Orders and subscriptions

What is an order?

An order describes the products or services that your customer wants to purchase, and the terms of that purchase. Purchase terms include key information like billing terms and duration of the subscription.

For example, if your company offers SaaS product licenses and tiered support services, a typical customer order would include:

• The number of licenses to purchase.
• The license term, i.e., monthly, quarterly, or annual license terms.
• The billing term, i.e., whether the customer will be billed monthly, quarterly, on an annual basis.
• The tier of support to add to the order, i.e., basic, advanced, or enterprise-tier support.

What is a subscription?

A subscription is created when an order is executed.

How does an order become a subscription?

When you create an order, it moves through multiple statuses before it's executed and becomes a subscription:

1. Create an order. The order is automatically created in the "Draft" status. While in this status, you can update all order details as needed.
2. Submit the order for approval. This triggers all preconfigured approval workflows. For example, you may have configured an approval workflow that mandates that every order must be approved by at least one representative from the compliance and legal teams.

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   If an approval workflow is triggered, users who are eligible to approve the order are notified via email that an action is required on the order.

3. Execute the order. Once all required approvals are given, you can mark the order as executed. Executing the order creates the subscription.