Stax Bill allows you to set automatic product price increases based on a schedule. These scheduled price changes allow you to predefine increases based on time periods and the increased percentage and duration.
When adding a recurring Product to a Plan, you can choose to configure a price uplift schedule on that product. This schedule allows you to pre-define an automatic price increase later in the subscription's life cycle. The most common use for this is to set up an annual price uplift on a customer's monthly subscription.
To enable a Price Uplift Schedule:
- In Stax Bill, navigate on the left side menu to Catalog > Plans.
- On the Plans page, select a plan to view its products; then click the product to add the uplift schedule.
- On the Edit Plan Product page, in the Pricing section, under the Advanced Settings column, select the Uplift Schedule from the drop-down menu and click Go.
- On the Advance Price Settings window, select On under the Price Lift Schedule field. The schedule grid will appear.
- Apply schedules and price increases in either percentage or dollar amounts. To change from percentage to dollar, click the % or $ icon. Click Apply when completed.
Including Initial Charge
This setting allows you to specify whether the first activation charge should be included as the start of a period for the price uplift schedule or after. For example, if you have June 5, 2021, as the initial charge and have a price increase after 12 months, then if the initial charge is included, the price lift will occur on June 5, 2022. If it is not included, the price increase will occur on July 5, 2022.
Uplift Prior to Recharge
This setting is typically used for annual subscriptions, which applies the scheduled increase before the annual subscription is renewed and charged to the customer. This is important if you make changes to the account before the annual renewal. If the setting is set to off, the price increase will be updated immediately, and any changes will have the increase applied to the account. If it is on, any changes will remain at the initial price until the uplift price charge is applied to the customer just before renewal to the customer.
Each row in the price uplift table represents a planned price increase. You can have any number of uplifts configured if the increase is not uniform.
| Field | Description |
|---|---|
| Then |
Defines at what point the price uplift will take place. The first line read "After Initial charge" or "Including First Charge." The product must be charged for at least one period before the price uplift schedule is activated. You can configure one schedule with a set percentage to repeat after a certain period. You can also add additional schedules with different percentages to be applied after the initial schedule. |
| In |
The # of periods, in this case, a month for monthly subscriptions, after which the uplift should be implemented. The most common structure for a month would be after 12 periods (1 year). |
| Increase Price by (% or $) |
The amount you would like to increase the price by after the time has elapsed. Note: Click the % or $ icon to toggle between percentage or dollar amount. |
|
Repeat Forever |
You can set your price uplifts to repeat automatically throughout your customer's life cycle. The last schedule configured will repeat indefinitely. |
Helpful Hints
Some notes to consider when configuring Price Uplifts:
- Price Uplift Schedules are defined at the Catalog level so that all new subscribers to this Plan will automatically receive the scheduled price increases. They can also be overridden at the individual Subscription level. However, existing subscribers to this Plan will NOT inherit the Price Uplift schedule of the Plan. They will need to be manually adjusted to include an uplift schedule for future billing.
- Remember that Price Uplift Schedules are only valid on recurring products.
- Each product has its own Price Uplift Schedule for each of its frequencies. If you wish to uplift multiple Products within the same Plan, you will need to configure their Price Uplift Schedules individually.
- Projected invoices and the Financial Calendar will properly reflect price uplift schedules at the right times (e.g. a price uplift 6 months out will show in the Financial Calendar for that month).