Introduction
In Docebo, course catalogs can be bundled together and sold via subscription plans in your Docebo platform. This article will outline how Superadmins and Power Users (if given specific permissions) can create and manage subscriptions, bundles, plans, and subscription records.
Prerequisites
The Subscriptions feature is available with the eCommerce Pack. Contact your Docebo representative for information about how to obtain it.
The catalogs that you include in a subscription must contain courses and learning plans that are for-purchase. See the article Selling content online with e-commerce for how to set up the e-commerce feature and assign a price to courses and learning plans.
Configuring subscription settings
Access the Admin menu, then press the Settings item in the Subscription section. Configure the following settings:
- Enforce seat limit.Sets whether user enrollments are blocked if there are not enough seats available. If you set No, users will be able to enroll in the courses or learning plans included in the bundle even when the seat limit is exceeded.
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Enforce licenses limit.Sets whether user associations are blocked if there are not enough licenses available. If you set No, users can be associated with the subscription even if the license limit has been exceeded.
Please note: The global settings you make here for Enforce seat limit and Enforce licenses limit determine the default value of the Enforce limit field when creating a new plan. However you can always change Enforce limit to Yes or No for any individual plan, irrespective of these global settings
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Enforce expiration dates. If this option is enabled, users cannot access the courses included in the subscription after the subscription expires, even if they are enrolled. Superadmins and Power Users can still assign seats and licenses, but the users will not be able to access the content. If this option is disabled users can still complete the courses in which they are enrolled even if their subscription has expired.
Please note: The Enforce expiration dates setting does not apply to enrollments resulting from enrollment rules. Such enrollments are not linked to the subscription, and so do not end when the subscription expires.
- Renewal method. Defines the default renewal method for subscriptions. You can choose to have manual or automatic renewals as the default setting. Automatic renewals will automatically take the payment method on the day that the subscription expires. Please note that Stripe is the only accepted payment method both for Automatic and Manual renewals at payment time. When using the Extended Enterprise app, make sure you configure the Stripe account in use in the main domain for all of the sub-domains for proper processing of the renewal payment.
- Allow licenses refunding. Increases the number of licenses if a user is removed from a subscription. This way, if a user gives up his or her license, you can give the free license to another user.
- Allow seats refunding. Increases the number of seats if a user is removed from a subscription. This way, if a user gives up his or her seat, you can give the free seat to another user. By enabling this option, the Block refund if the course is option will appear.
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Block refund if course is. Seat refund will not happen if the learners have either started or completed the course:
- Started. Seats cannot be refunded if the learners to whom they are assigned to have already started the course. This is the default option.
- Completed. Seats cannot be refunded if the learners to whom they are assigned to have completed the course.
Press Save Changes when you’re finished to save your settings. All of these settings are also available when configuring individual Extended Enterprise clients.
Creating bundles
The first step in creating a subscription is creating a bundle, which is a group of catalogs (composed of courses and learning plans) that you put together. You then assign the bundle-specific attributes in order for it to be sold via subscription plans. To create a bundle, access your Admin Menu. Press the Manage item in the Subscriptions area.
Press the plus button on the top right corner of the page. In the slideout panel, add the bundle name, code, bundle type, and description. The two different bundle types are:
- Seats. Each seat is a single enrollment for a single course within the bundle catalog. Seats are distributed individually on a user-to-course basis.
- Licenses. Each license provides access to the entire subscription. Once a Superadmin grants a license to a user, the user is then given access to all of the courses within the subscription, and can freely enroll in as many courses as desired.
Press Next and fill in the additional fields related to the bundle, if configured. Please note that you must fill in the mandatory additional fields in order to continue. Refer to the Creating Additional Fields for Bundles or Plans chapter of this article to learn more about creating and managing bundle additional fields.
On the same panel, you will be able to update the items included in the transactions linked to the bundle when catalogs are added or removed from the bundle by enabling the corresponding option. This means that the catalogs that are visible to users because they are part of the bundle will be automatically updated starting from when the option is enabled. Please note that this option is disabled by default. Refer to the corresponding section below to learn more about creating and managing bundle additional fields. Press Next to continue.
