Discounts
A discount, just like coupons, represents a deduction from the amounts in an invoice. While coupons are typically used by your customers, discounts can be directly applied to subscriptions by your sales team while negotiating new deals or upgrades. If the negotiations are on the price itself, the price override feature helps adjust the price further.
Although a discount appears as a deduction on an invoice, it is applied to a subscription while creating or updating the subscription. Every discount in Chargebee is attached to only one subscription.
Note:
- The sum of the line-item-level and invoice-level coupons together for a subscription, cannot exceed 10.
- When discounts are enabled in Chargebee, the multi-coupons feature is automatically activated.
Adding a discount
Subscriptions
A discount can be added to a subscription by calling either Create subscription or Update subscription. Once added, the discount is applied to all subsequent invoices if apply_on is set to invoice_amount. When apply_on = specific_item_price, the discount is applied (as a discount.line_item_discount) in each invoice of the subscription that contains the specified item.
Invoices
A discount can be added to an invoice using Create invoice for items and one-time charges using the discounts parameter.
Quotes
A discount can be added to a quote using the following operations:
- Create a quote for new subscription
- Create a quote for updating a subscription
- Create a quote for charge and charge item
- Edit a quote for a new subscription
- Edit a quote for updating a subscription
- Edit a quote for charge items and charges
Estimates
A discount can be added to an estimate using the following endpoints:
- Estimate for creating a subscription.
- Estimate for creating a customer and subscription
- Estimate for updating a subscription
Removing a discount
Subscriptions
A discount can be removed by calling Update subscription with the relevant discounts[operation_type][] set to remove. Also, discounts that have duration_type as one_time or limited_period are removed automatically upon expiry.
Quotes
A discount can be removed from a quote using the following operations:
Estimates
A discount can be removed from an estimate using the following operation:
Listing discounts
A discount is associated with exactly one subscription. You can fetch all the discounts currently attached to a subscription by calling the List discounts for a subscription API or by passing include_discounts as true while creating, importing, updating or retrieving a subscription.
Order of application of coupons and discounts
When both coupons and discounts are applied simultaneously to a subscription or one-time invoice, they’re applied in the following order:
| 1 | Line-level, fixed amount coupons |
|
| 2 | Line-level, fixed amount discounts |
|
| 3 | Line-level, percentage coupons |
|
| 4 | Line-level, percentage discounts |
|
| 5 | Invoice-level, fixed amount coupons |
|
| 6 | Invoice-level, fixed amount discounts |
|
| 7 | Invoice-level, percentage coupons |
|
| 8 | Invoice-level, percentage discounts |
|
For example, consider the following scenario:
A subscription is created with:
- a plan price of $200 per month
- an addon price of $20 per month
- a flat $5 invoice discount
- a 1% off coupon on the addon
- a flat $2 coupon on the invoice
The above coupons and discount are applied in the following order:
| 1 | Initial subtotal (plan price + addon price) |
$200 + $20 = $220 |
| 2 | 1% off coupon on the addon |
$200 + $(20 - 0.02) = $200 + $19.98 = $219.98 |
| 3 | Flat $2 coupon on the invoice |
$219.98 - $2 = $217.98 |
| 4 | Flat $5 invoice discount |
$217.98 - $5 = $212.98 |
Sample discount [ JSON ]
{
"id": "__dev__KyVmqWSHMbJxp2",
"name": "__dev__KyVmqWSHMbJxp2",
"invoice_name": "10% Off",
"percentage": 10.0,
"duration_type": "limited_period",
"period": 3,
"period_unit": "month",
"apply_on": "specific_item_price",
"item_price_id": "plan1",
"included_in_mrr": "true",
"created_at": 1605792731,
"updated_at": 1605792731,
"resource_version": 1605792731000,
"applied_count": 1,
"object": "discounts",
"apply_till": 1599831828
}
The name of the discount as it should appear on customer-facing pages and documents such as invoices and hosted pages. This is auto-generated based on the
type, amount, and currency_code of the discount. For example, it can be 10% off or 10$ off.The type of discount. Possible value are:
The percentage of the original amount that should be deducted from it. Only applicable when
discount.type is percentage. The value of the discount. The format of this value depends on the kind of currency. This is only applicable when
discount.type is fixed_amount. The currency code (ISO 4217 format) of the discount. This is only applicable when
discount.type is fixed_amount.Specifies the time duration for which this discount is attached to the subscription.
period and period_unit.The duration of time for which the discount is attached to the subscription, in
period_units. Applicable only when duration_type is limited_period. The unit of time for
period. Applicable only when duration_type is limited_period. The discount is included in MRR calculations for your site. This attribute is only applicable when
duration_type is one_time and when the feature is enabled in Chargebee. Also, If the site-level setting is to exclude one-time discounts from MRR calculations, this value is always returned false. The amount on the invoice to which the discount is applied.
sub_total.specific_item_priceThe discount is applied to the invoice.line_item.amount that corresponds to the item price specified by item_price_id.The id of the item price in the subscription to which the discount is to be applied. Relevant only when
apply_on = specific_item_price. Specifies till when the limited period discount is applicable. This attribute will be sent in the response only for
limited_period duration type discount.Used to uniquely identify the coupon in your website/application and to integrate with Chargebee.
Note:
When the coupon ID contains a special character; for example: #, the API returns an error.
Make sure that you encode the coupon ID in the path parameter before making an API call.