Subscription Contract Dates

There are multiple dates in a Subscription Contract; each are relevant in calculating charge periods and amounts. Review a sample contract and corresponding dates below date definitions: 

• Order Date: The date the order for the contract is placed. This is for internal reference only and is not used in any calculations.
• Contract Effective Date: The date the contract goes into effect. This date may be different than the date the service started, but charges could be configured that are eligible to be charged on the contract effective date. This date can sometimes drive billing for certain charges, but often has no impact on billing or revenue.
• Service Start Date: The date the service actually begins. The first service period also starts on this date. If the contract is a 12 month contract, the 12 months begin on Service Start Date.
• Billing Start Date: The date billing start for the service, not the day the invoice goes out. When offering a free trial, the billing start date may be after the Service Start Date. Example: A one-month free reflects the billing started date of 1st of Feb when the service started on 1st of Jan. The periods created before the Billing Start Date will not have an amount, they will essentially be tagged as Free Trial with a 100% discount.
• Current Term Start Date and Current Term End Date: These are calculated dates based on the service start date for a Termed Contract. 

• Change Effective Date: Applicable only when changing an active contract. This date identifies when a change will take place, thus impacting the remainder of the Subscription from that date onward. This date can be in the past or future, but must be greater than or equal to the the previous Change Effective Date or Contract Effective Date.

Additional Details

Contract Effective Date:

• One-time charges can be set to bill on this date.
• Can be greater than or equal to Service or Billing Start Dates.

Service Start Date:

• Billing can be set to start on this date for all Charge Types.
• For recurring and one-time charges, revenue recognition can be set to start on this date.

Billing Start Date:

• Must be greater than or equal to Service Start Date.
• Billing can be set to begin after the Service Start Date for all Charge Types.
• For recurring and one-time charges, revenue recognition can be set to start on this date.

Examples

Termed Contract 

Evergreen Contract

Defer Start Date

When Defer Start Date is enabled, the Service Start and Billing Start Dates have not yet been set; as they are not yet known. The Subscription will be changed to disable the Deferred Start Date and set the Service Start Date so the BSLs and RSLs can be generated. Read more about Defer Start Date.