Subscriptions in Tribe CRM help you automate recurring invoicing for products or services that repeat over time, such as monthly or annual plans. They reduce manual work, keep billing consistent, and give you clear insight into ongoing revenue. You might use subscriptions when you want to manage long-term customer agreements without recreating invoices each time. By following this guide, you will learn how to create, activate, adjust, and stop subscriptions, as well as understand how they are displayed in your dashboards.
Table of Contents
What Does the Subscriptions Feature Do?
What Do You Need Before Using Subscriptions?
How Do I Create a New Subscription?
How Do I Activate a Subscription?
How Do I Modify a Subscription?
How Do I Stop or Deactivate a Subscription?
What Subscription Widgets Are Available on the Invoicing Dashboard?
What Does the Subscriptions Feature Do?
Subscriptions in Tribe allow you to automate recurring invoicing for products or services that repeat on a set schedule, such as monthly or yearly. Once activated, invoices are created automatically and can be sent to customers at the right time.
This feature helps you manage long-term agreements, calculate charges accurately when changes are made, and monitor active, cancelled, or upcoming subscriptions through dashboards and widgets.
What Do You Need Before Using Subscriptions?
Before working with subscriptions, you need to create products that include a recurrence setting.
A subscription consists of one or more product lines. These products must be set up in the configuration area and marked as recurring, such as monthly or annually. This ensures Tribe understands how often the product should be invoiced.
If you have not yet created recurring products, refer to the article on adding new products in Tribe.
How Do I Create a New Subscription?
Subscriptions are usually created after a sales opportunity has been completed.
Create a Subscription From a Sales Opportunity
Open the relevant sales opportunity.
Go to the Products tab.
Select the product lines you want to include.
Choose To New Subscription or To Existing Subscription.
When you use the +Subscription button, all recurring products are automatically added to the new subscription.
Enter the subscription details:
Select the Interval (for example, monthly).
Choose whether invoices should be sent automatically using the slider.
Select the Invoice Template and Invoice Email Template.
Click Save or Save and Open.
The subscription will be created with the default phase Waiting for activation.
Create a Subscription Directly
You can also create a subscription directly from a relation, project, or sales opportunity.
Open the relevant relation or activity.
Click +Subscription.
Fill in the required fields.
Add product lines in the Products tab.
Did you know? You can add one-off products to a subscription. These will only be charged on the first invoice.
How Do I Activate a Subscription?
Once all product lines are correct, you can activate the subscription.
Open the subscription.
Click Activate.
Complete the following fields:
Start Date: When the subscription begins.
Interval: How often it repeats.
Billing Start Date: Leave blank to use the start date.
Different First Period: Use this if the first billing period differs from later ones.
Invoicing First Period: Choose Pro rata or Do not invoice.
Send Invoices Automatically: Enable this if you want invoices sent automatically.
Click Activate.
Note: Activating a subscription immediately creates and/or sends an invoice with today’s invoice date. Activate the subscription only on the effective date, as future activation is not possible.
Sending a Subscription Invoice
If automatic sending is disabled, the invoice is created as a draft.
Open the Activities tab.
Open the draft invoice.
Click Send.
Tribe selects the recipient email in this order:
Billing email from the subscription
Financial email from the organisation
Organisation email
Subscription contact person email
Note: A debtor number is required before sending invoices. You can add this by opening the organisation and entering it under Financial.
How Do I Modify a Subscription?
You can change a subscription at any time, for example when adjusting prices or quantities.
Open the subscription.
Go to the Products tab.
Click the text under the product that starts with Start on….
Choose when the change should apply:
Remaining Subscription Period
From Start of Subscription Period
This Subscription Period
Choose whether you want to adjust the Number or the Price.
Save your changes.
You can also choose Stop After This Subscription Period to end the subscription at the next renewal.
How Do I Stop or Deactivate a Subscription?
Subscriptions can be ended in two ways.
Scheduled Cancellation
If a customer cancels, you can:
Enter a Cancellation Date, or
Select Stop After This Subscription Period
This allows the subscription to finish at the appropriate time.
Immediate Deactivation
If a subscription was created incorrectly or must be stopped immediately:
Open the subscription.
Click Deactivate or Finish.
This ends the subscription right away.
What Subscription Widgets Are Available on the Invoicing Dashboard?
The invoicing dashboard includes several widgets that give you insight into your subscriptions.
Subscription Status
Shows total subscription revenue in a bar chart. You can filter by period and click a bar to view related subscriptions.Subscriptions Churn
Displays cancelled subscriptions.Subscriptions by Phase
Shows subscriptions by status: Waiting to be activated, Activated, or Cancelled.Subscription Views
Provides quick access to saved subscription views.
Each widget allows you to click through to the underlying subscriptions for more detail.
Quick Summary
Subscriptions in Tribe CRM automate recurring invoicing for products and services. You can create subscriptions from sales opportunities or directly, activate them, and adjust them as needed. The dashboard widgets help you monitor subscription status, revenue, and cancellations in one place.