Creating Plans
Creating Plans Manually
Creating a plan allows you to offer customers different options for subscribing to a product, with distinct billing frequencies, pricing models, and features.
Here’s how to create a plan:
- Click Items on the left sidebar.
- Navigate to the Plans module at the top.
- Click + New in the top-right corner.
- Enter the required details in the following fields.
| Field | Description |
|---|---|
| Product | Select the name of the product you want to associate this plan from the dropdown. |
| Plan Name | Enter a name for the plan. The name must be under 100 characters. |
| Plan Code | Enter a unique code for the plan. The code must be under 100 characters, should not contain spaces, and can include hyphens (-) and underscores (_). |
| Billing Frequency | Enter how often you want to bill your customer. Enter the number and choose the interval (week(s), month(s), or year(s)) from the dropdown. |
| Billing Cycles | Enter the number of times the customer needs to be charged. If you choose Auto renews until canceled from the dropdown, the customer will be charged until the subscription is cancelled by the customer or yourself. If you choose Expires after a specified no. of billing cycles from the dropdown, you can specify the number of billing cycles after which the plan will expire. |
| Plan Description | Enter a description for the plan. The description can be up to 2000 characters. |
| Plan Image | Upload an image for the plan by dragging the image into the field or by clicking Browse images. |
- Navigate to the Pricing tab and enter the required details in the following fields.
| Field | Description |
|---|---|
| Pricing Model | Select the pricing model of the plan from the dropdown. Refer Pricing Models to learn more. |
| Unit Name | Select a unit for the plan. If the unit is not listed, you can enter a new unit name in the field. |
| Price | Enter the price of the plan per billing cycle. |
| Free Trial | Enter the number of days for a free trial, if applicable. |
| Setup Fee | If you charge a setup fee for a plan, then this field can be used to enter the setup fee amount. This amount is a one-time charge that your customers will have to pay when they initially subscribe to your good or service. Insight: The term “Setup Fee” should be considered as an umbrella term for any extra amount that needs to be collected during the first billing cycle. For example, if you collect an initial security deposit, this amount can be entered in the Setup Fee field while creating a plan. |
| Type | Choose whether the plan is a good or a service. |
| SAC | Enter the SAC number of the plan. |
| Tax Type | Choose whether the plan is taxable or non-taxable. |
| Tax Rates | If the plan is taxable, select the applicable Intra-State and Inter-State tax rates. |
| Exemption Reason | If the plan is non-taxable, select the reason for exemption from the dropdown. |
- Navigate to the Hosted Payment Pages & Portal tab and enter the required details in the following fields.
| Field | Description |
|---|---|
| Widget Preference | Mark this option to display the plan in the pricing and checkout widgets. |
| Plan Features | Enter the features of the plan along with tooltips. These will appear in the pricing and checkout widgets. Use Add New Tag if you want to add a tag next to a feature. |
| Plan Change | Mark this option to allow customers to switch to this plan from the customer portal. |
- Navigate to the Other Details tab and enter the required details in the following fields.
| Field | Description |
|---|---|
| Plan Account | Select the account to associate the revenue generated from this plan. |
| Setup Fee Account | Select the account to associate the setup fee collected from this plan. |
- Click Save.
Once the plan is created, it will be associated with the selected product and available for subscriptions. You can manage billing, pricing, features, and visibility settings for the plan from the plan’s details page, ensuring easy subscription management and customer access.
Understanding Plan Fields
Why do I need plan codes?
Plan code is a unique identifier used to refer to a plan when a subscription is created or updated via the API. The advantage here is you can set the plan code yourself rather than using an auto generated unique ID to identify the plan.
Billing Frequency
After setting the plan’s price, you can specify the billing frequency using the ‘Billiing Frequency’ field.
| Field | Description |
|---|---|
| Year(s) | Your customers will be billed once every specified number of years you’ve chosen. |
| Week(s) | Your customers will be billed once every specified number of weeks you’ve chosen. |
| Month(s) | Your customers will be billed once every specified number of months you’ve chosen. |
| Day(s) | Your customers will be billed once every specified number of days you’ve chosen. Note: The minimum number of days for which you can create a subscription is 5. Scenario: Zylker is a mobile network provider, which provides data plans to their customers for 28 days. Patricia, the owner of Zylker can create a plan in Zoho ERP with the following Billing Frequency : Bill Every 28 Day(s). This ensures that her billing management is in sync with her business model. |
Account
Whenever a customer subscribes to a plan, the corresponding plan’s revenue will be mapped into the account that you choose from the dropdown. The dropdown displays the list of Income accounts. To get an account listed in the dropdown, you’ll have to create an Income account (Income/Other Income). Refer Accounting to learn more about how to create accounts in Zoho ERP.
Tax
Taxes determine the applicable charges applied to a plan during billing. You can associate either an individual tax or a tax group with a plan, allowing you to apply one or multiple taxes as required. The tax dropdown displays the list of taxes and tax groups that are configured in your organization. To make a tax available for selection, it must first be created under Taxes & Compliance in Settings.
Importing Plans
Importing plans allows you to add multiple subscription plans to Zoho ERP at once using a file. This is useful when migrating data from another system reducing manual entry and ensuring data consistency.
Here’s how to import plans:
- Click Items on the left sidebar.
- Navigate to the Plans module at the top.
- Click the More Actions icon and select Import Plans.
- Download the sample file and compare it with your file. Make sure that the format in your file is similar to the sample file.
- Under the Configure tab,
- Click Choose File and select the file that you want to import.
- Select the Character Encoding and File Delimiter from the dropdown.
- Click Next.
- Under the Map Fields tab,
- Map the Zoho ERP fields to the imported file headers.
- Click Next.
- Under the Preview tab,
- Check the list of all the products that are ready to be imported, skipped and also the list of unmapped fields.
- If there are plans that are being skipped, edit the import file and repeat the above steps.
- Click Import.
Once the import is complete, the plans will be added to your organization based on the mapped fields and import preferences. Review the imported data to ensure accuracy before associating the plans with subscriptions.