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Create subscriptions containing charges with annual prices and specific-month billing periods

This document provides guidance on creating subscriptions with annual pricing and specific-month billing periods, including details on contract negotiations and invoice generation.

When selling the service, your end customer selects a non-annual billing period of four months instead and agrees on an annual net sales price of $21,500 through contract negotiations.

The following information lists basic information about the expected subscription.

Subscription number

Start date

Term

Charge number

Net sales price

Billing period

S1

01/01/2021

12

C1

$21,500 per year

Specific months: 4 months

During order creation, you can use the Create an order operation to create a subscription while overwriting the annual list price and billing period. The following information is a sample API request that creates such a subscription through the CreateSubscription order action.

{
   "orderDate":"2023-01-01",
   "existingAccountNumber":"A00000528",
   "subscriptions":[
      {
         "orderActions":[
            {
               "type":"CreateSubscription",
               "triggerDates":[
                  {
                     "name":"ContractEffective",
                     "triggerDate":"2023-01-01"
                  }
               ],
               "createSubscription":{
                  "terms":{
                     "autoRenew":true,
                     "initialTerm":{
                        "period":"12",
                        "periodType":"Month",
                        "termType":"TERMED"
                     },
                     "renewalSetting":"RENEW_WITH_SPECIFIC_TERM",
                     "renewalTerms":[
                        {
                           "period":"12",
                           "periodType":"Month"
                        }
                     ]
                  },
                  "subscribeToRatePlans":[
                     {
                        "productRatePlanId":"8ad0887184099dd101841289f34453cc",
                        "uniqueToken":"ss2",
                        "chargeOverrides":[
                           {
                              "productRatePlanChargeId":"8ad0887e84f5b7600184f63259327d82",
                              "billing":{
                                 "billCycleType":"ChargeTriggerDay",
                                 "billingPeriod":"Specific_Months",
                                 "specificBillingPeriod":4,
                                 "billingPeriodAlignment":"AlignToCharge"
                              },
                              "pricing":{
                                 "recurringFlatFee":{
                                    "listPrice":21500,
                                    "listPriceBase":"Per_Year"
                                 }
                              }
                           }
                        ]
                     }
                  ]
               }
            }
         ]
      }
   ]
}

Because the billing period is four months, one invoice is generated on the first day of January, May, and September respectively for the subscription. The following table lists basic information about the three expected invoices generated for the preceding subscription.

Invoice number Invoice date Service period Invoice amount
INV001 01/01/2023 01/01/2023 to 04/30/2023 7,166.67
INV002 05/01/2023 05/01/2023 to 08/31/2023 7,166.66
INV003 09/01/2023 09/01/2023 to 12/31/2023 7,166.67
Total - - 21,500.00

The total annual amount is evenly divided across three invoices. Meanwhile, the total billed amount across these invoices equals the sum of the annual selling price for each individual charge.