Search for a single terms or two-word term instead of a sentence. For example "subscriptions", "recurring payments", "webhooks" etc., instead of "how to start a subscription" or "where can I find recurring payments".
E-commerce businesses rarely sell just one type of product as a subscription. As soon as different product categories come into play, various factors—like tax rates and shipping costs—start influencing the final price a customer pays. For example, smaller bike components might qualify for standard parcel delivery, while larger items like bike tires or the bike itself may have different tax rules and higher shipping costs. Manually managing these variations for each product can quickly become complex and time-consuming.
To simplify this process, circuly introduces a feature that allows businesses to group products based on shared rules, logic, or actions. Instead of setting tax rates and shipping costs individually for every product, they can be applied at the group level. This ensures that when a customer reaches checkout, the correct taxes and shipping costs are automatically calculated based on the product collection—streamlining setup, reducing errors, and making it easier to manage large inventories.
In this article, we’ll explore how this feature works, how to set it up, and how it helps businesses optimise their pricing calculations effortlessly.
In circuly, products can be grouped together into a Product Collection. This allows businesses to apply shared tax rates, shipping costs, and other relevant rules to multiple products at once, rather than configuring them individually.
By structuring products into collections, businesses can automate tax and shipping calculations, making pricing management more efficient and reducing manual effort.
In your circuly Hub > Go to the Products Tab > Navigate to the Taxes tab > Click on the + PRODUCT COLLECTION button.
In the Create product collection window > Give a Title, and a description to your collection so that you can differentiate it from other collections > Click on the Submit button to save your collection.
Note: You do not need to define the Tax code as it is only relevant for you if you are based or operate in the US and use the Taxjar integration.
The collection is then added to the Product Collections list along with the option to assign the tax percentages.
By default all products are mapped to the default collection.
To reassign products to a different collection > Under the Products tab > Navigate to the Products > Select products to map to a collection by checking the check box > And click on the Map to product collection button.
The selected products are now mapped to your chosen product collection.
If you want to define the tax rules and shipping costs for each collection, follow these guides:
The circuly Customer Self-Service (CSS) Portal is a dedicated place for your customers to manage their subscriptions. It provides your customers with the necessary flexibility they need in managing their subscriptions and the transparency they expect from you. In the CSS, your customers can see all their subscriptions (active, ended, cancelled), make cancellation requests, make swap requests, report problems etc.
Why is a dedicated space aka customer self-service portal important?
If you decide to use circuly's Customer Self Service Portal solution you can customise it with your logo and brand colours (just like the checkout) to fit your branding and you can also customise various options and features available to your customer in the customer portal. This article summaries all the relevant information related to the self-service portal. Follow the links to the deciated articles to learn more about it.
Did you miss the customer login webinar? No worries. You can watch it here to get in-depth information about it.
The checkout is perhaps one of the most important step in any online shopping experience. With circuly you can not only customise the branding of the checkout but you can also decide how your checkout behaves.
The available customisations are categorised into two groups: Options and Limitations. As the name suggests, Options allow you to enhance the checkout experience by adding features such as use of Google places, credit check, stock check etc. Limitations let you set specific restrictions in the checkout process such as minimum cart value to be reached for free shipping, maximum number of items per SKU permitted to proceed to payment page etc.
Let's understand each of these options and limitation in detail.
Displaying information on the checkout and checkout Overview page. You can choose to display or hide information on the checkout page. Given below are few options that can be customised.
Checkout options
Options for cart limitation
If you would like to limit your cart and have some limitation logics, we recommend doing so on the product page level with the support of your developers if you do not use the circuly cart.
NOTE: You still may want to apply the above mentioned visual suggestions on your product page to avoid confusion.
There are several options and settings available in the circuly Operations Backend to customise your checkout page.
To access the checkout limitation and options, in your circuly Hub > Go to Settings > Checkout and customise the given settings as per your business needs.
When a payment fails in circuly, you can retry the payment manually or automate the retrial process. However, even after retrying, the payment may still fail. At this point, it’s recommended to reach out to your customer to resolve the issue. Once the customer confirms that they’ve resolved the problem on their end, you can use the Charge Invoice feature to attempt the payment again.
Charge invoice is a feature available in the circuly Hub that enables you to manually charge an invoice with the "failed" payment status. An invoice has the "failed" payment status if a payment attempt was made but failed.
Tip: You can user the filters options to filter the Invoice list and only display payment that have the "failed" payment status".
The circuly system attempts to charge the invoice.
What are chargebacks?
A chargeback is a term used to describe a customers request to reverse a payment by disrupting the charge on their account statement. Chargebacks were introduced to offer customers an easy way to dispute suspicious transactions and to protect them against financial fraud. A chargeback need not always be due to fraudulent activities but can also be due to simple processing errors such as charging the customer twice or sending a damaged product. A customer can file a chargeback with their bank. Once approved, the customer receives the amount back. But merchant have the option of disagreeing with the chargeback and claiming it back.
Chargebacks and refunds both involve the return of funds but a major differentiating factor between the two is that for refunds the customer directly gets in touch with the merchant while for a chargeback they contact their bank. The process also tends to be longer for chargebacks and the fees are often significantly higher.
How are chargebacks bad for business?
Chargebacks often come with additional fees which are to be paid by the merchant. Banks and card providers also tend to penalise the merchant if the chargeback ratio becomes too high.
How does a chargeback occur?
When customers place an order through your checkout page, they receive an Order Confirmation email. Additionally, they receive a Payment Confirmation email when the initial payment is successfully charged, as well as subsequent Payment Confirmation emails for recurring payments.
In some cases, a customer may dispute a payment, claiming they did not authorize it, and request a chargeback. To initiate this, the customer can click the Payment Service Provider (PSP) link included in the Payment Confirmation email. The PSP processes the chargeback request, and once approved, the customer is refunded the payment.
When a chargeback occurs, circuly automatically updates the order and payment status in your system to reflect the chargeback. Here’s how the feature works in detail:
Chargebacks can be identified in both the Payments and Subscriptions tabs within the circuly Hub. Here's how to view chargebacks in each section:
Chargebacks in the Payments tab
To see the chargeback > Go to the Payments Tab > You’ll see a list of all the payments > Use the filter function to only display payments with the chargeback status.
Chargebacks in the Subscriptions tab
Go to the Subscriptions tab and select a subscription from the Subscription List > In the Subscription Overview Window scroll down to Payments and Recurring Payments.
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Follow up with your customer manually to find out why they have initiated a chargeback. Depending on the outcome of the call you can either agree to the chargeback or charge the customer a one-time payment if the chargeback was mistakenly reported.
If you allow your customers to make cancellation requests from the Customer Self-Service Portal, they will be required to select a reason for their cancellation during the process. Collecting cancellation reasons allows you to gain valuable insights, make informed decisions, and improve your offerings. It also demonstrates that you value customer feedback and are committed to enhancing their experience, ultimately fostering stronger customer relationships.
Some of the reasons to consider adding cancellation reasons to your cancellation process are:
When using the circuly's Self-Service Portal to make cancellations, the process includes selecting a "type of cancellation" and providing a cancellation reason. The "type of cancellation" is standardised and consists of two fixed options: normal and extraordinary. However, the cancellation reasons within these categories are fully customisable. You can define and tailor these reasons to suit your business needs, directly in your settings.
The process of terminating a subscription within the standard terms and conditions set forth by the service provider.
Extraordinary cancellation refers to the termination of a subscription under exceptional circumstances that deviate from the regular terms and conditions.
The cancellation reasons that you as a circuly user add under normal and extraordinary cancellation.
While adding cancellation reasons, you also have the option to enter translated versions of the reasons. The available language options in the "Add Cancellation Reason" window are based on your Allowed Language settings. Only the languages selected in the Allowed Language dropdown will be available for defining the cancellation reasons and its translation.
To add cancellation reasons, follow these steps:
When a customer completes the checkout process and finalises their order by making a payment, an order is created in circuly, and the initial payment is processed. This initial charge corresponds to the amount the customer agreed to on the checkout page.
However, if you have enabled the "Delay charge in checkout" setting, no payment is processed automatically during checkout. In such cases, the initial payment must be charged manually. This step is essential because, typically, a subscription cannot be created unless the initial payment has been made. This safeguard prevents accidental subscription creation for orders where no payment exists or has not been collected yet.
An exception to this rule occurs if you have also enabled the "Allow unpaid subscriptions" setting alongside "Delay charge in checkout." This configuration allows you to create a subscription even if no payment has been processed. However, this should be treated as a special case and communicated clearly to all users of the circuly Hub to avoid confusion.
If you have enabled the "Delay charge in checkout" setting, no payment is collected after a customer finalises the order. The payment must be charged manually. To do so you can use the charge initial payment feature available in the circuly Hub that lets you manually charge the initial payment.
The option to charge the initial payment can be approached either from the Orders tab or the Customer tab. No matter which way you choose, the result is the same.
After you have charged the initial payment, you can proceed to create a subscription for the order.
Charge initial payment is a feature available in the circuly operations backend that lets you manually charge the initial payment. The reason why you may want to manually charge an initial payment could be because you use the delayed charge feature.
The process of charging the initial payment can be automated via our customer API. This is the POST request you can use https://api-docs.circuly.io/docs/customers-api-docs/3ouxo0e215vwt-charge-initial-payment-by-id that you can use to charge the initial payment.
Billing frequency refers to the interval at which your business charges customers for a product or service, defining how often payments are collected. In circuly, you can adjust the billing frequency for both consumer durable and consumable products. However, the process for modifying billing frequency differs based on the product type. This article focuses specifically on changing the billing frequency for consumable products.
The option to change the subscription frequency is only available for consumable subscriptions and will be greyed out for all other subscription types. To change the billing frequency for consumer durable products, follow this guide on changing subscription attributes.
When it comes to efforts in invoicing, ensuring accuracy is crucial to maintain legal and financial integrity. Occasionally, errors may arise in invoices, such as incorrect details or missing information. While minor typos can often be overlooked, any mistake that affects mandatory information—such as those outlined in § 14 Paragraph 2 No. 2 of the German VAT Act—must be corrected. Essential invoice details, such as the correct names and addresses of both the supplier and recipient, the invoice date, a clear description of the goods or services, and the VAT charged must be present in the invoice. If any of these mandatory elements are missing or incorrect, the invoice must be corrected to ensure compliance with legal requirements and avoid potential issues with tax authorities.
As part of the correction process, the wrongly generated invoices first must to be cancelled and a new invoice needs to generated with the correct information. Cancelling the wrong invoice is an important step for the following reasons:
In summary, canceling the incorrect invoice and issuing a new one is the proper procedure to ensure legal compliance, accurate tax reporting, and transparency with customers.
In circuly you can cancel an invoice with the wrong information and generate a new invoice in its space with just a few clicks.
1. Cancelling an invoice does not automatically refund the associated payment because its purpose is different. Under German law, an invoice issued with incorrect information must be formally 'cancelled' to comply with legal requirements. However, the payment linked to the incorrect invoice may still be valid. As such, cancelling the invoice does not affect the payment. If you also need to refund the payment, you must initiate a separate refund operation.
2. Generating a new invoice does not trigger any emails. If you want to send the invoice to the customer, you need to do so manually. To do so > Click on the ↓ PDF button to download the invoice and send it to the customer using your company email.
Step 1: Correct the wrong information
Step 2: Cancel the old invoice
Step 3: Generate a new invoice
Typically invoice errors are related to either customer or order details. Therefore the first step is to correct the wrong information.
Updating customer details
For updating the customer details (such as email and phone number) go to Customers > Select the customer from the Customer List > Go to Billing information in the button right corner > Click on the edit icon > Update the details in the Edit customer window > Click on the Submit button to save your changes.
Updating order details
For updating order details (such as the address, date of birth, VAT number etc., of the customer) go to Orders > Select the order from the Order List > Go to Billing information in the bottom right corner > Click on the edit icon > Update the details in the Edit customer window > Click on the Submit button to save your changes.
Once you have corrected the wrong information, you can proceed to cancelling the invoice with the wrong information. To do so:
A few changes take affect:
A "bundle" refers to a collection of products grouped together to offer a comprehensive service or package. In subscription terms, a bundle enables you to categorise multiple products under a single subscription.
Examples
1. Bike + lock + helmet + basket
2. Baby Stroller + stroller rain cover + cup holder
3. Motor + spring cradle + attachment
Circuly’s Bundle Collection Feature simplifies the process of managing and presenting bundles. While each product in a bundle can have its unique serial number for internal tracking purposes, customers experience the bundle as a single, unified subscription.
With this feature, you can:
Note: Bundles are predefined, meaning customers cannot swap individual items in a bundle. They will only see and manage the bundle as one complete subscription.
1. Your products and product variants are always set up in your individual shopsystem. circuly only takes over the product information (product name, price etc.) from your shopsystem via a product sync and displays the information under the Product tab in the circuly Hub.
2. The product prices are also taken from the shop system, and the bundle collection feature makes use of the default shop system prices (as set up by you). However, it is also possible to have the same price for the entire bundle collection, irrespective of the product selected. If you would like to have this logic, kindly get in touch with us via service desk.
3. The possibility to select products from a predefined collection is only available for new orders. If you want to make the feature available for your old subscriptions, get in touch with circuly via service desk.
Note: Each bundle can only have a maximum of 10 items.
You can view all your created bundles under the Bundles tab, where they can be easily edited by clicking the pencil icon.
Possible status options and their explanation:
Active - a subscription has the active status when a subscription is created for an order and the subscription is running normally.
Pending return - the "pending return" status means that the subscription is not active anymore and the product attached to the subscription is expected to be returned. A subscription can have the "pending return" status as a result of the following actions and/or settings:
Ended - a subscription has the "ended" status when a subscription is marked as returned from the Returns tab when you handle a return. You would typically mark a subscription as returned when the customer has returned the product and as a result the subscription has ended. If the customer has bought the products instead then you would mark it as bought instead of marking it as returned so that the correct status can be assigned to it.
Bought out - a subscription has the "bought out" status when a subscription is marked as bought in the Returns tab when you handle a return. You would typically mark a subscription as bought when the customer decides to keep their subscription product and has paid the amount that is due. If the customer has returned the product instead then you would would mark it as returned instead of marking it as bought so that the correct status is assigned to it.
Pending replacement - a subscription has the "pending replacement" status as a result of the following actions:
Lost / Stolen - a subscription has the "lost/stolen" status when a circuly user manually initiates a product swap from the circuly Operations Backend by clicking on the Initiate product swap option in the Subscription action menu and checks the box for "is the item lost (missing/stolen)".
In subscription-based businesses, renewing a subscription is a crucial process that helps maintain ongoing customer relationships and ensures continued access to your products or services. Renewing a subscription means extending its duration, typically after the initial subscription period ends, allowing the customer to continue using the service without interruption. Depending on the business model, subscription renewals can be handled in two main ways: either manually, based on specific customer requests or circumstances, or automatically, where the system renews the subscription at the end of the term.
This article will guide you through the different methods available for renewing subscriptions in your circuly system—whether you want to manually extend a subscription or automate the renewal process to save time and ensure consistency.
Typically, when customers place an order on your website, they agree to a specific subscription duration. This duration is considered both the minimum and the full length of the subscription by the circuly system. Once this period ends, several outcomes are possible, including subscription renewal, cancellation, product return, or product buyout. You have the flexibility to choose whether or not to have the Circuly system automatically renew a subscription at the end of the term. If preferred, you can manually extend the subscription contract based on your specific needs or individual customer cases.
When you use this option to change the end date of a subscription, there is no impact of this action on the auto renew button in the subscription overview window.
If you want to renew or extend the subscription by its original duration then turn on the switch for the Auto renew subscriptions setting. From now on subscriptions will be renewed by the original subscription duration. For example if it was a 12 months subscription then towards the end of the subscription period it will be extended for another 12 months.
If you do not want to renew the subscription by its original subscription duration then you can define a custom value for the renewal. To do this > First go to the Auto renew subscriptions setting and turn on the switch > Next go to the Custom auto renew subscription setting and turn on the switch for this setting > Then add a numeric value in the Custom auto renew duration input field. From now on the subscription will be renewed by the value defined in this input field.
Important: Do not enable the switch for the Auto renew subscriptions setting if you want to renew subscriptions manually on on individual subscription level as every subscription will be renewed automatically at the end of the subscription period if you enable the auto-renew subscription setting.
When a subscription has been auto-renewed because of the auto-renew subscription setting, the auto-renew switch in the subscription overview window will be enabled. The button provides a visual reference to determine which subscription is renewed and which is not.
In the customer portal, your customers can make a cancellation request (if you've not disabled the option to do so in your settings). When they do so, the subscription is cancelled and the subscription status is set to pending return (if the Auto-cancel subscription setting is enabled in the Customer Self-Service Portal settings). Setting the subscription status to pending return triggers the return process.
You can decide whether or not a subscription should be automatically cancelled and if the subscription status is set to pending return when a customer makes a cancellation request through the customer portal.
In the circuly operations backend, you can enable or disable the auto-cancel subscription setting.
If you want to enable this setting, follow these steps:
Once you enable this, all future cancellation requests made via the customer login will be auto cancelled and the subscription status will be set to pending return so that return workflow can trigger.
When this setting is disabled, and a customer makes a cancellation request from the customer login the following happens:
For your customer: your customer will receive an email that the cancellation request is being processed.
For you: the connected customer support inbox will receive an email that a cancellation request has been made from the customer login. Additionally, a note will be created on the order level that a cancellation request has been made for this order.
circuly provides a convenient way to bulk update orders and create subscriptions, helping you save time and maintain accuracy. This guide walks you through the steps to bulk update orders, create subscriptions, and understand the resulting actions in circuly.
Follow these steps to efficiently bulk update orders and create subscriptions:
Before you begin you can filter the Order List to only display orders that are currently unprocessed that is orders that do not have a subscription attached to them yet. To do so > Navigate to the Orders tab > Click in the button that says Predefined to display the predefined filter options > Select Unprocessed from the list.
The Order List now displays orders that need to be processed.
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The Date Picker feature in circuly enables you to provide your customers with the ability to select a delivery or pickup date when finalising their subscription product order on your checkout page. This feature allows for greater flexibility, helping customers schedule deliveries or pickups according to their preferences. Whether you use the calendar for delivery, pickup, or both, the Date Picker enhances customer experience by streamlining the ordering process.
The Date Picker feature allows you to integrate a calendar on your checkout page, where customers can choose their preferred delivery or pickup date. This feature can be customised to suit various needs, including specifying which days are available for delivery, setting limits on the number of deliveries per timeslot, and defining specific times for delivery or pickup. You can also include custom messages to guide your customers through the selection process.
Key options include:
Follow these steps to set up the Date Picker and customise the options for your customers:
See the image reference below to see how the time slots are displayed when the timeslot duration is 2 hours.
circuly offers multiple language options for the Checkout and Self-Service Portal to ensure a seamless experience for customers across different regions. This article outlines the languages currently supported, how to enable language options, and how the system uses language preferences to communicate effectively with customers. It also explains the importance of setting up a default language and answers commonly asked questions about language selection and email communication.
The Checkout and Self-Service Portal are available in multiple languages and can be displayed in the following options:
Note: While translations of the checkout and self-service portal are available in the languages mentioned above, the email templates are only available in English and need to be translated for all other languages.
