Subscriptions
For recurring revenue businesses — software, services, memberships, maintenance contracts — PLANA Business Cloud ships OCA Subscriptions (subscription_oca) on the Pro and Enterprise tiers.
A subscription generates invoices on a schedule (monthly, quarterly, annually) without you re-issuing each time.
Where to find it
Subscriptions in the apps menu (Pro+ tier).
Anatomy
| Field | What |
|---|---|
| Customer | Who is paying |
| Plan | The subscription plan (template) |
| Start date / End date | The active period |
| Recurrence | Monthly / quarterly / annually / custom |
| Status | Draft / Open / Pending / Paid / Cancelled |
| Next invoice date | When the next invoice will auto-generate |
Creating a plan
A plan is the template — the bundle of products + recurrence rules. Create once, attach to many customer subscriptions.
Subscriptions → Configuration → Plans → Create.
Plans define:
- The products included (with quantities and prices)
- The recurrence (monthly, quarterly, annually)
- The trial period (if any)
- The auto-renewal rules
- The cancellation policy
Activating a subscription
Once a customer signs up:
- Subscriptions → Subscriptions → Create
- Pick the customer + plan + start date
- Confirm — status moves to Open
- PLANA generates the first invoice and schedules the next
The customer receives the invoice via email; once paid, the subscription is Paid for the current period.
Auto-invoicing
A scheduled job runs daily and:
- Finds open subscriptions where the next invoice date has passed
- Generates the invoice
- Sends it via email
- Schedules the next invoice date
You see new invoices in the customer's record and in the Customers → Invoices list, same as any other invoice.
Lifecycle events
| Event | What you do |
|---|---|
| Upgrade (customer adds seats / moves tier) | Modify the subscription; PLANA computes the proration |
| Downgrade | Same; proration may be negative (credit) |
| Pause | Status → Paused; no auto-invoices until resumed |
| Cancel | Status → Cancelled; no future invoices; honour current paid period |
| Renew | Status stays Open; the next invoice generates per the plan |
For complex changes, the safest pattern is cancel + create new.
Failed payments
If a subscription's auto-invoice is unpaid past the due date:
- PLANA emails the customer a reminder
- After N days (configurable), an activity is logged for follow-up
- Optionally: auto-suspend the subscription after M days unpaid
Suspension is configured per plan in Plan → Settings → Failed payment policy.
Trial periods
A plan can specify a trial:
- 14 days free
- No invoice during trial
- Auto-converts to paid at trial end (or, opt-out: requires confirmation)
PLANA emails the customer 3 days before trial end as a reminder.
Reporting
Standard subscription reports:
- Monthly Recurring Revenue (MRR) — by month
- Churn — cancelled / lost / paused per period
- Cohort analysis — customers acquired in a given month, how they perform over time
- Customer Lifetime Value (CLV) — estimated
Find these in Subscriptions → Reporting.
Where to read more
- Customer invoicing — what the auto-generated invoices look like
- Customers
- Subscription and tier — your own PLANA subscription uses this mechanism