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The Payway subscription model

Target Audience: Users, Stakeholders

Introduction

In Payway(PW) the subscription enables the following key concepts:

  • Which digital access rights the user has acccess to
  • The renewal interval or period length (e.g. 1 month) is the frequency of how often the subscription is renewed.

A subscription can be PW owned or externally owned. PW handles payments for the following payment methods i.e. the subscription is owned by PW:

  • Credit Card
  • Direct Debit
  • Sms
  • Klarna

Invoice subscriptions are owned by an external source and the lifecycle is not handled by the PW subscription engine. The lifecycle of externally owned subscriptions is handled by the subscription system integration or through the PW External API.

The PW owned subscriptions are handled by the PSE. PSE moves the subscription into various states depending on what happens to the subscription.

Upon entering some states an event is emitted which can be connected to e.g. a ESS or sending an email.

Abbreviations

Abbreviation Full name Description
ESS External Subscription System The system being integrated e.g. Kayak, CProfit, Infosoft
PSE Payway Subscription engine The engine that performs actions on subscriptions, changing their states

Recurring subscription

Recurring subscription

A recurring subscription is a subscription that is renewed automatically and indefinitely until cancelled or payment failure.

If the user has selected a start date in the future the subscription will enter the pending state. If the user has chosen to start the subscription immediately the subscription will enter the activated state.

A recurring subscription may also be created from a campaign transformation.

Pending state

In the pending state the subscription is not yet active and the user has no digital access rights. Once the start date of the subscription has passed the subscription enters the activated state.

Activated state

In the activated state the user has digital access to the codes that the package and packaged products specifies.

Cancel subscription

When in the activated state the subscription can be cancelled either effective immediately or at the end of the term. An immediate cancellation will transfer the subscription into the deactivated state within 5 minutes. An end of interval cancellation will transfer the subscription into the cancelled state.

Cancellations can be made by the end user using my account or by admin administrator using the PAP.

Subscription renewal

At the end of each interval, a recurring subscription is automatically renewed. The interval of the subscription is determined by the payment period that has been selected by the user when placing the order. The renewal interval can be days or months e.g. 3 months, 1 day.

For instance if the subscription starts at 26.4 09:36 and the subscription has a renewal frequency of 3 months. The next renewal date will be 26.7 09:36.

Successful renewal

The subscription remains in the activated state and a renewal is done at the end of next interval. When a subscription is successfully renewed the payment_user_product_renewed and payment_successful events are emitted.

Unsuccessful renewal

If the payment fails when trying to renew the subscription, one of two options might happen. A failed payment emits the payment_failure event. If a grace period has been configured for the package of the subscription, the subscription enters the frozen state. If the is no grace period the subscription enters the deactivated state.

Cancelled state

In the cancelled state the user has digital access to the codes that the package and packaged products specifies.

Valid to has passed

When a cancelled subscription reaches the valid to date (end of interval) it is transferred into the deactivated state.

Undo cancellation

A end-user might undo a cancellation in which case the subscription re-enters the activated state.

Frozen state

When entering this state the payment_user_product_frozen event is emitted. In the frozen state the user does not have digital access rights.

The user may update his payment details and if a successful payment is made the the subscription re-enters the activated state. The renewal interval will start from the day when the payment was made. E.g. if the original interval was from 15.4 - 15.5 and the user updates his payment details on the 17.5, the next renewal date is 17.6.

If the user does not update his payment details within the configured grace period, the subscription enters the deactivated state.

Deactivated state

Upon entering the deactivated state the payment_user_product_deactivated event is emitted. In the deactivated state the user has no digital rights and no further payments will be made.

Campaign subscription

Campaign subscription

A campaign subscription is a subscription that is sold on at a reduced price. One or several payments may be performed at the reduced priced.

If the user has selected a start date in the future the subscription will enter the pending state. If the user has chosen to start the subscription immediately the subscription will enter the activated state.

When the campaign subscription has been exhausted the subscription can be deactivated or be transformed to a normal subscription depending on how the campaign is configured.

The pending, activated and cancelled behave as for a normal subscription.

Campaign renewal

The subscription remains in the activated state and a renewal is done at the end of next interval.

If the campaign is not yet exhausted a renewal a campaign renewal will be performed at the reduced price.

Similarly to the recurring subscription a campaign subscription may enter the frozen state upon failed payment (if grace period is configured). A campaign subscription may also enter the deactivated state when grace period has paid or if grace period is not configured.

Campaign exhausted

If all the payments at the reduced price has been performed the campaign subscription is considered exhausted. When a campaign subscription is exausted two things can happend:

  • If the campaign is configured to tranform, the subscription will be transformed into a recurring subscription
  • If the campaign is not configured to transform, the subscription will enter the deactivated state

Campaign transformation

When a campaign subscription is exhausted and the campaign is set to transform, a campaign transformation will happen.

The campaign subscription is transformed into a recurring subscription with the renewal interval of 1 month on the same payment method. The payment is then performed on the recurring subscription as described in the recurring subscription section.

Limited subscription

limited subscription

A limited subscription is a subscription that is only active for one term. At the end of the interval the subscription will be deactivated.

If the user has selected a start date in the future the subscription will enter the pending state. If the user has chosen to start the subscription immediately the subscription will enter the activated state.

The subscription may also be cancelled with the immediate option to end the term prematurely. The pending, activated, cancelled, deactivated states behave as for the recurring subscription.

Events summary

The following table summarizes the events that may occur for subscriptions:

Name Description
payment_user_product_renewed The subscription has been successfully renewed for a new term
payment_successful A successful payment has been performed
payment_failure A payment has failed
payment_user_product_frozen A payment has failed and the package has grace period configured
payment_user_product_deactivated A subscription has been deactivated either due to no grace period or that grace period has expired