To better understand how language settings function in Circuly, it's important to define the three main types of language settings used within the platform: Allowed Language, Preferred Language, and Default Language. Each plays a key role in ensuring effective and seamless communication with customers.
The Allowed Language refers to the list of languages that you, as a business, make available for your customers to choose from on the Checkout page and in the Self-Service Portal. These languages are configurable in the circuly Hub, allowing you to select which languages should be accessible for customers based on their region or preferences. Only the languages selected from the Allowed Languages dropdown are available for customers to select.
The Preferred Language is the language chosen by the customer from the Allowed Languages list during their interaction with the Checkout page or Self-Service Portal. It can also be based on their browser language settings. Once selected, the customer’s Preferred Language is saved in the circuly system and used for all future communications, such as emails, invoices, and notifications.
The Default Language serves as the fallback language in case no Preferred Language is selected, or if there are no email templates available in the customer's selected language. It is the language Circuly will use for all communications (emails, invoices, etc.) when no language preference is provided or when the customer’s Preferred Language is unavailable. This ensures there are no gaps in communication and that customers always receive the necessary information, even if their selected language is not available.
Example: You have three language options available on your webshop; English, German, and Dutch. A prospect lands on your webshop and proceeds to the checkout page in Dutch. The preferred language of this customer is saved as Dutch in the circuly operations backend. If you have email templates set up in Dutch then the circuly operations backend will use Dutch as the language of communication with your customer. If you do not have email templates set up in Dutch then the circuly operations backend will use the default language and the email templates set up in the default language.
As you can see setting up a default language is important to avoid any communication gaps and operation hassles.
Follow the steps given below:
Once selected, these languages will be displayed in the language switcher, allowing your customers to switch between the available options.
Note: When you update the Allowed Languages settings by adding or removing languages, a corresponding language tab will appear or disappear in the Email Templates tab. Please note that emails for newly added languages are not automatically created; you will need to manually configure the email templates for these languages.
There is no separate setup guide for Preferred Language, as the Preferred Language is automatically based on the language selected by the customer during the Checkout process or in the Self-Service Portal. When a customer chooses a language from the available Allowed Languages, their selection is saved as their Preferred Language in the system, which is then used for all subsequent communications.
1. What language will be shown to the customer when they access the checkout for the first time t?
The language shown in the checkout is based on the browser preference. Hence if your browser preference is English but your default language is German, the checkout would still be shown in English and also the email sent in English.
2. What triggers the email to be sent in a different language?
If the customer changes the language after checkout in the Self-Service Portal, this will also change the selected email language.
3. In what language will be the email sent if I trigger the email manually again from the circuly Hub?
The email will be always sent out in the saved preferred language that the customer selected.
Subscription-based business models have an increased exposure to payment failure due to the recurring nature of the business. Effective and efficient dunning and debt collection is needed at all costs but can often be messy, frustrating and time-consuming. Additionally, since Inkasso processes typically operate offline, they result in unsynchronised data and cumbersome post-collection tasks, like manually entering information into bookkeeping systems and other needed platforms.
To solve this problem, circuly has partnered with Debtist to offer debt collection natively within circuly so that you can save your time, nerves, internal resources and lost revenue.
A native integration for debt collection, offers the following benefits:
Our new debt collection feature (powered by Debtist) enables you to recover lost revenue easily and professionally, thus improving your bottom-line cash flow while eliminating the need to allocate additional time or human resources to manage unpaid invoices. The native integration ensures that you have a full and detailed overview within circuly of all your unpaid payments that Debtist is currently handling.
Additionally, our native debt collection integration eliminates the need for maintaining and checking two different systems and ensure that you have all the information you need in one system, that is circuly. The two systems speak with each other seamlessly to provide you a smooth and consistent user experience and clean data for bookkeeping purposes.
Once you have enabled the integration and completed the setup, all unpaid invoices will be transferred to the Debt Collection tab for collection by Debtist as soon as the maximum number of payment retrials have been made. Debtist then works fully automated to bring the unpaid invoices to a resolution.
circuly collects recurring payments according to the defined schedule. If the payment is successfully collected, you’ll see its status marked as “settled." If it fails, you’ll see its status marked as “failed.”
When a payment fails, the circuly system retries the failed payment according to your payment retrial settings and sends the “payment failure” email.
IMPORTANT: In the circuly operations backend, you can define how many times a payment should be retried, what should be the time interval between each attempt and if the customer should be informed on each attempt or only on the final attempt.
As soon as circuly has made the last payment retrial attempt and if the payment still has the “failed” status, the payment and the connected invoice are transferred to the Debt Collection tab. The payment is also assigned the status "in debt collection" to indicate that the connected invoice and payment are in the debt collection process.
When an invoice is transferred to the debt collection tab, it is also transferred to Debtist for debt collection. Debtist then starts with the pre-judicial collection process via email and/or letter and other communication channels to obtain the particle or full payment.
90% of the unpaid invoices come to a resolution in the prejudicial phase.
If the payment is still outstanding, Debtist begins judicial proceedings. At this stage, Debtist may get in touch with you if additional charges are to be incurred.
IMPORTANT: Judicial proceedings typically involve additional costs. However Debtist will always get in touch with you before proceeding with any step that incurs additional charges for you so you can decide whether or not you'd like to proceed.
If the payment is successfully collected, the status will change from "in debt collection" to “debt collected” in your circuly Operations Backend.
See the image below for a process overview
There are two steps to enabling and setting up the debt collection feature:
IMPORTANT: After you send the activation request, the debt collection feature will be activated on the 1st day of the month following your request.
For example, if you submit the activation request on August 15th, the debt collection feature will be automatically activated for your account on September 1st.
A popup box will open where you can see the pricing list from Debtist and. The pricing list outlines the debt collection charges from Debtist for different countries.
Additionally, you can read the privacy policy and terms & conditions.
Click on the NEXT button to trigger the activation request and to start creating your Debtist account.
What is the Max. Payment Plan Option?
When setting up your Debtist account, you can choose how your customers will repay their debt—either as a single payment or in multiple installments.
This option gives you control over how repayments are structured to suit both your needs and those of your customers.
Why is the IBAN needed?
Any payment collected by Debtist on your behalf is transferred to this account.
The debt collection feature will be activated on the 1st day of the month following your request. For example, if you submit the activation request on August 15th, the debt collection feature will be automatically activated for your account on September 1st.
Once you've sent the activation request and created an account, go through the debt collection settings and decide how you'd like to hand over unpaid invoices for debt collection, that is manually or via the automated process.
In your circuly Operations Backend, head over to the Settings tab > Invoice & payment > Scroll down to DEBT COLLECTION to configure the settings associated with debt collection.
In the beginning the Debt Collection tab will be empty (see image below).
You will see data as soon a payment has been retried by the circuly system as per your payment retrial settings and transferred to Debtist for Debt Collection. When there are some claims and invoices under the process of debt collection, this is how the Debt Collection tab will appear (see image)
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Require action column
The require action column tells you whether there is any action needed from your side. When you see a GO TO ACTION tag under the Requires action column you can simply click on it to see what action is required. You can then add your decision as a comment and Debtist will proceed accordingly. You can even upload files if needed. See example image below.
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Status column
The status column reflects the phase the unpaid invoice is in when it under the debt collection procedure.
A fixed fee of 49€ will be charged monthly upon activation for everything, including the integration + implementation + continued debt collection-*
*Additional costs may apply based on the region of debt collection. Additional costs are incurred ONLY IF the debt is successfully collected. There are no costs if the debt is not collected, that is if the claim is unsuccessful.
Additional costs based on region
DACH - no additional costs
Europe (excluding DACH) - 20% of the success claim
Outside Europe - 30% of the success claim
In the circuly operations backend you can define how many times a failed payment should be retried, what should be the time interval between each retry, should the customer be informed on each attempt or only on the final attempt and so on.
We’ll go through each setting associated with failed payment in detail, so you can decide on a process that fits your subscription operations.
Step 1: Decide how many times a failed payment should be retried, the time interval between the attempts and what happens on failure.
Step 2: Decide if you would like to inform the customer about the payment attempts and the frequency of the reminders.
Available Setting Options:
Available Setting Options:
Mark as settled is a feature available in the circuly Operations Backend, that enables a user to manually mark a payment or invoice as "settled".
Theoretically, all payments that have not been charged yet, can be marked as settled. This includes, both, payments that are to be triggered by the circuly system in your connected Payment Service Provider and payments that are managed outside of circuly.
Payments that are managed by circuly, do not need to be manually charged as they are first auto-settled by the circuly system.
However when payments are managed outside of circuly (such as payment via invoice), the mark as settled feature enables you maintain full transparency on your payments in circuly.
Marking the payment as settled will assign the "paid" status to it, but no charge will be made.
You can mark a payment as settled either from the Subscriptions tab or the Recurring Payments tab.
In your circuly Operations Backend > Go to the Subscriptions tab > From the Subscription List select the subscription with the payment you wish to mark as settled > Scroll down to the RECURRING PAYMENTS section > Click on the three dots to display the action menu > Click on Mark as Settled.
Confirm your action by clicking on the MARK AS SETTLED button.
In your circuly Operations Backend > Go to the Recurring Payments tab > From the Recurring Payments List find the payment you wish to mark as settled > Click on the three dots to display the menu options > Click on Mark as settled.
Confirm your action by clicking on the MARK AS SETTLED button.
You can easily select and deflect what you want to see in the Order List view by following these steps.
When you go to Orders in the left navigation bar, the Order List is displayed. The Order List shows the order List Columns that can be customised to display only what you want to see. In the order List are also additional functionality, explained below:
Extension price is the price that is charged for a subscription after the minimum subscription duration is over and when the subscription is auto-renewed. The reason why you would need to define the extension price of a product or variant is when you have Prepaid subscriptions, that is, subscriptions where the full amount is charged upfront instead of recurring payments. The extension price needs to be defined in the circuly Operations Backend if you use the Prepaid Subscription feature.
To edit or define the extension price follow the steps given below:
By embracing the power of the circuly Self-Service Portal, you're not just freeing your Customer Success team from operational constraints, but also delivering the transparency your customers crave. This transparency isn't just a feature – it's a catalyst that fuels the transformation of customer experience into something truly extraordinary.
This article offers detailed insights into the self-service portal's features. Written for your customers, you can easily copy and paste this information onto your website, providing them with a clear guide to navigate their self-service options effectively. We only recommend that you make use of your own screenshots so that the information appears to be tailored to your audience.
Note: If you do not provide one or more options mentioned below, compile your own custom article based on the information mentioned in this article and make it available on your own website.
In the Customer self service portal (CSS), you have an overview of all the products subscribed by you. Additionally, you can also access your invoices and personal detail. Given below is a list of all the things you can see in the CSS.
You can see both active and ended subscriptions in the CSS. You can also see the monthly subscription price for all your subscriptions. Under "Your Subscriptions", you can only see products that have or were a subscription. If you have one-time orders, they are displayed under "Your Orders".
You can find all your orders, both subscription and one-time, under "Your Orders."
You can access and download invoices for subscription payments that have already been paid under “Your invoices”.
The CSS enables you to perform actions such as cancelling subscriptions, changing your payment and personal details, downloading invoices and reporting product issues without calling customer support or writing an email. Given below is a list of actions you can perform in the CSS.
The CSS can only be accessed with the email address used at checkout or the email ID used for placing the order.
Steps:
How the login process looks for your customer:
Example: See the image below to see how Strollme’s customers and access their Self-Service Portal.
You should now see an overview of all your subscriptions, your payments and more.
Your Customers can do the following in their Self-Service Portal:
A typical situation in subscription ecommerce is failed recurring payments. The reasons why a payment fails can vary from one customer to another.
The reason for the failed payment can be seen for most Payment Service Providers (PSP) in your circuly Operations Backend in the Recurring Payment List under Failed Reason. The reason for the failed payment as displayed in the Failed Reason column is the same as the reason displayed in your PSP. In other words, if you log into your PSP and see a failed transaction, the reason displayed in the PSP will be the same as the reason displayed in the circuly Operations Backend.
Important note: When the Payment Settled column displays a "No", this does not mean that the payment has failed or not gone through rather it means that the payment has not been settled yet.
The reason for a "No" in the Payment Settled column is either that the date of collecting the recurring payment hasn't arrived yet or it's an upcoming payment.
Recurring payments with a "No" in the Payment Settled column do not require any action from your side.
When a payment fails because of one of the reasons mentioned above, circuly retries the payment if the associated settings are enabled. For the associated settings, continue reading below.
In the circuly operations backend you can define how many times a payment should be retried, what should be the time interval between each retry, should the customer be informed on each attempt or only on the final attempt and so on.
We’ll go through each setting associated with failed payment in detail, so you can decide on a process that fits your subscription operations.
Step 1: Decide how many times a failed payment should be retried, the time interval between the attempts and what happens on failure.
Step 2: Decide if you would like to inform the customer about the payment attempts and the frequency of the reminders.
Available Setting Options:
Available Setting Options:
If the payment fails after the last trial attempt, your connected customer support will be automatically notified about the failed payments via email.
Yes, you can try to collect the failed payment even after three failed trial attempts. to do so, follow the following steps:
You should retry a failed payment manually when your customer confirms with you that the payment details have been edited or changed and a manual payment attempt can be made.
Subscriptions have a duration attached to it and there can be a number of circumstances under which you might be required to change the duration of a subscription.
Scenario: When your customer makes a request to extend the subscription duration and there is no change in the subscription price.
Action: Use the Extend subscription function. The “Extend Subscription” function only changes the end date of the subscription and extends it.
Scenario: When your customer changes their mind and wants to revert the change and set it back to its original duration.
Action: First check the already changed end date of the subscription. Then use the “Change subscription duration” function to revert the change.
Scenario: When your customer wants to change their subscription duration and as a result their is a change in the price of the subscription
Action: Use the “Change subscription duration function” to change the subscription and the subscription duration.
The function you use depends on the end result you desire.
If you only want to change the duration and do nothing with the payments attached to it, then we recommend using the "extend subscription duration" function.
If you want to change the duration and also make changes to the subscription price, then we recommend using the "change subscription duration" function.
To change the subscription duration follow the steps given below or the video tutorial given below:'
Steps:
Options
Alternatively you can also click on a subscription in the Subscription List to go to the Subscription overview. If you are in the Subscription overview, you can access the subscription duration setting by clicking on the three dots in the top right corner (see image).
Then follow the same steps mentioned above to edit the subscription duration.
To only extend the subscription duration, follow the steps given below:
Alternatively you can also click on a subscription in the Subscription List to go to the Subscription overview. If you are in the Subscription overview, you can access the subscription duration setting by clicking on the three dots in the top right corner (see image).
Then follow the same steps mentioned above to only extend the subscription duration.
Use case: Customer changed their mind about extending the subscription and wants the subscription to be restored to its original duration. How can you cancel the change already applied?
To cancel the extension of the subscription duration, simply use the Change subscription duration function to restore it to it's original duration.
Follow the steps mentioned above under Change subscription duration.
Possible status options and their explanation:
Tags do not have a fixed definition and can be used based on the definition that has been defined internally. Tags need to be changed manually and have no automation behind them. They shall be used to communicate between users internally after agreeing on a fixed definition for the existing tags. They are not visible to your customer. Tags are not shown in any form to your customer.
Find more info regarding updating the tag via API here.
The origin information is not shown to the customer in any form.
The subscription type information is not shown to the customer in any form.
The subscription frequency defines the billing schedule for the subscription or in other words how often the customer is charged for their subscription. Currently the following values are possible.
Numerical value ranging from 0 to x (Defined by you in your settings for failed payments. Associated setting: Number of payment retries).
Indicates the date when the next automatic payment charge try will be done. If the maximum number of autoamtic tries was done this will indicate the date when the last automatic payment try was done.
The displayed value varies according the payment service provider used. The information displayed here is directly taken from your connected service provider. Kindly check the failed reason articles from your respective PSP.
Note: The failed reasons are only for recurring payments.
Quick links for PSP documentation on failed reasons
Repair Status
Refer a friend is a feature that allows you as a customer to get some monetary incentive for encouraging other people to become our customer. You get a unique voucher code that you can pass along to your friends. The voucher can be used on the checkout page to get a discount on a new order. You get a fixed amount credited to your customer profile in our system every time your code is successfully used to place an order on our checkout page.
Important: Your voucher amount cannot be credited into your bank account and can only be used at the time of your next recurring payment. Your account balance will automatically be used and deducted from your next payment, and you will receive an invoice for the same.
The Refer a friend feature button is available in the Customer Self-Service portal only if the customer has an active subscription and the subscription has passed the early cancellation period.
Here's how you can generate your voucher code and pass it to your friends:
Your friends can follow these steps to get the discount:
Refer a friend is a feature that allows your existing customers to get some monetary incentive for encouraging other people to become your customer. Your existing customers get a unique voucher code that they can pass along to their friends. The voucher can be used on the checkout page to get a discount on a new order.
The voucher amount and validity is freely customisable in the Settings tab.
Step 1: Enable the feature in the Settings.
Step 2: Set up the Refer a friend email in the Email Templates.
Step 3: Update the Oder confirmation, Invoice and one-time password email template.
The Refer a friend feature button is available in the Customer Self-Service portal only if the customer has an active subscription and the subscription has passed the early cancellation period.
Note: The reason why the button for referring a friend is available with an active subscription and after the early cancellation period is passed so as to eliminate any chances of fraud.
Settings Explanation
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Now you can start the set up the activated Email Template as described below in Step 3.
The reward that your customers get is added to the customer profile under Account balance and this balance is used for any future payment to be charged.
If your customers have an account balance, then the invoice amount will be calculated based on the existing account balance. If there is an existing balance then the amount to be charged is first taken from the account balance. Your customers get an invoice for every transaction (recurring and one-time), and the invoice looks like the following (see image):
As you can see the invoice summary shows the "From account balance" field to indicate that the invoice amount has been deducted from the account balance of the customer.
Before you start using the Refer a friend feature, you need to adjust the , Order Confirmation, Invoice and One-time Transaction email template.
You have two options when it comes to setting up the necessary email templates:
NOTE: If you already have an email template set up (for Order Confirmation, Invoice and One-time transaction), you can set it to default as shown in the image below.
