Pabbly Subscriptions Features

1. Coupons:

Coupons are used to provide offers and discounts on particular products or services.

To add a coupon. Follow the steps below-

1. Go to the “Products” and click on that product to which you want to add a coupon.
2. Click on “Add Coupon”.

3. Fill up the details of the coupon. You need to fill up all these details shown in the below image in order to create a new coupon –

• Coupon Name

Here you can input the name of the coupon.

• Coupon Code

Add a unique coupon code to identify the coupon.

• Discount

Specify the discount as a flat discount or in % discount which you want to offer your customer.

• Redemption Type

There are 3 redemption type of coupons

1. 1. One-time – Select when the coupon is to be redeemed only once for a subscription.
   2. Forever – Coupon is applied every time when invoice generated.
   3. Limited number of times – You can specify the no. of times a coupon can be redeemed.

• Associated Plans

A coupon can be applied to all the plan or to the specific plans.

• Valid Upto

Here you can set the expiry date of a coupon.

• Maximum Redemption (Required)

It refers to the maximum number of subscriptions to which this coupon can be used for.

Note: The Redemption cycle works according to the subscriptions not according to the customers.

(A subscription which has a ‘Weekly Billing Cycle’ can use the coupon 4 times in a month and a subscription which has ‘Monthly Billing Cycle’ will use the same coupon only once in a month.)

Coupon details are visible below the plans for the product. You can inactive the coupon by clicking on the “Mark As Inactive” button.

4. Auto-fill Checkout Page By Customer Id:

The Pabbly allows it’s users to Auto-fill the customer details into the field of the checkout page. Here, Auto-fill means all the fields given in the checkout page will be filled automatically for any of the specific customers.

Now, how it works?

On firing the API to create a new customer, the system will generate a unique id for each. And, this is what we exactly called a customer_Id.  Please refer how the customer_id look like through the list of all customers – https://www.pabbly.com/subscriptions/api/#section-4

Once you get this Customer_id by following the guidelines, you can put that same Id at the end of the checkout link in a specific syntax.

Syntax to add customer id in the checkout link: ?customer_id=

For example:  https://payments.pabbly.com/subscribe/5cb963bf0ce68773eec61099/pabbly-hub?customer_id=5b9cc5cc74dcd31e04f1691b

By doing so, it can get all the data automatically from the customer based on the customer_id on the Checkout page. All the details associated with this customer Id is filled automatically in the checkout page.

Note: These auto-fill fields or texts are not editable means you can not edit the text for any of the customers manually.

5. What Are Credit Notes?

Suppose you are looking to change your plan from a lower amount to higher ones or vice versa, let’s say :

Right now, you have a subscription of $49 for any plan e.g  “Plan1” and you want to change this plan to some other, say “Plan2” whose amount will be, suppose $99.

The credit will be applied to the future transaction as shown below:

This credit note will be available at: customers -> Transactions -> CN_no.

In case of lower to higher amount – Credit Applied = (A Plan going to update) – (A plan need to be changed).

Or in case of higher to lower one – Credit Applied = (A plan need to be changed) – (A Plan going to update).

So according to the above example –

Credit Applied = $99 – $49 = $50

Now, $50 is your credit amount which you need to pay instead of $99 as shown in the above image.

This is how ‘Credit Applied’ works.

You can also get your total credit amount on the customer section without going to the credit note.

Just go to customers in the Pabbly and you will be able to see the credit amount as like in below picture –

0

Note : This whole process will not be applicable for “One Time Billing Cycle”. You need to set some specified number to generate your billing cycle of any plan for e.g. every week, every year, every month etc.

6. PayPal Standard  VS  PayPal Payments Pro:

PayPal offers 2 different variants.

PayPal Standard  &  PayPal Payments Pro

1. PayPal Standard:-

In PayPal standard, the customer will go offsite to PayPal to complete the checkout process.

It does not require reference transactions to be enabled. All the subscriptions are managed at Paypal’s end itself.

Once the payment is successful, Pabbly automatically marks the payment as paid. In the case of failed payment, Pabbly is notified by PayPal and within Pabbly the subscription is marked as unpaid.

Cons of PayPal Standard –

• Customer has to go off-site to PayPal to complete the payment.

Pros of PayPal Standard –

• Available in all countries.
• Customers can pay through credit card, debit card and directly through their PayPal account.
• No Lock-in with the subscription management services (Recurly/Chargebee). All subscriptions are managed at PayPal itself. So, in-case you want to change or close your subscription management services, the billing will still happen directly through PayPal.

