Subscriptions

Subscriptions are useful for merchants who are required to perform regular and recurring payments. This feature allows merchants to set up automatic payments for a set date, regular intervals, for a specific period of time, without manual intervention, or even manual payments plans, if needed.

The subscription feature is formed by two main elements:

• Stored subscriptions: the stored subscription is a payment plan/ schedule, which works as a model for to created new subscriptions.
• Subscriptions: the subscriptions define a plan for payments (automatic or manually trigged) for a specific customer.

The Subscription and Stored Subscription features are located under the “Customers” tab in the SelfCare system.

Also:

• Every subscription will have a payment plan or schedule of some kind. This will determine how often payment is taken and how much is taken each time.
• The Subscription feature requires the use of Secure Cards, so remember to register secure cards before trying to register a subscription.
• To register an actual subscription, a Stored Subscription is necessary.

In order to be able to set up a subscription, it is necessary to set up a Secure Card and a Stored Subscription first.

You can search for stored subscriptions by Merchant Reference number.

Before you will be able to create a new subscription, you need to save a subscription template in the Stored Subscriptions section:

• Go to the “Create Stored Subscription” tab and fill in the details of your subscription template.
• You need to think of a Name for the subscription and the Merchant Reference.
• “Merchant Ref” is a unique number which differentiates this subscription template from others.
• “Name” is an extended merchant ref - the name of the subscription template.
• Give a short description of the new subscription.
• “Description” is additional information; description of the stored subscription.
• Choose the Type of the subscription template (Manual or Automatic - without amounts).
• Choose the period type (limited or unlimited).
• Choose the period count.
• Define recurring price (please note that it cannot be “0”).
• Define setup price (it's a one-off fee which applies on the subscription start date, but you may choose not to set it up. You may leave this space blank if there is no set up price).
• Choose on update - this option enables you to choose what will happen with the subscriptions linked to this stored template, should you decide to amend/update the stored subscription (template) in the future. If you wish to continue with the active subscriptions as they are, not affected by the changes made to the stored subscription, select: “Continue subscriptions”. If you would like the active subscriptions to be updated automatically with any changes made to the stored subscription in the future, then select: “Update subscriptions”.
• Choose on delete - this option enables you to choose what will happen with the subscriptions linked to this stored template, should you decide to delete the stored subscription (template) in the future. If you wish to continue with the active subscriptions as they are, not affected by the changes made to the stored subscription, select “Continue subscriptions”. If you would like to stop all the active subscriptions which are linked to this stored subscription if it was deleted in the future, then select “Finish subscriptions”.

Once you make sure that all the details are correct, click on the “Create” button below. Then the template will be saved in the “Stored Subscriptions” list, and you will be able to use it to set up a subscription.

If you would like to set up a a new subscription, go to “Subscriptions” in the drop down menu.

All the previously registered subscriptions are listed in this section, and you can view their details. You can also search for subscriptions by “Merchant reference” or by other criteria in the Advanced filter.

In order to be able to create a new subscription, you need to save a subscription template in the Stored Subscriptions section first.

Then click on the “Create Subscription” button. Fill in the details and make sure that you complete all the fields:

• Merchant Ref (you need to name your subscription with a unique reference)
• Choose the Stored Subscription
• Choose the Secure Card
• Choose the Notification Language for receipts
• Start date and End date of the subscription
• Recurring amount (this amount can never be of “0” value)
• Set up price (i.e. admin fee, one off set up fee, etc. The amount can be 0, if required).

An error message will appear if there are any incomplete details, as can be seen on the images below.

Once all the details have been entered, click on the “Create” button in the bottom right corner to save the subscription details, for future use. You can view the details of your new subscription in the list of all subscriptions under “Subscriptions” menu, under “Customers” tab.

Please see below the example of a common Error message occurring during a new subscription creation process, due to incomplete details entered: “There are errors in your form. Please review and retry”.

If you would like to edit a previously created subscription, click on the “Edit” link next to the subscription details.

Please note that it's not possible to amend the Merchant Ref and Stored Subscription.

You can choose a different Secure Card from the list of registered secure cards.

You can also amend:

• The Notification Language for receipts.
• Period type: weekly, bi-weekly, monthly, quarterly or annually.
• Period count: limited or unlimited, as well as the number of recurring transactions.
• “Skip Period Count”.
• End date.
• Status: active, suspended, completed, cancelled.
• Recurring amount.
• Setup price.

Once you make sure that all the amended details are correct, and that you wish to save the new subscription with the changes, click on the “Update” button in the bottom right corner.
Alternatively, if you do not wish to proceed with the changes, click on the “Cancel” button.

Then you will return to the “Subscriptions” list:

If you would like to delete a previously saved subscription, click on the “Delete” link, next to the chosen subscription's details. A message will appear, asking you to confirm that you really want to delete this subscription. You should click OK to proceed.

Status Meaning

• Active - Subscription is still active and customer will be charged on next Payment Date.
• Suspended - Subscription is suspended for the moment and no charges will be taken from the customer.
• Completed - The subscription has been completed or the merchant has put it to completed early. The customer will not be charged and this subscription can still be searched by Merchant Reference.
• Deleted - Subscription is deleted, no charges to the customer. Can not be found by merchant Reference anymore. Can be searched in advanced filter.
• Cancelled - Subscription has been cancelled, no further charges to customer. Can not be searched by Merchant Reference. Can be searched in advanced filter.