To set a subscription to automatically renew

You can set a subscription to automatically renew when the previous subscription term ends. This allows you to ensure continuity of service for your customers that have agreed to ongoing renewal. The Auto-renew feature requires that suitable stock is available in your Virtual Warehouse inventory to successfully process. Use the Dashboard feature to estimate future / upcoming renewal requirements to ensure you always have enough stock available.

Auto-renew assumes that you have processes in place to periodically invoice your own customers on a schedule, aligned to their subscription anniversary date.

To enable Auto-renew

  1. Under Subscriptions, click Assign/Renew.

  2. To save time, create a global filter for the appropriate sales or purchase order that applies to the order. See To filter items.

  3. In the Customers panel, select the customer.

    If there is a large number of customers, click at the top of the panel. Enter part of the customer's name or email address and then select the appropriate data type.

    If the customer does not exist, see To add a customer.

  4. In the Subscriptions panel, click > next to the subscription service you want to set to auto-renew.

  5. Click the Auto-renew toggle.

    If you have the Stock panel showing, the Auto-renew toggle is hidden. Click Hide Stock Panel (top right of the screen).

  6. In the Auto-renewal of subscriptions dialog?, click the Auto-renewal toggle to turn it ON.

  7. Select whether to use the oldest stock first, or consume stock from a specified PO number. If you select By PO number, enter the PO number that you want to consume stock from for the subscription renewals. This PO number will need to be used in future orders to top up stock for renewals.

  8. Click Confirm.

  9. In the confirmation dialog, accept the terms then click OK.

Agreeing to Auto-renew terms

To activate Auto-renew on a subscription block, you must acknowledge and accept the terms of use of the feature.

Timing of auto-renew

When Auto-renew is enabled on a subscription block, Virtual Warehouse will first attempt to assign the extension 14 days prior to the current expiry date.

  • If stock is available, a one (time) unit extension will be assigned to each user seat in the block (e.g. monthly subscriptions will be extended by one month, annual subscriptions will extend by one year).

    Once the extension is allocated, it is automatically activated on the day of expiry of the original subscription period, extending the customer's subscription block for one more time period.

    At any point up to that date, it can be canceled at any time.

    Once activated, the stock will be automatically deducted from your Virtual Warehouse inventory.

  • If stock is not available in your account, Virtual Warehouse will keep attempting to extend the subscription (retrying every 10 minutes) right up to the expiry date of the current subscription.

    If, on the day of expiry, stock is still not available to apply the full extension for all seats in the block, Auto-renew will be automatically deactivated, and the subscription block will expire.

Disabling Auto-renew

Auto-renew can be disabled at any time. Disabling Auto-renew will prevent any future extensions from being automatically applied to the subscription block.

If Auto-renew is disabling after the Auto-renew feature has already applied an extension, disabling Auto-renew will have no effect on the duration of the block (the extension has already been applied, so the subscription will continue for one further time period).

Notifications

Virtual Warehouse sends an email notification to the customer and to the dealer when a new subscription block is created and assigned.

Virtual Warehouse does not send any notification to the customer or to the dealer when a subscription expires, or if it is extended (manually or automatically using Auto-renew).

Managing stock levels

It is your responsibility to ensure that there is sufficient stock available to accommodate any upcoming auto-renewals.

Use the Virtual Warehouse Dashboard to monitor upcoming renewals and stock level requirements. The Dashboard has two stock level views:

  • Renewal stock details - shows current stock level product by product, and indicates the number of units of stock that are required to extend current customers for each product in the next 7, 14, 30, and 90 days.

    Highlighted numbers indicate there is currently no stock available.

  • Stock required for renewal - shows a customer subscription level view of subscriptions coming up for renewal, showing the customer, the product they are subscribed to that is coming up for renewal, the number of seats, and the current stock level available.

    You can filter this view to show subscriptions renewing / expiring in the next 7, 14, or 28 days.

    To show the details for a customer subscription (including the customer admin email address, and the current Auto-renew status), click the expansion arrow on the subscription.

    Highlighted numbers indicate there is currently no stock available.

Insufficient stock

If there is insufficient stock available, the extension will fail and the customer's subscription will end.