The subscription process flow

The subscription process in Business Central follows three main steps. You create subscriptions, generate draft invoices from them, and post those invoices. The subscription functionality comes from a dedicated subscription app that adds a subscription table to Business Central.

When you create a subscription, you add items and always link it to a customer. You can use deferral codes to defer the income, which is standard Business Central functionality that you can apply to subscriptions.

The draft invoices generated from subscriptions are created as standard sales invoices. They appear in the same list as all your other draft sales invoices, so you don’t have to look anywhere else in the system to find them. Posting works the same way as any normal sales invoice.

How the subscription process starts in Business Central

The process begins when you have a subscription, meaning you have made an agreement with a customer that needs to be set up in Business Central. Typically a salesperson makes the agreement with the customer, and then you, as a finance employee, create the subscription in Business Central so it can be invoiced.

You go into Business Central and create your subscriptions in a dedicated table that comes with the subscription app. This is not a standard table. When you create the subscription, you add the relevant items, and every subscription must have a customer attached.

Using deferral codes for subscription income

You can use deferral codes if you want to defer the income from a subscription. This is standard Business Central functionality, and you are simply able to apply it to subscriptions. Nothing special is required beyond what Business Central already offers.

Generating draft invoices from subscriptions

Once your subscriptions have been created, they are ready for the next time you need to invoice. You run a create invoice report, which generates draft invoices.

These draft invoices are created as standard sales invoices. They land in the same list as all your other draft sales invoices, so there is no separate place in the system you need to go to manage them.

Posting subscription invoices

When you post the invoice, you get a posted sales invoice document. This is also a standard document, so you can run your normal posting process for posted sales invoices.

The whole flow comes down to three steps: create subscriptions, generate invoices based on them, and post the invoices. Along the way, the process draws on your existing master data for items and customers and produces standard documents.

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