Products

Overview

If you’re going to invoice or charge customers on a subscription or recurring basis, the first thing we have to do is set up the Products that we charge our customers for.

A Product stores information about what you’re selling, and how much you charge your customers for it. Products are sometimes referred to as line items in ChargeOver. They appear on subscriptions, invoices and quotes and can be created at any point.

Create a new product

To get started, you can create a new product.

1. Click Products on the left menu and select Products again from the dropdown
2. Once you’re there, click the blue New Product button

Creating a plan is relatively painless. You will choose a name for your product, a short description, and a pricing plan.

The example below shows a simple, flat-rate plan of 25 dollars a month.

Once you create your Products, you can re-use them over and over again for each customer and even customize the pricing on a per-customer basis too!

Pricing ChargeOver supports

ChargeOver supports several different, flexible pricing schemes. In this section we will explore the differences between flat, unit, tiered, and volume pricing.

Flat pricing

Flat pricing is the most simple way of pricing your services and products. Flat pricing is just what it sounds like – a flat rate that is charged for a product or service each billing cycle. An example would be $10 a month.

Unit pricing

Unit pricing is used when you need to charge a per-unit rate for a service or product.

Some typical examples are below.

• $0.19 per minute
• $10 per gigabyte
• $50.00 per user license/account

The unit pricing model also supports multiple pricing levels. For example, you may wish to offer discounted pricing to customers who are purchasing a large volume of user licenses, or consuming a large number of minutes or gigabytes of data.

You can set up pricing levels like this.

• If you use between 1 and 10 gigabytes, the cost is $10 per gigabyte
• But if you use between 11 and 20 gigabytes, the cost is only $9 per gigabyte
• If you use more than 20 gigabytes, the cost goes down to only $8 per gigabyte

Using those price levels as an example, if your customer used 15 gigabytes, then the price is calculated from the middle price level, as 15 gigabytes x $9 per gigabyte = $135 total.

Volume pricing

Volume pricing is used when you need to charge a flat rate, but the flat rate charged depends on the quantity.

Some typical examples are listed below.

• $10 for up to 200 minutes, $20 for up to 1000 minutes, or $30 for unlimited minutes
• $20 for up to 10 gigabytes of cloud storage, $40 for up to 50 gigabytes of cloud storage, etc.
• $20 for 10 up to users, $30 for 20 up to users, $40 for up to 50 users, etc.

The key here is to remember that the price isn’t multiplied by the quantity. Instead, the quantity determines the price level you’re at.

Using those price levels as an example, if your customer used 15 gigabytes, then the price used is the middle tier. Which would be $40 for up to 50 gigabytes of cloud storage, bringing the total to $40.

Tiered pricing

Tiered pricing is used when you’re charging per unit, just like unit pricing above, however, the rate for the first X units you buy is different from the rate for the next Y units you buy.

Example one

John Doe’s Telephones offers pricing like this.

• For the first 100 minutes used, you’re charged $0.19 per minute
• For the next 100 minutes used, you’re charged $0.12 per minute (this is *on top of* the amount you’ve been charged for the first 100 minutes)
• For every minute after that, you’re charged $0.06 per minute (again, *on top of* the amount you’ve been charged for the first 100 minutes, and the next 100 minutes)

That is, if you’ve used only 50 minutes, you’re going to get charged 50 x $0.19 per minute = $9.50 total.

If you’ve used 150 minutes, you’re going to get charged 100 x $0.19 per minute = $19.50, for the first 100 minutes you used and 50 x $0.12 per minute = $6.00, for the next 50 minutes you used.

In the end, your grand total for 150 minutes is $19.50 + $6.00 = $25.50.

Example two

The in-laws are in town and they are big talkers. They used 350 minutes.

• 100 x $0.19 per minute = $19.50 (this is for the first 100 minutes you used)
• 100 x $0.12 per minute = $12.50 (this is for the next 100 minutes)
• 150 x $0.06 per minute = $9.00 (this is for the 150 minutes after those first two price levels)

The grand total for 350 minutes is $19.50 + $12.50 + $9.00 = $41.00

With tiered pricing, the price levels/tiers compound, in contrast to unit pricing where only a single price level is used in the calculations.

Setup fees

Setup fees are charges that can be used to charge your customers an initial one-time setup fee. A setup fee will only ever be charged or invoiced once, and only on the first invoice.

If you charge a one-time setup fee, you can use the setup fee field to have this automatically added onto the customers first invoice.

Base fees

Base fees are fees that are always charged, in addition to any unit, volume, or tiered pricing costs. This is useful in situations where you charge a fee regardless of how much of something the customer uses.

A typical pricing example is something like $10 per month, plus 5 cents per minute.

In a situation like this, the customer is always charged $10 per month, even if they don’t use any minutes. If they do use some minutes, then the charge is $10 per month, which is the base fee, plus 5 cents multiplied by the number of minutes they’ve used.

Base fees can be used in conjunction with unit, volume, or tiered pricing plans.

Pricing for one-time invoices

Compared to subscriptions or recurring invoicing, one time invoices are different. All of the pricing models above apply to typical recurring subscriptions or recurring invoicing in ChargeOver.

For one-time or one-off invoicing, most of the above information does not apply. One-time invoices just have a rate and a quantity for each line item, and thus unit, volume, and tiered pricing will not apply or automatically calculate anything for you.

Set default payment cycle for specific product

When creating a new product, you can set the default payment cycle for that specific product.

After adding that product to the subscription, ChargeOver will then automatically adjust the subscription to the appropriate payment cycle for that plan.