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<section class="card card--outlined">
<div class="card-header">
<h3>Articles</h3>
</div>
<div class="card-body--fluid background-white">
<table>
<thead>
<tr>
<th class='text-left'>Name</th>
<th class='text-center'>Qty</th>
<th class='text-center'>Payment</th>
<th class='text-center'>Price <span class='font-sm'>(excl. VAT)</span></th>
<th class='text-center'>VAT</th>
<th class='text-center'>VAT Rate</th>
<th class='text-center'>Price <span class='font-sm'>(incl. VAT)</span></th>
<th class='text-center'>Subtotal <span class='font-sm'>(incl. VAT)</span></th>
</tr>
</thead>
<tbody>
<!-- For product in products -->
{% for product in products %}
<tr>
<td class="td--product-text text-left">{{product.title}}</td>
<td class="td--product-text text-center">
{{product.quantity}}
</td>
<td class="td--product-text">{{product.frequency}}</td>
<td class="td--product-text text-center">
{{product.price_excl_vat}} €
</td>
<td class="td--product-text text-center">{{product.tax_amount}} €</td>
<td class="td--product-text text-center">{{product.tax_percent}} %</td>
<td class="td--product-text text-center">
{{product.price}} €
</td>
<td class="td--product-text text-center">
{{product.subtotal_incl_vat}} €
</td>
</tr>
{% endfor %}
</tbody>
</table>
</div>
<div class="card-body--fluid background-white">
<div style="width: 50%; margin-left: 50%">
<div class="card-subheader text-center background-grey">
<h4>Summary</h4>
</div>
<table>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td class="td--product-text">Net sum (excl. VAT)</td>
<td class="td--product-text text-right">
{{order_amount_no_vat}} €
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="td--product-text">Shipping cost</td>
<td class="td--product-text text-right">
{{shipping_cost}} €
</td>
</tr>
<!-- For vat in vats -->
<tr>
<td class="td--product-text">VAT ({{vat_percent}}%)</td>
<td class="td--product-text text-right">{{vat_amount}} €</td>
</tr>
<!-- endfor -->
<tr>
<td class="td--product-text"><b>Total</b></td>
<td class="td--product-text text-right"><b>{{order_amount}} €</b></td>
</tr>
<!-- When is_account_balance == true -->
{% if is_account_balance == true %}
<tr>
<td class="td--product-text">From account balance</td>
<td class="td--product-text text-right">
{{from_account_balance}} €
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="td--product-text border-none"><b>Invoice amount</b></td>
<td class="td--product-text border-none text-right">
<b>{{final_invoice_amount}} €</b>
</td>
</tr>
{% endif %}
</tbody>
</table>
</div>
</div>
</section>
Simply copy the complete code and add it to your Invoice and One-time transaction email template.
New available variables: is account_balance, from account_balance and final invoice_amount.
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Here are some frequently asked questions about the refer a friend feature:
The customer balance (balance generated by a customer when a customer successfully uses the refer a friend feature) can only be used for the upcoming recurring payments and not for new payments from the checkout.
If the customer balance amount is more than the recurring payment amount then the remaining balance amount will be kept and will be used for the next recurring payment. This continues until the customer balance amount is zero. Let's assume that Customer A has accumulated a customer balance amount of 40€ and the recurring payment amount is 20€. In this case 20€ will be used from the customer balance to charge the upcoming recurring payment. The remaining balance of 20€ will be kept and will be used to charge the recurring payment after that.
Important: Kindly provide detailed information to your customer about the entire process and also inform them how their reward balance will be used. It is important to clarify that they do not actually receive any cashbacks from you to avoid any confusion.
Did you know that consumers are more likely to take action when presented with a limited yet personalised selection of products?
Research shows that 87% of customers appreciate curated experiences that alleviate decision fatigue and guide them towards making confident choices.
The Problem
In today's fast-paced world, the abundance of choices and information can often overwhelm online shoppers, tarnishing their experience and hindering their decision-making process.
The Implication
Even though consumers generally like to have some level of information and choice when purchasing, the overload of information and choices can lead to frustration and hinder the overall experience.
Your customers may find themselves lost in the different choices available to them and may not take any action.
The Solution
Strike the right balance between providing relevant and comprehensive information while ensuring a user-friendly and intuitive purchasing journey is crucial.
Liberate your customers from the weight of overwhelming choices and information overload by curating a tailored selection of bundled products. Provide them with a refined experience that offers a handpicked assortment of options to choose from.
The Feature
Introducing exchange groups - a circuly feature that empowers your customers to swap their subscription products and choose a replacement product from a predefined and curated group of products tailored to their needs and preferences.
The Benefit
By simplifying the decision-making process, you create a personalised and memorable experience that instils confidence and loyalty. Your customers will appreciate the invaluable gift of time and the freedom to explore a thoughtfully limited selection that truly resonates with their individual tastes and requirements.
Additionally, your customers can rely on your expertise and benefit from the curated experience created by you.
Elevate your customer's journey to new heights, where frustration is replaced with excitement, and indecision is transformed into swift action.
The technical setup provides comprehensive instructions on configuring the exchange groups feature and making it accessible to your customers in the Self-Service Portal.
Step 1: Create an exchange group collection
Step 2: Map variants to the collection
Step 3: (Optional) Go over the swap settings in the Settings tab
Step 4: Enable the "Check System Stock" setting
Good to know
1. Your products and product variants are always set up in your individual shopsystem. circuly only takes over the product information (product name, price etc.) from your shopsystem via a product sync and displays the information under the Product tab in the circuly Operations Backend.
2. The product prices are also taken from the shop system, and the exchange group feature makes use of the default shop system prices (as set up by you). However, it is also possible to have the same price for the entire bundle collection, irrespective of the product selected. If you would like to have this logic, kindly get in touch with us via service desk.
3. The possibility to select products from a predefined collection is only available for new orders. If you want to make the feature available for your old subscriptions, get in touch with circuly via service desk.
Step 1: Create an exchange group collection
To create a collection in the circuly Operations Backend:
Note: There are two possible option for assigning variants to the Exchange Collection.
Option 1: From the Product variants dropdown menu that is available in the Edit Exchange Group window.
Option 2: From the Variants tab (explained in detail under Step 2).
The Product variants dropdown option
The Product Variants dropdown menu option provides you the possibility to select variants while you are in the process of creating the Exchange Collection. If you have a long list of available variants kindly note that not all variants will show up in the dropdown menu. You can search for the variant by typing the variant name in the given field.
However you can also ignore the Product variants dropdown menu and assign the variants to the Exchange Collection from the Variants tab where you can see all your variants at the same time (explained below under Step 2)
IMPORTANT: An exchange groups can have up to 1000 product variants.
You can find an overview about the existing mapped collections by scrolling left to display the Exchange Group column. The exchange group column shows information about the collection the variant is mapped to.
Since exchanging a product from an existing product collection is also a swap, the feature and the operations associated with it make use of the swap settings.
Make sure that you go over your swap settings or set them up if you haven't already done so.
Continue reading the article about Swap settings in the circuly Operations Backend to know more.
By activating the "Check System Stock" option, you ensure that customers can only request products that are currently in stock. This prevents scenarios where customers try to request products that are unavailable. If you've already turned on this setting for your checkout process, the Self-Service Portal will also apply the same stock-checking configuration.
To access the setting > In your circuly Operations Backend > Go to Settings > Checkout > PRE CHECKOUT > Check System Stock.
We recommend adding a how to guide on your website about swapping products to make it easier for your customers to take the right actions.
Given below is an overview of how the process looks for your customers. Kindly be informed that the subscription menu options and some display options can vary depending on your settings and setup.
Note: at this time a stock validation check is being done. If the selected product is not not in stock then an error message will be displayed.
The stock validation is done after the customer selects a product from the dropdown menu options. If you have stock sensitive items (like limited number of refurbished products) kindly update your exchange groups on a regular basis. You can also get in touch with our Customer Success team to figure out a solution together.
Note: If you wish to display your custom terms and conditions text , kindly send us your desired text and we will add it to your White-Label Self-Service Portal.
Refer to the image below to see an example.
Like with any replacement order, a new order is created in the circuly Operations Backend (unless you have the Delay swapped orders setting enabled). Process the order like you normally would that is either creating a subscription manually, or changing the status of the order to “fulfilled” in your shopsystem if you have the automatic flow enabled depending on the order status in your shop system.
Learn more about creating subscriptions in the circuly Operations Backend manually.
Learn more about updating orders into subscription with the BULK UPDATE button.
In this section we’ve highlighted some possible use cases of the bundle swap feature. The list is of course not limited to the ideas mentioned below and can be expanded upon.
Let’s imagine that you have a subscription service for protein powder and you want to offer your customers the possibility to exchange one flavour with another throughout the length of the subscription contract.
What you need to do: all you need to do in this case create a bundle collection (something like flavours for Black Edition and map the variants (Cookie dough, vanilla, chocolate etc.) to this collection in your circuly Operations Backend.
Follow the steps mentioned above under technical setup for a detailed description on the setup process.
What your customers can do: your customers can then select their desired flavor from their Self-Service Portal.
Similar logic can be applied to other consumable products such as coffee, baby diapers, wine etc.
Tangible products such as bikes, baby strollers, furniture etc can also use the bundle swap feature in different ways. Here are a few examples:
Bundle swap for Strollers
You can offer your customers the possibility to swap a small stroller for a big one or vice versa or perhaps a lightweight stroller in exchange for a double stroller.
Bundle swap for bikes
You can offer your customers the possibility to swap a small sized kids bike with a bigger bike as the child grow and their needs change.
Bundle swap for furniture
You can offer your customers the possibility to exchange various furniture items to fit the season.
Tip: This process can be automated via our customer API. This is the PUT request you can use https://api-docs.circuly.io/docs/customers-api-docs/pgyucirl7m7fh-update-order-s-tag to update the order tag.
A tag is a keyword assigned to a piece of information that helps describe it visually and allows it to be easily found. In the circuly operations backend a tag is a keyword assigned to an order. Accompanied with the tag date, a tag describes what action needs to be taken or is currently active and the date associated with that action. Every order can have a tag and a tag date attached to it.
Tags main purpose is to see the associated action of an order at first sight. In order to gain a better overview of the status of your orders you can add tags to each order. The additional information serves your team e.g. to assure everyone working in the system directly knows the handling status/fulfilment timeline regardless of an external additional document, a single person's memory or additional assumption being made based on other information. Tags are solely for internal use and do not change anything for the consumer. Using tags also does not influence the information and pre-set e.g. buffer time/delivery time, order date or subscription date started, payment date.
The different tags can be interpreted as follows - however can also be given a different definition within your team:
A tag date simply represents the fulfilment timeline of the tag.
Tags can be added and edited for an order in the Order List. You can find the Order List by navigating to Orders in the left navigation bar. To add a tag follow the following steps:
Note: If you have a "Delivery Date Picker" in your checkout, the selected delivery date will be used for the Tag date value for the order in question.
Tags and tag date are meant to be used for internal operations. They do not have any affect on the order or customer data. If there are multiple users of the operations backend, tags can help in efficiently managing rentals by providing a visual aspect.
Your customers can make cancellation requests either from the Customer Self-Service Portal or by getting in touch with your customer support.
When they get in touch with your customer support, you have full control over how you want to cancel the subscription and if you want to cancel it. This process is manual as it requires a circuly user to cancel the subscription manually from the circuly Operations backend.
However when cancellation requests are made from the Self-Service Portal, a few actions can be taken by the circuly system depending on your setting.
One setting that influences what happens when a customer makes a cancellation request is the Auto cancel subscription setting.
The Auto cancel subscription setting is disabled by default and can be made active by turning on the switch.
Here’s an overview of the different cancellation situations and their implication based on the Auto cancel subscription setting:
Scenario 1
Result: The auto renew button is turned off (if it was originally in an active state), the subscriptions gets cancelled and the subscription status is set to pending return to trigger the return workflow.
Scenario 2
Result: The auto renew button is turned off (if it was originally in an active state), the subscriptions gets cancelled and the subscription status is set to pending return to trigger the return workflow.
You might have noticed that the state of the "Auto cancel subscription" setting has no impact if the cancellation request is made within the early cancellation period and the the option selected by the customer to return the product is "immediately". This is because the customer has the right to cancel the subscription if the cancellation has been made within the early cancellation period and therefore the auto cancel subscription setting has no impact on the cancellation request.
Scenario 3
Scenario 4
Scenario 5
Scenario 6
Learn more about the entire cancellation process in this Miro board to understand actions taken by a user and by your customer for cancellations.
Tip: This process can be automated via our customer API. This is the POST request you can use https://api-docs.circuly.io/docs/customers-api-docs/cd491d414ce62-set-a-product-to-in-repair that you can use for the return handling process.
Mark, as returned, is commonly used to indicate that the subscription that was in the "pending return" state can be processed because the product has been returned. Sometimes the mark as returned option is also used when the subscription status is set as pending return but the product was not delivered to the customer and as a result the return needs to handled immediately so that the subscription can be ended. Mark, as returned, changes the status of the subscription to "ended".
The "ended" status means that the subscription has ended because the product has been returned.
When the product is returned to you by your customer and is in your warehouse, you should ideally go to the Returns tab in your circuly Operations Backend > Search for the serial number associated with the returned product in the Returns List > Click on the button that says HANDLE and in the Handle return window > Mark the product as returned by clicking on the MARK AS RETURNED button.
The following message will be displayed.
If you've set up the Repair questions and process repairs from the circuly Operations Backend > Navigate to the Repairs tab and complete the repair process for the product.
The "delete future recurring payments", as the title suggests deletes any future recurring payments if the checkbox for it is checked. It is available in two places:
- When you handle a return.
- When you mark a subscription as pending return.
When you do not interact with the subscription at all, all subscriptions can potentially automatically go into the pending return state when the end date arrives and if there are no auto-renew settings in place. In that case a circuly user has no interaction with the "Delete future recurring payments" checkbox and the recurring payments are planned to be charged even if the subscription is in a pending return state.
If you manually set a subscription status to pending return, you have the possibility to check the box when you are in the process. Your course of action depends on whether or not you want to avoid that your customer is being charged for the next month already while sending the item back. Some vendors want to keep the incentive up to return the product in time and as a result do not check the box in order to indicate that if the product is not returned in time, the customer will get charged.
When you handle a return and want to mark the product as returned, the option to delete future recurring payment is auto checked because the circuly system assumes that the at this point in time the product has been returned and any future recurring payment should be stopped.
Update stock on SKU level after return: if you want to update the stock on a SKU level (makes sense if you have more than one subscription duration for the same variant), you should activate this setting. If the switch for this setting is disabled then the stock is updated on a variant level.
To access the setting > Go to the Settings tab > Subscriptions > RETURN SUBSCRIPTION > Update stock on SKU level after return.
Note: If you do not want your stock to be updated at all by circuly, please write to us via the service desk.
Tip: This process can be automated via our customer API. This is the POST request you can use https://api-docs.circuly.io/docs/customers-api-docs/eb7ac5d762d9d-fulfill-order-by-id that you can use for marking order as fulfilled.
For Bulk Update follow this link: https://api-docs.circuly.io/docs/customers-api-docs/7qbwc0gwj2t9q-fulfill-orders-in-bulk
When your customer completes the checkout process and finalises the order, an order is created in your Shopsystem and in the circuly Operations Backend. To start collecting recurring payments, a subscription needs to be created for the order.
In the circuly Operations Backend, you can find multiple ways to create a subscription. circuly provides you both, manual and automated workflows for creating a subscription.
The decision to choose a manual option or an automated one depends on the number/quantity of incoming orders and the amount of control you want over the operations.
Available options for creating a subscription:
In this article we’ll go over the Mark as fulfilled option. For all other ways to create a subscription, refer to this article: All Different Ways to Start a Subscription in the circuly Operations Backend
You can automate the process of creating a subscription by making the subscription create process dependent on the "Mark as fulfilled" button.
Typically the mark as fulfilled button is used to indicate that an order has been successfully delivered. Fulfilling order is part of the shipping process. You want to use the fulfilment function to mark that the order item has left the warehouse.
However it can also be used to automatically create subscriptions.
If you enable the Auto activate subscription setting in your Settings then subscriptions will be automatically started after they are marked as fulfilled by a circuly user.
To access the setting > Go to Settings > Subscriptions > CREATE SUBSCRIPTION > Enable the switch for Auto activate subscriptions.
Note: The subscription start date value will be taken from the Auto activate offset setting. Make sure that you define the value in the respective setting.
What does ‘mark as completed’ do?
(setting: Auto activate subscriptions)
What set-up is necessary for the fulfil order function?
As the title suggests Prepaid Subscriptions are subscription orders where your customer agrees to pay the recurring fees in advance and upfront. It is a win-win-situation for you and your customer, as this makes it easier to plan your cash flow, and many vendors offer their customers a certain discount for their upfront payment and commitment to the subscription service.
Prepaid subscriptions need to be set up as variants in your shop system. You can define in your variants set up whether the payment should be charged monthly or in one payment.
See example image below:
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With upfront payments, you likely want to extend the subscription duration after the upfront paid months are over to make your customer stick to you. Typically circuly only receives the total payment amounts from your shop system which becomes a problem when your subscription should extend monthly after the prepaid duration. Therefore, we have introduced the extension price field in our product list.
To set up the extension of Prepaid Subscriptions > Go to Products > Variants > Select all variants you would like to edit > Click on the Edit extension price button.
Now enter the extension prices in the given input field.
This price will then be used after the prepaid duration is over and when the auto renew becomes active. Learn more about the extension price function.
Tip: This process can be automated via our customer API. This is the GET request you can use https://api-docs.circuly.io/docs/customers-api-docs/tyvbuteuftq44-get-the-order-s-update-payment-link that you can use to get the link for updating the payment details. You can forward the link to your customer via email.
Your customers can change their payment details in the Self-Service Portal in the same window as their address.
Given below are the instructions you can pass on to your customer about updating their payment details from the Self-Service Portal:
To change payment details > Go to Your Orders > Choose an order and click on the arrow icon > You will be taken to your order overview page > in the order overview page scroll down to Current payment method > Click on UPDATE PAYMENT METHOD.
Note: If you wish to add a custom description to this window, you can write us a service desk ticket, with your desired text.
You will be taken to a new browser window where you will have the option to update your payment method > Click on your desired option > Fill in your payment details > Confirm your selection.
Your payment method will now be updated.
Each tab in circuly (Orders, Subscriptions, Customers, Invoices) has an index page that displays a list (Order list, Subscription List, Customer List etc).
You can use filters to segment the list and display the information you want.
To filter a list under the given tab:
The steps are explained in detail below.
If you would like to save your filter view while you navigate in and out of records, click on the back arrow of the browser instead of the back arrow in the circuly Operations Backend.
Click on the filter icon to access the filter functionality.
Under “Field” select your desired option.
Note: the available options are custom and depend on the tab you are in. For example if you are in the Customers tab then you’ll find the column heading of the Customer List available under the “Field” option.
The next step is to select an “Option” to set a criteria for the selected “Field”.
Available options:
Note: When working with the date range option, click once on your desired date to only select a date and not a date range. After clicking on the date click on the “ok” button to save your selection.
Click a second time on another date to set a range and click on the “ok” button to save your selection.
The last step is to add a value for your selected “Field” and filter criteria.
Note: In case of Field options related to date or date range, the “Option” and “Value” input fields are not displayed as the date or the date range is the option and the value itself.
The input in the "Value" field is simply what you see under the various columns. For example if you are creating a filter for Create date, Start date, end date etc., then the possible value is a date or a date range. If you are filtering by status, then the possible value are the different status options such as Active, Swapped, Cancelled etc. For fields like Auto renewed, the possible values are FALSE and TRUE.
You can further narrow down on the filter to get more specific information by clicking on the + ADD FILTER button.
Note: You cannot use the same Field option to narrow the results. You must use two different Field options.
After clicking on the + ADD FILTER button continue by selecting a “Filter”, defining an “Option” and adding a “Value”.
If you have access to the Admins section in the circuly Operations Backend, you can add users to your company instance and customise their permissions.
When adding user to your company instance in the circuly Operations Backend you need to do only one thing and that is to create a user.
Admin - when you give a user the role on an “Admin”, the user is able to see the Admins section in the left navigation bar and access everything that comes under it, such as Settings, Repair Questions etc.