On the next page in the panel, select which groups or branches can view the bundle. You can select the option to include or exclude descendants of branches, if desired. Then, press Next. Add catalogs that you want to include in the bundle by selecting the checkbox next to the catalog name. You can filter catalogs and search for them as necessary using the search bar. Press Next.
New bundles are created as Unpublished. You can publish them only after associating them to a plan. Please refer to the next section of this article for further information on how to create a plan for your bundle. If you don’t publish the bundle, it is not available to sell.
Catalogs' visibility on bundles
When adding catalogs to a bundle, consider the following visibility rules:
- If you add catalogs to an existing bundle, the users who bought the bundle before the update will not see the catalogs you added. On the other hand, if you add courses and/or learning plans to a catalog included in a bundle, the users who bought that bundle before you updated the catalog will see the new courses and learning plans as available.
- When catalogs are added to a bundle, they inherit the bundle visibility. This means that if a user has no visibility on a catalog, and the catalog is added to a bundle the same user has visibility on, then the user will also gain visibility on that catalog. However, we strongly suggest keeping the visibility aligned between catalogs and subscriptions.
- If users are enrolled in a course or a learning plan of a catalog that is subsequently removed from the bundle by the Superadmin, the enrollment will be kept and the course or the learning plan will remain visible in their My Courses and Learning Plans page, even if the catalog to which they belonged is no longer visible in the Course Catalog page.
Tip: To avoid inconsistencies, when you include a catalog in a subscription bundle, make sure that all its courses and learning plans are available for purchase through e-commerce. It is not recommended to have free content within a catalog sold via subscription.
Creating and managing plans for bundles
Once your bundle is created, you can create plans for it. A bundle can have multiple plans (usually based on time or validity period). A plan is how you choose to sell the bundle to users.
Find your created bundle in the list of bundles on the Manage Bundle page. In the bundle row, press the item in the Plans column. On the Bundle Plans page for the bundle, you will see all of the plans that you’ve already created for the bundle, or an empty list if you haven’t created any yet. Click the titles of the columns to organize the plans accordingly.
To add a new plan, press the plus button at the top of the page. In the slideout panel:
- Enter the Plan name, Code, and Price.
- Set the Number of seats/licenses. Depending on the type of bundle this will determine either how many seats in courses (enrollments) or how many licenses to access the entire bundle are provided by this subscription.
- Set the time span of the subscription plan: in the Duration field select the desired units of time (days, months or years) and in the Validity period field enter the number.
→ Note that the validity period you set cannot extend beyond January 1, 2038.
The subscription bundle status will change to Expiring (visible to users) two days before the end of the validity period. - Choose the Renewal type (none, manual, or automatic). If you set none users can complete a one-time purchase of the plan. Note that the choice you set here will override the global setting in Renewal method.
→ Coupons can be applied to purchases of non-renewable subscription plans, provided the coupon is valid for all courses on the platform (option Assign this coupon to all of the existing and future courses and learning plans selected when configuring the coupon). - In Enforce limit set what happens when the specified number of seats/licenses is reached. If you choose Yes, further user enrollments or associations will be blocked. Note that whatever value you set here will override the global settings Enforce seat limit and Enforce licenses limit.
When you are finished, click Next.
On the next page in the panel, fill in the additional fields related to the plan (if configured), if desired. Please note that you must fill in the mandatory additional fields in order to continue. Refer to the Creating Additional Fields for Bundles or Plans chapter of this article to learn more about creating and managing plan additional fields. Then, press Confirm.
The plan will then appear in a list on the Bundle Plans page for the bundle. Each plan’s row in the list will show all of the configured details. Hover your mouse at the end of the plan’s row in the list and click on the ellipsis menu to edit or delete the plan. Click on Edit to change any of the details that you previously configured, then press Confirm when you’re finished.
If you want to delete a plan, you will be asked to confirm the action before your platform deletes the plan from the bundle.
Once the plan is created, if the plan is the first plan associated with a bundle, you can publish the bundle. Go back to the Manage Bundles page and click on the item in the Publish column to publish the bundle.