2. PayPal Payments Pro – (Reference Transaction):-

The Reference transaction is the feature of PayPal Payments Pro.

It allows you to collect the payment using a credit card on your website itself. However, the customers can’t pay using the PayPal account with PayPal payments pro.

Cons of PayPal Payments Pro (Reference Transaction) –

• Only available in US, Canada and UK to selected customers.
• Only credit and debit card allowed. Customers can’t pay using their PayPal account.
• Lock-in with the subscription management services (Recurly/Chargebee): if you want to change your subscription management service, you will not be able to bill your customers anymore because the subscriptions are not stored at PayPal’s end.

Pros of PayPal Payments Pro (Reference Transaction) –

• You can take payment through your own website. Customers won’t be taken to the PayPal site.

What do we use in Pabbly?

In Pabbly, currently, all the payments happen through PayPal standard offering. You do not need reference transactions for the same. We store all the subscriptions at PayPal itself.

P.s: Rules of PayPal with Pabbly Subscriptions:

• PayPal refund feature is applicable for One-Time payment. In case of recurring payment, PayPal refund is not applicable.
• Coupons will work with “Forever Redemption” type. Coupons will not work with “One Time” & “Limited number of times”.
• Upgrade/downgrade of plans will not work with PayPal.

7. How To Record A Payment?

So far, We have known that ” Pabbly” generates invoices automatically for all the Online Payments, also a user can generate invoice manually. In the scenario of manual invoice or offline transaction (where payment is done via Bank Transfers, Cash, Cheque, others), the status of the invoice will show as “Created” not ” Paid”. To change the status of Invoice from “Created” to “Paid”, Pabbly subscription has added a new feature “Record Payment” where a user can generate invoice manually, add payment details and once the payment detail is added, the status will automatically change to ” Paid”.

Here is how you can use the “Record Payment” feature:

Create an offline subscription of a user. (If you need help creating an offline subscription, follow the URL: (https://www.pabbly.com/subscriptions/docs/features/#section16)

Now, go to the Invoice section, you will see the status of the Invoice is “Created”, Please refer to the screenshot below:

Click on the invoice that you have created manually, You will have few choices on the top left of the Invoice like this:

After you choose“Record Payment”, you will be redirected to this page :

Once the changes have been saved, you can go back to Invoice and you can check the status of the Invoice has been changed to ” Paid”.

8. How To Collect Charge From Customers?

When you were checking Invoice of offline subscription, you may have noticed one more option by the name “Collect Charge”, refer to screenshot below:

In  Collect Charge option, you can do the direct debit from the billing details stored for that customer. It means you will be able to charge the credit card of that customer from within the back-end.

Create an Offline subscription for a customer, fill out the other necessary details and at the end, you have to choose “Payment Method”, you will have two options Offline Payment and card details of the customer. You can directly choose card details and then click on “submit”. Please refer to the screenshot below:

After clicking on submit, an Invoice by the name of the customer will be generated and the status of invoice will be “Paid”. Refer to the screenshot below:

9. How To Process A Refund?

Pabbly Subscriptions have made the Refund process easier for its user, with Pabbly you can refund directly from your account to your customer. You don’t need to go to your Payment Gateway account and then initiate the refund process from there. Follow these simple steps to initiate the refund from your Pabbly subscription’s account.

Login to your Pabbly Subscription’s account and choose “Sales” from your Dashboard. Select the Customer you want to initiate the Refund for, follow the screenshot here –

Once you choose the customer having the transaction with “Success” as the status. Click on it and you will be redirected to the “Sales details”. Here, you will find a “Refund/Manage” option. Check the screenshot below –

Once you click on “Refund”, a pop-up box will open with two Options, “Refund” and ” Refund Description”. Pabbly subscriptions have the feature of a Partial refund as well, you can add the amount you want to refund. Once you add the amount, added a description(if any) and clicked on “Save”. An automatic Refund receipt is generated against the Invoice.

You can find the receipt under Customer’s Transaction details, please refer to the screenshots below:

13. What Is Embed Checkout Page?

Pabbly subscription helps you to give your customers a flawless checkout experience without being redirected to anywhere. Now, embed your Pabbly checkout page in your website without any hassle.

How To Use It In Website?

Just add the code given below in your website and your checkout is embedded.

<iframe width=”100%” height=”1300px” src=”https://payments.pabbly.com/subscribe/5cb963bf0ce68773eec61099/pabbly-suite”></iframe>

Below is a sample checkout page URL, you just have to replace it with your checkout URL “https://payments.pabbly.com/subscribe/5cb963bf0ce68773eec61099/pabbly-hub”

14. What Is The Process Of Plan Upgrade & Downgrade?

Pabbly Subscription enables you to ‘Upgrade’ or ‘Downgrade’ your current recurring subscription. In simple words, you can switch to any of the active- plans of the product that you already purchased.

