Ensure Order Accuracy
Learning Objectives
After completing this unit, you’ll be able to:
- Explain how Channel Order App (COA) orders affect your invoice from Salesforce.
- Describe how COA data can get out of sync with a customer’s license count.
- Explain how to keep accurate license data.
Calculate Your Invoice
Your customers order products and you share a portion of your product revenue with Salesforce. Pricing terms from your product catalog determine how much you share. Let’s walk through how to use the Channel Order App (COA) to calculate your invoice.
The revenue-sharing details for every product you sell are in your COA product catalog (or catalogs). To calculate the shared amount, let’s look at the relevant catalog fields: pricing type, fixed price, percentage net revenue (PNR), floor price, and pricing unit.
Pricing type is either a fixed price flat rate or PNR. For fixed-price products, your per-unit revenue-sharing amount is the fixed price. If a product’s fixed price is $15, you pay Salesforce $15. For PNR-priced products, your revenue-sharing amount is the selling price multiplied by PNR. Let’s look at an example where the monthly selling price is $100 and the PNR is 15%. Your customer pays you $100 per month and you pay Salesforce $15 per month ($100 multiplied by 15%).
You decide the amount to charge your customers. What if you decide to give away a product for free? Does that mean you owe Salesforce nothing? Not necessarily. If it’s a PNR-priced product, check your product catalog to see if it has a floor price. That’s the lowest amount you owe Salesforce regardless of what you charge your customer. If it does, you pay Salesforce the greater of the two amounts—either the floor price or the selling price multiplied by PNR.
When calculating your invoice, also factor in the product pricing unit, per user or per org. If the product is priced per user, multiply the fixed price or PNR by the user quantity. If it’s per org, multiply by the org quantity, which should be one per order.
In Unit 1, we looked at the contract term default billing frequency. It’s the frequency Salesforce invoices you. Submit all orders for a billing period before the start of the next period to ensure you receive accurate invoices.
React to Customer Needs
For a newly released app, the bulk of your COA orders are for new customers. As your customer relationships mature, their app needs evolve, and you submit a wider variety of order types. In Unit 2, we stepped through how to create initial orders for new customers. Now let’s explore how to pick the correct order type to fulfill existing customers’ requests.
Add-On:
Order an additional product for an existing customer.
Customer Request: Your customer has an active installation of your original product and just ordered a second product.
Order Type: Add-on
Before You Submit: Verify that the product in the customer’s org is different than the one in the order.
Increase license quantity mid-contract.
Customer Request: Your mid-contract customer has an active installation for 250 licenses and wants to add 50 more at the same price.
Order Type: Add-on
Before You Submit: Verify that the customer’s active contract is for the product in the order and the new license price is the same as their original licenses.
Upgrade:
Switch a customer to a higher-priced product mid-contract.
Customer Request: Your mid-contract customer wants to switch to the product’s new version.
Order Type: Upgrade
Before You Submit: Verify that the product in the customer’s org is upgradeable to the product in the order.
Increase the price of an existing product mid-contract.
Customer Request: Your mid-contract customer wants to continue usage of your product, but you’ve decided to increase the licensing price.
Order Type: Upgrade
Before You Submit: Ensure your order includes all the products, licenses, and pricing the customer should have moving forward. Any products or licenses not listed on the upgrade order will be removed from the customer’s org.
Reduction:
Decrease license quantity on the contract renewal date.
Customer Request: Your mid-contract customer has an active installation for 250 licenses and wants to remove 50.
Order Type: Reduction
Before You Submit: Verify that the customer’s active contract is for more than 50 licenses and the product in their org matches the one in the order.
Renewal:
Change a product price on the renewal date.
Customer Request: You change a product’s price and must apply the new price on your customer’s contract renewal date.
Order Type: Renewal
Before You Submit: Verify that the product in the customer’s org matches the one in the order.
Restart a contract not set to auto renew.
Customer Request: Your customer wants to continue using your product after the end of their current contract, which is not set to auto renew.
Order Type: Renewal
Before You Submit: Verify that the product in the customer’s org matches the one in the order.
Cancellation:
Terminate a customer contract on the renewal date.
Customer Request: Your customer has an active installation for 250 licenses and wants to remove 250.
Order Type: Cancellation
Before You Submit: Verify that the product in the customer’s org matches the one in the order.
Selecting the right type is like picking the right tool for the job. To hammer in a nail, use a hammer, not a screwdriver. Likewise, if your customer wants to add a new product, use add-on, not renewal.
Not sure what type of order to submit? Use this handy COA Order Submission Guide tool.
Ensure Agreement Between the LMA and the COA
You use the License Management App (LMA) to manage your customers’ licenses and the COA to share their license info with Salesforce. Salesforce uses the COA order to generate your invoices. The data in the COA must always reflect the current number of licenses your customers use. If the LMA and COA get out of sync, your invoices also get out of sync with actual license use. Let’s look at how to keep them in sync.
In the COA, you can see customer details, including their product purchases. In the LMA’s support console, you can manage licenses in your customers’ orgs. When the LMA and COA match, you’re all set. Take a break to reward yourself for a job well done.
Don’t kick back for too long, though. Your app is a hit, and you must fill the valuable role of synchronizing COA license data with your customers’ LMA licenses.
To review COA license data, click the Customers tab in the COA’s primary navigation bar to display a list of customers. Select a specific customer Name (1) to load the customer detail page.
The detail page contains three sections: a Customer Overview section, Billing Information, and Products. Scroll down to the Products section. Here you see the products your customer is licensed to use (1), the Quantity of each (2), and the Total Price (3). This COA data is the invoicing source of truth, according to Salesforce. We use the total price to calculate your invoice, so it’s essential to update the COA as things change with your customers.
The product names on the customer details page (for example, Force.com Platform Unlimited Edition (Additional Admin) - OEM) are the official names from our pricebooks. They’re also the names we use on your revenue-sharing invoices.
Every product catalog is mapped to a specific pricebook entry. You can see the Product (1) to Pricebook (2) mapping in the Order Wizard when you add products to orders.
Compare COA data to your LMA records and your own records. Look for a mismatch—different COA and LMA license quantities—and fix them right away. The LMA is always correct. It’s the source of truth for your customer’s licenses.
If the LMA lists fewer licenses than the COA, submit a COA reduction order to remove the extra licenses. To avoid overcharging your customers and being overcharged yourself, promptly submit the order. Keep in mind that reductions are effective on your customer’s contract renewal date. You’re invoiced for the COA license quantity until the contract renews.
What if the LMA lists more licenses than the COA? You’re out of compliance with your Salesforce revenue-sharing agreement. To fix this, promptly submit an add-on order. Add-ons take effect as soon as Salesforce processes the order. If you submit an add-on order mid-contract, you’re invoiced only for the remaining contract duration. The invoice amount is prorated based on the service start date.
Correct COA data results in significant wins, accurate invoices, and your good standing as a partner. These are big wins. Plus, you spend less time on billing inquiries and invoice reconciliation and have more time to do what you do best—create awesome products and sell them to happy customers.
Congratulations! You’re now an order management superstar. Make the most of what you’ve learned. Use this module and the ISVforce Guide: Manage Orders as references as you grow and manage your thriving business.