Contract duration replaces the notion of commitment that has been deprecated. All commitment periods have been migrated to contract duration with the settings previously set. They are working the same way, but contract duration offers more granularity by adding a contract start date.
Contract duration reflects the contractual agreement that links you and your customer. As of now, contract duration is simply set for informational purposes and does not have any impact on billing (except when the subscription has same as contract start as start strategy, where the contract start date will dictate the subscription start date).

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Set a contract duration during subscription assignment

By default, a subscription does not have set contract duration. It can be added by toggling the option in the contract section.
A default contract duration can be set in the plan configuration and be added by default when a plan is added to the subscription.
Contract duration is not linked to the subscription duration. The contract duration has a start and an end date, that can be defined with relative events and absolute dates:
  • Immediately on the date the subscription will be assigned
  • Checkout completion on the date the checkout will be completed by the customer
  • Quote signature only in the context of a quote creation, on the date the quote will be signed
  • Manual start will allow the contract to be started manually at any time after subscription assignment
  • Custom date will set the start date in the past or in the future
Contract start date can be selected a a subscription start date strategy. Once this is the case, the contract start date will affect the subscription start date and potentially the initial billing date if it is set to same as subscription start.
Contract end date can be set in the following ways:
  • After a relative duration like 6 months, 1 year, 2 years..
  • Forever contract will end manually later, or when the subscription ends
  • Custom date a fixed date in the future
When the contract end is different from forever, the contract can be automatically renewed after the end of duration for a relative custom amount. Once the subscription ends, the associated contract will be marked as finished.

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Contract status

Depending on its start and end date, a contract can fall under the following statuses:
  • Inactive the contract has not already started
  • Active the contract has started and not ended yet
  • Finished the contract en date is passed
The contract status is for informational purposes only as of now.

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Contract duration after subscription is assigned

A contract duration can be associated or edited once the subscription has been already assigned by clicking on update subscription in the contract section. There are no restrictions in the possibilities for contract duration edition, except when the contract is active:
  • The contract start date cannot be less than today’s date at 00:00
  • The contract end date cannot be less than today’s date at 00:00