User - when you give a user the role of a “User”, the user is only able to access the non-admin tabs in the circuly operations backend.
Function lets you add the new user under an operational role such as Logistics, Customer Support etc.
Note: The invitation is valid for 24 hours meaning that the new user needs to access the link within 24 hours.
The most common reason why a newly added user might be unable to create a profile is due to the expiration of the link. The link that is sent to the newly added user is only valid for 24 hours. If the receiver fails to create a password within the 24 hours, the link is no longer valid. In that case, please get in touch with our Customer Success team by raising a Jira ticket.
Please make sure that the user creates a profile and sets a password within 24 hours of receiving the link to avoid any problems with account and user creation.
Remove a user
Currently the option to remove a user is not available in the circuly Operation Backend on a merchant level. If you want to remove a user, kindly write us a service desk ticket.
In some countries customers have the right to cancel their subscriptions within a specified time period known as the early cancellation period (Widerufsfrist in Germany) and as a business you are mandated by law to approve the cancellation.
In the circuly Operations Backend, when a customer makes a cancellation request within the early cancellation period, the subscription is cancelled immediately, even if the setting for Auto cancel subscription setting is disabled. This is because the customer has the full right to cancel the subscriptions.
Info: It is mandatory as per German law to provide a cancellation button to your customers and the possibility to cancel subscriptions within the early cancellation period.
Here's how the process looks for your customers and actions they take to make a cancellation request that is within the early cancellation period.
A window slides in from the right. The customer continues the cancellation process by selecting a "cancellation type" (normal or extraordinary cancellation) and "cancellation reason" (displayed as soon as the customer selects the cancellation type).
When a cancellation request is made, the circuly system checks is the request is within or outside of the early cancellation period.
If the request is within the early cancellation period, the customer sees two options under the field Return the product: immediately and after minimum subscription duration (See image below).
Option 1: The customer selects "immediately" as an option to return the product.
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Option 2: The customer selects "after minimum duration" as an option to return the product.
However if the cancellation request is outside of the early cancellation period then the customer does not see any return option and can instead only make a cancellation request.
Kindly go through the settings explained above to set up the process once.
Your connected customer care email inbox receives an email about the cancellation.
Depending on the choice of the customer under "Return the product" the actions and process will vary.
The subscription gets the tag "cancelled by customer".
If Auto cancel subscription setting is enabled > The subscription status is set to "pending return", the subscription gets the tag "cancelled by customer", the subscription additionally gets the "cancelled on end date" status.
If Auto cancel subscription setting is disabled > The subscription status is NOT set to "pending return" and remains active, the subscription gets the tag "cancelled by customer", the subscription additionally gets the "cancelled on end date" status, the subscription will go to "pending return" state when end date has arrived.
Refund Order is a feature available in the circuly Operations Backend that you can use to refund any charged one-time payment or recurring payment.
In order to refund an order a payment needs to exist in the first place.
If the refund is successful, the payment status changes to refunded. The Transaction refund email is automatically trigged from the Email Template and sent to the customer along with the Refund Invoice. The Refund invoice email contains the invoice for the refund.
Learn more about possible status options in the payment list.
Learn more about how to process a refund.
Typically an Order appears in the circuly Operations Backend when a website visitor goes over your checkout page and places an order. The next step is to create a subscription for the order to start collecting recurring payments.
However if you have B2B customers that want more than “x” units of a product or operate on a quote-to-order basis, then the Manual Order feature enables you to manually create orders in the circuly Operations Backend and send the order as quotes to the customer.
The customer receives the quote via email and can use the link in the email to finalise the order with minimum effort.
The link in the email takes the customer to the checkout page where all the fields are pre-populated with information that you previously added while creating the draft order (such as billing address, name, contact details etc) and the only manual input required from the customer is adding the payment details and make address changes (if any).
Once the customer finalises the order, the status of the draft order changes from Pending to Ordered and an Order is created in the Order List. You can proceed to creating a subscription like you normally would to start collecting recurring payments.
Note: Only limited number of products are visible in the dropdown menu. Therefore if you can’t find a product, simply type the name of the product in the input field.
Available options for sending the draft order to the customer:
Note: when you toggle on the switch for Send order as quote for customer, the customer will receive an email from the Email Templates. The email contains the link to the checkout page where the order can be finalised. Additionally there is also an offer enclosed in PDF format that can be used to finalise the order and can be used to upload to your customers purchasing systems.
If you do not toggle on the switch then the customer will not receive any email. This is a slightly different process as the customer then has to login into their Customer Self Service portal and add their payment details.
This switch can be only enabled, when the switch for Send order as quote to customer is disabled. Instead of sending the order to the customer in the form of a checkout link the order is instead sent as an Invoice than can be paid by the customer.
Keep in mind that the payment processing will need to be managed outside of circuly. You can still mark the invoices manually as Paid to keep an overview of the outstanding invoices.
Note: You can also work with the circuly API to create manual order. You can find the documentation here. Please keep in mind that this works only for offline payments. If you want to create an order with other payment service providers, kindly write a service desk ticket to our customer support.
Note: The email templates used to send the email are: Order Offer and Order Offer PDF. Set up the email template before you start using this feature.
Next steps:
If you are shipping your products to customers within the European countries, you are subject to pay VAT. The tax obligations apply to your business if you are located within or outside the European Union (EU) and plan to ship your products to customers within the European Countries.
Furthermore, it's important to note that even if your operations are limited to a single country, you may encounter varying tax rates depending on the specific states or regions (such as USA) to which you are shipping. In such cases, the information provided in this article remains relevant and valuable to your business.
Note: If you are planning to operate in the USA, we have an integration with Taxjar for tax calculation. Get in touch with us via service desk to discuss the next steps.
You do not need to do anything with tax rates:
VAT is a consumption tax that is charged as a percentage on the value of goods and services that the consumer intends to consume or purchase. Consumers pay the VAT as part of the price.
VAT applies to nearly all goods and services but different products may be subject to different tax rates depending on which category they fall in.
The EU has set a threshold amount for businesses situated within the EU and selling to customers in another EU country.
If the business makes less than 10,000 euros in the long-distance country (that is not the country where the business is actually situated but where the customer is) then the company charges the VAT rate of the country it is actually situated in.
Once the business reaches the threshold, the business should charge the VAT rate of the EU country where it is shipping to or the customer is situated in.
This article covers the procedure for setting up the tax percentages in the circuly Operations Backend and mapping them to different products.
As mentioned above, the VAT is calculated and applied on the basis of three things:
Note: If you are below the threshold you can choose to apply the tax rates of either the country you are located in or the country you are shipping to.
Before getting started with the tax rate set up you need to do the following:
Defining your base country
In your circuly Operations Backend > Go to the Settings Tab > Click on Company Settings from the Settings menu > Under COMPANY DATA > Go to Country and from the dropdown menu select your default country > Scroll down to the bottom of the page and click on the SUBMIT CHANGES button.
Defining your delivery countries
In your circuly Operations Backend > Go to the Settings Tab > Click on Checkout from the Settings menu > Scroll down to DELIVERY > Go to Delivery countries and from the dropdown menu select your delivery countries >Click on the SUBMIT CHANGES button.
If you do not set up the delivery countries in the Settings, you will only see the tax collection from the country that you have entered in your company address (company settings). As a result you will not be able to set up tax rules in the Products tab for countries that have different tax percentages and where you want to offer shipping.
Navigate to the Products Tab. In the Products Tab you’ll find a section called “Taxes”.
In the Taxes section your default (organisation) country and your delivery country are displayed. The view changes if you change your default and delivery country in the Settings. The tax rules for your organisation country cannot be deleted but can be changed by checking a different checkbox. By default the checkbox with the highest tax percentage is checked for your default or organisation country.
This is also the status quo before you set up this feature.
There’s also the PRODUCT COLLECTIONS column. By default all products are mapped to the default collection. When you add more collections (for example for low tax percentage or no tax percentage) all the new collections will be displayed under this column and you’ll be able to set up tax rules for the default and delivery countries for the newly setup product collection.
You’ll see a new collection category and with it another row of tax percentages for your default and delivery country.
Here’s an example.
Scenario: Your default country is Germany and you’re shipping to Austria and Norway. In Austria you earn a revenue of over 10.000 euros and in Norway, you’re under the threshold amount.
How should the tax percentage boxes be checked for the above scenario?
Click on the MAP TO PRODUCT COLLECTION.
In the Map to product collection window > Select the right collection from the dropdown menu > Click on MAP TO COLLECTION button.
Once you’ve set up everything, here’s how the tax rates will be calculated on the checkout page and applied to the products.
On the left side of the checkout page the tax calculation is done under Sales tax and is influenced by the (1) the product(s) in the cart and (2) the country of selection for the delivery country.
When the customer selects a country for delivery, the tax calculation changes accordingly.
If the selected delivery country is a country where you earn revenue below the minimum threshold then the default country tax rates are used.
Important: The tax rates are taken over from the circuly database. The tax rates that are displayed for every country are fixed and cannot be changed. If you have special tax programs currently active in your country kindly let us know via the service desk and we’ll change that on an individual basis for your company.
You can only edit orders as long as they do not have a subscription attached to the order. As soon as you create a subscription for an order, it can no longer be edited.
With the "Edit item" function you can change the Product name, SKU, Frequency, Duration, Price, Subscription start date and tracking number of an Order. If you wish to change these aspects of an order, you can continue reading this guide.
In case you wish to add/remove items, follow the guide on Learn more about editing an order instead.
To edit an order item:
Usually subscriptions go into an inactive (that is pending return) state when:
Subscriptions can be reactivated if needed either through an automated process or manually by a circuly user. Please keep in mind that only subscriptions with "pending return" or "pending buyout" status can be reactivated. Subscriptions with the status "ended" and "bought out" cannot be reactivated.
Important: You can only reactivate subscription that do not have the “active”, "ended" or "bought out" status
What happens next?
Reactivating subscriptions also reactivates the recurring payments only if recurring payments were planned in before or will be due to outstanding subscriptions / auto renew. If recurring payments were deleted already with pending return and a subscription is then reactivated it also checks whether old payments need to be charged based on the setting: recurring payments > Past billing dates
This feature should be used to reactivate subscriptions when you use the auto-cancellation and automated auto-renewal of subscriptions. Subscriptions where the auto-renew switch has been manually turned off, can be reactivated but in that case the auto-renew switch needs to be enabled first and the reactivation of a subscription can be done.
If you have a rental model that allows subscription products to be bought in the middle of the subscription period or at the end of the subscription period, you can tackle the operations associated with subscription product buyouts (such as charging the remaining product amount via a one-time transaction, sending an invoice for the charge, stopping recurring payments etc.) in your circuly Operations Backend.
The difference between the two is the process itself. If you want to offer a custom price without influencing the price of all the other products of the same type, then the best way to proceed is to initiate the buyout manually from the circuly Operations Backend.
However, if you do not plan on offering custom prices, then the buyout can be initiated by the customer from the Customer Self-Service Portal. Before getting started with this, please make sure that you’ve checked the retail prices of all products and edited them if there are any errors. You’ll learn more about editing the retail price of this product in this article.
If you do wish to offer custom product prices when a customer request to buy the product, continue reading this article.
The product buyout request affects the following aspects of an existing subscription:
As part of the return workflow, products are expected to return at the end of the subscription period. If products are not returned until the “Return until period” the circuly system Reactivates the subscription so that the customer can be charged for the unreturned products. But when a product is bought by the customer, there is no product being returned. The circuly system differentiates between products that are expected to come back and products that are not expected to come back and accordingly takes the next actions.
Steps:
Note: The text you insert in the Invoice line item text input field will be included in the email that is sent to the customer. Make sure that you include the variable {{description}} in the Email Template if you want the text you add in the Invoice line item text input field to be shown in the email that is sent to the customer.
When you confirm your action by clicking on the BUYOUT button, the following actions occur simultaneously:
Learn more about the buyout process.
Tip: This process can be automated via our customer API. This is the PUT request you can use https://api-docs.circuly.io/docs/customers-api-docs/vmtn0hvkkbc79-update-a-customer that you can use for updating the customer information.
Customer information can be edited either by your customer in the Customer Self Service or by a circuly user in the Customers and Orders tab.
The reason why not all customer related information is editable in the same place is because, a customer can have multiple orders and subscriptions under their profile. A customer may only want to change the address of a particular order for a particular subscription and not the overall address. For this reason the personal details of the customer such as phone number, email, address (shipping and billing) can be edited but not in the same place.
When you process order in the Return List you can either "mark the asset as returned or as bought". The option you pick depends on whether the asset has been returned to you or has been bought by the customer and is not expected to come back.
When should you mark an asset as returned: assets that have been successfully returned to you by the customer should be marked as returned in order to stop the subscription and the recurring payments attached to it.
Note: To stop recurring payments check the box for Delete future recurring payments when you mark the product as returned in the return workflow.
What happens when an asset is market as returned: when an asset is marked as returned the asset moves from the Return List to the Repair List (If you've set up the repair process in the repair section). Since the product needs to be repaired first (at least as per the circuly system) it is not directly pushed back into stock and made available for further renting.
The asset is displayed with “to repair” status in the Asset and Repair List denoting the location of the asset.
Additionally the Subscription ended email is sent to the customer as soon as the product is marked as returned.
When should you mark an asset as bought: assets that are not expected to be returned to you because they have been bought by the customer should be marked as bought.
What happens when an asset is marked as bought: when an asset is marked as bought the asset moves from the Return List but doesn't end up in the Repair List because the product is bought by the customer ans is not expected to be returned or repaired.
The asset is displayed with “bought out” status in the Asset List to denote the location of the asset.
In October 2021, a new law was introduced in Germany about the termination of subscription contracts.
Here a recap:
The two click cancellation law is effective as on 1st July 2022.
Button on the website (taken care of by you): As part of the "two-click cancellation" process you must add a button on your website that indicated that it's a cancellation button.
Confirmation page (taken care of by circuly): The button should then lead to another page where the customer can provide information on the type of termination, the reason for termination, clear means of identification, the time at which the termination shall take effect and contact data to confirm the termination easily by electronic means.
Add a cancellation button on your website that is easily visible and accessible at all times and gives clear indication that it is a cancellation button. Your customers can click on this button to proceed to the cancellation steps.
Clicking on the button will take your customer to the customer self-service portal where they can sign in with their email (the email used to place the order on your website) to access and manage their subscriptions and request cancellation.
A visible cancellation button has been added to every product and can be seen under all the active subscriptions by the customer, as shown in the image below.
The cancellation button leads your customer to a confirmation page within the customer self service portal itself (as shown in the image below). The confirmation page provides the customer with the necessary information about the subscription they are cancelling and additional options to conclude their cancellation request.
Important note: Read more about how to set up cancellation reasons at the end of this article.
Important note: Displaying the “Pickup Date” on the confirmation page is optional. It is by default turned off and disabled. To enable it go to your circuly operations backend > Settings > Customer login > CANCEL OPTIONS > Enable the switch for Pickup date as shown in the image below.
If the customer has already sent the cancellation request for a particular product, then the following happens:
Important note: The subscription end date is based on the subscription start date. If the customer has selected a 12 months subscription and started the subscription on 1st April then the displayed subscription end date will be 31st March. When the subscription end date has arrived and the subscription is still active, the subscription is extended by a month (if auto renew is enabled) and the end date changes accordingly as per this date, that is the new end date will then be 30th of April.
As part of the “two-click cancellation” law, your customers get a confirmation email about their cancellation. The email that you customers receive from the Email templates (in circuly) is called Subscription Cancellation Received. Edit the email template to your liking and branding and include cancellation specific variables of your choice.
Important note: If you are using the “Auto cancel subscription” setting option to process the cancellation requests, remember to add return instruction in the Subscription Cancellation Received email because this option (that is using the “auto cancel subscription setting to process cancellation requests) bypasses the Subscription almost over email (which typically contains the return instructions for the product when the subscription is about to end).
The “Auto cancel subscription” setting is used when you want a subscription to be set to pending return automatically and bypass the minimum subscription duration period when a customer makes a cancellation request from the self-service portal.
Setting the subscription status as pending return triggers the return workflow which means that the minimum subscription period is not valid anymore and the subscription cancellation request will take effect as soon as the subscription status is set up pending return.
Example: Your customer made a cancellation request via the Customer Self-Service on 1st of July. If the “Auto cancel subscription” setting is enabled then the subscription is set to pending return immediately and the return workflow is triggered. Now the customer has “x” no. of days to return the product back to you (x is defined in the Return until period setting) after which the reminder emails will be sent and if the customer does not return the product the subscription will be reactivated and the recurring payments will continue to be charged again.
Go to Settings > Customer login > CANCEL OPTIONS > Enable the switch for Auto cancel subscription.
When this setting is enabled and when the customer makes a cancellation request from the self-service portal, the following happens:
When the “Auto cancel subscription” setting is disabled then the following happens:
Cancellation request is valid: If you want to process the request, you don't have to do anything. The circuly system will wait until the minimum subscription period is over and will send the “subscription almost over email” x days before the actual end date of the subscription. (You can define the value for “x”, that is when the subscription almost over email is sent to the customer is your settings. To define a value for this go to Settings > Email > SUBSCRIPTION NOTIFICATIONS > Enable the switch for Subscription is almost over > Add a numeric value in the Days calculation before ending input field.
Cancellation request is not valid: the only reason why a cancellation request is not treated as valid is when the request has been made while the subscription is still under the minimum subscription period. In this case the cancellation request is still valid but only after the minimum subscription period is over. Since auto renewal is turned off automatically and the subscription is not extended by another month, the system will follow the same process, that is it will wait until the minimum subscription period is over and will send the “subscription almost over email” x days before the actual end date of the subscription.
Support email is the email you’ve entered in the circuly operations backend under the Support email address setting.
If you haven't added an email yet you can do so by logging in to your circuly operations backend > Go to Settings > Customer login > COMPANY INFORMATION > And enter an email Id for support and contact matters in the Support email address input field.
The cancellation reasons are displayed to your customer in the customer self-service portal and can be edited.
To add cancellation reasons, follow these steps:
Both “cancel order” and “set as pending return” are ways to process a cancellation request but with different logic and background.
Orders can be “cancelled” and subscription status can be “set as pending return”.
Cancel order should be used when there is no active subscription attached to the order and the product has not been delivered yet. Cancelling an order in the circuly operations backend also cancels the order in the shop system. This is relevant if you work with fulfilment partners who do not have access to the circuly backend as a user but process the orders (that is send it out for delivery to the end customer) based on the order status in the shop system.
Another reason for orders are cancelled and not set as pending return because cancelling an order has monetary implications: when you cancel an order, you can process a refund at the same time. Whereas when you set the subscription status as pending return, only future recurring payments are stopped.
Marking the subscription status as pending return should be done when there is an active subscription for an order or when the product has already been delivered to the customer. Marking the subscription status as pending return means that you should expect the product to come back which is not the case when an order is cancelled because no product has been delivered anyway. But a subscription is created either when the product is being delivered or has been already delivered.
Another reason why subscription status are set as pending return and not cancelled because setting the subscription status as pending return triggers the return process.
This process can be automated via our customer API. This is the PUT request you can use https://api-docs.circuly.io/docs/customers-api-docs/916cb4d9c8142-set-real-subscription-end-date that you can use to mark the subscription status as pending return.
