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Prorating subscription products

Prorating is to calculate the remainder of something based on the amount that has already been used.

In the case of the shopping cart, subscription products purchased in the store can have their initial purchase price prorated based on how much time is left in the current cycle.

A subscription product can be setup to have its initial purchase price prorated. This is setup in the "Subscription Rules" section of the Product Editor. For the "Subscription Schedule", toggle the Prorated? option to Yes.

Subscription uses a term of "15th day of every 1 month", with the initial purchase being prorated.

If a customer attempts to purchase this product in the storefront during the middle of a billing cycle, they will be provided with a prorated price for that product.

example
Bob purchases a subscription that bills on the 15th of every 1 months.

Today's date: 04/30/2014
Next bill date: 05/15/2014

To accommodate Bob for not getting the full length of time for the subscription -- compared to if it were purchased at the start of the billing term -- Bob will be given a prorated price for the product. This prorated price is based off what percentage of the current cycle is still remaining, multiplied by the product's original price.

$60.00 × 0.5 = $30.00

If the product were, say, $60.00, then Bob would be charged a prorated amount of $30.00.

 
How a prorated price is calculated

quote
Awesome! But... how do I know what the prorated price for a product will be?

The prorated price will be: Product's Original Price × Percentage of Billing Cycle Remaining.
  1. Determine the next bill date, and how many days away it is.
  2. Determine what the product's previous bill date would have been.
  3. Find how many days makeup the current cycle.
  4. Days Remaining ÷ Days Total = Percentage.
  5. Product Original Price × Percentage = Prorated Price.

example
Let's go over the example from the beginning of this article.

• Product Original Price: $60.00.
• Subscription Term: 15th day of every 1 month.
• Purchase Date: 04/30/2014.

1. Determine the next bill date, and how many days away it is.

    Subscription Term: 15th of every 1 month.
    Purchase Date: 04/30/2014. (120th day of the year.)
    Next bill date: 05/15/2014. (135th day of the year.)
    (Click here to find out days of the year.)

    135th day - 120th day = 15 days remaining in current cycle.

2. Determine what the product's previous bill date would have been.

    Next bill date: 05/15/2014
    1st month going backwards: 04/15/2014
    Previous bill date: 04/15/2014. (105th day of the year.)

3. Find how many days makeup the current cycle.

    135th day - 105th day = 30 days makeup the current cycle.
   
4. Days Remaining ÷ Days Total =  Percentage.

    15th day ÷ 30th day = 0.5
   
5. Product Original Price × Percentage = Prorated Price
    
    $60 × 0.5 = $30.00

 



— Last Edited - 07/25/2014 8:09am PDT
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