how subscriptions are stopped, except for the manual stopping (see Stopping a subscription) and moving an account to the credit hold (see Credit hold of the account):

   • Automatically — subscriptions are stopped automatically (by default).
   • Manually — subscriptions are stopped after approving manual operations by a manager (see Manual operations).
4. In the Delete subscription type list, select how subscriptions are deleted:
   
   • Automatically — subscriptions deleted automatically (by default).
   • Manually — subscriptions are deleted after approving manual operations by a manager (see Manual operations)

   Manual stopping and deleting can be useful for plans linked to subscriptions that require uninterrupted working to run customers' infrastructure and vital business processes (for example, plans of the following services: Microsoft Azure, VMware vCloud Director).

   To apply manual stopping and deleting to all subscriptions of an account regardless of a plan, see Creating an account class.

Payment creation

In the Payment creation group:

1. In the Billing day field, enter the day of the month when charges (see Charges) change their statuses. This field can be set from 1 to 28.

2. In the Prepayment for provisioning of subscriptions, amount in reseller currency field, the amount of a top-up prepayment for a customer to order a subscription. A payment will be created if a customer purchases a prepaid subscription while the order amount is 0, and actions with the account balance are allowed by the reseller (see Managing financial settings). The provision of the purchased subscription begins only after payment has been completed, and its amount is fully credited to the account balance. When used with the topup_amount parameter in a buy-link via the Storefront, the payment amount is defined by the greatest value among them (for more information, see topup_amount in the Buy-link template for ordering a service via Storefront).
   

   The top-up prepayment is required to make sure that an ordered subscription with the Pay as you go billing type will not be stopped almost right after its activation:

   1. A pay-as-you-go subscription within the Prepay model blocks funds on the account balance only for the quantity of resources consumed on the service side.
   2. Usually, the first consumption data from the service side is processed on the platform side one hour after the subscription activation.
   3. The top-up prepayment is used to cover this consumption.

   The Prepayment for provisioning of subscriptions, amount in reseller currency parameter is also applied when a customer orders a prepaid trial subscription with any billing type since the order amount is 0.

3. If it is necessary to allow a customer pay for subscriptions using a guaranteed payment, select the Available for payment by guaranteed payment checkbox (see Managing guaranteed payments).

Invoicing settings

In the Invoicing settings group, select how invoices must be created and closed for subscriptions (see Managing invoices):

• Invoices are closed by platform — the platform creates invoices for subscriptions with the same billing day (see Billing day above) and automatically closes them on the second day of the next billing period. This option is used by default.
• Invoices are closed by external system — invoices are closed by a request of an external system after receiving and processing information from a vendor about the subscription consumption. This option is used only for some services like Microsoft Azure Plan and Google Cloud Platform (see the Services. Operator documentation guide). Invoices for subscriptions of an account can be joined in one invoice or issued individually for each subscription — see the account settings in Viewing and updating account's details.

Sales settings

If you need the period of a new subscription to be automatically shortened so that the expiration date is set to the billing day and renewal orders to be created for a full month, in the Sales settings group, select the Align an expiration date to a billing day checkbox. By default, the checkbox is not selected, and the expiration date for a new subscription is calculated based on the full subscription period.

Prolongation settings

In the Prolongation settings group, in the Grace period field, enter the number of days (from 0 to 28) after the Paid to date (see Prolonging a subscription), when a subscription will not be stopped due to the unpaid prolong order. During the grace period:

1. A subscription has the Graced status but continues working.
2. The platform performs daily attempts to complete from the account balance the existing unpaid prolong order (taking into account the possibility to pay with negative balance).

Renewal settings

In the Renewal settings group:

1. In the Manual renew point (days) Prepay and Manual renew point (days) Postpay fields, enter the default values for the following cases per payment model:

1. • The number of days before the subscription expiration date, when the Renew button and manual renewing for the subscription become available (see Manual renewing of a subscription).

   • The number of days before the Paid to date, when the Prolong button and manual prolonging for the subscription become available (see Prolonging a subscription).