Marking the subscription status as “pending return” can be either done manually or it can be automatically triggered.
The subscription status is automatically set to pending return when the subscription end date has been reached. In practice every subscription comes with an end date and will receive the "pending return" status automatically when the subscription end date has arrived. Doing so ensures that no manual action is needed for tracking returns or sending transaction communication to the customer in the normal process of a subscription.
A manual intervention is only needed when you want to set the subscription status as pending return prior to the end date of the subscription.
You can mark the subscription status as pending return manually when you get a cancellation request from the customer. To process the cancellation request, you need to mark the subscription status as pending return so that the return process can be trigged.
IMPORTANT: Read more about the difference between Cancelling an order and setting the subscription status as pending return.
Follow these steps to mark a subscription as pending return:
Check the box if: You want to avoid charging the customer for the upcoming month while the customer is on the process of returning the product then you can check the box for Delete future recurring payments.
Keep the box unchecked if: You want to encourage the customer to return the product in time or else they might be charged for the next month.
When the subscription status is set as "pending return" the return process is triggered.
The customer receives the "Subscription pending return" email from the Email Templates.
Typically you can expect your customer to return the product back to you for the following reasons:
In all cases you should expect to get the product back from the customer within a specified time duration. If the products are not returned within that time, the subscription can be reactivated and the recurring payments can be charged for the said subscription.
In this article we'll cover the two scenarios:
When the product is returned to you by your customer and is in your warehouse, you should ideally go to the Returns tab in your circuly Operations Backend > Search for the serial number associated with the returned product in the Returns List > Click on the button that says HANDLE and in the handle return window > Mark the product as returned by clicking on the MARK AS RETURNED button.
The following message will be displayed.
If you've set up the Repair questions and process repairs from the circuly Operations Backend > Navigate to the Repairs tab and complete the repair process for the product.
Update stock on SKU level after return: if you want to update the stock on a SKU level (makes sense if you have more than one subscription duration for the same variant), you should activate this setting. If the switch for this setting is disabled then the stock is updated on a variant level.
To access the setting > Go to the Settings tab > Subscriptions > RETURN SUBSCRIPTION > Update stock on SKU level after return.
Note: If you do not want your stock to be updated at all by circuly, please write to us via the service desk.
Typically there are three things you can decide when it comes to processing return requests when the product hasn't been returned by the customer.
Note: the return workflow is triggered in the first place when you mark a subscription status either as pending return or pending replacement.
All return operations revolve around the three Settings mentioned above.
When you process a swap request, then the status of the existing product that is with the customer is set to pending replacement (pending replacement has the same effect as pending return) and a new order appears in the Orders tab.
The customer then receives the return instructions via email in the Swap confirmation email sent from the Email Templates (see image below) and has to return the product within a specified time duration aka the Return until period.
The specified time duration (the Return until period) within which the customer has to return the product back to you is predefined by you on a company level and can be customisable as per your needs in the Settings tab. To edit/change the Return until period setting > go to the Settings > Subscription > CANCEL SUBSCRIPTIONS > Add a numeric value in the Return until period input field.
If the customer does not return the product within the specified time duration (as defined in the Return until period) then the subscription can be reactivated so that the customer can be continued to get charged for the product.
You can define whether or not the subscription should be reactivated and after how long it should be reactivated in case the Return until period has passed.
Whether or not a subscription (that is pending replacement/return and has not been returned by the customer within the Return until period) is activated can be set by toggling the switch for Reactivate subscription in the Settings tab. (see image below)
The next step is to add a value in the Reactivate subscription period (days) setting to define the number of days after which the subscription will be reactivated and the recurring payments will continue to be charged.
In the same settings > Add a value in the Reactivate subscription period (days) input field.
In the image below the Reactivate subscription period (days) is 7 and the Return until period is 14. This means that when a subscription is set to pending return/replacement then the customer has 14 days to return the product back to you. If the customer does not return the product back within this time period then the subscription will be reactivated 7 days after the Return until period.
When a customer makes a subscription cancellation request before the subscription end date has arrived then the subscription status needs to be manually set to pending return to proceed to the product return workflow.
When a subscription status is set to pending return, the customer gets the Subscription Pending Return email from the Email Templates with the return instructions.
The workflow after this is same as the workflow for the swap product, that is the customer has to return the product within the Return until period or else the subscription will be reactivated as explained above.
When the subscription end date is approaching the customer gets the Subscription Almost Over email from the Email Template. This template can, for example, contain return instructions.
When the subscription end date has arrived (or = today) the subscription status is set to pending return and the return workflow (as explained above) is trigged.
The customer then has to return the product within the Return until period (defined as days in the Settings tab).
If the customer returns the product within the Return until period, perfect! You can then continue to the repair process.
When the customer does not return the product within the Return until period then the subscription is reactivated if you have enabled the setting for Reactivate subscription and added a numeric value in the Reactivate subscription period input field.
Reactivate subscription toggle switch is enabled, Reactivate subscription period (days) = 7 and Return until period = 14.
Subscription end date is 01.04.2022. The customer has until 15.04.2022 to return the product. If the product is not returned till 22.04.2022 (i.e. 7 days after the Return until period has passed) then the subscription will be reactivated
Webhooks are automated messages sent from one app to another in case something happens or something is updated/changed. Example: if you want to send all transactions from the circuly operations backend to your bookkeeping system (tool) you can do that via Webhooks. In your circuly operations backend, you can now access Webhooks. You will find them in the left main menu under Admins.
In order for circuly to make the requested information available to you we need a URL where the information can be sent (pushed) to. The URL can be generated by tools like Zapier or it can be one of your API endpoints. Make sure that the URL where you want the information to be sent to, can be caught by circuly. To ensure that, make sure that URL allows a POST request since circuly PUSHES the information to your specified URL. Once you create an event for the information you want, circuly will push the information to the URL specified by you and will also push any changes made to the event.
To create a web hook:
At present Events can be created for customer, order, order item, subscription and transaction.
How Webhook works with Zapier?
In Zapier you can create a new Zap and say that the source is a webhook. On doing that Zapier will generate a URL that you can paste in the URL field of the Create Webhook window in your circuly operations backend.
Figure out what information is fired
You can use websites like Webhook.site to check what information is being fired.
In the circuly backend, you can create a voucher and customise it as per you needs. To create a voucher code follow the video tutorial or the steps given below:
Watch the video tutorial:
All: the voucher code can be used for all products.
Bought: the voucher code can only be used if the cart contains bought that is one-time purchase products.
Rent: the voucher code can only be used if the cart contains rental/subscription products.
Apply discount to initial payments and all recurring payments: the discount amount/percentage will be applied to all transaction amounts in a particular subscription. For example, if you want to offer a 20% or 20€ discount to a customer who has rented a product from you for (let's say) 12 months, with a monthly payment of 50€, then 20% or 20€ will apply to every monthly transaction.
Apply discount to initial payment only: used when you want to offer your customer a one time discount on their entire cart value. The one time discount applies only to the very first payment and every payment after that will be of the original amount.
Tip: This process can be automated via our customer API. This is the POST request you can use https://api-docs.circuly.io/docs/customers-api-docs/f301d280d321c-creates-a-new-subscription that you can use for creating a subscription.
circuly first takes action as soon as your customer clicks on `add to cart”, “rent”, or “subscribe” button in your webshop.
As soon as your customer clicks on the button, the cart summary (circuly cart or your default shop cart) is displayed, where your customer sees the product overview.
When your customers click on “order now”, they are taken to the circuly white-label one-page checkout. After going through the checkout and proceeding with the payment, a success message appears and your customer receives an automated Order confirmation email from the circuly backend.
You can see all your incoming, existing and past orders in the Order List under the Orders tab.
An order is not a subscription meaning that when a customer goes through the checkout process on your website, all that happens is the customer tells you that they want a product on a subscription basis.
When to manually create a subscription:
When to set up an automated process:
There are multiple ways to create a subscription in the circuly operations backend. You can create a subscription from the following:
Note: You can also create a subscription where the start date is in the past.
NOTE: You can automate the process of selecting a subscription start date so that you don't have to manually select a date every-time you create a subscription. Learn more.
All orders are displayed in the Order List in the Orders tab and the customer attached to the Order is displayed in the Customer List in the Customer tab. You can also create a subscription for an order from the Customer tab.
Here are the steps:
In order to create a subscription in the regular way you have to select an order (or customer if you are using the customer tab to create the subscription) and go to the Order Overview to create a subscription. You can skip that by bulk updating Orders into Subscriptions.
Detailed steps: How to bulk update orders into subscriptions.
With circuly you can create subscriptions in bulk and skip manually assigning serial number to a product in case you have thousands of orders coming in on a daily basis.
Detailed steps: How to create subscriptions in bulk.
You can use the circuly API to create subscriptions. Follow the link to the circuly Customer API documentation.
Generate enables you to automate the process of assigning serial numbers to a subscription by simply picking out a product with an existing serial number from the inventory.
Note: If you choose the GENERATE option then make sure that your logistics department picks out the order associated to the serial number picked by GENERATE.
For proper tracking of the product, make sure to ship with the right serial number.
You can change the start date of the subscription in case their is a situation or use case that requires you to do so. The option to change the date is in the same window as the Create Subscription window. You can also predefine the start date so that you don't have to select the Start Date every time you create a subscription. Learn more about Start Date settings.
The start date of a subscription can also be in the past.
You can also set up an automated process for craeting a subscription by using circuly's API. Refer to this API documentation.
There can be various reasons for swapping subscription products, such as product breakage, product loss, upgrades, downgrades or simply because of the nature of your business.
The set up and the process of changing products in a subscription also depends on the reason why the product needs to be changed.
The set up process based on the use case for exchanging a product.
If you have a business model that allows your customers to exchange products from a predefined group, continue reading this article about Exchange Groups.
What are exchange groups?
When you want your customers to select a product for exchanging from a predefined group, you can set up exchange groups in the circuly Operations Backend. Typical use cases include an exchange group for consumable subscription products such as protein powder, where the customer can change between the different flavours, an exchange group for kids bike, where the customer can select a bigger size, or an exchange group for toys, where your customer can swap between toys.
Since lost products are not expected to come back, the swap process for such products looks slightly different than the regular swap process.
The reason why Lost product swaps are treated differently from other product swaps is because Lost products are not expected to come back. Speaking in technical terms, Lost products will not have a Pending Return status. This essentially means that normally you would expect a product to come back and if the customer doesn't send the product back, you can keep billing them. But in case of Lost products there is no possibility to get the product back hence no reason to bill the customers for two subscriptions.
In order to utilise the swap feature within the circuly Operations Backend, it is important to go through the following steps:
Step 1: Review and configure the swap settings.
Step 2: Add swap reasons. Swap reasons are used for internal communication.
Step 3: Learn how to process a swap request for missing products.
Make sure you’ve configured the swap settings and added the swapping reasons.
Continue reading this article to learn more about swapping broken products.
Given below are the instructions you can pass on to your customer about buying out their subscription products from the Self-Service Portal:
If you fall in love with your subscribed products, you can buy them and change your subscription to a purchase.
Here's how the process looks:
Delayed charge - delayed charge is a feature available in the circuly operations backend that you can use if you do not want to charge the initial payment in the checkout and instead delay the charge until a later point in time.
Currently the option to delay a charge in your white-label checkout or the initial payment is only available if you use the following Payment Service Providers:
Here's when you might want to delay a charge:
Learn more about delaying initial payments in this article.
If you have a rental model that allows subscription products to be bought in the middle of the subscription period or at the end of the subscription period, you can tackle the operations associated with the purchase of the subscription product (such as charging the remaining product amount via a one-time transaction, sending an invoice for the charge, stopping recurring payments etc.) in your circuly operations backend.
The difference between the two is the process itself. If you want to offer a custom price without influencing the price of all the other products of the same type, then the best way to proceed is to initiate the buyout manually from the circuly Operations Backend.
However if you do not plan on offering custom prices, then the buyout can be initiated by the customer from the Customer Self-Service Portal. Before getting started with this just make sure that you’ve checked the retail prices of all products and edited them if there are and errors. You’ll learn more about editing the retail price of this product in this article.
If you do wish to offer custom product prices when a customer request to buy the product, you can check out this article on initiating the buyout process manually from the circuly Operations Backend.
To learn more about the buyout process initiated by the customer from the Customer Self-Service Portal, continue reading this article.
Getting started:
Before you enable the product buyout feature and make it available to your customers in the Customer Self-Service Portal, double check the retail price of all your products. To do that:
There are additional settings options available that enable you to customise certain aspects of the buyout process from the Self-Service Portal.
See the image below to see how the terms and conditions appear to your customer.
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Your customer then sees a second page where they have to check the box for the terms and conditions set by you.
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IMPORTANT: The additional terms and conditions are hard coded in your Self-Service Portal. To define the additional terms and conditions for the two step buyout process, get in touch with our customer success team by raising a ticket.
However if you have operational costs or any other costs that you would like to take into account while calculating the buyout price then you can define a percentage value in this input field and this amount will be subtracted from the retail price.
Retail price = 200
Initial payment already made = 20
Recurring payments already made = 10
Discount payments for buyout calculation = 80
In this case only 80% of the initial payment and recurring payment will be taken into consideration as payment made (that is 16€ and 8€ respectively instead of 20€ and 10€) and deducted from the retail price. The buyout price will then be 176 euros.
However if Discount payment for buyout calculation = 100 then 100% of the initial payment and recurring payment will be taken into consideration as payment made (that is 20 and 10 respectively) and deducted from the retail price. The buyout price will then be 170 euros.
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Important: The buyout price may vary based on your settings. Read information under point 2 and 3.
IMPORTANT: If you've enabled the Two step buyout process setting then the button will say CONTINUE. Read information under point 2 and 3.
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Note: Buyout payments can take some time to process when SEPA is chosen. This should be mentioned in the email communication with the customer. Example text that you can include in your buyout email: "Thank you for your order. You will receive an order confirmation by e-mail shortly. Depending on the payment method, it may take several days to process your payment. As soon as the payment has been successful, your subscription will be changed to "{statusBoughtOut}" and you will receive an email with your purchase invoice. If your payment cannot be processed, we will also notify you by email.
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Currently the option to delay a charge in the checkout or the initial payment is only available if you use the following Payment Service Providers:
Here’s when you might want to delay a charge:
Here’s what happens if you delay the charge in the checkout:
Alternatively you can enable the Allow unpaid subscription setting that allows you to create a subscription for unpaid orders. When you use the Allow unpaid subscription setting, you no longer need to charge the initial payment manually as it will be automatically triggered by the circuly system when you create a subscription for an order.
To enable the Unpaid subscription setting > Go to Settings > Subscription > CREATE SUBSCRIPTION > Enable the switch for Allow unpaid subscriptions.
Here’s how you can set up delaying the charge of the initial payment in the checkout:
Only applicable if you use Stripe and Braintree as Payment Service
Note: Please make sure you have the resource capacity to charge the initial payment manually once you want to confirm the order. Then do the following:
Note: The change applies to all orders only after you have activated the associated setting.
Here’s how you can charge the initial payment:
Note: You can only Create a subscription once the initial payment has been processed. The button/option to so will now we be available to you or you've enabled the Allow unpaid subscription setting.
When your customer completes the checkout process and finalises the order, an order is created in your Shopsystem and in the circuly Operations Backend. To start collecting recurring payments, a subscription needs to be created for the order.
In the circuly Operations Backend, you can find multiple ways to create a subscription. circuly provides you both, manual and automated workflows for creating a subscription.
The decision to choose a manual option or an automated one depends on the number/quantity of incoming orders and the amount of control you want over the operations.
Available options for creating a subscription
All incoming orders are displayed in the Order List under the Orders tab. To create a subscription from the Orders tab, you need to click on an order and go inside the Order Overview.
Detailed steps: How to get started with circuly when your first order comes in.
All orders are displayed in the Order List in the Orders tab and the customer attached to the Order is displayed in the Customer List in the Customer tab. You can also create a subscription for an order from the Customer tab.
Here are the steps:
In order to create a subscription in the regular way you have to select an order (or customer if you are using the customer tab to create the subscription) and go to the Order Overview to create a subscription. You can skip that by bulk updating Orders into Subscriptions.
Detailed steps: How to bulk update orders into subscriptions.
You can automate the process of creating a subscription by making the subscription create process dependent on the "Mark as fulfilled" button.
Typically the mark as fulfilled button is used to indicate that an order has been successfully delivered. However it can also be used to automatically create subscriptions.
If you enable the Auto activate subscription setting in your Settings then subscriptions will be automatically started after they are marked as fulfilled by a circuly user.
To access the setting > Go to Settings > Subscriptions > CREATE SUBSCRIPTION > Enable the switch for Auto activate subscriptions.
Note: The subscription start date value will be taken from the Auto activate offset setting. Make sure that you define the value in the respective setting.
With circuly you can create subscriptions in bulk and skip manually assigning serial number to a product in case you have thousands of orders coming in on a daily basis.
Detailed steps: How to create subscriptions in bulk.
Your customers may get a speeding ticket for their car subscription or require repair support for which you need to charge a one time transaction. What do you do when you need to charge your customers an extra amount besides their recurring payment?
To charge a one-time payment follow the steps given below or wathc the video tutorial:
Note: The input value in the Message to customer field is only included in the email if you've added the required email variable, that is {{description}}, in the One-time transaction email template.
A typical situation in e-commerce, both regular and subscription, is processing a refund for situations such as cancellations, wrong product, product breakage etc. When you use circuly to manage your subscriptions you can process refunds in a very efficient way. circuly not only takes care of the transactional communication that follows after a refund is processed but enables you to customise the refund value so that you can account for important costs like delivery costs, existing usage etc.
The refund option can be used to refund recurring payments, one-time transaction payments (such as initial payment or any other one-time payment) and buyout payments. As soon as a payment is created for a payment type (that is recurring, one-time or buyout payment) in the Payments tab, an invoice is created for the payment in the Invoice tab.
IMPORTANT: The refund action is performed on the invoice level and not the payment level.
To differentiate between the different payment types, look at the "Invoice type" column in the "Invoices" tab.
You can ONLY refund payments that have been charged in the first place. If a payment has not been charged yet or if the payment is to be charged in the future, the option to refund such a payment will not be available.
As you can see in the image below, the refund button is not available (the button is greyed out) if the payment has not been charged yet.
To check whether or not a payment has been successfully charged, look at the "Paid" column un the "Invoices" tab.
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Important: If you do not see the Paid column in your Invoice List, navigate to the eye icon on the right side of the table and check the box for "Paid" to display it has a column heading in the Invoice List.
Once you've determined the invoice that needs to be refunded, follow the steps mentioned below to process a refund:
Note: Please click on the coloured text under the ID column to open the invoice and access the invoice actions.
Quick guide on different options in the Refund Order window:
Note: The input value in the Message to customer field is only included in the email if you've added the required email variable, that is {{description}}, in the Refund Invoice email template.
In the ever-evolving landscape of subscription-based businesses, circuly has taken a giant leap forward with the introduction of a significant addition to its software. While circuly has been a pioneer in managing operations for durable product subscriptions, it now extends its capabilities to consumable subscriptions, marking a significant evolution in its offerings.
