Preliminary Remarks

For a better understanding of product contracts, examples of time-based, issue-based and credit-based product contracts are provided below.

Examples of a time-based product contract

The runtime is 12 months. After that, the subscription ends automatically.
The subscription is purchased on 01.05.2024 and ends on 30.04. of the following year.
The accounting period is 3 months.
Settlement takes place on 01.05., 01.08., 01.11. etc.
The cancellation period is 2 months before the end of the 6 months(subscription interval).
The subscription can be canceled by 31.08. at the latest.

Checkmark set until cancellation: Runtime is extended until the customer actively cancels.

Examples of an issue-based product contract

Note: In the case of issue-based product contracts with a runtime until cancellation, it must always be borne in mind that the delivery list must be regularly extended. Our system automatically sends a reminder by e-mail when a delivery date needs to be added to a delivery list.

Example 1

The Quantity of Issues per Billing Period is set to 12.
Thereof Chargeable Issues are set to 9. As a result, the last 3 issues in this period are free of charge.
The cancellation period is 7 days before the end of the accounting period.
The accounting period is the 12 issues. The contract can be canceled in due time up to 7 days before delivery of the last (12th) issue.
Check the box next to Repeat Period until Cancellation:
- set: The contract term of 12 issues (3 of which are free) is repeated until the customer cancels the contract.
  The delivery list must be renewed regularly.
- not set: The contract period ends automatically with the last issue delivered.

Example 2

The Quantity of Issues per Billing Period is set to 12.
The Quantity of Issues per Billing Period is set to 12.
The cancellation period is 2 days before publication of each issue.
The issue is published e.g. every Wednesday. It can always be canceled by Monday (2 days before Wednesday) at the latest.
Check the box next to Repeat Period until Cancellation:
- set: The contract term of 12 issues is repeated until the customer cancels the contract.
  The delivery list must be renewed regularly.
- not set: The contract period ends automatically with the last issue delivered.

Examples of credit-based product contracts

Credit-based without time intervals

A credit-based product contract without time intervals is suitable for subscriptions where the credit is automatically topped up after use or by externally triggered top-up (e. g. through API).

In this example, a credit balance of 10 credits was defined in the product contract. As soon as these are used up, the credit is topped up again.

Credit-based with time intervals

With credit-based product contract with time intervals, it can be defined that credits are automatically topped up after a defined period of time.

Runtime: until canceled
Accounting period: 3 weeks
Cancellation period: 7 days before the end of the subscription interval
Subscription interval: 6 weeks

Credits are topped up everytime the accounting period ends.

6 - What are API tokens and how are they created?