     To make manual renewal of a subscription available during the full subscription period, enter -1. Manual prolonging of a subscription becomes unavailable in this case.

     To make manual renewal and prolongation of a subscription completely unavailable, enter 0.

     After the subscription expiration date, the availability of the Renew button is defined by another setting — Manual renewal of expired subscription (see below).

2. In the Auto-renew point (days) Prepay and Auto-renew point (days) Postpay fields, enter the default values for the following cases per payment model:

   • The number of days before the subscription expiration date when a renewal order is automatically created (see Renewing a subscription).

   • The number of days before the Paid to date, when a prolong order is automatically created (see Prolonging a subscription).

     If the value is set to 0:

     • For a subscription with the activated auto-renewal option, a renewal order is automatically created on the subscription expiration day.

     • For a subscription with the not activated auto-renewal option, a renewal order is not created automatically.

     • A prolong order is created automatically on the Paid to date of the subscription regardless of the auto-renewal option.

   The manual renew point value cannot be less than the auto-renew point value for the same payment model, but if the manual renew point is set to -1, the validation is not performed.

   The manual and auto-renew points can be redefined on the subscription level for its payment model (see Viewing and updating subscription's details).

3. In the Grace period field, enter the number of days after the ending of the subscription period when the subscription will continue work without payment.

4. In the Stop period field, enter the number of days after the end of the grace period when the subscription will be stopped. When the stop period ends, the subscription is deleted.

5. In the Manual renewal of expired subscription field, enter the number of days after the subscription expiration during which the renewal of the expired subscription must be available, provided that the billing type and other parameters allow the renewal. This setting applies to all payment models.
   

   To make manual renewal of an expired subscription available for an unlimited period, enter -1.

   To make manual renewal of an expired subscription completely unavailable, enter 0. Use this value if the vendor does not allow subscription renewals after the expiration date.

   Before the subscription expiration date, the availability of the Renew button is defined by other settings — Auto-renew point (days) Prepay and Auto-renew point (days) Postpay (see above).

6. In the Expired subscription is renewed group, select how the subscription period must be calculated if a renewal order is paid after the subscription expiration date:

   • From the expiration date — the period for a renewed subscription is reduced: the new subscription expiration date is set to the previous subscription expiration date + the plan period. This option is used by default.

   • From the date of payment for the renewal order — the period for a renewed subscription is not changed, but the expiration date is moved: the new subscription expiration date is set to the renewal order payment date + the plan period.

   The Expired subscription is renewed settings allow moving the new subscription expiration date considering the renewal order payment date only for plans with the following billing types:

   • Monthly Prolongation

   • Monthly Long-term

   • Monthly Commitment

   For other billing types, the new subscription expiration date is always set to the previous subscription expiration date + the plan period.

7. In the Subscription renew settings (by default) group, select the default pricing option that must be used when ordering and migrating a subscription at individual prices or when the period of individual prices of a subscription ends (see Ordering a subscription at the individual prices):

   • Use the highest prices (selected by default) — for the subscription renewal, the maximum fees per type are used among the individual prices and prices in a plan.

   • Use individual prices — for the subscription renewal, the individual prices effective at the order creation moment are used (see Viewing and updating subscription prices).

   • Use prices from plan — for the subscription renewal, the prices set in a plan are used. In this case, a renewal order and a subscription after completing this order have Individual prices = No. To switch back to individual prices after the renewal, see Transferring a subscription to individual prices.

Switch settings

In the Switch settings group:

1. In the Delayed manual switch point (days) field (previously — Manual switch point (days)), enter the number of days before the subscription expiration date (from -1 to 364) when a button and delayed switching the plan for a subscription become available if it is supported by the billing type and selected for at least one switchable plan (see Switching a plan).

2. In the Immediate manual switch point (days) field, enter the number of days before the subscription expiration date (from -1 to 364) when a button and immediate switching the plan for a subscription become available if it is supported by the billing type and selected for at least one switchable plan (see Switching a plan).

   To make switching the plan of a subscription available during the full subscription period, enter -1.

   To make switching the plan of a subscription completely unavailable, enter 0.