Consumable subscriptions involve products that are designed to be used up or consumed over time. Unlike durable products, these items are finite and need replenishing regularly.
The operations associated with consumable subscriptions are distinct from physical products subscriptions.
The unique distinction lies in the increased customer interaction associated with consumable subscriptions. Customers may wish to adjust quantities, delivery schedules, and other preferences autonomously, minimising the need for frequent customer support interactions.
This heightened customer engagement adds a layer of complexity to the management of consumable subscriptions, emphasising the importance of a robust and user-friendly solution like circuly's newly expanded software.
Subscriptions of all types (digital, tangible and durable) help consumers solve certain “issues”. These “issues” define the added value that consumers get from subscribing to products instead of purchasing them.
As consumable subscriptions have become ingrained in the market, businesses are actively encouraging consumers to opt for subscriptions by offering them at attractive price points. This strategic pricing not only makes one-off purchases appear comparatively expensive but also allows businesses to provide such appealing rates due to the predictability inherent in subscription models. The predictability factor enables businesses to plan and manage inventory more efficiently, contributing to the overall affordability and attractiveness of consumable subscriptions.
With the new expansion, circuly wants to empower you to diversify your subscription offerings by seamlessly integrating consumable products into their existing subscription.
This strategic move enables you to increase Customer Lifetime Value, fosters brand loyalty and keeps yourself highly relevant to the evolving needs of your customer base.
As mentioned earlier, Consumable Subscriptions come with increased customer interaction However, the increased interaction doesn’t mean more workload for you as the circuly Self-Service Portal (which you may be already using) allows the consumer to manage their subscriptions independently of you.
Every subscription has a subscription action dropdown menu that offers your customers the possibility to take certain actions. Consumable Subscriptions have a dropdown menu of their own.
When your customer have consumable products on top of physical products in their cart, both categories of products can be seen in the Self-Service Portal with their own individual subscription action dropdown menu..
All the available subscription actions are as per current industry needs and standards and provide a unique level of customisation and personalisation to the customers. The circuly Consumables Subscription enables you to deliver a seamless subscription experience to your customers and ensures that you have satisfied and loyal subscribers.
If you're interested in offering consumable subscriptions, kindly get in touch with our customer success team. Our team will support you in the setup of the consumables function.
Your customers can switch between languages in the self-service portal. When your customers change their language, the language preferences of the customers are updated and saved in the circuly system. the circuly system then sends the email communication to the customer in the language selected last by the customer in the self-service portal.
Here's how your customer goes through the process
To change the language in which the CSS is displayed > Click on the small grey button in the top right corner > From the given list, select a language of your choice.
Implication: When you change your language preferences in the self-service portal, the language of the email communication that you receive from us also changes.
To access the language settings, that is to customise the languages available to your customer to choose from in the self-service portal > In your circuly Operations backend > Go to Settings > Company settings > LOCALE > Allowed languages > Select the languages from the dropdown menu.
Given below are common reasons why your customers are prevented from placing an order
A prospective customer is prevented from completing the checkout if they do not fill the date of birth input field even if you have the setting for making the date of birth as a mandatory field disabled.
Explanation: One of the many custom checkout field options available on the circuly white-label checkout is Date of Birth. You can decide to make the field a mandatory or an optional field depending on your business case.
The date of birth custom field option is by default disabled and can be enabled If you want to ask for the date of birth of the customer on the checkout page in the Settings tab.
However you might have noticed that your customers are prevented from proceeding to the payment page if they do not add their date of birth in the date of birth input field, even though it is not mandatory (that is the setting for making date of birth a mandatory field is disabled).
This happens if you use CRIF to do credit checks on your checkout page to prevent fraud and to check the credit worthiness of the customer.
Date of birth is a mandatory piece of information that CRIF needs to perform the credit check.
That is why it is recommended to make the date of birth field mandatory, if you use CRIF to do credit checks.
Your customer is prevented from completing the checkout and advancing to the payment page if they have reached the limit of the maximum number of allowed items in the cart.
Explanation: Your customers will be prevented from completing the checkout if they have reached the limit for the maximum number of items allowed in the cart.
This happens when you’ve defined a value for the maximum number of cart items that a customer can proceed with to the payment page in your Settings.
Your customer is prevented from completing the checkout and advancing to the payment page if they have reached the limit of the maximum number of allowed items per SKU in the cart.
Explanation: Your customers can be prevented from completing the checkout if they have reached the limit for the maximum number of items allowed in the cart per SKU
This happens when you’ve defined a value for the maximum number of items allowed in the cart per SKU that a customer can proceed with to the payment page.
The customer is unable to place an order if there are problems with the payment method of the customer such a insufficient card balance, wrong card details etc.
Explanation: when your customer adds their payment details in the payment input field and clicks on the checkout button, circuly sends a payment token to your connected payment service provider to charge the payment.
The payment service provider then tries to charge the payment. If the payment service provider is unable to do so the customer is not able to place an order due to problems with their chosen payment method.
The reason why the payment service provider is unable to charge the payment can vary from insufficient balance to wrong information.
When a payment fails, the customer gets either of the following prompt:
When an order fails due to payment reasons, you will not be able to see it in the circuly Operations Backend. You can however see an overview of your failed orders in connected your shop system.
The customer is unable to place an order and gets an error message of insufficient stock.
Explanation: circuly enables you to prevent your customers from proceeding to the payment page if they have a product in the cart that is not in stock.
There is a setting available in the Settings tab that can be enabled if you want to prevent customers from placing orders that you cannot fulfils due to stock limitations.
The setting is by default disabled and can be enabled.
A customer will be prevented from proceeding to the payment page if you set a minimum age for placing the order in your Settings tab.
When a customer enters their date of birth on the checkout page, the circuly system checks the year of birth against the minimum age setting. If the age is below your defined number, then the customer is prevented from proceeding to the payment page.
A customer can be prevented from proceeding to the checkout if they’ve inserted an invalid number in the phone input field. Enable the setting for validating phone number under Checkout in the Settings tab.
Certain fields like Name, address and contact details are mandatory fields. In order to advance to the payment page, these fields must be filled.
There are additional fields such as company name and VAT number that can be added to the checkout and can also be converted into mandatory fields.
When these fields are converted into mandatory fields, the customer on the checkout will be prevented from proceeding to the payment page if these fields are left blank.
To access the additional fields > Go to Settings > Checkout > PERSONAL INFORMATION > Enable the switch for the additional fields you would like to add to the checkout > Then decide if you would like to convert them into mandatory fields.
9. Checkout not possible due to payment failure.
Customer doesn't get to the order confirmation due to payment failure.
With circuly you can export data from the circuly operations backend and plug it into a tool of your choice. The best way to do this is via Zapier where you can also create automations.
If you decide to use Zapier, then the first thing you need to do is to make sure that the tool you want to send information to from circuly is available on Zapier.
circuly also provides you with the option of using webhooks to take data out of circuly and plug it into a tool of your choice to create automations. You can use an API endpoint of our choice or work with Zapier (our recommendation is to use Zapier) to make two apps talk to one another.
Webhooks are automated messages sent from one app to another in case something happens or something is updated/changed. It’s a way for different tools to “communicate” to each other and get automated information when something new happens. With webhooks you can push data from one app to another.
Here’s a simple analogy from Zapier about Wehbooks
“There are two ways your apps can communicate with each other to share information: polling and webhooks. As one of our customer champion's friends has explained it: Polling is like knocking on your friend’s door and asking if they have any sugar (aka information), but you have to go and ask for it every time you want it. Webhooks are like someone tossing a bag of sugar at your house whenever they buy some. You don't have to ask, they just automatically punt it over every time it's available.”
When you use Webhooks there’s a sender that send the data and a receiver that receives that data. So there is a place where the action is “triggered”, and a place this action goes to, to convey that something has happened.
You can use Webhooks to create all sorts of automations. You can use an API endpoint of our choice or work with Zapier (our recommendation is to use Zapier) to make two apps talk to one another.
There’s a lot of room for creativity when it comes to creating automations. The automations you make depends on what exactly you want to automate. Based on that you can think what information you will need from a tool to make that automation work.
Note: Webhooks by Zapier is only available to Zapier users on a paid plan.
Create a Zapier account - to work with zapier, you need to create an account.
Create an account on the tool you want to use - you also need to create an account on the tool you want to use with Zapier.
With webhooks you first have to figure out what you want to automate and the information you will require to automate it. Then you need to match it with the information that is available and can be used to create the automation.
Connecting a shipping tool (we’re using Easyship as an example) to circuly via Zapier and using webhooks to transfer data to the shipping tool.
Detailed steps given below
Now everytime anything in a Subscription is updated, Webhook will catch that update/change and send it to Zapier.
Optional: If you have test orders and subscriptions in your operations backend, you can change something in the subscription to test the trigger. But if no change or update has been made in the Subscription at the time you are creating a Zap then the Test trigger button will not lead to any results.
Note: Make sure to connect your tool with Zapier. Here’s how it works for Easyship > In your Easyship account > Go to Connect in the left nav bar > Click on + New Integration > Select Zapier from the list > Click on the Connect button.
Once you’ve completed the necessary steps in the tool, go to Zapier
To fill in details, either type in the input field or click on the field to get a list of values that can be automatically taken from the data retired via webhooks.
Instead of marking products as returned while processing returns in the Return List you can now also mark products as bought if they have been bought by your customer and hence will not be returned to you.
To mark a product as returned, follow these steps:
Checkbox for Delete future recurring payments: Checking this box will, as the text suggests, delete all future recurring payments.
When you should not check it: in case the customer is still under the minimum contract duration and returns the product anyway then you might want to uncheck this box as you still want to change the customer for the remainder of the contract period even through they have returned the product.
Additionally, in the Asset List, the status will be reflected as bought out for products that have either been bought out or are marked as bought in the return handling process.
IMPORTANT INFO: Email Templates are used for automating your customer communication throughout your rental business cycle. It enables you to give your customers transparency and make them feel well taken care of. You can set up the email templates in different languages. If multiple languages are enabled in the settings, and the customer preferred language template is missing; the default language template will be used as a substitute . However, in the case that a template under the default language AND preferred language is missing, the event will be skipped, and the customer will not receive this email .
Please be careful: if you have created a template BUT it is not finished (empty) it will still be sent out.
To create an email template, follow these steps:
Blank template: if you decide to go with the Blank template option, you can create a template from scratch with your own CSS and HTML code and you can add the variables you need. f you want to check how your mail looks, you can always click on the Preview button in the upper right corner to take a look at your email template.
circuly Predefined: with the circuly predefined option, you'll get a preset template that can be edited to fit your branding.
Learn how to modify:
When you use the circuly predefined email templates, the emails already have a subject line. However the subject line can be edited.
To Do:
Every email comes with a predefined set of email variables and not all email variables available are used in an email. If you would like to edit the body text of the email templates and use variables that fit the text, you can do so by editing the email temples.
To Do:
Note: Variables are custom to an email template meaning that not every variable is available for every template.
In the predefined circuly email templates, the logo is defined by the <img> tag with the class "logo", containing the source url and a height of 36 pixels.
To Do:
Step 1 - Connect your font
The code is used in HTML to include a font from Google Fonts. It helps by establishing a connection to the font server in advance, allowing faster loading. It also ensures cross-origin access for the font resources. The code specifies the font URL and loads the font stylesheet.
To Do:
Place the following snippet within the <head> section.
The third <link> tag specifies the URL of the font file you want to use. Modify this tag to link to your font from Google Fonts. For example, you can change the family attribute value to the desired font and weight.
Step 2: Import your font
The CSS code snippet provided in our example is used to define a custom font. It allows you to specify the font family name and the source URL or path where the font file is located.
To Do:
Place the following snippet within the <head> section.
Step 3: Style specific class attributes with your customised font
Styling specific classes allows you to target and apply styles to specific elements within your HTML structure. By using classes, you can selectively style certain elements while leaving others unaffected. This provides more control and flexibility in designing your template. It allows you to create consistent styles across multiple elements that share the same class, without affecting other elements on the page. (In our example we have styled the custom font for the card-header element)
To Do:
Identify the elements in HTML that you want to style and apply the font rule within the CSS section for this specific class.
Using colour codes in the hexadecimal format #ff0000or rgb(255, 0, 0) - both serve the purpose of defining colours. However, there are a few reasons why using hexadecimal colour codes is considered more advantageous because of its simplicity, memorability, flexibility, and compatibility with CSS. In our given example, the color of the text inside the <h2> element is styled using CSS. The colour property is set to #ff0000, which represents the hexadecimal value for the colour red.
To Do:
Pick your hexadecimal colour (f.g. HTML Color Picker) and apply the colour code as a rule to your CSS element
To use a link in HTML, you need to use the <a> element, which is used to create clickable hyperlinks.In our example, the email address "example@circuly.io" is added as a mailto link within the <a> element. This allows users to click on the link to open their default email client with a pre-filled email to that specific address.
To Do:
Set the <a> element to create the link, specifying the destination URL or relative path in the href attribute and add the desired link text. Use <a href="URL">Link Text</a> as a general link or <a href="mailto:EMAIL">Link Text</a> as a mail link.
To add an image to your HTML document, use the <img> tag. Place the tag where you want the image to appear within the HTML structure.
In our example we have the class attribute assigned to the image tag. It specifies a CSS class name ("image-main") that can be used to style the image using CSS later on. The src attribute specifies the source of the image. In this case, the image source is a URL pointing to an image file hosted on the web.
To Do:
Use <img src="URL" alt="Description of the image"> and set the URL of your hosted image.
If desired, delete unwanted default circuly images by removing the <img> tags.
Our example HTML shows a <section> element with the class attribute class="card", which can serve as a container for your footer content. Within the section, there is a nested structure consisting of <div> elements with various classes for styling purposes. The innermost <div> with the class attribute class="card-body--image" contains the actual content of the footer. It includes a <strong> element for emphasising the text "We are here to help you," followed by plain text and an <a> element for adding a hyperlink. The relevant CSS styling classes for the provided code snippet are .card-body .card--list and .card-body--image
To Do:
If desired, modify the text and hyperlink in HTML or if you want to change the image to a custom picture, you can replace the 'URL' in the background-image CSS property with the URL of your custom image.
In our HTML example, the button's URL is dynamically populated by a variable called shop_url. This variable is used within the href attribute of the <a> element to determine the destination to your shop when the button is clicked. While the current default implementation uses the shop_url variable to automatically populate the button's URL, it is technically possible to replace this variable with any other URL redirection. Within the CSS below you can easily modify the styling of the button, such as background colour, text colour and shape.
To Do:
If desired, modify the text in HTML and button design in CSS.
Within the one-time password and refer a friend template, per default we have set up boxes to highlight the OTP and voucher code.In our example of the OTP template, the default HTML represents a paragraph element (<p>) with the class otp-backdrop. Inside the paragraph, there is a placeholder ({{otp_code}}) that suggests the usage of a variable to dynamically populate the code content.Within the CSS below you can easily modify the styling of the box, such as background color, text color and shape.
To Do:
If desired, modify the box design in CSS. Please do not replace the default variable.
Follow the instructions given below to connect your shop system with to circuly:
- Scroll to Orders > click on the dropdown menu > select Read and write from the menu options.
- Scroll to Products > click on the dropdown menu > select Read and write from the menu options.
Then our customer success team will add your API keys to our backend so that the two systems get connected and data can flow between them.
When you want to export certain data from the operations backend, you can do so by:
Note: when the “Export underway” window says that “you will be notified when the export is ready to download”, this doesn’t mean that you will be notified via email. The notification about the export being ready will be in the notification panel.
In case the notification doesn’t pop up, then the most likely reason for that is that your session has timed out. Simple login again and check the notification panel.
Watch the video tutorial:
In the circuly operations backend, you can charge a single recurring payment.
Watch the video tutorial:
Read the steps:
To extend the end date of a subscription, follow the steps given below:
When you get a return request from your customer either via email or via the customer login, there are two different ways to process the request.
NOTE: the process is not interchangeable as the workflows for the return request depends on how the request was made, that is was it via email or via the customer login.
In this article, we will cover both topics.
When you get a return request via email. Follow these steps to process the return request:
Note: The subscription is still active as the product hasn't been returned to you. Once you receive the product, you have to end the subscription in the operations backend. To end the subscription follow the steps given below:
A serial number is what separates one product from the other. In order to track important product-related KPI’s such as product value, product life expectancy, product wear and tear and so on it is important that you differentiate products on the basis of their serial number.
You may want to replace an existing serial number because of reasons such as typing errors. To replace the serial number of a product follow the steps given below.
Editing the serial number from the Orders tab:
Watch the video tutorial:
Editing the serial number from the Subscriptions tab:
With circuly you get access to a list of editable email templates. All emails in the Email Template tab are attached to specific subscription operations and belong to either one of the following categories: Orders, Subscriptions, Payment and Return.
Here’s are a few example:
Whenever your customer should get an email related to their subscription, order, payment or return they do so from the circuly operations backend.
Every email available in the circuly operations backend can be customised to fit your branding. The emails available in circuly are transactional emails and not marketing emails. This means that emails that are sent and can be sent from the Email Template tab are related to subscription operations. You cannot send an email about new offers, new vouchers or new discounts from the circuly operations backend. For that you need a Marketing automation tool.
Each email has an email trigger attached to it. When an action is performed, the email associated with that action is triggered and the email is sent out automatically from your circuly operations backend. In this article, we cover each email template, available in the circuly operations backend, in detail and also identify their triggers so that you know exactly which action triggers which email.
The emails are described as and how they appear in the Email Template section of the operations backend. The names that you see below are for internal use only. You can always adjust the subject line and other aspects of the email by editing the Email template.
Category: Payment
Trigger: When a “Your invoice” email is sent.
Explanation: The “Invoice” email is sent in combination with the “Your Invoice” email. It is sent to your customer as a PDF attachment whenever a recurring payment has to be charged. It is sent before the payment has actually been charged. The “Invoice” as the title suggests, just contains the invoice of the payment.
Settings: Go to > Settings > Emails > Payment notifications > Enable the switch for Upcoming Recurring payments and make sure the email template is created so that the email can be sent when triggered.
As per german law you are required to include the "service period" aka Leistungszeitraum (german translation) in the invoice to the customer.
In your circuly operations backend, there is a variable you can use for this called {{current_period}}. Kindly make sure to include this variable when designing the email template for all payment-related emails
FYI, for the initial invoice (the one that is sent to the customer when they go through your checkout) you do not need the "service period" aka Leistungszeitraum. The "Leistungszeitraum" is only required for recurring payments.
Therefore, when setting up your email templates, remember to add the following to the email template so that the variable for Leistungszeitraum is only rendered if the invoice is for a subscription/recurring payment and not the initial payment.
ADD THIS ➡️ {% if initial_invoice == false %}
<p>Service period: {{current_period}}</p>
{% endif %}
Category: Order
Trigger: When a customer requests login details in customer login.
Explanation: The “One Time Password” email is triggered when your customer is in the customer login area and requests login details to access their subscriptions.
Settings: Go to > Settings > Emails > Order notifications > Enable the switch for all All order-related emails and make sure the email template is created so that the email can be sent when triggered.
Category: Order
Trigger: When you charge a One-time transaction in the circuly operations backend.
