Activating a Subscription

To activate a subscription, you must first move all the subscription line items to the Pending Activation status. When all subscription line items are in Pending Activation status, the Activate button appears. After you set the effective date on the Activation change order and check each line item, the subscription becomes active. For fundamental information about change orders, see SuiteBilling Change Orders.

Change orders are date-sensitive.

NetSuite uses the effective date to create future charges.
You can choose to have the subscription start date set when the first activation change order is created. For details, see Optional Preferences for SuiteBilling.

To activate a subscription:

Go to Transactions > Subscriptions > Create Subscriptions > List.
Tip:
You can create saved searches to make it easy to find subscriptions. You also can:
- Look in the Recent Records tab for recently completed subscriptions.
- Enter the subscription name or subscription ID into the Global Search field.
For the subscription you want to activate, click the subscription name to open the subscription in edit mode or click Edit.
For lines defined as optional in the subscription plan that are in the Not Included status:
1. On the Lines subtab, check the Include box.
2. Click OK.
Change the Status field from Draft to Pending Activation.
Click Save.
Repeat these steps for each line item.
At the top of the page, click Activate.
On the Subscription Change Order – Activate page, check the Apply box for the items you want to activate. The status of every line item must be Pending Activation.
Click Save.

Invoicing and Allocating Before Activating a Subscription Line

Subscription businesses sell projects, hardware, and subscriptions all together. It is common for hardware items and projects to be delivered and invoiced before subscriptions are activated or the service starts. You can invoice the first service period amount and allocate the revenue before activating a subscription line. To invoice and allocate before activation, you generate charges and create revenue elements in pending activation status instead of at activation.

To set up a subscription line to invoice the first service period:

Go to Setup > Accounting > Invoicing Preferences.
On the Subscription Management tab, enter a number in the field Days prior to Subscription start date, populates first bill date. The value can be:
- Between 365 days before or -365 days after the start date of the subscription line.
- A value of 0 does not fill the First Bill Date column of the subscription line; instead charges are generated at activation.
- The value of the First Bill Date must be before the subscription end date
Click Save.
Go to your subscription in the Draft status.
Click Edit.
You can generate charges before activation on any recurring, one time, overage, or prepay subscription lines with a defined bill date. Change the Status column to the Pending Activation status and click OK.

You cannot set the First Bill Date on usage lines.
On any usage lines or other lines that you want to charge at activation:
- Set the First Bill Date column to equal the subscription line Start Date.
- Change the Status column to the Pending Activation status and click OK.
Click Save.
Go to the Related Records tab.
For the lines using the first bill date functionality, notice:
- In the Charges subtab, the generated charges for the subscription lines are shown.
- The Bill Date column is automatically filled with the date based on the value set in step 2.
- The Charge Stage column shows the Ready status for the first service period. All remaining service period charges’ stage is set to hold until activation.
For usage lines and lines not using the first bill date functionality, notice:
- There are no generated charges.
- The First Bill Date column is empty. When First Bill Date equals the subscription line start date and the subscription is saved, the value in the First Bill Date column is removed. The subscription line charges are generated at activation.
In the Lines tab, you also can set the First Bill Date on the subscription line, which creates an offset between the First Bill Date and the line's start date. When a line in the Draft or Pending Activation status and its start date changes, the First Bill Date changes by the amount of the offset. The First Bill Date does not change when activating the subscription, even if the preference First activation change order sets the start date is checked.

After the first charge’s service period has been invoiced, the First Bill Date locks per line in the Pending Activation status. First Bill Date only updates the Bill Date on the first charge per subscription line. All subsequent charges are set to the Hold status until the subscription line is activated.

To turn off the functionality for generating charges before activation: :

Go to Setup > Accounting > Invoicing Preferences.
On the Subscription Management tab, in the field Days prior to Subscription start date, populates first bill date, enter 0.

or, On the Subscription record Lines tab, remove the value in the First Bill Date column or set it to equal the line’s start date.
Click Save.

To show the revenue and invoice functionality for this feature:

After the Sales Order is set to the Pending Fulfillment status with one product item and one subscription, go to the Sales Order record for the subscription.
Go to the linked subscription, which is in the Pending Activation status. Any lines where first bill date is not null or does not equal the subscription line start date can generate revenue elements.
Go to Transactions > Financials > Update Revenue Arrangements and Revenue Plans to generate Revenue Elements and Revenue Arrangements.
Click the Revenue Elements tab. Notice that the revenue elements are generated while the subscription is in the Pending Activation status and the revenue arrangement is generated.
After the revenue element for the subscription has been generated, it can be merged with the sale order revenue element into one revenue arrangement.
Go to the invoice.
Generate an invoice for the charge for first service period of the subscription.
Go back to the subscription.
Click Related Records. The charge is updated to the Processed status.
After you activate the subscription, the first charge updates to any amount changes and create adjustments when needed.

Note:

Revenue plans are not generated until activation. Subscription revenue can be allocated with other revenue streams such as sales orders or projects without requiring the activation change order. However, revenue for the subscription line cannot be recognized until an activation change order for the subscription line is created.

General Notices