Subscription Fulfillment

Fulfilling a Subscription involves the generation of fulfillment records for all subscribers to whom a specific issue needs to be sent. The process could fulfill back issues at the same time as fulfilling current issue.

Fulfilling a Subscription

To fulfill a subscription, you must first create a Subscription Fulfillment Group much like you do when fulfilling inventory items, by selecting the subscription and choosing the issues that need to be fulfilled for each subscriber. Once fulfilled, you then have the option of creating and printing your Subscription Fulfillment Reports such as your invoices and shipping labels, again much like the Inventory Fulfillment process.

To fulfill a subscription, complete the following steps:

Navigate to the Subscriptions Overview page and click the Subscription Fulfillment hyperlink, seen below.
The Add - Subscription Fulfillment page will display.
Select a subscription to fulfill from the drop-down list.
The fulfillment code will automatically populate when you select a subscription in the drop-down field. It will be based upon the current date, the user name creating the Fulfillment Group and the subscription code. The fulfillment code also becomes your subscription fulfillment group name and is what is used when you List or Find future groups (if needed). Therefore, you have the option of renaming this field if desired. This field is required.
Enter a fulfillment date. If you enter the current date, the process will run immediately unless you use scheduling as noted below. This field is required.
Note in the image above that, if your subscription is a Track By Issue type of subscription, three additional fields will appear:
- deferred revenue recognition batch drop-down: You will be required to enter a deferred batch for a Track By Issue sub before you can save your fulfillment group. Because Track By Issue Subscription revenue is recognized at the time of fulfillment (due to date associated with it) and the deferred batch is the batch for revenue recognition, this field is required before you will be able to save.
- update current issue check box: Select this check box if you want the Subscription Profile to keep track of which issue is 'scheduled' next to be the current issue by the dates you set when creating your issues (normally, the next issue in line). It will be shown on the Subscription Profile. It will also be shown in the note field during fulfillment so you are sure which issue is the current issue.
- update start issue check box: Select this check box if you want the Subscription Profile to keep track of which issue is designated the start issue by the dates you set when creating your issues for the subscription. If you do not update this field, the start issue will remain the first issue designated upon set up. If you do update this field, the Start Issue (for new Subscribers) will become the current issue. Some organizations may want a special introductory as the first issue that is not date dependent, for example, and always keep the Start Issue the same without updating. This is seen in the image above so the update start issue is not selected.
Complete the Scheduling section of the form if you want to run the fulfillment process at a date in the future. You may enter a date and time in the future in the run task datetime field or click the Now hyperlink to schedule a time 5 minutes in the future.
If you want the fulfillment to occur after another scheduled task, you may choose which task it should execute after in the execute after task drop-down.
Select the notification template and e-mail that should be alerted once the process is complete in the notify template drop-down and notify e-mail field. The notify conditions are selected by default.
Finally, select the issues that you want to fulfill by enabling their respective check boxes.

Note: You have the ability to select the All or None hyperlink(s) to select or deselect several issues at once. This facilitates those fulfillments that allow backordering or dating of subscriptions where many issues may appear at once for selection or de-selection.

Click the Save button to complete the Fulfillment Group and run the fulfillment process using the parameters you have set up for the subscription you have selected. If you have the on start and on success notify conditions selected, you will receive an e-mail once the task begins and has completed without errors.

Note the following updates in netFORUM:

When you have completed the process, the Subscription Fulfillment Group and scheduled task will be created.

The subscription fulfillment batch summary child form on the scheduled task will display the issues that were fulfilled.

You may click on the fulfill detail icon to prompt the Subscription Fulfillment Detail report, a sample seen below.

You may click on the shipping labels icon to print a list of shipping labels for this fulfillment; samples seen below.

Finally, the Issues tab > issues fulfilled child form on the Subscriber Profile will also detail the fulfillment has taken place.

Finding a Subscription Fulfillment Group

You may need to access a Subscription Fulfillment Group at a later date after it has already been created. This is accomplished on the Subscriptions Overview screen by clicking on the Subscriptions Fulfillment Group link, seen below.

This will bring up a List of all previously created Subscription Fulfillment Groups created where you can sort by Fulfillment Code, Date Created, or the User that created the group.

You may also click on the Find Subscription Fulfillment Batch icon from that page to bring up the Find Subscription Fulfillment Batch page.

Finding records within the Subscription Fulfillment Batch Item follows the same format and function as every other Find functionality. You may search by the following:

Fulfillment Code
Fulfillment Date

The Advanced View checkbox allows you to conduct Boolean searches to broaden and narrow your search as needed. If you are uncertain with what you are looking for, use the netFORUM wildcard character, the percent sign (%) to help you with your search.

Fulfilling Back Orders

If the allow backorders option is NOT set up (i.e., the allow back orders check box on the Subscription Information window is not selected) and a customer tries to buy an issue that is out of stock (inventory equals 0), the customer will get a message that says that the item is out of stock and they will not be allowed to purchase the issue (that is, add a payment).

To set up the allow back orders option, select the allow back orders check box on the Subscription Information window when you add a new Subscription.

When the inventory at the warehouse reaches 0, if a customer tries to buy an out-of-stock issue, the customer will be allowed to place the order and make a payment. When it is time to fulfill subscriptions, the order will be added to the fulfillment list.

After you click fulfill subscriptions, all orders for the magazine issues will show up in the fulfillment list, even though the quantity at the warehouse for some of the issues is 0. When the quantity on hand is less than 0, the check box will be read only and you will not be able to select it. To continue with the subscription fulfillment process, you would select the check box next to the invoices that have enough inventory at the warehouse to cover the order and then click the Process Requests button.

The orders that still need to be filled (inventory equals 0) will remain on the fulfillment list until additional inventory is added to the warehouse. (After inventory is "received" at the warehouse, the quantity on hand will be updated. Next time you want to fulfill subscription orders, the quantity will show as greater than 0 and you will be able to select the invoice and fill the order.)

Meanwhile, on the Warehouse Profile, you can see how many issues are on back order, allowing you to restock the warehouse accordingly.

Troubleshooting

Q. When I save the Subscription Fulfillment record, no issue fulfillment data is created. What is wrong?

A. Make sure that you have checked the shippable/fulfillment checkbox on the overall subscription price and the prices on the Subscription Issues that you're trying to fulfill.