Explanation: The “One Time Transaction” email is sent to your customer in combination with the “Your invoice” email when you charge a one-time transaction from your circuly operations backend. The “One Time Transaction” email contains the invoice for the one-time transaction.
Settings: Go to > Settings > Emails > Order notifications > Enable the switch for all All order-related emails and make sure the email template is created so that the email can be sent when triggered.
Category: Order
Trigger: When an order is cancelled manually in the circuly operations backend.
Explanation: The “Order Cancellation” email is sent to your customer when you manually cancel an order from the circuly operations backend.
If you check the “Fully refund this order” checkbox the "Refund Invoice" will be sent to the customer as a pdf with the "Transaction refund" email.
Settings: Go to > Settings > Emails > Order notifications > Enable the switch for all All order-related emails and make sure the email template is created so that the email can be sent when triggered.
Category: Order
Trigger: When an order is placed on your website on the circuly checkout.
Explanation: The “Order Confirmation” email is sent to your customer when the customer places an order on your website. This is just a confirmation to your customer that the order has been received by you.
Settings: Go to > Settings > Emails > Order notifications > Enable the switch for all All order-related emails and make sure the email template is created so that the email can be sent when triggered.
Note: If you do not want to send an “order confirmation” email to the customer, you can either delete the template or not create it in the first place. You would not send an “Order Confirmation” email when you already have an order confirmation email in your shop system and dont want to send the same email two times.
Category: Order
Trigger: When an order is manually set to completed in the circuly operations backend.
Explanation: The “Order Fulfillment Completed” email is sent to your customer when you manually set an order as completed (Mark as completed) in the circuly operations backend.
Settings: Go to > Settings > Emails > Order notifications > Enable the switch for all All order-related emails and make sure the email template is created so that the email can be sent when triggered.
Category: Payment
Trigger: When a payment attempt fails
Explanation: The “Payment has failed” email is sent to your customer when a payment that should have been completed/charged fails. This email can be triggered every time a payment fails and doesn’t go through. Failed payments are retried x times after every x days and if they fail to go through, then each time that the payment fails, the “Payment has failed” email is sent to your customer.
Settings: Go to > Settings > Emails > Payment notifications > Enable the switch for all payment-related emails and make sure the email template is created so that the email can be sent when triggered.
Note: In the Recurring payments settings you can define how many times a failed payment should be retried, what should be the interval between them (in days/weeks) and if the customer should be informed every time the payment fails or only on the final attempt.
Read the article on retrying failed payments and the associated settings.
Category: Payment
Trigger: When a payment attempt was successful.
Explanation: The “Payment was successful” email is sent to your customer when a payment goes through or in other words is successfully charged.
Settings: Go to > Settings > Emails > Payment notifications > Enable the switch for all payment-related emails and make sure the email template is created so that the email can be sent when triggered.
Category: Payment
Trigger: When a "Transaction Refund" email is sent.
Explanation: The “Refund invoice” is sent to your customer in combination with the “Transaction refund” email. The “Refund invoice” contains the invoice for the refund that has been made by you to your customer for xyz reason in the form of a pdf. The "Refund invoice" is also sent to the customer with the "Transaction Refund" email as a pdf when you check the checkbox for "Fully refund this order" when you manually cancel an order.
Settings: Go to > Settings > Emails > Payment notifications > Enable the switch for all payment-related emails and make sure the email template is created so that the email can be sent when triggered.
Category: Return
Trigger: Sent Manually when customer support gets information from the customer that they want to return a product or can be automated when cancellation request is made from the Customer Self-Service portal.
Settings: Go to > Settings > Emails > Subscription notifications > Enable the switch for Return instructions.
Category: Return
Trigger: After the last retrial attempt of a failed payment in the second payment cycle.
Explanation: The "Return Unpaid Product" email is sent to your customer after 2 failed payment cycles.
Payment cycle: 1 payment cycle has “x” number of payment retrial attempts. You can define the default value for “x” in your Recurring Payments settings. Go to Settings > Recurring Payments > PAYMENT TRIES & INTERVALS > Insert a numeric value in the “Maximum number of payment retries” input field.
Note: In the Recurring payments settings you can define how many times a failed payment should be retried, what should be the interval between them (in days/weeks) and if the customer should be informed every time the payment fails or only on the final attempt.
Settings: Go to > Settings > Emails > Payment notifications > Termination needs to be enabled to send the email.
Category: Subscription
Trigger: At the subscription start date
Explanation: The “Subscription activated” email is sent to your customer on the subscription start date. The “Order Confirmation” email and the “Subscription activated” email are differentiated because there can easily be a time difference (days, weeks, months) between when an order is received and when a subscription starts.
Settings: Go to > Settings > Emails > Subscription notification > Enable the switch for all subscription related emails and make sure the email template is created so that the email can be sent when triggered.
Category: Subscription
Trigger: When a product is marked as returned and thereby the subscription ended
Explanation: The “Subscription ended” email is sent to your customer when a product is marked as returned.
Settings: Go to > Settings > Emails > Subscription notification > Enable the switch for all subscription related emails and make sure the email template is created so that the email can be sent when triggered.
Category: Subscription
Trigger: x days before subscription end date (can be adjusted)
Explanation: The “Subscription is almost over” email is sent to your customer usually x days before the subscription end date (the time duration of sending out the email can be adjusted).
Settings: Go to > Settings > Emails > Subscription notification > Enable the switch for all subscription related emails and make sure the email template is created so that the email can be sent when triggered.
Note: Set the default value for sending out the Subscription is almost over email by going to Settings > Email > EMAIL NOTIFICATIONS > Insert a numeric value in “Days calculation before ending input” field.
Best practice: Active subscriptions are not automatically ended when subscription end date = date because every subscription potentially has the possibility of extending and being renewed. Therefore it is best to ask the customer whether or not they would like to end their subscription and return the product in the “subscription is almost over” email.
Category: Subscription
Trigger: When customer support manually sets a subscription to "pending return" (after accepting customer return request).
Explanation: The “Subscription pending return” email is sent to the customer by your customer support when a subscription is manually set to pending return by the customer care.
Settings: Go to > Settings > Emails > Subscription notification > Enable the switch for notify pending return and make sure the email template is created so that the email can be sent when triggered.
Note: The “Subscription pending return” can also be automatically trigged. The action associated with this email will then be when your customer makes a cancellation request from the customer login, and in your Customer login settings, you’ve enabled the switch for Auto cancel subscription.
Category: Subscription
Trigger: When a SWAP (new product: upgrade/repair/exchange) is initiated manually or requested from the customer login
Explanation: The “SWAP confirmation” email is sent to your customer when a SWAP request is either initiated manually by a circuly backend user or when the customer makes a SWAP request from the customer login.
Settings: Go to > Settings > Emails > Subscription notification > Enable the switch for all subscription related emails and make sure the email template is created so that the email can be sent when triggered.
Category: Payment
Trigger: When a payment is refunded manually.
Explanation: The “Transaction refund” email is sent to your customer when you manually process a refund from your operations backend. The “Transaction refund” email is sent out together with the “Refund invoice”.
Settings: Enable the switch for Payments (Settings > Emails > EMAIL NOTIFICATIONS > enable the switch for Payments) in the Email Settings and make sure the email template is created so that the email can be sent when triggered.
Category: Payment
Trigger: When a one-time transaction or recurring payment is triggered.
Explanation: The “Your Invoice” email is sent to your customer when a payment (recurring and one-time) is to be charged but hasn't been charged yet. If the payment is a recuring payment, then the “invoice” email template is attached to it as a PDF. If the payment is a one-time transaction, then the “one-time transaction” email template is attached to it as a PDF.
Settings: Enable the switch for Payments (Settings > Emails > EMAIL NOTIFICATIONS > enable the switch for Payments) in the Email Settings and make sure the email template is created so that the email can be sent when triggered.
Note: The customer gets an invoice for both failed, and successfully charged payments before the payment is actually charged and accordingly gets the “Payment was successful” or “Payment failed” email depending on not the payment was successfully charged.
Use case: when your customer says that they haven't received any information or have changed their email address.
There are three different tabs in the circuly operations backend to send out emails manually:
Whether or not emails can be sent manually can be seen in the dedicated tab overview (for example Order overview, Subscription overview etc.) if an email icon is present in the top right corner (see image below for reference).
Steps to send out emails manually:
List of available emails that can be sent:
What do you do when your payment service provider does not enable you to adjust or change the recurring payment amount as and when you want? Amount once set and created cannot be changed within the payment service provider limiting your business case options such as providing a special discount to your customers during off season days to reduce seasonal churn. circuly makes payment service providers smart. circuly's recurring payment logic for subscriptions allows us to give you more flexibility with your recurring transactions.
You may wish to change or edit a recurring payment because of xyz reason. Follow the video tutorial or the steps mentioned below to edit/change a recurring payment:
Watch the video tutorial:
You may wish to change or edit a recurring payment because of xyz reason. Follow these steps to edit/change a recurring payment:
Note: You can only change/edit recurring payments that have not been settled yet and the Payment Settled column displays the status as "no". If the Payment Settled column displays the status as "yes" then the payment can no longer be changed because the payment has already been settled and billed and can no longer be edited.
Your editing options:
The term “Lost” is used in the operations backend for products that are either stolen or go missing. In your operations backend, whenever an existing customer needs to be supplied with a new product, you follow the process of swapping the product.
The swap a product:
Now the previous order will either have a Lost tag in the Order List and an Ended status in the order details (if you treated the product as a Lost product and initiated the swap process for it) or a Replacement tag in the Order List and Pending Return status in the order details (if you did not check the box and initiated the regular swap process).
The reason why Lost product swaps are treated differently from other product swaps is because Lost products are not expected to come back. Speaking in technical terms, Lost products will not have a Pending Return status. This essentially means that normally you would expect a product to come back and if the customer doesn't send the product back, you can keep billing them. But in case of Lost products there is no possibility to get the product back hence no reason to bill the customers for two subscriptions.
In Summary when your existing customers request a replacement (for lost products, broken products or wrong products) you initiate the swap process in the operations backend.
After creating a subscription for an incoming order, the order shows up in the Subscription List under Subscriptions.
In the circuly backend it is possible to edit an existing voucher code or even delete one. To edit a voucher code, follow these steps.
Unlike digital services physical products can break down or stop working. When your customers request product replacement, acting fast on their request will be the deciding factor when it comes to customer satifaction and loyalty. With the swap/replace feature in the circuly operations backend you can set replacement process in motion by following these steps:
For more details on processing a swap for stolen or missing products, check out this article.
Learn more about adding and editing swap/replacement reasons.
With circuly you can create subscriptions in bulk and skip manually assigning serial number to a product in case you have thousands of orders coming in on a daily basis. Subscription automation takes action by simply importing a list to circuly. This is specially handy if you have a warehousing or an ERP system connected to your shop system that takes care of sending out products to the customer.
To bulk upload subscriptions:
Once the file has been imported, a feedback window will be displayed that tells you how many orders have been imported. In case there is an error, it will be displayed in the feedback window. To know the reason for the error, you can download the error report and check the reason for the error message. All the orders that are now imported have a subscription created automatically.
Note: Here's an example of how the CSV upload should look.
Setup Instructions
To connect Adyen to circuly follow the steps given below:
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Your Adyen account is now connected to circuly.
You can only edit orders as long as they do not have a subscription attached to the order. As soon as you create a subscription for an order, it can no longer be edited.
Note: This action will create a draft copy-order with all order items, customer and payment information. You can then edit the order and convert it to a real order that is also sent to your shop system.
To get started with adding new order items to the existing order, click on the Add button.
In the Add order item window > Edit the information you want > Once you're done click on the SUBMIT CHANGES button. The price will be automatically updated as soon as have you have selected the product variant.
To get started with deleting order items to the existing order, click on the delete (red cross) button. This will remove the order item from your order. Please note that this action will not automatically trigger a refund. Make sure to manually refund the item amount via the refund action afterwards.
There are two locations in which you can edit order items - please select the suitable function for your individual use case:
1. To get started with editing order items in your existing order, click on the EDIT button. Now you can edit the item information as needed. Make sure to confirm by clicking on the EDIT button once you are done.
2. For editing the order item directly in the product list, learn more here. This makes sense, if you don't want to create a new draft order but only edit an order item before starting a subscription.
In case your customer may also want to get the order information delivered to a different email address or the order items to a different address, you can adapt the information before saving the order changes.
What if I want involve my customer as little as possible into the order update?
The toggle is deactivated per default since most likely you will not want to or not need to send an updated order offer to your customer for confirmation. In this case, you can keep the toggle deactivated as is and your customer will not have to do anything. The customer will automatically receive an updated order confirmation and the payment method from the original order will be taken over to the new order.
What if I need an active approval for the updated order?
Enabling the toggle send order as quote to customer gives you the possibility to send out your adapted order to your customer again with a prefilled checkout link. The order will then get into a draft order status and once the checkout has be finalized by your customer, the draft order will be converted into a real order. Hence in this case your customer will need validate their personal details and enter their payment details again. Also note that the previously used payment data will NOT be taken over.
CONFIRM UPDATED ORDER: Once you have done all the changes, make sure to click on CREATE ORDER to confirm the changes. This will create the new order which you can then fulfill as normal.
Important: You must cancel (and refund) the old order manually with a suitable message so that your customer understands why he / she is charged (again).
Please open the order > click on the three dots at the top right > select cancel order to do so and select the checkbox "full refund". If you only want to partially refund an order, please learn more about refunding an order here.
Once the updated order is created, you have to charge the initial payment manually.
To charge the initial payment open up the updated order > click on the three dots at the top right > select Charge Initial Payment.
When charging the initial payment, you can add a custom message to explain why your customer is charged. Make sure to click on charge xx,xx so that the payment will be initiated through your payment service provider. The customer will then also automatically receive an invoice.
You can identify edited orders easily since they marked as Origin: Clone. You can always find the original order by copy / pasting the parent ID in the order search (for example if you want to cancel and refund the original order).
You will also find this information in the order list:
Due to the unique nature of a subscription business, common terms such as variants and SKU have a different meaning and a different setup logic.
Therefore before we get started with the topic of stock management with circuly, let us first understand a few terms such as product, variants and SKU when they are used in a subscription-based ecommerce business.
1. Product - in any business (ecommerce or subscription) a product refers to a specific item that is available for sale. Each product has a unique name and description. A product is unique if it can have an influence on the number of units available for it.
Assuming that you offer iPhones on a subscription basis, the “iPhone 14 Pro - 128 GB - Black” is a unique product and is different from the “iPhone 14 Pro - 512 GB - Black”, therefore the two are treated as two different products.
In an ecommerce business the 128 GB and the 512 GB are treated as variants.
However a regular ecommerce business does not have anything to do with length of subscription contracts and therefore has a different setup logic.
In order to understand the next term, that is variants, let’s assume that you have a stock of 10 units for the iPhone 14 Pro - 128 GB - Black and a stock of 20 units for the iPhone 14 Pro - 512 GB - Black.
2. Variants - Variants are different versions or options of a particular product. They represent variations of the same product that may differ in certain attributes and the difference affects the customers choice.
In a subscription business the most important attribute that affects a customers choice is the length of the subscription contract.
Therefore the variants of a product (in a subscription business) are defined based on the length of the subscription contract.
In the iPhone example, if a customer chooses the iPhone 14 Pro - 128 GB - Black for a duration of 12 months, this choice will have no effect on the number of units available for the iPhone 14 Pro - 512 GB - Black but will have an effect on the number of units available for the iPhone 14 Pro - 128 GB - Black.
So according to the example of the iPhone 14 Pro - 128 GB - Black available as a subscription, the various variants will be set up as:
Variant 1: 6 months (10 units)
Variant 2: 12 months (10 units)
Variant 3: 18 months (10 units)
Variant 4: 24 months (10 units)
And will change to the units mentioned below due to the sale of one of the variants.
Variant 1: 6 months (9 units)
Variant 2: 12 months (9 units)
Variant 3: 18 months (9 units)
Variant 4: 24 months (9 units)
3. SKU (Stock Keeping Unit): in a regular ecommerce business a SKU is a unique code assigned to each specific variant of a product. It is a combination of letters, numbers, or both, that helps identify and track items in inventory. SKUs help identity and categorise products based on various attributes such as colour, style, subscription duration or any other distinguishing characteristics.
In an ecommerce business each variant of a product will have its own unique SKU, enabling businesses to differentiate between similar products and maintain accurate inventory records.
However in a subscription business, the variants are defined on the basis of the length of the subscription contract.
Please note that while SKU help in categorisation of products, each product itself needs a unique serial number for accurate tracking.
So when a customer chooses the 6 months variant of the iPhone 14 Pro - 128 GB - Black, the number of units of the other variants (12, 18, 24 months) needs to be reduced by 1 as only 9 units are available of the iPhone 14 Pro - 128 GB - Black as result.
In Shopify, woocommerce and Shopware, product variants can have the same SKU. However in Saleor, product variants cannot have the same SKU and therefore need additional setup steps.
You’ve set up your products in your shop system, created variants, defined the SKU and you’re ready to receive your first order or perhaps new orders.
And you want to know how circuly interacts with your stock. Good question.
In a growing business, automating processes is key to scaling operations. circuly provides you both - a manual way and an automated way to handle stock.
Important to know is that stock management with circuly is dependent on the shop system you use as different shop systems have different setups that circuly needs to navigate through.
In Shopify, woocommerce and Shopware variants of a given product can have and typically do have the same SKU. Therefore the stock is updated based on variants and is updated for all variants for a SKU.
Order placement
If you enable the “Check system stock” setting the circuly system will automatically check your existing stock before finalising the order.
To access the setting > Go to Settings > Checkout > PRE CHECKOUT > Check system stock.
Scenarios: Product is available
If the product selected by the customer is available then the customer will be able to proceed with the payment and finalise the order.
A webhook event is triggered because an order event (order placement) took place and the circuly system will update the stock in your shop system and reduce for all the variants with the same SKU.
Scenario: product is not available
If the circuly system detects that there isn’t a unit available for the selected product variant, the customer will be prevented from finalising the order.
Order cancellation
If an order is cancelled, a webhook event is triggered. The webhook event updates the stock in your shopsystem (this time its a +1 to the stock) for all variants and SKU under the variant.
If you want the circuly system to automatically restock items after an order is cancelled, you can enable the Restock items after an order cancellation setting.
To access the setting > Go to Settings > Orders > CANCELLATION > Restock items after an order cancellation.
Return
When you mark a product as returned in the circuly Operations Backend, there is a webhook event that updates the stock in your shopsystem (this time its a +1 to the stock) for all variants and SKU under the variant again.
To access the setting > Go to Settings >Subscriptions > RETURN SUBSCRIPTION > Update stock on SKU level after return.
However, if you would like to define whether the stock should be treated as a secondhand stock or new stock we recommend to progress the stock management in this case manually instead.
Swap
When processing a swap if the same product is replaced, the stock will be automatically updated since a new order will be created. If you exchange the product with another product make sure to select the product from the dropdown menu and the stock will be updated automatically.
Note: We recommend using a warehouse management system - especially for larger stock & order quantities. Warehouse management systems are usually directly connected to your shop system to track the stock more efficiently. If you use a warehouse management system, circuly will then just trigger the events and the stock update will be taken care of in the WMS. For questions please contact us via the service desk.
