Charge Timing and Earning Timing

Fusebill offers a wide array of charging and earning options to help you manage your financial reporting. When used in combination, the various scenarios can become quite complex. Following is a description of the earnings options and how they interact with other settings to provide detailed control over how the earnings are reported.

Most of the earnings options are controlled from the Products screen inside the Plan section. This is usually where the earning behaviour of a particular Product becomes relevant within the context of the 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 behavior of when an item charges initially as well as when additional Quantity is added. This behavior 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
  • Recurring options include:
    • Charge at Start of Period - when the original subscription is created by default this product would charge on the initial invoice.
    • Charge at End of Period - when the original subscription is created, by default this product would 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.
• When Quantity is Changed
  • Recurring options include:
    • Charge at Start of Period - when original subscription is created, by default the quantity change would charge on the initial invoice.
    • Charge at End of Period - when original subscription is created, by default the quantity change would 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.
• Roll Up Charges
  • 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 to "Group Quantity Change Charges", which will summarize all of 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 that were made in the billing period, and the appropriate charge for that amount. This includes any previous quantity changes plus whatever changes were made in the current month.
    • Example:
      1. Add 10 quantity in month 1. At end of period, customer is charged for 10 items in one line item.
      2. In month 2, over the course of the month, remove 2 items and add 4. At end of period, customer is charged for 12 items in one line item.
      3. In month 3, remove all 12 items and add 2 new ones. At end of period, customer is charged for 2 items in one line item.
  • 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). Note that 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 in 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 set to earn at end of 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 each day over the course of the entire annual period. The same rules apply for mid-year charges; if earning daily, the pro-rated portion of the earning 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 occured. So for example, an annual charge that is 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 start of interval), or at the end of the year. See Earning Timing below.

Earning Timing

• Start of Interval (default) - Earns all revenue prior to next charge. For example, for a $30 charge in a 30-day month, at 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 prior to 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. Final Dollar is earned after midnight the day of the recharge.