Plan
A plan lets customers know the features you offer and their price. You can clearly mention how much and how often they’ll be charged for a plan. Multiple plans can be created with each one offering a different set of features. Corresponding prices can be set for each plan.
Customers have different needs. Some would require a professional plan with advanced features, while others might prefer a basic plan.
Below are some of the things that will help you better understand plans. You can use the Plan Operations section to find out how to create, edit, delete or make a plan inactive. The Plan Fields section describes in detail about all the plan fields.
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Creating a plan
To create a new plan, please follow the below steps.
- Go to Subscription Items tab and select the subscription item for which a new plan needs to be created.
- Click the Add Plan button.
Editing a plan
To edit a plan, follow the below steps.
- Go to the Subscription Items tab and select the subscription item to which the plan belongs.
- Click Edit under the respective plan.
Changes made to a plan will take effect only for new subscriptions. The existing subscribers will not be affected.
Making a plan inactive
You can make a plan inactive if you decide to do away with a plan, but do not want to delete the plan for the sake of the existing subscribers.
To make a plan inactive, follow the below steps.
- Go to Subscription Items tab and select the subscription item to which the plan belongs.
- Click the Mark as Inactive button under the respective plan.
Once a plan is made inactive, it can no longer be subscribed to new customers. However, the customers already subscribed to the plan will not be affected in any way.
Deleting a plan
Deleting a plan would remove it completely from the system. You will not be able to delete a plan if customers are currently subscribed to it. Follow the below steps to delete a plan.
- Go to Subscription Items tab and select the subscription item to which the plan belongs.
- Click Delete under the respective plan.
Plan Fields
Here’s what the plan creation form will look like.
Naming a plan
The plan name you choose while creating a plan will be displayed in the invoices you send to customers as well. A plan should be named in a way that you can identify the features it offers without going into its details.
Basic monthly is better than Plan A.
Why do I need plan codes?
The Zoho Billing API uses plan codes instead of plan names to identify each of your plans. Plan code is a unique identifier used to refer to a plan when a subscription is created or updated via the API. The advantage here is you can set the plan code yourself rather than using an auto generated unique ID to identify the plan.
Billing Frequency
After setting the plan’s price, you can specify the billing frequency using the ‘Bill Every’ field.
| Frequency | Description |
|---|---|
| Year(s) | Your customers will be billed once every specified number of years you’ve chosen. |
| Week(s) | Your customers will be billed once every specified number of weeks you’ve chosen. |
| Month(s) | Your customers will be billed once every specified number of months you’ve chosen. |
| Day(s) | Your customers will be billed once every specified number of days you’ve chosen. Note: The minimum number of days for which you can create a subscription is 5. Scenario: Zylker is a mobile network provider, which provides data plans to their customers for 28 days. Patricia, the owner of Zylker can create a plan in Zoho Billing with the following Billing Frequency : Bill Every 28 Day(s). This ensures that her billing management is in sync with her business model. |
Billing Cycle
You can specify the number of times the customer needs to be charged.
- If you choose Auto renews until canceled, the customer will be charged until the subscription is cancelled by the customer or yourself.
- If you choose Expires after a specified no. of billing cycles, you can specify the number of billing cycles after which the plan will expire.
If you want to charge a customer 3 times for one year using a 4 month duration, billing cycle will be set to 3 and billing interval would be Bill Every 4 Month(s).
Billing interval: 4 months
Billing cycle: 3
No. of charges: 3
Free trial
You can choose to provide a free trial for any number of days.
Setup Fee
If you charge a setup fee for a plan, then this field can be used to enter the setup fee amount. This amount is a one-time charge that your customers will have to pay when they initially subscribe to your service.
You can also choose the account where the amount for the setup fee should reflect. To do this:
- Click More fields at the bottom of the page when creating or editing a plan.
- Select an account from the Setup Fee Account dropdown under Account Details.
Now, the amount received for the setup fee will reflect under the chosen account.
Charge setup fee upfront
Zoho Billing allows you to charge a setup fee at the beginning of your customer’s trial of your product or service. To charge a setup fee upfront, you need to enable the option for a plan and mark the option when creating a subscription.
Scenario: Patricia, the owner of Zylker Broadband, plans to offer a 1-month free trial of her internet broadband service to attract new customers. To enable this trial, she must install a Wi-Fi router at the customer’s location. Patricia decides to use Zoho Billing to charge a setup fee upfront for the Wi-Fi router installation, ensuring that customers are committed to the service from the outset.
Charging the setup fee at the beginning of the trial allows Patricia to cover the cost of equipment and improve customer retention. This strategy aligns with her goal of providing a seamless and financially sustainable service to her customers.
Here’s how you can enable charging setup fee upfront for a plan:
- Create a new plan or edit an existing plan.
- Enter the number of trial days.
- Enter the setup fee.
Mark Charge setup fee when the trial period starts.
Note: When you charge a setup fee at the beginning of the trial period, an invoice will be created for the setup fee.
To charge the setup fee upfront for a subscription:
- Navigate to the Subscriptions module under Sales.
- Click + New at the top right corner.
- Select a customer.
- Select the plan, for which you have enabled charge setup fee at the beginning of the trial.
Mark Charge setup fee when the trial period starts under Subscription Terms.
Account
This is another portion where the seamless integration with Zoho Books comes into play. You can store a plan’s revenue in an Income account in Zoho Books.
Whenever a customer subscribes to a plan, the corresponding plan’s revenue will be mapped into the account that you choose from the drop down. The drop down displays the list of Income accounts in Zoho Books.
To get an account listed in the drop down, you’ll have to create an Income account (Income/Other Income) in Zoho Books.
- Sign in to your Zoho Books account.
- Go to Accountant tab and click Chart of Accounts sub-tab.
- Click the + New Account button on the top right corner.
- After naming the account, make sure to select an Income account type. Click Save.
Tax
You can add tax to your addon. You can also use tax groups for more than one tax.
To get a tax listed in the drop down follow the below steps.
- Go to Settings > Taxes & Compliance > Taxes.
- Click the + New Tax button in the top right corner.
- Enter the required tax details and click Save.
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