In Saleor the SKUs cannot be the same for the different variants. The SKUs are not connected and therefore need to be harmonised with the help of automatic N8N flows.
Order placement
Since the SKUs are not the same an N8N flow will update the stock for all the durations and will harmonise the stock for all variants with an update event.
Order cancellation:
When an order is cancelled, a webhook event is triggered and sent to Saleor. The event updates the stock to +1. All the variants are updates based on an N8N flow.
If you want the circuly system to automatically restock items after an order is cancelled, you can enable the Restock items after an order cancellation setting.
To access the setting > Go to Settings > Orders > CANCELLATION > Restock items after an order cancellation.
Return
When you mark a product as returned in the circuly Operations Backend, there is a webhook event that updates the stock in your shopsystem (this time its a +1 to the stock) for all variants and SKU under the variant again.
To access the setting > Go to Settings >Subscriptions > RETURN SUBSCRIPTION > Update stock on SKU level after return.
However, if you would like to define whether the stock should be treated as a secondhand stock or new stock we recommend to progress the stock management in this case manually instead.
Swap
When processing a swap if the same product is replaced, the stock will be automatically updated since a new order will be created. If you exchange the product with another product make sure to select the product from the dropdown menu and the stock will be updated automatically.
Note: We recommend using a warehouse management system - especially for larger stock & order quantities. Warehouse management systems are usually directly connected to your shop system to track the stock more efficiently. If you use a warehouse management system, circuly will then just trigger the events and the stock update will be taken care of in the WMS. For questions please contact us via the service desk.
The circuly generated Order ID can be replaced with the Shopify Order ID. The reasons why you would want to do are given below:
As you already know, when an order is placed on your connected white-label circuly checkout, an order is created in the circuly Operations Backend and in your connected shopsystem. The order that is created in the circuly Operations Backend has an Order ID attached to it. The order ID is created by the circuly system. However, the order that is created in your Shopify shopsystem has an order name which may also be referred to as the order ID but has a different value than the order ID created in circuly.
The "order ID" is generated by circuly. Whereas the "order name" is the order ID generated by Shopify for every order that is being created.
The order ID generated by circuly is used as a variable in the email templates and displayed in the Self-Service Portal.
When should the order ID generated by circuly replaced by the order name from Shopify?
When you want to cross-reference, it is recommended to have the same value for the order ID. Additionally when you send additional emails to your customers, that are not provided by the circuly email templates, it can make sense to replace the circuly order ID with the Shopify order ID so that your customer doesn't get confused as a result of mismatching numbers.
To replace the circuly order ID with the Shopify order name > Edit all the emails that you typically send to your customers in the circuly email templates and replace the order_ID variable with the order name variable.
The order name is displayed in the following places:
1. Order confirmation email
2. Customer Self-Service Portal
Subscription fatigue poses a challenge for consumers in managing their subscription payments and contract renewals. While the renewal of a subscription contract is typically viewed as a positive sign of customer retention, unexpected charges and renewals can lead to frustration among consumers. This presents a significant issue for subscription companies, as they desire customers who willingly extend their contracts without causing dissatisfaction or annoyance.
When you use circuly to manage your subscriptions, you can easily solve this pain point by sending a reminder email to your customers before the end of their subscription. Additionally the circuly system enables you to automate the renewal of the subscription if the customer doesn't actively cancel.
In this article, we’ll explain the process of subscription renewal, reminder emails and the associated settings in detail.
An average person is subscribed to multiple products (avg. 5) at the same time. As the number of subscription services available continues to grow, it becomes challenging for individuals to keep tabs on all the services they have signed up for, along with their renewal dates and costs.
The extra tasks associated with subscription contracts are slowly becoming unappealing for consumers and can lead to issues like:
Luckily consumers still appreciate companies that take these pain points away.
Multiple subscription companies offer to send reminder emails when the subscription contract is about to end so that the customer can decide whether or not they would like to continue using the product and staying subscribed.
This benefit often proves to be extremely attractive for the customers and reduces the burden of subscribing. Additionally it makes the subscription company stand out among its competitors and other related services.
Typically every subscription contract has a start date and an end date that is assigned to it when a subscription is created. However subscription contracts can in theory always be extended beyond the minimum duration.
In circuly subscription contracts are extended if you make use of the auto-renew feature.
When a subscription is renewed the end date becomes fictitious meaning that as long as the auto-renew function is active, a subscription will have an end date but the end date will continue to change as the subscription continues to be extended.
With the auto-renew feature subscription contracts are automatically extended at the end of the subscription period. Your customers actively need to cancel their subscription if they would like to stop their subscription contract.
Automatically renewing a subscription has its pros and cons. The benefit is that if the customer wants to extend the subscription contract, they are not required to take any action and the process remains lean, requiring no effort from their side.
However, subscription fatigue can leave customers feeling annoyed when they see an unexpected renewal charge on their card.
In order to solve this problem you can set up a workflow with circuly that reminds your customer when their subscription is about to end and renews the subscription automatically if the customer doesn't express any interest in cancelling the subscription.
With circuly you can easily set up an automated process for sending a reminder email to your customers “x” days before the end of their subscription.
Email used: Subscription is almost over
Settings: Subscription is almost over when auto renew is off, days calculation before ending.
To access the settings > Go to the Settings tab > Emails > SUBSCRIPTION INFORMATION.
Enabling the switch means that you would like to send the “subscription is almost over” email to the customer.
Then decide when you would like to send this email. If you would like to send the email 14 days before the end of the subscription, add 14 in the input field.
Here’s what will happen
When the subscription end date is approaching, the circuly system will trigger the subscription almost over email and send it to your customer 14 days (custom value in the Days calculation before ending input field) before the end date.
Conditions
The subscription is almost over email is triggered and sent to the customer ONLY IF the auto renew button switch in the subscription overview window is in a non-active state.
Active and non-active state of the auto renew button switch
The auto renew button is in a non-active state as long as the Auto-renew subscriptions setting is disabled. When the auto-renew setting is enabled the auto-renew button becomes active.
Important to note: The auto-renew button only becomes active for subscriptions that are created AFTER the auto-renew subscription setting was enabled.
Why is the auto-renew button not activated for all existing subscriptions?
The auto-renew button is only activated for subscriptions that are created AFTER the auto-renew subscription setting is enabled to prevent the scenario in which subscriptions that should be ended because the customers want to end the subscription, are renewed.
Note: Simply enabling the auto-renew button without enabling the Auto-renew subscription setting will not renew the subscription.
Summary
As explained above the subscription is almost over email serves as a reminder email that can be sent to the custom to inform them their their subscription is about to end.
However the email is skipped in a few cases, such as:
If you still wish to send a reminder email in situations where the subscription is almost over email is skipped, you can enable some settings available in the Settings tab. Given below are the available options:
In circuly there are two manual ways and one automated way to renew subscription contracts.
The manual way to renew a subscription is via the extend subscription duration functionality and the automated way to renew a subscription is via the auto-renew settings.
As you can imagine, the extend subscription duration function can only be performed on one subscription at a time while the auto-renew setting is for all subscriptions.
Learn more about renewing subscriptions in the article about subscription renewals.
Sending a reminder email before your subscription ends is a smart idea with some great benefits:
Even if they decide to cancel, it's actually a positive thing as it means you're not trapping them in the subscription. This makes them more likely to come back to you in the future or speak positively about your brand to others.
So, by using reminder emails, you make it easier for customers to stay engaged, increase their satisfaction, and build a positive reputation for your brand.
There are two options available to set up your email provider
Option 1
If you choose to go with your own SMTP server > Go to Settings in your circuly Operations Backend > Setup and design > EMAIL SERVER SETTINGS > Add the necessary information for the following settings in the given input field:
Option 2
If you choose to go with circuly’s SMTP server Mailgun, follow the steps mentioned below:
Our team will then create a subdomain in Mailgun for your mail domain.
Note: Even though circuly hosts your mail domain, your customers will see your root email domain (service@yourcompanyname.com), that is the from and reply email that you have entered in the Settings.
What are TXT and MX records?
Note: We strongly recommend verifying the MX records, even if you do not feel the necessity to do so, because with many mail providers emails are not delivered since the additional verification layer (which is done via the MX records) is not given.
What are SMTP credentials?
SMTP credentials are the login credentials required to authenticate and authorise access to an SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol) server. SMTP is the standard protocol used for sending outgoing email messages from an email client or application to a mail server.
Typical steps you will need to go through (may vary depending on your domain provider):
Wait for DNS propagation: DNS changes can take time to propagate across the internet. It can range from a few minutes to several hours, although it typically happens within a few hours. During this time, the new DNS records may not be immediately visible to all DNS servers worldwide.
Reserving an asset means that a serial number is reserved for an order and assigned to it as soon as a subscription is created for the order. Given below are a few reasons why you should reserve serial number:
Overall, reserving serial numbers for specific orders contributes to better organisation, enhanced customer service, and improved accuracy in the supply chain and product management processes.
Navigate to Settings > Checkout > END CHECKOUT > Reserve serial number.
Enabling the switch for this setting allows the circuly system to reserve a serial number automatically from the Asset List against each item of an order. As a result a circuly user does not need to assign a serial number when creating a subscription.
Asset status reserve means that the asset has already been assigned to an order item and when the order item is converted into a subscription, the asset status will change from reserved to rented out.
As you can see in the image below, when creating a subscription, the serial number is already assigned to the subscription.
To add assets to circuly, you need to important them in the correct format.
Your customers can make cancellation requests either from the Customer Self-Service Portal or by getting in touch with your customer support.
When your customers get in touch with your customer support, you have full control over how you want to cancel the subscription and if you want to cancel it. This process is manual as it requires a circuly user to cancel the subscription or set it as pending return, depending on whether or not there is a subscription attached to the order and whether or not the customer has your products.
However when cancellation requests are made from the Self-Service Portal, you can enable the circuly system to take some actions fully automated without any manual input from your side.
One setting that influences what happens after a cancellation request is processed is the Delete recurring payments setting.
When a cancellation request is made from the self-service portal the Auto cancel subscription setting has an influence on the status of the subscription and the status of the subscription has an influence on the Delete recurring payment setting.
Note: The subscription status only has an influence on the Delete recurring payment setting when the cancellation request is made from the self-service portal, and the cancellation action sets the subscription status as pending return. Actions performed by a circuly user that set the subscription status a spending return in the circuly Operations Backend do not interact with the Delete recurring payment setting.
If any of the following conditions is met, the status of the subscription is automatically set to pending return
Learn more about the Auto cancel subscription setting.
As the name suggests the Delete recurring payment setting can be used if you want to delete future recurring after a subscription status is set to pending return via a cancellation request made from the self service portal. The recurring payments are deleted until the subscription is reactivated.
As mentioned above user actions in the circuly Operations Backend that set the subscription status as pending return do not interact with the Delete recurring payment setting.
Important: The payments are deleted irrespective of whether or not you’ve received the product back from the customer.
No the recurring payments are not deleted permanently. In case the customer does not return the product the subscription can be reactivated and the recurring payments will continue to be charged.
When this setting deletes the recurring payments, you can ideally avoid a situation in which a customer is charged for an additional month while the customer is in the process of returning the product.
To access the setting > Go to Settings > Customer Login > CANCEL OPTIONS > Delete recurring payments.
If you offer pickup services for your products, you have the option of displaying a pickup calendar in the cancellation window in the Self-Service Portal.
Here’s how the pickup calendar is displayed in the self-service portal.
The pickup date picker is the same as the delivery date picker in the checkout.
If you would like to offer your customer the possibility to select a date for the pickup of their cancelled subscription then you can enable this setting.
To enable the setting for displaying a pickup date selector > Go to Settings > Customer login > CANCEL OPTIONS > Pickup date > Enable the switch.
Mandatory pickup date
If you would like to make it mandatory for the customer to select a pickup date when going through the cancellation process do the following:
First enable the switch for Pickup date > Next enable the switch for Require pickup date to make it a mandatory option.
Learn more about the circuly Self-Service Portal.
If you are subscribed to a particular product and would like to change it to another product, you can do so from the self-service portal.
Auto refund immediately cancelled subscriptions is a setting available in the Settings tab that allows you to auto refund the payment for an subscription that is still within the Early cancellation period.
The conditions that needs to be met for this setting to trigger are:
If both these conditions are met then payments can be auto refunded if you enable the switch for this setting.
To access this setting to to Settings > Subscriptions > CANCEL SUBSCRIPTION > Auto refund immediately cancelled subscription.
Note: The payment for the cancelled subscription will be immediately refunded even if the product has not been returned.
If you do not want to refund the payment before you’ve received the product back, we recommend disabling the switch for the Auto refund immediately cancelled subscriptions and instead processing the refunds manually.
Learn more about how you can manually process a refund.
If you enable the “Check system stock” setting the circuly system will automatically check your existing stock before finalising the order.
Scenarios: Product is available
If the product selected by the customer is available then the customer will be able to proceed with the payment and finalise the order.
Scenario: product is not available
If the circuly system detects that there isn’t a unit available for the selected product variant, the customer will be prevented from finalising the order.
To access the setting > Go to Settings > Checkout > PRE CHECKOUT > Check system stock.
The circuly system automatically initiates recurring payments according to the frequency specified in the subscription contract.
In a subscription-based business model, receiving payments on a recurring basis is essential. However, this also increases the likelihood of encountering payment issues.
Given the significance and workload associated with managing failed payments, the circuly system allows you to establish an automated workflow that outlines the necessary steps to be taken when a payment fails.
The operations that can be automated by the circuly system include:
One payment cycle has “x” number of payment retrial attempts for a particular payment. “2 payment cycles” is when your customer has two failed payments that have already been retried by the circuly system “x” number of times.
Note: the value of “x” is the maximum number of payment retries and can be defined by going to > Settings > Invoice & payment > FAILED PAYMENT > Maximum number of payment attempts.
Here’s how this works
Let’s assume that you want to set up a flow for retrying failed recurring payments. You wish to retry a failed payment a maximum of 3 times automatically by the circuly system before you can retry it manually. Therefore you define the settings value as following.
Maximum number of payments attempts = 3
Additionally you want to cancel the subscription of a customer who has two failed payments that have already been retried a maximum number of times. Therefore you do the following.
Cancel subscription on failure = enabled
When the circuly system detects a failed payment, it will automatically retry the failed payment 3 times and this will count as one payment cycle.
If the customer has another recurring payment that failed to be charged then the circuly system will retry this payment 3 times and this will count as the second payment cycle.
As soon as the customer has two failed payment cycles the circuly customer will set the subscription status as pending return which indicates that the customer has to send the product back since its not possible to collect the recurring payments from this customer.
What happens if the Cancel subscription on failure setting is disabled and the maximum number of payment attempt is defined?
If the Cancel subscription on failure setting is disabled the subscription will not be set to pending return even if the customer has more than 1 recurring payment with the failed status.
The subscription will remain in the active state.
In this case a circuly user is required to take manual action.
The best course of action is to get in touch withe customer and initiate a dunning process against the customer in case of no response.
In your circuly Operations Backend you can specify an email address that will get notified by the circuly system when certain events happens.
The circuly system sends an email to this email address for the following events:
To access the setting > Go to Settings > Company Settings > BASE SETUP > Customer care email address.
Given below are examples of the email notification that a circuly user receives.
1. Unreturned product notification
2. Failed payment notification
3. Issues reported from the self-service portal
4. Subscription cancellation request from the self-service portal
5. Chargeback notification
Checkout and Self-Service Portal
The checkout and the self-service portal can be displayed in the following languages. The translations for the languages mentioned below are provided by circuly.
Email Templates
The email templates are also supported in all the languages mentioned above. However the translations of the email templates are only available in English and need to be translated for all other languages.
In the Settings tab of the circuly Operations Backend you can select the language you would like to provide to your customers to choose from on the checkout page and in their self-service portal.
The associated setting is “Allowed languages” and can be accessed by going to Settings > Company settings > LOCALE > Allowed languages.
Allowed languages are the languages that you pick from the dropdown menu in the Allowed language settings to make available to your customers in the Self-Service Portal and the checkout.
Note: When you select an allowed language, a language column is add to the Email Templates tab.
This is because selecting a language from the dropdown menu of Allowed Language setting indicates to the circuly system that you would also like to send email communication to the customer in the selected languages.
Note: When a language column is added to the Email Templates tab, the associated email is not automatically set up. If you wish to send emails in a different language, please set up the emails templates.
When you select a language from the dropdown menu of allowed language, the language option is also available under the cancellation reasons settings.
When a prospect lands on your webshop, proceeds to the checkout page and switches the language from the list of Allowed languages, the language preferences of the prospect are saved as preferred language in the circuly operations backend.
The circuly system uses this information to send any form of communication to the prospect such as emails, invoices etc.
We also recommend defining a default language.
The default language is the language used by the circuly operations backend to send any form of communication to your customer such as emails, invoices etc in case information about the preferred language of the customer is missing or if an email template for the preferred language is not set up.
Therefore it is the language the circuly system uses as a fallback language in case the information about the preferred language is missing.
To set up the Default language > Go to Settings > Company settings > LOCALE > Default language.
Note: You can only have one default language.
Example: You have three language options available on your webshop; English, German, and Dutch. A prospect lands on your webshop and proceeds to the checkout page in Dutch. The preferred language of this customer is saved as Dutch in the circuly operations backend. If you have email templates set up in Dutch then the circuly operations backend will use Dutch as the language of communication with your customer. If you do not have email templates set up in Dutch then the circuly operations backend will use the default language and the email templates set up in the default language.
As you can see, setting up a default language is important to avoid any communication gaps and operation hassles.
Tip: If you do not see your desired language under the Default language dropdown menu, make sure that the language is selected under the Allowed language dropdown menu.
Preferred language is the language used by the customer as the browser language or the language selected by the customer from the list of allowed language when they are on the checkout page or in their self-service portal.
When a customer switches between languages, the circuly system saves the information about the language as the preferred language of the customer and uses this information to send email communication to the customer.
What language will be shown to the customer when they access the checkout for the first time t?
The language shown in the checkout is based on the browser preference. Hence if your browser preference is English but your default language is German, the checkout would still be shown in English and the email communication will also be in English.
What triggers the email to be sent in a different language?
If the customer changes the language after checkout in the self-service portal, the preferred language of the customer changes and as a result the language in which the emails are sent also changes.
In what language will the email be sent if I trigger the email manually again from the circuly backend?
The email will be always sent out in the saved preferred language that the customer selected.
One time payment is a feature available in the circuly operations backend that you can use, as the name suggests, to charge non-recurring, one-time payments to your customers payment method.
The reason why you need to charge a one-time payment can be anything from product buyout to product repair charges.
Read more about how to charge a one-time payment.
Downloading invoices in the Customer Self-Service Portal
Your customers can download their invoices from the Customer Self-Service Portal thus eliminating the need for them to get in touch with your customer support.
To enable your customers to download their invoices make sure that you have the right setting enabled.
Go to Settings > Customer login > FEATURES > Make sure that the Hide invoice download switch is disabled.
When enabled the icon to download the invoices is not available in the Self-Service Portal.
Educate your customers on how they can download invoices from their Self-Service Portal by writing an article on including a FAQ section on your website.
Here’s how the process looks for your customers:
Note: Only invoices that have been settled can be downloaded. Upcoming invoices are not displayed in the Customer Self-Service Portal.