Order Types
Understanding upgrades, renewals, recasts, and terminations
Overview
Now that you know how to structure your pricing, build an Order, and configure customer checkout, you have all the tools needed to close your first Order.
And if you’ve already closed your first Order, congratulations! You’ve officially converted a prospect to a happy customer.
Let’s say they want to update their subscription - maybe they need to add more licenses, or they want to extend their one-year contract for two more years.
We support four ways to update an Order after the initial close:
- Upgrade
- Renewal
- Recast
- Termination
Read on to learn the differences between each, and when it’s appropriate to use one order type over another.
Upgrade
Use an upgrade to add more Bricks to a subscription, or to upsell the customer to a higher tier Plan.
Any changes will take effect under the current contract dates.
Upgrades across Products are not allowed.
If you create an upgrade, you will only be able to choose from Plans and Bricks associated with the Product from the current contract.
If you’re replacing the customer’s current Product with a new one, your best bet is to create a recast instead.
Upgrade examples
Current contract: Customer has signed a one-year contract for a basic plan, which includes 5 seats at no extra cost.
What happens to invoices?
The billing schedule of the current contract is replaced by the billing schedule outlined in the upgrade.
Renewal
Use a renewal to continue your customer’s subscription.
You may also upgrade the contract (add Bricks or upsell a Plan) when building a renewal.
Any changes will take effect after the current contract has expired.
Renewal example
Current contract: Customer has signed a one-year contract with manual renewal terms (must be agreed upon by the buyer).
8 months later, the customer decides that they are happy with their subscription, and are ready to set up a renewal for another year.
What happens to the current contract after the renewal closes?
A renewal is a continuation of the customer’s subscription under new dates.
The current contract remains active until its end date, after which, the renewal begins.
What happens to invoices?
The customer will continue to receive invoices according to the billing schedule of the current contract.
Once the renewal begins, the customer will receive invoices according to the billing schedule outlined in the renewal.
Recast
Use a recast to replace the terms, dates, and/or entitlements of the current contract.
Recast examples
Current contract: Customer has signed an upcoming 6-month contract, from March 1st to September 30th.
What happens to the current contract after the recast closes?
The current contract is considered superseded (replaced by the terms of the recast), essentially rendering it inactive.
What happens to invoices?
The billing schedule of the current contract is replaced by the billing schedule outlined in the recast.
Any amount from the current contract that the customer has already paid, or has been billed for, will be added to the recast as a prorated discount.
Termination
Use a termination to end a customer’s subscription.
You may schedule the subscription to terminate on the expected renewal date, or any date before the end of the current contract.
Termination examples
Current contract: Customer has signed a 1-year contract.
What happens to the current contract after the termination is scheduled?
Before the termination date, the subscription will remain active, and the customer will continue to have access to their entitlements.
Salesbricks does not control your customers’ entitlements, but we do offer APIs and Webhooks that can integrate into your system to automate the process of disabling entitlements on the termination date.
After the termination date, the subscription will be rendered inactive.
What happens to invoices?
Customer will continue to be billed until the termination date.