Creating additional fields for bundles or plans
You can also create and manage additional fields related to bundles or plans. To do so, access the Manage page for Subscription Plans from the Admin Menu. On the main Manage Bundles page, switch the Additional Fields tab at the top. In this tab, you will find all of the additional fields that you’ve created.
Press the filters item on the left side to filter which fields appear in the list based on whether they are fields for a bundle or for a plan. To create a new additional field, press the plus button in the top right corner, then press New Additional Field item that appears below.
In the slideout panel, begin by selecting whether the additional field is for a bundle or for a plan. Then, select the field language at the top by pressing the globe icon, then selecting your preferred language from the list. Next, select the field type from the Field Type dropdown menu: date (provides a calendar), dropdown field, or free text field.
Add a field name to the corresponding text field. For the dropdown field type, insert all of the dropdown elements into the corresponding text field, pressing the New Element button after each individual element, in order to add it to the dropdown menu.
Then, set whether this field is considered mandatory or not. If you enable this option, you must complete this additional field when creating a new bundle, plan, or transaction. When finished, press Create.
The additional field will now appear in the list, in the Additional Fields tab. Hover your mouse of the field’s row for the ellipsis icon to appear. From there, you can edit or delete the additional field. The field can now be assigned to a bundle or plan. Edit an existing bundle or plan, or create a new bundle or plan to use the additional field.
You can also manage the additional fields of a transaction. Refer to the Managing Transactions section for more information.
Managing bundles
Once you’ve created bundles (and plans for your bundles), you will find all of your bundles in a list on the Manage Bundles page (Admin Menu, Subscriptions section, Manage subitem). Each bundle’s row displays the bundle code, name, description, type, visibility, items inside the bundle, number of plans associated with the bundle, and whether the bundle is published or not.
Click on the element in the items column in the bundle row to manage the catalogs included in the bundle.
To publish an unpublished bundle, press the grey circle in the Published column, and change it into a green checkmark. Unpublish a bundle by pressing the green checkmark, and turning it back into a grey circle. If you see a yellow warning sign in the Published column, that means that your bundle is missing pieces in order for it to be publishable. Please reconfigure the bundle.
When placing your mouse over the bundle’s row in the list, an ellipsis menu will appear at the end of the row. Press the icon to see the dropdown menu. You can duplicate a bundle, which allows you to duplicate all settings related to the bundle, and change whatever is necessary. This option allows you to create similar bundles without repeating every step of the bundle creation process.
Press the Edit item to edit the bundle details or to automate the update of the catalogs included in the transactions linked to the bundle when the bundle content is changed. By selecting this option, the bundle content visible to the users will be kept aligned with the real content of the bundle starting from when this option is enabled. This will save you from having to manually edit the items related to the bundle on the Transactions page in the Subscriptions section
Please Note! that the Update the items included in the transactions linked to the bundle when the bundle content changes option is disabled by default and its activation does not trigger a synchronization between the bundle and the transactions. The transactions related to the existing bundle will only be updated when a catalog is added or removed from a bundle, the option does not work for additions or removals done prior to activating this option.
Select the Delete option to remove the bundle from your platform.
Subscribing to bundles as a learner
Learners can subscribe to bundles both inside and outside of the platform. Please note that an end-user will not see any subscription plans inside or outside of the platform unless the subscription plan has one licensed subscription available with a plan that has only one license, and the user must have assigned visibility by the Superadmin to view that subscription plan when the plan was configured. Refer to the chart below for more information.
Non-Authenticated User | Authenticated User | |
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End User | LICENSES Subscription 1 LICENSE Plan Associated to the ROOT branch and its descendants |
LICENSES Subscription 1 LICENSE Plan Associated to the branch of the user |
Power Users | LICENSES Subscription 1 LICENSE Plan Associated to the ROOT branch and its descendants |
All bundles are visible to assigned branches or groups |
Superadmins | LICENSES Subscription 1 LICENSE Plan Associated to the ROOT branch and its descendants |
All bundles |
Please Note! Coupons can be applied to the purchase of non-renewable subscriptions only. Coupons cannot be applied on renewal types manual or automatic.
