Introduction
Do you sell repetitive products or services, and would prefer to fully automate the invoicing process? Then using subscriptions in Tribe CRM offers you the solution. Invoices are automatically created and sent at your preferred time. Changes to the subscription are easy to make and the invoicing amounts are immediately calculated correctly. Dashboards and widgets give you insight into the subscription status and invoicing. So you can easily make adjustments whenever necessary.
In order to work with subscriptions, what do I need?
How do I create a new subscription?
How do I activate a subscription?
How do I modify a subscription?
How to stop or deactivate a subscription?
What subscription widgets are on the invoicing dashboard?
1 In order to work with subscriptions, what do I need?
Repeating products
A subscription consists of one or more product lines containing the product or service. Before working with subscriptions, it is necessary to add products in the configuration in Tribe CRM. A subscription has a repeating character, for example annually or monthly. Therefore, in the product, repetition must also be added. The article How do I add new products describes how to add products to the configuration.
Products with a recurrence in Tribe CRM
2 How do I create a new subscription?
Preceding the creation of a subscription is usually the sale of the subscription itself. In the sales opportunity, you go through the entire sales process, from the very first contact, to the offer, to the subscription and finally the invoicing. In this chapter, we therefore describe how to create a subscription from the sales opportunity and directly transfer the product rules from the sales opportunity to the subscription. Read more about using the sales chance in this article.
In the sales chance, the products tab lists all the product rules you have added. When the customer agrees to the offer, change the status of the sales chance to Gained. Now you can add a subscription directly from the sales chance. This is possible in two ways. From the product rules, or by clicking the +Subscription button directly. When you use the button, all repeating products from the sales chance are directly placed in the new subscription.
Follow the steps below to make a selection of product lines:
Open the sales chance and click on the Products tab.
Tick the lines you want to process into a subscription.
Select To new subscription or To existing subscription.
Starting a subscription from the product rules of a sales opportunity in Tribe CRM
On the next screen, you can enter the subscription details. Select the interval of the subscription, e.g. monthly.
Indicate whether the invoice should be sent automatically by activating the slider or not.
Enter the Invoice template and the Invoice e-mail template. Choose Save if you only want to save the subscription or choose Save and Open if you want to further customise the subscription or activate it immediately. The default phase is Waiting for activation.
Creating a subscription in Tribe CRM
Did you know?
That it is possible to add one-off products to a subscription? These will then only be charged on the first invoice.
Start a subscription right away
It is also possible to start a subscription directly. This can be done from a relation, project and sales opportunity. To do so, open the relation or activity and choose +Subscription. Fill the fields in the creation screen and then add the product rules on the products tab.
Create a subscription directly in Tribe CRM
3 How do I activate a subscription?
When you have correctly entered all the product rules in the subscription, the subscription can be activated. To do this, open the subscription and click the Activate button.
Start date: Enter the Start date of the subscription if you have not already done so.
Interval: Enter the subscription interval. Depending on what you choose, sample periods will be displayed.
Billing start date: If you leave this blank, the effective date is assumed.
Different first period: This is only necessary if the billing moment of the first period differs from the billing moment of the normal periods. For example, if the new subscription starts and is billed in the middle of the month and is always billed on the 1st of the month thereafter. In this case, you can choose to have the start date of the second period start on the first day of the following month.
Invoicing first period: If you have a different first billing period as in our example (14-07 to 01-08), you have two options:
Pro rata: The first invoice will be invoiced pro rata which means that the interval amount will be calculated back to how many days remain in the interval.
Do not invoice: You can also choose not to invoice the remaining days from the interval.
Send invoices automatically: You can directly choose to send invoices automatically by activating this slider. If you don't, the invoices will be created, and you can send them manually. This can be useful for first-time invoices, so you have a control moment. If everything is OK, you can always activate the slider in the subscription details afterwards.
Click Activate to activate the subscription.
Activating a subscription in Tribe CRM
Note!