Change products default pay cycle

1. Head over to your Products list and select the product you wish to edit from the list
2. Select the Edit tab at the top of the page and click More Options to reveal the payment cycle form

3. Select a payment cycle from the drop down and then click Save

Set-up free trials

Trials are a great way for your business to get new customers who are shopping around. If you would like for one of your products or services to always include a free trial period, simply enter the amount of cycles the trial should run for until the first payment is due within the # of cycles to skip or # of free trial cycles field.

You can find these fields by clicking the pencil icon on a line item that is part of an invoice or a subscription.

When you are adjusting the number of cycles to skip on an existing subscription, make sure you count up how many times it has already created invoices. This will come into play when setting the number of cycles to skip or the number of free cycles.

For example, if an a subscription has invoiced three times already and you want to skip two cycles, you will enter the number five into the box.

You are not required to enter a trial period for every product or service. For items with no trial period, simply leave the # of cycles to skip or # of free trial cycles field blank.

The number of cycles to be skipped will be populated automatically if you add an item that has a trial period to a recurring billing package.

Now the customer will not be billed for the cycles skipped during the trial period.

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We recommend checking the invoice forecast if you are adjusting this field on a subscription, to ensure the customer will be billed the right amount.

Bulk pricing updates

ChargeOver's bulk subscription update tool allows you to update the pricing for all subscriptions for a certain product.

You will not be able to make pricing adjustments by percentages at this time. You will need to enter in a calculated amount for a pricing change.

Steps

1. Go to Products and click on the product you want to update prices for
2. On the Overview page, click the Bulk Subscription Update button on the right side of the page

3. Select the currencies and brands you want to update the subscription pricing for

4. You have the choice of entering the description, pricing or both. You can then click Continue

• A window will come up telling you how many subscriptions will be affected by the mass price change

5. Click Apply Changes

Now the subscription line items associated with the adjusted product will have updated pricing.

Keep in mind

• This tool only affects the pricing on subscriptions. The product or plan itself will remain unchanged, but any subscriptions using the product or plan will be affected
• All non-cancelled subscriptions associated with the updated product will have their pricing changed
• Mass updating the pricing on subscriptions for a certain product cannot be undone

Rewards points

Rewards points are points that can be used to pay for invoices.

For example, a product may have rewards points assigned to it, and after purchasing that product, the earned points may be used to pay for an invoice.

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Rewards Points is a beta feature. Contact us: support@ChargeOver.com

Assign rewards points to a product

In order for customers to purchase rewards points, there needs to be a product with points assigned to it.

Steps

1. Either select a product you wish to add rewards points to from your Products tab, and select the Edit tab, or begin creating a new product
2. Assign rewards points to the product, and specify an expiration date for the points

3. Once you're finished editing or creating your product, click Save

Now you have a product containing rewards points. When customers pay for this product, they will earn the number of rewards points assigned.

Customers buying rewards points

Customers can earn rewards points by paying for a product that has points assigned to it.

Steps

1. Create an invoice, containing a product with rewards points

2. Once the customer pays off the invoice containing a product with rewards points, they automatically earn the number of rewards points specified on the product

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Rewards points will not be earned if the invoice is paid for via a write-off or credit.

Redeem rewards points to pay for an invoice

Once a customer has accumulated rewards points, they are able to redeem these points to pay for an invoice. When selecting a payment method to pay off an invoice, there will be an option to pay with rewards points.

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Once rewards points are expired, they can no longer be used to pay for invoices.

Manually adjust a customer's number of rewards points

The number of rewards points a customer has can be manually adjusted, without the need to purchase or redeem the points.

Steps

1. Go to your list of Customers, and select the customer you would like to adjust rewards points for
2. Under the 'Customer Actions' section, click Adjust Rewards Points

3. A window will pop up, where you can enter a number of points to adjust. Entering a positive number will add points, and entering a negative number will subtract any points

4. When finished, click Adjust Points

Now the customer's number of rewards points will immediately be adjusted.

View rewards points in the customer portal

Customers are able to view their number of rewards points in the customer portal.

Disable a product

If you have a product you no longer need to use, you can disable the product so that it cannot be used. Disabling the product keeps the product in ChargeOver but cannot be used on new invoices or subscriptions.

1. Go to your Products list and select the one you want to disable
2. Select the Edit tab

3. Select More options...
4. Find the Status field and change the dropdown option from Yes to No

5. Scroll to the bottom of the page and click Save Changes

Now that the product has been disabled, you will not be able to create any new subscriptions with that product.

Subscriptions already in use with the product will continue to be charged and will not be affected.

Keep in mind

• You can re-enable a disabled product at any time by following the same steps above
• Once a product has been re-enabled, you can use it on invoices and subscriptions again
• Products can only be disabled if they've been used on an invoice or subscription at least once. Click here to learn how to delete a product

If you run into any issues or have any further questions, please don't hesitate to reach out.

Delete a product

If you've created a product a no longer have a need for it, you can delete the product so that it is no longer listed.

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Products in ChargeOver can only be deleted if they have never been used in an invoice or subscription. Otherwise, the option to delete the product will not be available and you will only have the option to disable.

Steps

1. Go to your list of Products and select the item you want to delete
2. Select the three vertical dots

3. Click the red Delete Product button

Keep in mind

• If you're not seeing the option to delete, that means the product has been used at least once on an invoice or a subscription
• Once the product is deleted, it cannot be retrieved. You can simply recreate the product if needed
• If you're using the add on, hosted sign-up pages, the link to the sign-up page will no longer be active

If you run into any issues or have any further questions, please don't hesitate to reach out.