Create subscription – simple

This is what happens in the video

Creating a subscription in Business Central does not have to be complicated. If you only need a single item on a subscription, the process is quick once you know which fields actually matter. You start from the subscription list, click New, select the customer, add a subscription line with the item, and then fill in the dates and invoicing frequency that define the recurring part of the agreement.

The customer is mandatory. The system needs to know who to invoice when you run the create invoice job. Once you select the customer, the sell-to information, salesperson code, currency code, and payment terms are inherited automatically, just as they are in a standard sales process.

The fields that turn an ordinary sales line into a subscription are the start date, the invoicing frequency, the end date, and the next invoicing date. You can also choose a deferral code if you want to spread the revenue across the subscription period, for example over 12 months.

Starting from the subscription list

You begin in the subscription list. In a fresh system this list is empty, so you create the first subscription by clicking New. From there you move to the next field and select the customer. This step is required because the system needs to know who should be invoiced when you later run the create invoice job.

When you pick the customer, the sell-to information is inherited automatically. You can still adjust the salesperson code and your reference if you need to. That is standard functionality.

You may also see the normal notices here, such as a warning that the customer has an overdue balance. You handle that the same way you would in a normal sales process. In this example you can simply dismiss the notice and continue.

Adding the subscription line

A subscription is not ready until it has lines. To add one, you choose the type and set it to Item, then select the item itself.

In this example there are different membership items set up: a yearly, a quarterly, and a monthly membership. You select the yearly one and set the quantity to one.

Because the item already has a unit price, that price is inherited onto the line. The same goes for any standard discount. Both come straight from how the item was set up, so you do not have to enter them manually.

Defining the subscription fields

With the line in place, you fill in the fields that define the subscription part of the order.

• Start date: the date the subscription begins, for example the first of January.
• Invoicing frequency: how often you invoice. For a yearly membership this might be one year, but it depends on your own subscriptions.
• End date: calculated automatically based on your subscription setup or what you chose in the wizard. You can override it manually if you need to.
• Next invoicing date: when the subscription should be invoiced for the first time, for example the first of September. You can also set the ending date for this.

If you want to spread the revenue over time, you can choose a deferral code on the line. Selecting the right code will, for instance, defer the sale across 12 months.

Dimensions, invoicing, and currency

The project code is inherited from either the item or the customer. You can add department codes or any other dimensions your company uses.

The invoicing tab is also mostly inherited from the customer. Here you find the posting date, payment terms, due dates, and payment methods. In this example the customer is handled in the currency code Euro, which the system shows automatically.

Seeing the subscription in the list

Once you save and return to the subscription list, the new subscription appears there. As you start selling and invoicing against it, the system updates the subscription details automatically.

Q&A