FAQs
How can I link customers to my payment gateway or accounting platform in Octane?
Octane seamlessly integrates with popular payment providers like Stripe and accounting systems such as QuickBooks, Xero, and Netsuite. You can link customers in two primary ways:
- Manual Linking: Input pre-existing customer IDs from your payment gateway or accounting platform into the Octane Customer detail page.
- Auto-Generation: Use the create customer call in Octane's API, setting the autogenerate_payment_gateway_customer and autogenerate_accounting_customer parameters to true. This automates the generation of customers in the respective platforms.
My customer's subscription starts in the past. Does Octane support backdated subscriptions?
Octane supports backdated subscriptions, allowing you to input historical start dates. This is particularly useful when you need to account for past service periods accurately. You can select any historical start date, ensuring it does not conflict with existing subscriptions for the same customer. Octane automatically recalculates measurements within the specified period and generates invoices accordingly.
When will be my customer be charged next?
By default, a subscription's billing cycles align with the subscription's starting timestamp. For example, if a customer subscribes to a monthly price plan starting on January 15, the billing cycles follow this pattern. Each cycle covers one month from the start date.
I want to charge my customers on the 1st of every month. How can I align billing cycles with the calendar in Octane?
To align billing cycles with the calendar, you can enable the "align_to_calendar" parameter in settings. This setting can be found in Settings -> Invoicing & Payments -> Invoice Generation. Calendar billing cycles are supported for monthly, quarterly, and annual price plans, providing flexibility in structuring your billing periods.
Are invoices prorated during subscription changes in Octane?
In Octane, invoices during subscription changes are generated based on when the change occurs. If a subscription change aligns with the billing cycle boundary (e.g., at the start of the next cycle or the beginning of the current cycle), the invoicing process proceeds as usual. However, if the change occurs in the middle of a billing cycle, an invoice is cut immediately. This invoice includes prorated charges from the previous subscription and prorated upfront charges (if applicable) from the new subscription.
Does Octane support scheduling subscription changes into the future or pricing ramps?
Yes, Octane supports scheduling subscription changes into the future. This feature is valuable for modeling pricing ramps effectively. You can create different versions of a price plan with adjusted prices and schedule these changes ahead of time, aligning with your strategic objectives and customer requirements.
Is it possible to schedule the start of a discount, and how is this achieved?
Yes, you can schedule the start of a discount using billing_cycle_start_offset. This offset, in units of billing cycle length, determines when the discount begins to apply to the subscription. For example, if the price plan period is a month, and the billing_cycle_start_offset is 1, the discount will start applying in the next month.
Can multiple discounts be applied to a single subscription, and are there any restrictions on applying them?
Yes, multiple discounts can be applied to a single subscription. However, multiple discounts cannot be applied to the same line item simultaneously. For example, two discounts cannot be applied to the same Add-on or the same set of labels on a Metered Component. Additionally, there can only be one "INVOICE_TOTAL" discount on a subscription active at a time.