Subscriptions

A subscription bills a customer again and again for the same products, for example a monthly retainer or an annual license. Deals and quotes win the customer; the subscription keeps invoicing them. Each billing date, Workstation creates an invoice for you.

Subscriptions are for your customers. Your own Workstation plan is managed in Billing.

Open Commerce → Subscriptions. You need the subscriptions.view permission.

Create a subscription

Click Create subscription.
In the Associations card, choose the customer: a contact, an account, or both. You can also link the deal or quote it came from.
In Products, click Add product or Add custom item. Set the unit price, quantity, and an optional Discount % for each line. Prices are per billing period.
In the Subscription card, enter a Name (for example “Pro plan — annual”), the Owner, and a description.
In the Billing card, set:
- Billing frequency: from Daily to Every five years. Monthly, Quarterly, and Annually are the most common.
- Start date: the first billing date.
- Number of payments: how many invoices the customer committed to. Leave it empty to bill Until canceled.
- Renew automatically at the end of the term, when there is a fixed number of payments.
- Currency.
In the Invoicing card, keep Create an invoice on every billing date on, set Payment terms (days) (0 means due on receipt), and add Invoice comments to print on each invoice.
Check the Billing summary (total per billing period, MRR, ARR, and contract value), then click Create subscription.

Tax uses your current tax settings, and each invoice uses the rates in force on its billing date.

From a quote

A recurring Price Offer shows Create subscription. It opens the form filled in with the quote’s customer and products. Nothing is saved until you click save. Only quotes with a recurring billing cycle can be converted.

How billing works

Once a day, Workstation creates an invoice for every subscription whose billing date has arrived. It also runs right after you create, edit, or resume a subscription, so a subscription starting today is invoiced immediately.
Each invoice is issued as Open, dated on the billing date, and due after the payment terms. It is linked to the customer, the subscription, and the deal, and each line shows the service period.
There is one invoice per billing period, never duplicates.
Payments are collected manually. Record them on each invoice as usual. Workstation does not charge cards automatically.
If invoicing is turned off for a subscription, billing periods still advance but no invoice is created.

When a fixed term ends, the subscription renews into a new term if auto-renew is on. Otherwise it expires the day after the term ends.

Statuses

Status	Meaning
Scheduled	The start date is in the future
Active	Billing normally
Past due	One of its invoices is past its due date with money owed. Paying or voiding that invoice makes it Active again.
Paused	No invoices are created until it is resumed
Canceled	Canceled now, or a scheduled cancellation has passed
Expired	A fixed term ended without auto-renew

Status changes only through the actions below, so Kanban cards cannot be dragged between columns.

Pause, resume, and cancel

These actions are in the subscription’s header and need subscriptions.update (or subscriptions.update_own for your own records).

Pause stops invoicing. You choose the next billing date when you resume.
Resume asks for the Next billing date. The end of the term moves out by the length of the pause, so the customer keeps all their payments.
Cancel subscription offers At the end of the billing period (runs until the period already billed ends) or Cancel now, with an optional Reason. Invoices already issued stay open; refunds are not automatic.
Keep subscription removes a scheduled cancellation.

After the first invoice, the start date and currency can no longer be changed. A changed billing frequency applies from the next period. A canceled or expired subscription can only change its name, description, owner, and notes.

To delete a subscription that has already billed and is still running, cancel it first. Deleting keeps its invoices.

The subscriptions list

The header shows the workspace’s MRR, the number of active subscriptions, and how many are past due.

Use the All subscriptions, My subscriptions, Active, and Past due tabs. Billing this week, Ending in 60 days, Paused, and Canceled or expired are also available as table views. The list shows the subscription and customer, status, amount per period, MRR, billing frequency, next billing date, and end date. Switch to Kanban to see subscriptions grouped by status.

Subscription record

The left sidebar shows the status, billing frequency, owner, start and next billing dates, end date, customer, MRR and ARR, and the number of billing cycles so far.

Tab	Shows
Overview	The billing summary (total per period, MRR, ARR, contract value, billed, collected, outstanding, billing cycles), line items, and custom properties. A banner appears if a scheduled cancellation is pending or the last invoice could not be created.
Invoices	Every invoice the subscription created
Activities	Activities linked to the subscription
Timeline	The change history

The right side shows the related contacts, accounts, deals, quotes, invoices, and tickets. Contacts, accounts, and deals also show a Subscriptions card. Admins can change the record layout in Objects.

Loyalty and automation

With Client Loyalty, customers can earn points on renewal payments, milestones, and win-back points when they choose to keep a subscription. Set this up in the Subscriptions card on the loyalty Settings tab. A contact can also use points automatically on each renewal invoice.
Workflows can start on Subscription Created, Subscription Updated, Subscription Status Changed, Subscription Renewed, and Subscription Canceled.

Permissions

Permission	Allows
`subscriptions.view`	See subscriptions
`subscriptions.create`	Create subscriptions, including from a quote
`subscriptions.update` / `subscriptions.update_own`	Edit, pause, resume, and cancel any or only your own
`subscriptions.delete` / `subscriptions.delete_own`	Delete any or only your own

By default, Managers have all of them. Users can view, create, and update their own, but not delete.