Plans

A plan is the billing schedule for a recurring subscription. Plans define how often and how much a customer is charged.

Plan Types

Standard plans are created and stored in the Recurring Billing service for reuse across multiple subscriptions. When a standard plan is created, a plan code can be assigned for reference.

One-time plans are created specifically for a single subscription. The plan is embedded in the subscription at creation time. One-time plans do not include a plan code, plan name, or plan description.

Installment-based plans are not available.

Bill Indefinitely Plans

A Bill Indefinitely plan runs until it is canceled or the subscription ends. It contains these elements:

• Plan code (optional)
• Plan name
• Plan description (optional)
• Billing frequency (planInformation.billingPeriod.unit and planInformation.billingPeriod.length)
• Currency
• Payment amount
• Set-up fee (optional)

Fixed Number of Payments Plans

A Fixed Number of Payments plan includes everything in a Bill Indefinitely plan, plus the number of billing cycles (planInformation.billingCycles.total).

Plan Code

When a standard plan is created, a plan code can be supplied that relates to your business and is used for reference to the plan. This code can be numeric or alphanumeric with dash (-) and dot (.) characters, and up to 10 characters long.

If no plan code is assigned, the system automatically assigns a system-generated value.

Plan Statuses

Plans transition through these statuses:

Draft: the plan exists but has not been activated. All plan information for a draft plan can be amended.

Active: the plan is available for use with subscriptions. For active plans, only planInformation.billingPeriod, planInformation.billingCycles, and orderInformation.amountDetails.currency can be amended.

Inactive: the plan has been deactivated. An inactive plan cannot be amended. To make changes, the plan must be moved to active or draft status.

Deleted: the plan is deleted.

A standard plan with draft status can be deleted. A plan with active or inactive status can also be deleted only if it has never been assigned to any subscriptions.

Plan Management

The API Reference includes operations to create, retrieve, amend, activate, deactivate, and delete plans. See Manage Plans.