Stax Bill offers various charging and earning options to help you manage your financial reporting. When used in combination, the various scenarios can become quite complex. The following describes the earnings options and how they interact with other settings to provide detailed control over how the earnings are reported.
Most earnings options are controlled from the Products screen inside the Plan section. This is where the earning behaviour of a particular product becomes relevant within the context of a plan. Most of the earnings options deal with how the Products are recognized over time when included in a recurring service (the Plan).
The exception is for one-time charges and physical goods, both of which can also be purchased outside of a plan and can carry their own customized earning settings. See Purchase Products Outside of a Plan for more details.
Charge Timing Options
- Controls the default behaviour of when an item charges initially and when an additional Quantity is added. This behaviour varies depending on the product type: Recurring, Physical Good, or One-Time.
- Proration, if configured, only charges a pro-rated amount based on the number of days left in a billing period.
When Product is First Purchased/Renewed
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- Recurring options include:
- Charge at Start of Period - when the original subscription is created by default, this product will charge on the initial invoice.
- Charge at End of Period - when the original subscription is created, by default, this product will charge at the end of the first period.
- When a recurring charge renews in the next period, the charge for the recurring product is charged either at the start of that next billing period or at the end.
- Physical Goods - by default, are charged when the original subscription is created. This product would charge on the initial invoice.
- One-Time Fees - by default, are configured to Earn Immediately but can be changed so that the One Time Fee earns over a custom period.
- Recurring options include:
When Quantity is Changed
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- Recurring options include:
- Charge at Start of Period - when the original subscription is created, by default, the quantity change will charge on the initial invoice.
- Charge at End of Period - when the original subscription is created, by default, the quantity change will charge at the end of the first period.
- Physical Goods - by default, are charged when the original subscription is created. This product would charge on the initial invoice.
- One-Time Fees - by default, are configured to Earn Immediately but can be changed so that the One Time Fee earns over a custom period.
- Recurring options include:
Roll Up Charges
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- This setting is applicable on Recurring Charges if both the recurring option and the quantity change option are set to End of Period with no pro-ration. In this scenario, you can choose Group Quantity Change Charges, which will summarize the quantity changes into a single line item at the end of each billing period. In this case, the charge line item at the end of the month will show only the net total of quantity charges made in the billing period and the appropriate charge for that amount. This includes any previous quantity changes and changes made in the current month.
Example:
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- You add 10 items in the first month.
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- At the end of the period, the customer is charged for 10 items on one line item.
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- In month 2, you remove 2 items and add 4 items.
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- At the end of the period, the customer is charged for 12 items on one line item.
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- In month 3, you remove all 12 items and add 2 new items.
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- At the end of the period, the customer is charged for 2 items on one line item.
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- You add 10 items in the first month.
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When the Charge Timing options are set to anything other than this combination, there is only one choice in this dropdown which is Do Not Group Quantity Changes. With this setting, each quantity change is shown on a separate line item on the invoice since each quantity change generates an immediate charge in the system and must be tracked accordingly.
The default is always Do Not Group.
Earnings
By default, recurring products earn revenue over the entire frequency. For example, a monthly recurring product would earn revenue daily for a month, whereas an annual plan would earn daily over the year.
- Physical goods earn revenue immediately.
- One-time services allow you to control the revenue recognition is handled. By default, the revenue is recognized on purchase; alternatively, a time period can be specified. This is useful, for example, in recognizing a setup fee over the lifetime of a contract.
- Earning Interval
- For monthly frequency products, you can choose:
- Daily earning earns a portion of the charge each day of the month (divided equally by the number of days in the month period). If the charge occurs in the middle of a calendar month, only a portion of that month's charge will be earned in that month; the rest will be earned at the start of the next calendar month.
- Monthly earning earns the entire charge either at the start of the period (i.e., as soon as the charge occurs) or at the end of the period (just before the next recharge occurs). Again, note that a charge that occurs on the 8th and is set to earn at end of the interval will be fully earned on the 7th of the next calendar month.
- For annual frequency products, you can choose:
- Daily earning will earn a portion of the charge daily throughout the entire annual period. The same rules apply for mid-year charges; if earning daily, the pro-rated portion will be recognized in the current calendar year.
- Monthly earning will earn 1/12 of the charge each month on the day of the month that the annual charge occurred. So, for example, an annual charge applied on March 8 will have monthly earnings on April 8, May 8, etc.
- Yearly earning will earn all of the revenue for that charge at one time, either immediately (at the start of the interval) or at the end of the year. See Earning Timing below.
- For monthly frequency products, you can choose:
Earning Timing
- Start of Interval (default) - Earns all revenue before the next charge. For example, for a $30 charge in a 30-day month, at the time of purchase, the charge would be applied with $1 earned and $29 unearned. Every night at midnight, $1 is earned. The final dollar is earned at midnight the day before recharge.
- End of Interval - In the example above, the $30 charge is applied with $0 earned and $30 unearned. Every night after midnight, $1 is earned. The final Dollar is earned after midnight on the day of the recharge.