Credit Methods for Close and Amend

When a subscription product is closed or amended before the end of its billing period, Subscription Management determines the credit amount using the selected credit method. The credit method controls how the application evaluates billed and unbilled periods and which bill lines are credited, retained, or removed.

The Close Credit Method attribute defines the evaluation logic used during close and amend processing. This attribute is available on the subscription profile and product summary within the partial period billing and credit rules section.

The following credit methods are available:

• Future periods

• Current and future periods

• Last partial period

Each method affects how the application processes the billing period that contains the close or amendment date and any future periods.

Future periods

With this method, the application evaluates only periods that occur after the close or amendment date.

Processing behavior:

• Future bill lines that have already been interfaced are credited.
• Future bill lines that are not yet billed are removed.
• Bill lines for past periods and the current billing period remain unchanged, even if the close date falls within the current period.

Example:

• A monthly subscription is billed through June and the product is closed on May 15.

• June is credited if it has already been interfaced.

• Any unbilled future periods are removed.

• May remains unchanged because it's the current billing period.

This method is typically used when the business wants to preserve the current period charge but remove future obligations.

Current and future periods

With this method, the application evaluates both the current billing period that contains the close or amendment date and all future periods.

Processing behavior:

• If the current period has been interfaced, the application calculates a credit for the unused part of that period based on partial period billing and credit rules.

• Future interfaced bill lines are credited.

• Unbilled future bill lines are removed.

Example:

A monthly subscription is billed through June and the product is closed on May 15.

• May might be partially credited based on partial period rules if it has already been interfaced.

• June is credited if already interfaced.

• Any unbilled future periods are removed.

This method ensures the customer is credited for both unused current time and future billed periods.

Last partial period

With this method, the application calculates the credit for the billing period that contains the close or amendment date using the configured partial period billing and credit rules.

Processing behavior:

• Credit for the period containing the close date follows the partial period configuration.

• The outcome depends on whether partial periods are set to bill in full, not bill, or use thresholds.

• Future period handling continues according to standard credit processing.

Example:

• If partial periods are configured to bill in full, the application might not generate a credit for the period containing the close date.

• If partial periods are configured with thresholds or to exclude short periods, the credit amount reflects those rules.

This method tightly aligns credit calculation with the defined partial period billing policy.

Across all credit methods, the application evaluates bill lines based on whether they've already been billed and interfaced. This ensures credits are generated only where appropriate and prevents duplicate or incorrect adjustments.

To use these credit methods, the Enable Partial Period Advanced Billing Options profile option must be set to Yes. When enabled, the Close Credit Method attribute becomes available. If a close or amendment is started at the subscription header level, the product-level setting takes precedence when determining credit behavior.