Notes on subscribing from external catalogs
If you are planning to sell your plans from a public catalog, remember the following:
- Make sure you activate public catalogs as described in the Managing Catalogs Settings chapter of the Knowledge Base article on catalogs.
- For the plan to be visible to everybody, the plan visibility has to include all users in the platform. To do so, from the Manage Bundle page, click on the item in the Visibility column of the bundle row, then click on the plus button in the top right corner of the page and make sure that the root branch and all the sub-branches are selected in the right panel.
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The public catalog page for subscriptions, shown in a tab on the pre-login page as Subscriptions catalog:
- only displays the license-based bundles. It will not display bundles that have been set up using seats
- only displays plans including one license. Multi-license plans are only available for purchase by Power Users and Superadmins, so they are not displayed on public catalogs, as users are not authenticated
Subscribing to bundles from inside the platform
Once logged into your Docebo platform, access your main menu, then press the Subscriptions Catalog item. On the subscriptions page, select which bundle interests you. In the bundle’s frame, select the What’s Included item to see which courses are included in the bundle. The courses will appear below. Press the Filters item to filter which courses you see based on catalogs, types, duration, or languages. Use the Search item to search for specific courses.
Press Choose Plan to select which plan you will subscribe to. Select your plan of choice. If you want to pay via credit card, press the Pay With Stripe button, add your payment info in the pop-up box, then press Pay. Once payment is complete, you will see your subscription in the My Subscriptions area of your platform.
If the plan is not renewable, you can pay via wire transfer. Select Wire Transfer to be redirected to the order confirmation page, showing the bank details to execute the wire transfer. Click Order Details for a detailed view of your transaction, your billing information, and your bank account details. You can print or save this page from your browser.
Depending on how the Superadmin configured the platform, you may also receive a notification (New wire transfer transaction) with the bank details, to proceed with your payment. As an option, you may also receive the Wire transfer transaction marked as paid notification when the payment is confirmed and the Wire transfer transaction canceled notification when the payment is refused, instead.
Subscribing to bundles from outside the platform
On the login page of the platform, select which bundle interests you from the catalog section. In the bundle’s frame, select the What’s Included item to see which courses are included in the bundle. The courses will appear below. Press the Filters item to filter which courses you see based on catalogs, types, duration, or languages. Use the Search item to search for specific courses.
Press Choose Plan to select which plan you will subscribe to. Select your plan of choice, then press the Pay With Stripe button. You then need to log into the platform using your platform credentials, then press Sign In. Next, add your payment info into the pop-up box, then press the Pay button. Once payment is complete, you will see your subscription in the My Subscription area of your platform.
Managing your subscriptions as a learner
Once you’ve purchased a subscription, you will see it in the My Subscription area of your platform, which is accessible by pressing the corresponding button in the header.
→ The My subscription area is visible only if you purchased your subscription on your own. If your subscription was bought by another user, then it will not be visible.
In this area, you can renew or terminate the subscription, or assign or unassign users from the bundle (for Power Users).
Please note that if you terminate a subscription with automatic renewal, then that subscription can no longer be renewed. You will have to buy a new one.
After purchasing a subscription, all of the courses in that bundle will be accessible via the catalogs that were in the bundle you purchased. From there, you can directly enroll in the courses of your choosing. Please note that the learner must have visibility of the catalog in order to see and enroll in the courses. If you see one of the courses from your subscription in an internal catalog, it will be labeled as Free, so you won’t need to purchase the course again.
Managing transactions
To manage transactions for your sold plans, press the Transactions item in the Subscriptions section of your Admin Menu. On this page, each transaction equals one sold plan, with one record per row. Each record will show the creation date, transaction code, to whom the subscription was sold, the expiration date, bundle name, plan name, number of renewals of the purchase, and status.
Search for a specific record using the search bar, or filter which records you see in the list using the Filters button in the top left corner of the page. In the slide-out section, press the Add Filters button, then select which fields you want to select and press Confirm.
Press the Columns icon in the top left corner to select which columns you want to view in the records list. Once you press the column title (if the column is active already), it will change to grey, and the column will be removed completely from the list, and vice-versa. You can press the column title again to add a column. At the bottom of the slideout menu, press the Reset to Default View button to return to the original column view for the records lists.