Suppose you have a purchased a product which has three plans say ‘A, B, C’ for $50, $100 and $150 respectively. You purchased plan ‘B’ for $100 and now you want the services of the plan ‘C’ also. Then you don’t need to wait for the whole month or to end the subscription period of the plan ‘ B’. You can directly ‘Upgrade’ your plan from Pabbly Subscription. Same things go with the ‘Downgrade’  if the features of plan ‘A’ is sufficient for you then you can ‘Downgrade’ the plan from Plan ‘B’ to plan ‘A’ directly.

Plans Can Be Upgrade/Downgrade In Two Ways-

1.  The Merchant Will Upgrade Or Downgrade A Plan

If you are the merchant and you want to change the current the plan of your customer. then just follow these steps.

• Click on the ‘Subscription’ on your dashboard and then pick the individual subscription of the customer for which you want to change the plan (Upgrade/Downgrade)
• Click on the ‘Edit’ button.

• Check the check box if you want to notify your customer.
• From ‘Plan Name’ select the new plan that you want to assign to your customer.

•  You can check if you want to apply the changes ‘Immediately’ or at the ‘ End of this term’.
•  Select the payment mode.
•  Finally, save changes from the ‘Save’ button and the changes will be applied accordingly.

As you change the plan of your customer, you will find several changes,

• In the ‘Reports’ Section the values of ‘Net Revenue’ and ‘Monthly Recurring Revenue’ will be changed.
• The next billing date will be changed as per the plan.
• The customer will have ‘Unused Credits’ if he is applicable for it.

2. Your Customer Can Also Change The Current Plan Via Customer Portal Access.

If your customer has the ‘Customer Portal Access’ then they can change their plan (Upgrade/Downgrade) by following these steps.

• Click to Subscription on the dashboard and select the subscription plan you want to change (Upgrade/Downgrade).
• Click on Edit button.

•  Check if you want to notify yourself or not for the changed plan.
•  Select the new plan from ‘Plan Name’.

• Select the payment mode and hit the ‘Save’ button.

Finally, your changes will be saved.

15. Email Template V1 V/S V2

Pabbly Subscriptions ‘Email Notification’ feature will notify the merchant and the customer on various actions accordingly via emails. We have updated the email templates in a very impressive way.

Here is the comparison between the old and new versions of email templates.

The old version layout of emails templates looks like this-

•  Successful Payment Notification To Merchant

• Refund Notification To Merchant.

• Client Portal invitation to the customer,

We have updated the email templates, which are more impressive and professional than the older version.

16. How To Create An Offline/Manual Subscriptions?

In Pabbly Subscriptions, customers are not only created by a checkout page but also you can add customers offline/manually.

Subscription → Add New Subscription → Select the customer email → Fill all the required details → Click on the Submit button.

When the offline subscription is created, the status of the subscription is shown as ‘Live’ but the Invoice status is shown as ‘Created’.

Now the subscription is live but the payment is not done yet so if you want to collect payment for an offline subscription then the very first option is Invoice.

In offline subscription, the invoice sent to the customer is a Payable Invoice. The Invoice will be sent automatically to the customer if you have selected the ‘Email To’ option while creating the subscription and if not then you have to send the invoice manually.

To send the invoice to the customer follow,

Invoice → Click on customer’s Invoice Number → Click on the Email Icon → Click on OK and Send the Invoice

The invoice sent to the customer will consist of a “ViewYour Invoice” button and from there, your customer can pay the amount.

When customers click on the “View Your Invoice” button then they will be redirected to the payments page which has the “Pay Now” button.

Your customer can now fill the details and complete the payment process.

Once the payment process is completed, the status of the Invoice will now be shown as ‘Paid’.

If your plan is of recurring billing cycle then the payable invoice will be sent automatically on every recurring billing to the customer and an email notification of the same action is sent to the merchant.

With this option, Pabbly Subscriptions provides you with two more options to collect payments,

1. Collect Charge.
2. Record Payment.

Note: Collect charge will only work if you have the Credit/Debit Card details of the customer.

Note: Record payment will only change the status of Invoice into ‘Paid’ and you have to collect payment manually.

The dunning email notification received by the end customer also has a pay now button. so your customer can directly pay form the email.

You can also stop the dunning cycle for any customer just by deleting the Pending Invoice of that particular transaction.