Activating the subscription immediately creates and/or sends an invoice with today's invoice date. Activate a new subscription only on the effective date, it is not possible to set it for the future.
Send subscription invoice
If you have chosen not to send the invoice automatically, the invoice will be created as a draft invoice. This can be found in the Activities tab. Click on the invoice and on Send to send it.
Sending subscription invoice in Tribe CRM
The e-mail address selected in the outgoing e-mail:
The billing e-mail address entered in the subscription.
If the above is empty, then the organisation's financial e-mail address is selected.
If both the billing e-mail address and the financial e-mail address are empty, then the organisation's e-mail address is selected.
If the organisation's e-mail address is also not known then the e-mail address of the subscription contact person is used.
Note!
Before you can send an invoice, it is necessary to enter a debtor number for the associated organisation. You can do this by opening the organisation and entering it under Financial. You can also enter the financial e-mail address here.
Adding a debtor number and financial e-mail address to a relation in Tribe CRM
4 How do I modify a subscription?
A subscription can be modified at any time. This may be necessary when you want to increase or decrease the number of licences or adjust the price, for example. You can do this temporarily, or for the rest of the subscription's term.
Modifying a subscription in Tribe CRM
Open the subscription. It opens on the products tab by default. Click the text under the product: Start on ...
Period: specify when the adjustment applies:
Customise subscription: next subscription period in Tribe CRM
Remaining subscription period: The adjustment will take effect for the remainder of the subscription period (as of today: 26-7-2021) and then revert to as before. The invoice will only show the prorated amount (not visible in screenshot).
Adjusting subscription: remaining subscription period in Tribe CRM
From start of subscription period: The adjustment takes effect from the start of the subscription period. So a part will be invoiced afterwards. For example, if you initially had 50 licences at mid-July and you specify a change to 60 licences from the start of the subscription period, you will be invoiced for 10 licences for the past period and 60 licences will be invoiced from the start of the new period.
Change subscription: from start of subscription period in Tribe CRM
This subscription period: the adjustment will take effect from the start of the subscription period (example subscription starts on 14-07-2021) and after that it will be as before.
Adjust subscription: this subscription period in Tribe CRM
Method: indicate whether you want to adjust the numbers or the price.
Adjust subscription: Method in Tribe CRM
Stop after this subscription period: When you click Start on..., you also have the option to click Stop after this subscription period. When you do this, the subscription will be stopped in the next subscription period. In case future periods have already been invoiced, a credit note will be created for this.
Customise subscription: stop after this subscription period in Tribe CRM
5 Stop or deactivate a subscription
In the subscription settings, you can specify the cancellation date of the subscription. If this is left blank, the subscription will always continue.
When a customer cancels, you can enter a cancellation date (1) or use Stop after this subscription period (see explanation previous section).
However, a subscription may also need to be deactivated immediately if, for example, it was entered incorrectly or because of a dispute. When you click on Deactivate (2) or Finish (3), the subscription will be stopped immediately.
Stopping or deactivating a subscription in Tribe CRM
6 What subscription widgets are on the invoicing dashboard?
The invoicing dashboard shows both the invoicing widgets and the subscriptions widgets. The widgets provide a visual overview of your current, expiring and to-be-activated subscriptions. Each widget allows you to click through to the relevant subscriptions.
Subscription status: The subscription status displays your total revenue from subscriptions in a bar chart. You can specify the period and interval over which you want to see this. If you click on a bar in the widgets, the subscriptions of this period are displayed at the bottom of the widget. You can open a subscription by clicking on it.
Subscriptions Churn: This shows the subscriptions that have been cancelled.
Subscriptions: Subscriptions by phase: Waiting to be activated, Activated and Cancelled. Once you click on a phase, the subscriptions are displayed below it and you can click through to a subscription.
Subscription views: All subscription views are displayed here so you can quickly see the overview you want.
Subscription widgets on the invoicing dashboard in Tribe CRM