Subscription pricing and billing cycles
A subscription is billed from usage, once per billing cycle, at the rates written into that organisation's own contract. This page explains where the rates come from, how each pricing method counts usage, and what a closed cycle produces.
Overview#
A plan holds default rates only. When a subscription is created, those defaults are copied onto it and become the organisation's contract; billing then reads the subscription, never the plan. Once automatic cycle billing runs, the platform counts the organisation's completed orders at the end of each cycle, prices them at the contract rate, adds VAT, and raises a charge, a proforma invoice and a request for the VAT e-invoice.
Note: Automatic cycle billing is not running yet. Until the platform switches it on, closed cycles are not billed and no cycle charges, proformas or invoices are produced. The rules below describe what happens once it runs. Which modules a plan unlocks is covered in Subscription plans and features.
Fields#
These are the contract fields on a subscription. The first four are copied from the plan.
| Field | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Pricing method | How usage is priced: Liter or Amount percent for merchants, Per vehicle or Per transaction for tenants |
| Unit rate | The price per litre, per vehicle or per transaction; for Amount percent, a percentage |
| Device unit price | Merchants only: the price per active store device per cycle |
| Fee waiver min | Merchants only: the minimum fee below which a cycle's usage and device charges are waived |
| Amount | An optional fixed base charge per cycle; 0 unless agreed |
| VAT rate (%) | The VAT rate for this subscription. New subscriptions default to 10%; each subscription's own rate applies, and some existing subscriptions carry 0% |
| Auto renew | Whether the subscription rolls into a new cycle after each one is billed; on unless set otherwise |
Rules#
Contract rates#
- Copying is a one-time snapshot. Changing a plan's defaults later does not change subscriptions that already exist.
- Negotiated rates and discounts are agreed by changing the subscription's own rates, never the plan's. Platform operators make these changes.
- The plans that new organisations receive carry rates of 0 until commercial rates are set.
What each method counts#
Only orders that are Completed count; cancelled, blocked, expired and in-progress orders do not. An order belongs to the cycle in which it was created.
| Method | For | Charge for the cycle |
|---|---|---|
| Liter | Merchants | Litres on the merchant's completed refuel orders × unit rate |
| Amount percent | Merchants | Sum of the completed refuel orders' amounts before VAT × unit rate % |
| Per vehicle | Tenants | Number of different vehicles on the tenant's completed refuel, purchase and work orders × unit rate; orders with no vehicle add none |
| Per transaction | Tenants | Number of the tenant's completed refuel, purchase and work orders × unit rate |
- Merchants only pay for refuel orders, because litres exist only on refuel orders.
- A merchant also pays the device unit price for each store device that is active at billing time, belongs to a store that is still open, and was created by the end of the cycle. Plans do not limit how many devices a merchant may have.
- Amounts are rounded to two decimal places, halves rounded up.
Minimum-fee waiver#
When a merchant's usage and device charges together are above 0 but below the fee waiver minimum, both drop to 0 and the cycle is marked Waived. A cycle with no usage and no devices has nothing to waive and is not marked. The fixed base amount is never waived, and a minimum of 0 waives nothing.
VAT#
VAT is added on top of the cycle subtotal: VAT = subtotal × VAT rate ÷ 100, and the total charged is subtotal + VAT. The rate is the subscription's own.
Billing cycles#
- A cycle lasts one billing period of the subscription (monthly for organisations that registered themselves). It runs from the subscription's start date to the day before its end date; the end date is the renewal day and starts the next cycle.
- A closed cycle is billed by a daily run, three days after the renewal date, so that orders still in progress have time to complete.
- Each cycle is billed once; running again for the same cycle creates nothing new. Missed cycles are billed oldest first.
- After a cycle is billed, a subscription with auto renew moves on to its next cycle. Without auto renew, the subscription becomes Expired once its current cycle is billed.
- Only Active subscriptions are billed.
What a billed cycle produces#
flowchart TD
cycle["Cycle closes"] --> price["Usage priced at contract rates"]
price --> zero{"Total above 0?"}
zero -- "No: total is 0" --> record["Cycle recorded, nothing charged"]
zero -- "Yes" --> charge["Charge, proforma invoice and VAT e-invoice request"]- A chargeable cycle creates a subscription charge for the total including VAT, and a proforma invoice for the subtotal and VAT, dated to the last day of the cycle and already Sent. See Proforma invoices.
- It also records a request for the platform to issue the VAT e-invoice for the charge through VNPT; the invoice number appears on the cycle once it is issued.
- A cycle whose total is 0 is recorded, but creates no charge, no proforma and no invoice. A waived cycle on a subscription with a fixed base amount is still charged that amount plus VAT.
- A subscription with a fixed base amount of 0 is not charged when it is created.
Where to see it#
The subscription detail page shows:
- Contract rates vs plan defaults: each copied rate next to the plan's current default, marked Overridden when they differ, either because the rate was negotiated or because the plan's default changed after the subscription was created. The card also lists the fixed amount, the VAT rate and the discount amount, which have no plan default; the discount amount is recorded for reference only and is not applied to cycle billing.
- Billing cycles: for each cycle, the Period, Subtotal, VAT, Total, Proforma #, Issuance status and Invoice #, with a Waived marker on waived cycles. The latest 24 cycles are shown.
Tenant owners, admins and accountants, and merchant owners and admins, can view their own organisation's subscriptions.