Characteristics of Plan Types

Plans per Customer

Each customer can have only one master plan.

Each customer can have one or more supplemental plans.

Customer's Currency and Billing Interval

The master plan defines the currency and the default recurring billing interval for an account. The billing interval for a master plan can be any number of months.

The billing interval for a supplemental plan can be any number of months and can be different from the master plan's billing interval.

Example: A customer is subscribed to a master plan that is billed quarterly in the amount of $50 and a supplemental plan that is billed monthly in the amount of $10. Aria will collect $10 a month from the customer for the supplemental plan and $50 every quarter for the master plan. In addition, Aria will send statements to the customer every month reflecting any monthly and quarterly financial transactions.

Aria will generate $0 invoices if a customer's billing date arrives and no charges are due.

Example: If a customer is billed for usage monthly and no usage charges were accrued, Aria will generate a $0 invoice.

Please note: If you do not want your customers to receive statements for $0 charges, you can enable the Suppress Zero Dollar Invoices system setting. (Under Configuration > Billing > Invoice settings.)

Channel Management

A master plan can be used for channel management. A customer's master plan can identify the customer type or channel. You can use the master plan to determine the branding for the channel.

Example: Use a unique, customized statement template and/or dunning process for each channel, country, or language.

If you use your master plans for channel management, you can include all of your billable services in your supplemental plans. You can associate a supplemental plan with more than one master plan while allowing the master plan to determine the branding for each channel.

Trial Plans

If you want to offer your new customers a master plan for a free trial period, you use either of the following options depending on whether you want to collect payment information up front:

Freemium model: Offer them a master plan with free services, then give them the choice to upgrade to a paid master plan.

OR

Free trial model with automatic upgrade/roll over to a paid plan: Offer them a master plan that is free for your chosen number of days or months, then automatically rolls over to a paid master plan

If you want to offer your new or existing customers a supplemental plan for a free trial period, you can use either of the following options:

Freemium model: Offer them a supplemental plan with free services, then give them the choice to upgrade to a paid supplemental plan.

OR

Free trial model with automatic upgrade/roll over to a paid plan: free for your chosen number of months, then automatically rolls over to a paid supplemental plan.

Statement templates and dunning processes

Statement templates and dunning processes are applied to a master plan.

Statements and dunning processes connected with a supplemental plan are based on the statement template and dunning process applied to the master plan associated with the supplemental plan.