Overview

An overview of the Accounting as a Service Subscription module as our register-to-invoice solution.

In case you need to support a subscription-based billing model due to the nature of the products that you are dealing with, the subscription module is the right tool to integrate with.

The subscription module is the basis of our register-to-invoice solution. It is a customer-centric, scalable solution that can be used internationally and supports multi-brand and multichannel use.

Main service components

In order to meet the overall business requirements of the typical end-to-end process starting with the reception of an order and ending with the provision of an invoice, the subscription module is made of the following components:

  • Product catalogue: The product catalogue is the central repository that contains all product-related price information and billing-relevant data (e.g. discounts, rate plans, etc.) used in the scope of the billing and rating engine. The product catalogue is used as a source of information when processing an order in connection with a subscription-based product.
  • Contract management: The contract management component builds the bridge between your products and your customers. As such, it contains all relevant customer data in connection with the products ordered by your customers. The information is consumed by the billing and rating engine.
  • Billing & rating engine: The billing and rating engine is responsible for all calculations and as such performs the recurring calculation of usage and base fees. It is integrated with the payment and accounting modules of Accounting as a Service to trigger payments and accounting processes automatically.
  • Notifications:Accounting as a Service supports the concept of notifications, allowing the merchant to be informed upon certain events happening inside the system. The concept is based around the idea of having different notification types, for which the merchant can provide a URL to be called back whenever an event of such type occurs. Check out the notification handling of the subscription module to get more detailed information about the supported notification types.

When integrating with the subscription module, you will have to work with the related endpoints of our REST API. Check out the API Explorer in case you would like to get an overview of all related endpoints.

Additional notes about the product catalogue

The product catalogue is supposed to become the central product repository for your subscription-related products. It is used as a source of all product information (e.g. charges for one-time or recurring billing, rate plans for usage-based billing, pertaining discounts/campaigns).

Once it has been set up as part of your onboarding process, the product catalogue may be used by you as the Single Source of Truth (SSoT). All product data is easily accessible via REST API. Alternatively, the product catalogue may only serve as a copy that is used by the subscription module's internal business logic, in which case it needs to be kept in sync with the main source.

IMPORTANT NOTE: The initial setup of the product catalogue is performed as a non-API based process, which is part of the onboarding procedure. Check out how to set up your product catalogue.

Main entities

Before walking through the list of the most important entities of the subscription module, you may want to have a look at the list of Accounting as a Service common main entities shared among all modules. In addition to the common main entities, you will most have to deal with the following key entities, when interacting with the subscription module:

  • customer: (See also common description of the entity) For subscriptions, the customer and its related data is managed within the contract management.
  • order: (See also common description of the entity) For subscriptions, the order serves as a connection between the triple of the customer buying a product for which a contract needs to be signed that will be used by the subscriptions module to execute the (regular) billing process.
  • product: (See also common description of the entity) For subscriptions, all relevant information on available products needs to be stored in the product catalogue. Products can have different characteristics. For example, products that the customer orders and that are billed once, or products for which a contract is concluded with the customer during the order process and therefore regular billing is necessary.
  • contract: The contract encapsulates all relevant information for the billing and rating engine to process the billing and perform the calculation for each product under active contract.
  • charges: charges are an important component of the product information as billing-relevant data of the individual product. There are different types of charges. For example:
    • recurring charges (e.g. postpaid contract),
    • one-off charges (e.g. activation fee),
    • additional services (e.g. shipping costs, insurance package, ...).
  • discount: A discount can be understood as a charge, that is deducted from the total amount. A discount can either be for a fixed amount or for a percentage of the total amount or line item of the bill.
  • rate-plans: rate-plans are price information stored along with the product and tariff information. rate plans are used in combination with the usage data during the rating process.
  • billing-information: All billing-information is created based on bill runs and is the base for the later invoice, containing all charges and discounts. The generation of billing-information can be scheduled (e.g. monthly, yearly) or ad-hoc (e.g. usage triggered).
  • business-entity: A business-entity is an organization carrying on trade or business, often on a country or state level. Products are linked to business entities where they are offered.

Entity-Relationship-Model

The following simplified diagram illustrates the relationship between the main entities of the subscription module.

Subscriptions module ERM

Business scenarios

The subscription module is designed to cover the needs of the following 2 typical business scenarios:

Scenario 1: Fixed subscription rate

Sample scenario

A customer orders a subscription-based product. The product is existing in the product catalogue and fully configured. Its consumption is based on monthly licence fee with a fixed amount. During the checkout process, an order will be created and passed to the subscription module, where it results in the creation of a corresponding contract. From this point on, the contract is responsible for automatically triggering a billing process that is performed on a regular basis (i.e. monthly). As part of the billing process, the subscription module sends the billing information / invoice PDF to the merchant, who can present the invoice to the customer. Of course, Accounting as a Service can send the invoice document also directly to the end customer in the merchant's name.

Process flow

A BPMN-like description of the process flow, as outlined in the sample scenario.

High-level process description
An overview using BPMN to describe the process flow
Checkout the BPMN illustration to get an overview of the process, including the various activities and participating main actors.

Please note that updates to subscriptions (e.g. adding an option) or customer data (e.g. change of payment instrument) can be made at any time and are carried out immediately or at the next possible point in time.

Scenario 2: Usage-based subscription rate

Sample scenario

The customer orders a subscription-based product, being based on a usage-based compensation. The product is existing in the product catalogue and fully configured. Its consumption is based on monthly licence fee, with the amount depending on the usage based on each individual month. During the checkout process, an order will be created and passed to the subscription module, where it results in the creation of a corresponding contract. As soon as the customer uses the product, usage information is generated and sent to the merchant (e.g. distance in km or time in hours). The merchant passes the usage information as so-called Usage Data Record (UDR) to the subscription module, where the usage will be linked to the corresponding contract and rated by using tariff and rating plans in relation to the product. Based on the configuration, the contract will automatically trigger a billing process that is performed on a regular basis (i.e. monthly). As part of the billing process, the subscription module sends the billing information / invoice PDF to the merchant, who can present the invoice to the customer.

Process flow

A BPMN-like description of the process flow, as outlined in the sample scenario.

High-level process description
An overview using BPMN to describe the process flow
Checkout the BPMN illustration to get an overview of the process, including the various activities and participating main actors.

Please note that updates to ordered products (e.g. adding an option) or customer data (e.g. change a payment instrument) can be made at any time and are carried out immediately or at the next possible point in time.