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Recurring Billing
Guide
Overview
Recurring billing is implemented in Yogareg as “auto-renew” class bundles (sometimes called class cards or class passes) and subscriptions. Auto-renew class bundles are class bundles a student can purchase that behave as normal class bundles, however upon purchase a subscription is created to cause the system to automatically “purchase” the bundle on behalf of the student on a specified interval. Additionally, an associated automated recurring billing (ARB) subscription is created within
authorize.net to automatically charge the student’s credit card or bank account (e-check) . Aside from these underlying subscriptions, auto-renew class bundles behave exactly like non renewing bundles.
Pre-requisites
Recurring billing requires you to use authorize.net for electronic payments AND requires you to contact authorize.net to have them enable the “Automatic Recurring Billing” (ARB) feature in your authorize.net account. You must also set the “silent post URL” in authorize.net You must then enable automatic recurring billing within your Yogareg system settings and give at least one user the right to manage subscriptions.
Setting the Silent Post URL in Authorize.net
1. Determine the silent post URL, using the following template, replacing the word “demo” with the name of your yogareg system:
https://secure.yogareg.com/demo/pub?action=authnetSilentPost
So, for example, if you normally access yogareg using URLs that begin with
https://secure.yogareg.com/mystudio/app, you would replace “demo” with “mystudio” in the URL above. That is your silent post URL. If you have any questions about this, contact us and we can tell you your silent post URL.
2. Log into your authorize.net account
3. On the left hand side, in the "Account" section, click on "Settings". 4. Under "Transaction Format Settings", click "Silent Post URL"
5. In the "URL" entry field, enter the silent post URL you determined in step 1. 6. Submit
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Enabling Recurring Billing in Yogareg
To enable automated recurring billing in Yogareg, do the following: 7. Log into your Yogareg /app site
8. Click on the settings -> system settings menu 9. Click the Authorize.net link
10. Click the Edit link
11. Enter your Merchant Name (appears in the authorize.net ARB subscription) and enable Automated Recurring Billing
12. Submit the form
NOTE: If you also allow payments via paypal, Yogareg will not allow you to sell auto-renew class bundles, as they REQUIRE payment to be made via authorize.net (credit card or e-check).
Adding an Auto-Renew Class Bundle
If you have enabled ARB within the system settings, you will have the option to specify that a class bundle is an “auto-renew” class bundle and to specify its renewal period and duration. Follow the steps below:
1. Log into your Yogareg /app site
2. Click on the classes-> class bundles menu (this may be named class passes or class cards or whatever term you use for class bundles)
3. Click the Add class bundle link near the top of the page (this may be named Add class pass or Add class card or Add * where * is the term you use for class bundle)
4. It is suggested that you include the words “auto-renew” in the name of the bundle so it is very clear to customers that the bundle will auto-renew (and auto-bill). We also use an icon to differentiate these bundles from non renewing bundles, and the price will indicate “per month” etc. to make it clear that the charge is recurring, however it’s best if the name of the bundle also makes it clear.
3 6. Specify the interval in the Renew Every field. In the example above, the system will
automatically add a bundle to the student’s account every month.
7. Specify the Renewal Policy. If you specify “No Limit”, the subscription will last forever, until canceled. Otherwise, click “Limited” and then specify the Total Count. In the example above, the bundle renews every month for a total of 12 months. Note this includes the initial purchase, so it will be the initial purchase plus 11 automatic purchases.
8. Determine if you will allow the student to cancel the subscription, and if so, how many days until they are allowed to cancel. Enter 0 if they can cancel immediately after purchase. This feature allows you to require them to keep maintain the subscription for a minimum time prior to cancellation, which is usually the case if you are giving them discounted pricing for using the auto-renew option. NOTE: when a subscription is canceled, that does not affect bundles that have already been purchased; it simply prevents the automated purchase of future bundles in the subscription.
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Selling an Auto-Renew Class Bundle
There is no difference between selling an auto-renew bundle vs. a non renewing bundle. The shopping pages will include a special icon to indicate the bundle auto-renews, the price will indicate the frequency of the charge, and the Expires column will indicate the renewal interval (see the example below).
Viewing Subscriptions
If you have been granted the “Subscriptions – View” user right, you can view all subscriptions that exist in the system. The subscription list is accessed via the students –> subscriptions menu. The example below will be used to point out features of this page:
You can uncheck the Active Only check box to see all subscriptions instead of only the active subscriptions. This will include subscriptions that have been cancelled and those that have completed, and may result in a long list.
You can click on any column heading to sort the list by that column.
The Next column indicates when the next automated purchase of that bundle will occur. The Amount column shows the price of the bundle, not including sales tax. The sales tax rate in
5 The ARB ID column shows the automated recurring billing (ARB) ID as assigned within
Authorize.net. You can use this ID to correlate the subscription within Yogareg with the automated billing subscription within authorize.net (see below)
The Status column shows the status of the subscription. The status will be in the format “installment x of y” if the subscription is limited, or just “installment x” if the subscription is unlimited. The “x” indicates the number of installments that have been processed, including the initial purchase.
NOTE: since Yogareg processes the payment for the initial purchase at the time of purchase, automated recurring billing in authorize.net only applies to installments 2 through N, where N is the number of installments. Therefore the number of recurring payments will be 1 less than the number of installments.
6 Viewing Subscription Details
If you click the “View” link in the subscription list, the details page for the subscription will be shown (see the example below):
7 Cancelling a Subscription
To cancel a subscription, click the Cancel link for the subscription in the subscription list. A confirmation page will appear to confirm this action. If when you set up the auto-renew bundle, you specified the student cannot cancel the subscription, or specified a minimum number of days after purchase before the subscription can be cancelled, a warning will appear on this page (see example below):
Click Yes to cancel the subscription, or No to exit the form without cancelling the subscription. When you cancel a subscription, any bundles that have been previously purchased (initally or automatically) will remain in tact; future automated purchases, however, will not occur. You can simply allow their final bundle purchased under the subscription to expire.
Changing a Subscription
If a student already has a subscription and decides they want to change it, the process is for them (or you) to cancel their current subscription (which keeps their current bundle in-tact but cancels future renewals), then for them to purchase a new subscription when their current bundle expires. We don’t have a way to edit the subscription mid-month, for example. You could, however, do a return on their last bundle instead of letting it expire and provide an appropriately prorated refund amount which could be used when they purchase the new auto-renew bundle.
ARB Setup Failed
When viewing subscriptions, it’s possible that you will see a message that states “ARB Setup Failed” in the ARB ID column. When an auto-renew bundle is purchased, the system processes the purchase in 2 separate steps. The first step makes the initial purchase of the bundle AND sets up a subscription within Yogareg. The second step sets up automated recurring billing within authorize.net. If the second step fails, a warning is shown to the user however the initial purchase will still be completed. The
8 Payment Missing
In the subscription list, you may see a message “Payment Missing” in the status column. Yogareg relies on authorize.net to process automated payments for a subscription. When authorize.net notifies Yogareg that a payment has been made, Yogareg records the payment in the student’s account and associates the payment with the subscription installment. If for some reason Yogareg does not receive this notification, you will see “Payment Missing” in the Status column of the subscription list, indicating Yogareg made the automated purchase but was not notified of an associated payment. Note that by default, Yogareg completes the automated purchase of the bundle 1 day prior to its expiration, and therefore under normal circumstances a subscription will have a missing payment for about 24 hours before the payment is processed by authorize.net. If, however, the payment is processed by
