KB Plan Phases Explanation

[Gabriel Adeyemo]

Hi all,

been reading up on available documentation about catalogs and have some questions regarding plan phases.

1) EVERGREEN : what exactly is this phase? in KB does this automatically imply the plan-phase is always renewed automatically? what is the difference between EVERGREEN and FIXEDTERM.

If you could help support with scenarios/examples would be helpful.

2) does KB support advance invoicing alerts or plan due alerts. say a plan is up for renewal in the next 10 days, how can kb be configured to alert or remind the subscriber (via e-mail plugin) 5 7 days and 5 days before the plan ends

3)  below is a test xml just to understand how catalogue creation worked. I pieced them together from the examples in the documentation but when I used the check, it suggested that the syntax are wrong. I followed the syntax suggestions according to the xsd. I. am assuming current xsd is more advanced than what was used during documentation examples. Is this test catalogue correct in the logic of the examples provided in the document?

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="no"?>

<catalog xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"

xsi:noNamespaceSchemaLocation="https://docs.killbill.io/latest/catalog.xsd">

<effectiveDate>2013-02-08T00:00:00+00:00</effectiveDate>

<catalogName>SpyCarBasic</catalogName>

<currencies>

<currency>USD</currency>

<currency>GBP</currency>

</currencies>

<products>

<product name="Standard">

<category>BASE</category>

</product>

<product name="Sports">

<category>BASE</category>

<available>

<addonProduct>OilSlick</addonProduct>

<addonProduct>RemoteControl</addonProduct>

</available>

</product>

<product name="Super">

<category>BASE</category>

<included>

<addonProduct>OilSlick</addonProduct>

</included>

<available>

<addonProduct>RemoteControl</addonProduct>

</available>

</product>

<product name="OilSlick">

<category>ADD_ON</category>

</product>

<product name="RemoteControl">

<category>ADD_ON</category>

</product>

</products>

<rules>

</rules>

<plans>

<plan name="standard-monthly">

<product>Standard</product>

<initialPhases>

<phase type="TRIAL">

<duration>

<unit>DAYS</unit>

<number>30</number>

</duration>

<fixed></fixed>

<recurring>

<billingPeriod>NO_BILLING_PERIOD</billingPeriod>

<recurringPrice>

<price>

<currency>USD</currency>

<value>0</value>

</price>

</recurringPrice>

</recurring>

</phase>

</initialPhases>

<finalPhase type="EVERGREEN">

<duration>

<unit>UNLIMITED</unit>

</duration>

<recurring>

<billingPeriod>MONTHLY</billingPeriod>

<recurringPrice>

<price>

<currency>USD</currency>

<value>100</value>

</price>

<price>

<currency>EUR</currency>

<value>75</value>

</price>

</recurringPrice>

</recurring>

</finalPhase>

</plan>

</plans>

<priceLists>

<defaultPriceList name="other">

<plans></plans>

</defaultPriceList>

</priceLists>

</catalog> 

[karan bansal]

Hi Gabriel,

Fixedterm as well as Evergreen more or less mean the same, just that fixed term comes to an end after the defined period where as the Evergreen one never ends unless the user ends it. You can read about some of the terms here. 

Also checked the catalog that you shared, there are quite a lot of issues with it. For example, the pricelist  is not associated with any plan. I would suggest you to kindly refer catalog examples at https://docs.killbill.io/latest/catalog-examples and it should help quite a number of scenarios. You can also use the endpoint https://killbill.github.io/slate/catalog.html#catalogvalidation-resource to validate any catalog. 

Kill Bill does allow you listen into certain events and use these to trigger emails. Details are available at https://docs.killbill.io/latest/email-notification-plugin. It does support invoice_notification event and time can be configured using org.killbill.invoice.dryRunNotificationSchedule property. 

Regards

Karan

[Shaun Forgie]

HI Gabriel,

I have included a screenshot of the Bill Rush Biller Portal that shows how the different phases work. Note here that Kill Bill supports up to 3 initial phases and 1 final phase.

Rgs

Shaun

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[Gabriel Adeyemo]

Thanks Karan,

but still do not understand the actual difference. let me use my analogy then you tell me which is which?

If I had a 30 internet subscription plan that is renewable every 30days, but the plan is only available to me if I have enough credit balance to offset the plan-subscription fee. If I do not have the required balance, the subscription renewal is held or cancelled. anytime the user recharges the account, then the subscription is renewed. 

What kind of plan is most appropriate for this? EVERGREEN or FIXDTERM?

The catalogue is. work-in-progress, I just needed to if the syntax is aligned with the new xsd logic and I didn't miss anything. could you confirm along those lines? 

@Shaun Forgie,

thanks for the examples. although still not clear, I would like to learn how you use kb in this environment.

