Subscription Packages
A package is the commercial arrangement — what a customer is on, and therefore what they get.
Where to find it
Architect Panel → Subscriptions:
- Feature Sets — the groupings features are sold in
- Subscription Packages — the packages customers buy
Architect Panel → Configuration:
- Multitenancy — the tenants packages apply to
Architect Panel → Commercial:
- Carts — the payment side
What it ties together
- A feature set, deciding what is available.
- The commercial terms.
- A link to the tenant it applies to.
The package is the source of truth
What a customer can do should follow from their package rather than from anybody's memory or a note in a spreadsheet. If the two disagree, you have a customer receiving something they are not paying for, or paying for something they cannot use.
Both happen, and both are found at renewal, which is the worst moment.
Plan the lifecycle
- Starting — including any trial, and what happens when it ends.
- Upgrading — usually immediate and welcome.
- Downgrading — the one that needs thought.
- Lapsing — non-payment, expiry, cancellation.
- Ending — and what happens to their data.
Downgrade and lapse are where the problems are
Upgrades are easy. The questions that need answering before you have customers:
- What happens to data only the removed feature can reach?
- Do they keep read access, or lose it?
- How much warning do they get?
"Their data becomes inaccessible with no notice" is a decision, and it should be a deliberate one — it is the kind that ends up in a complaint.
Never delete data on lapse
Suspend access, and keep it for a defined period. A customer who lapses through an administrative oversight and loses everything is a customer you will not recover, and possibly a legal problem.
Publish the period so it is not a surprise.
Trials need an end state
Decide what a trial becomes: a lower tier, a suspended account, or a closed one. A trial that silently continues is revenue you are not collecting; one that vanishes without warning loses a prospect who was still deciding.
Keep it reconcilable
Somebody should be able to compare what customers are on against what is being billed. Where those diverge, the difference is money in one direction or the other.
Worked example
A product's packages link a feature set to a tenant. A lapsed subscription suspends access and retains data for 90 days, which is published. Trials convert to a suspended account with an explanation and a route to subscribe. A monthly reconciliation compares packages against billing.
Recommendations
- Make the package the source of truth.
- Decide downgrade and lapse behaviour before you have customers.
- Never delete on lapse — suspend and retain.
- Reconcile packages against billing.