Initial start date & Start date current period – Upsales Help Centre

Initial start date

This field doesn't affect the orders. It's used for displaying when the agreement was signed by the customer.

If you're using the Recurring Revenue sales model this field also determines from what date the ARR/MRR should start counting.

Start date current period

This field determines when the period starts and when the first order will be created by the subscription.

Use cases:

In most cases, these two dates should be the same, but here are some cases when they might differ:

My customer signed in August, but the first order should be sent in September

Initial start date: August
Start date current period: September

I want to give my customer 3 free months: Send the invoice on sign

Quick answer:
Extend the period length to 15 months (move renewal date).
Send the invoice on start date for the current period (= same as initial start date)

Order interval: Yearly (optional)
Period length: 12 months (optional)
Initial start date: January 2022
Start date current period: January 2022
Renewal date: April 2023 (15 months from start date current period)

By pushing the renewal date to April 2023 the period length becomes 15 months, giving the customer 3 free months.

I want to give my customer 3 free months: Send the invoice after free period

Quick answer:
Extend the period length to 15 months (move renewal date).
Send the invoice on start date for the current period (=not the same date as initial start date)

Order interval: Yearly (optional)
Period length: 12 months (optional)
Initial start date: January 2022
Start date current period: April 2022 (3 months after initial start date)
Renewal date: April 2023 (12 months after start date current period)

Since Upsales sends the first invoice depending on the Start date current period-field, pushing it to 3 months after the initial start date will postpone the first invoice.

I want to give my customer 3 free months: With monthly order interval

This is only possible if you create two different subscriptions.

In this case, I want the first period to be 15 months and thereafter the agreement should be renewed with 12 months period length.

Settings for first subscription (3 first months)

Order interval: Monthly (optional)
Period length: 3 months (optional)
Initial start date: January 2022
Start date current period: January 2022
Termination date: April 2022 (3 months after start date current period)
Renewal date: April 2023 (12 months after start date current period)

How to give a discount? Add a 100 % discount on all order rows.

Settings subscription 2 (12 last months)

This subscription will be automatically renewed.

Order interval: Monthly (optional)
Period length: 12 months (optional)
Initial start date: April 2022 (Same date as the termination date of Subscription 1)
Start date current period: April 2022 (Same date as the termination date of Subscription 1)
Termination date: Never (automatically renewed)
Renewal date: April 2023 (12 months after start date current period)