   The manual switch points can be redefined on the subscription level if switching is supported by the billing type (see Viewing and updating subscription's details).

3. If you need to prohibit reducing the quantity of resources in an immediate switch plan order, clear the Immediate Switch plan order - resources decrease checkbox. By default, the checkbox is selected, and reducing the quantity of resources in an immediate switch plan order is allowed.

4. If you need to prohibit increasing the quantity of resources in an immediate switch plan order, clear the Immediate Switch plan order - resources increase checkbox. By default, the checkbox is selected, and increasing the quantity of resources in an immediate switch plan order is allowed.

   The prohibition on reducing and increasing the quantity of resources in an immediate switch plan order works differently for managers and customers:

   • In the Operator Control Panel, the prohibition is applied only to shared resources of the previous and new plans. For plans based on the MicrosoftCspProducts plugin with a single resource, this resource is always considered as shared, regardless of the ProductID or SKU match for the previous and new plans.

   • In the Customer Control Panel, the prohibition is applied to all resources.

Resource change settings

In the Resource change settings group, configure the availability of changing the quantity of resources for subscriptions:

• In the Trial period group — for subscriptions to trial periods of plans:
  
  1. If you need to allow changing the quantity of resources in existing trial subscriptions via the Operator Control Panel (see Upgrading or downgrading subscription resources), select the Resource decrease and increase by manager checkbox.
  2. If you need to allow changing the quantity of resources in existing trial subscriptions via the Customer Control Panel (see Change resources), select the Resource decrease and increase by account checkbox.

  By default, the checkboxes are cleared, and changing the quantity of resources in all trial subscriptions is not available.

  Changing the quantity of resources when ordering a new trial subscription by any method and in existing trial subscriptions via the Reseller API is not available, regardless of settings.

• In the Commercial period group — for commercial subscriptions: if you want to forbid increasing or reducing the resource quantity for all subscriptions, clear the corresponding checkbox. Unlike the trial period, the setting is simultaneously applied to both the Operator Control Panel and the Customer Control Panel. By default, both checkboxes are selected, and the availability of increasing or reducing the resource quantity for a given subscription depends on the billing type, plan resource configuration, and vendor restrictions.
  

  The Commercial period group settings are not applied to the Reseller API. The new quantity of resources is validated without checking the conditions in the service term.

Deletion settings

In the Deletion settings group:

1. In the Deletion period of subscription by manager (days) field, enter a number from -1 to 364 that defines how many 24-hour days a subscription is available to delete manually via the Operator Control Panel and Reseller API.

2. In the Deletion period of subscription by customer (days) field, enter a number from -1 to 364 that defines how many 24-hour days a subscription is available to delete manually via the Customer Control Panel. This parameter is also used for delayed closing of charges (see Charges closing with Charge Closer and Monthly Calendar Commitment. Charges generation).

   In the case of purchasing a new subscription, the deletion period starts from the subscription activation moment.

   In the case of renewing an existing subscription, the deletion period starts from the subscription expiration date or the moment of the renewal order completion — depending on the Expired subscription is renewed settings (see Renewal settings).

   If the deletion period is set to -1, a subscription can be deleted at any time (default for a manager).

   If the deletion period is set to 0, a subscription can never be deleted (default for a customer).

   If the deletion period is set to any N ≥ 1, a subscription can be deleted: 

   • Via the Operator Control Panel and Reseller API — within the first N × 24 hours after its activation and renewal.

   • Via the Customer Control Panel — within the first N × 24 hours after its activation and renewal or only until the next billing day — if the next billing day is in less than N × 24 hours.

3. If it is necessary to include the stopping (deleting) day of a subscription with only the Monthly Prolongation billing type in a closed charge for the past part of the billing period, select the Stop and deletion day is included to charge checkbox. By default, the checkbox is not selected, and the stopping (deleting) day of a subscription is not included in the closed charge, similar to stopping (deleting) a subscription by the billing process. See also Monthly Prolongation. Charges generation.

Availability for accounts

In the Availability for accounts group, select the Account types checkboxes to allow accounts linked to the corresponding account type (see Account types) order plans based on this service term.