[karan bansal]

Hi Gabriel,

It can be achieved both via fixed term plans as well as evergreen one. 

If you wish to go for Fixed term plan ( 30 days duration ) : In this case, the current subscription will end at the end of term ( 30 days in this case ). Then you need to check for available credits in the account. If sufficient credit is available, you will need to start a fresh/new subscription to the same 30 days plan. So effectively, in this case you need to create new subscriptions each time the earlier fixed 30 days subscription expires. Assuming that the account has sufficient credit available always, this would mean 12 subscriptions for a full year. 

If you wish to go for Evergreen monthly plan : In this case, the monthly renewal and invoice generation, payment attempt will happen automatically. So effectively you will have 1 subscription continuing. Adding the credit available scenario for renewal, it can be achieved through blocking states and overdue system. 

Let me know if this helps. 

Regards

Karan

[Shaun Forgie]

HI Gabriel,

Based on what you have mentioned a single pay in advance plan with a monthly billing cycle is what you are wanting. If payments fail to process you can then use account / subscription blocks to update the entitlement status.

The overdue.xml configuration can be used to define when blocks are applied and notifications generated. In your case you could define the subscription block to happen one day after the monthly billing cycle if a failed payment occured. You could then query the entitlement status to make business decisions on what to do.

Note that account credits get applied to the settlement process triggered by the billing cycle before other payment methods are tried.

Rgs

Shaun

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/killbilling-users/041e549f-905f-4c60-af30-de2f4a82346fn%40googlegroups.com.

[Gabriel Adeyemo]

Thaks for the response Karan,

 

In the case of the EVERGREEN, does “service” continue if payment is due but not credited? i.e will account remain active despite been negative?

I don’t quite understand what you meant here

“So effectively you will have 1 subscription continuing. Adding the credit available scenario for renewal, it can be achieved through blocking states and overdue system.”

 

From: killbill...@googlegroups.com <killbill...@googlegroups.com> on behalf of karan bansal <karanba...@gmail.com>
Date: Monday, 24 June 2024 at 6:47 PM
To: Kill Bill users mailing-list <killbill...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: Re: [Kill Bill users] KB Plan Phases Explanation

Hi Gabriel,

 

It can be achieved both via fixed term plans as well as evergreen one. 

 

If you wish to go for Fixed term plan ( 30 days duration ) : In this case, the current subscription will end at the end of term ( 30 days in this case ). Then you need to check for available credits in the account. If sufficient credit is available, you will need to start a fresh/new subscription to the same 30 days plan. So effectively, in this case you need to create new subscriptions each time the earlier fixed 30 days subscription expires. Assuming that the account has sufficient credit available always, this would mean 12 subscriptions for a full year. 

 

If you wish to go for Evergreen monthly plan : In this case, the monthly renewal and invoice generation, payment attempt will happen automatically. So effectively you will have 1 subscription continuing. Adding the credit available scenario for renewal, it can be achieved through blocking states and overdue system. 

 

Let me know if this helps. 

 

Regards

Karan

On Monday, June 24, 2024 at 9:44:15 PM UTC+5:30 Gabriel Adeyemo wrote:

Thanks Karan,

but still do not understand the actual difference. let me use my analogy then you tell me which is which?

 

If I had a 30 internet subscription plan that is renewable every 30days, but the plan is only available to me if I have enough credit balance to offset the plan-subscription fee. If I do not have the required balance, the subscription renewal is held or cancelled. anytime the user recharges the account, then the subscription is renewed. 

 

What kind of plan is most appropriate for this? EVERGREEN or FIXDTERM?

 

The catalogue is. work-in-progress, I just needed to if the syntax is aligned with the new xsd logic and I didn't miss anything. could you confirm along those lines? 

 

@Shaun Forgie,

thanks for the examples. although still not clear, I would like to learn how you use kb in this environment.

On Wednesday, June 12, 2024 at 9:49:40 PM UTC+1 Shaun Forgie wrote:

HI Gabriel,

 

I have included a screenshot of the Bill Rush Biller Portal that shows how the different phases work. Note here that Kill Bill supports up to 3 initial phases and 1 final phase.

 

 

Rgs

Shaun

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[karan bansal]

Hi Gabriel,

Account in KB refers to the customer account and an account can have multiple subscriptions associated with it. In case of Evergreen plan, you will see 1 subscription in the customer account ( as against 12 in case of Fixed term ). 

When the account does not have enough credit for renewal/monthly payment, it depends on how you wish to handle the account based on your business requirements. For example, you can leave the customer account active, however, you can pause the subscription/billing manually for this particular subscription OR using blocking states as well as Overdue rules. If you wish, then you can pause all the subscriptions associated with the account and so on. 

Let me know if this helps. 

Regards

Karan