By placing your mouse over the record in the list, you will see the menu icon at the end of the row. Press the menu icon, then select an action from the dropdown menu:
- Renew. By pressing this item, a slide-out form will appear, confirming the details of the record. By renewing a record, you cannot change the details of the transaction, but you can add notes, as desired. When finished, press Confirm at the bottom of the form. Please note that this is only applicable if the sold plan is not set to be automatically renewed (otherwise the Confirm button is disabled). This option is deactivated for non-renewable plans.
- View Note. By pressing this item, you will see any notes related to the record. You cannot edit the notes with this item.
- Modify Items. By pressing this item, you can manually add or remove catalogs for a specific record. Please note that if the Update the items included in the transactions linked to the bundle when the bundle content is changed option has been enabled during the creation/edit phase of a bundle, the content of the transactions will always be aligned to the real content of the bundle starting from when this option is enabled.
- Edit Sold To. By pressing this item, you can modify to whom to plan is sold by changing either the branches or the users.
- Edit Info. By pressing this item, you can edit all of the information associated with the record.
- Delete. By pressing this item, you will delete the transaction record from your platform. This action cannot be undone.
To view renewal information, press the renewals icon in the corresponding column in the record’s row. In the pop-up box, each date will have its own section. Press the arrow next to the date to view the renewal details. Press the Manage Sold Plans button to return to the list of all records.
To activate or deactivate a record, press the checkmark in the Status column of a record’s row.
Creating transactions for branches and groups of users
You can manually create a transaction of a plan sold to branches and groups of users. To do so, press the plus button in the top right corner of the Manage Transactions page, then click on New Transaction. In the slideout panel, begin by selecting which bundle and plan to include in the transaction using the corresponding dropdown menus.
Then, add the transaction name, price, code, start and end date, amount of sold plans, and whether you want to activate this record upon creation. You can also add notes related to the transaction. Then, press Next.
Now, fill in the bundle or plan additional fields you want to include in the transaction. Please note that any additional fields coming from the bundles or plans that you selected in the transaction will be pre-filled, but you can edit them as necessary. Refer to the corresponding section of this article to learn more about creating and managing additional fields. Then, press Next.
On the next page in the panel, select which groups or branches apply to the transaction. You can select the option to include or exclude descendants of branches, if desired. Then, press Next. Add catalogs that you want to include in the transaction by selecting the checkbox next to the catalog name. You can filter catalogs and search for them as necessary using the search bar. Press Create.
The created transaction will now appear in the list on the Manage Transaction page. Refer to the Managing Transactions section of this article to learn more.
Please Note! Any manually created transactions will need to be manually renewed. They will not automatically renew.
Creating transactions of sold plans for single users
To manually create a transaction of a sold plan for a single user, press the plus button in the top right corner of the Manage Transactions page. Click on New Individual Transaction.
In the Information section of the slideout right panel, either type the username or the email address of the user associated with the transaction, and select one of the available users proposed by the autocomplete function.
Select which bundle and plan to include in the transaction using the corresponding dropdown menus. Add the transaction name, price, code, start and end date, amount of sold plans, and whether you want to activate this record upon creation. You can also add notes related to the transaction. Then, press Next.
Now, fill in the bundle or plan additional fields you want to include in the transaction. Please note that any additional fields coming from the bundles or plans that you selected in the transaction will be pre-filled, but you can edit them as necessary. Refer to the corresponding section of this article to learn more about creating and managing additional fields. Press Create to terminate the process.
The created transaction will now appear in the list on the Manage Transactions page. Refer to the Managing Transactions section of this article to learn more.
Please Note! Any manually created transactions will need to be manually renewed. They will not automatically renew.
Managing seats and licenses for subscriptions
For Superadmins and Power Users with permission to manage seats for courses, access the Manage Seats page from the corresponding item in the E-Learning section of the Admin Menu. On this page, each transaction has its own row.
Each row displays the purchase date, transaction code, name, type of purchase (seats or licenses), number of licenses or seats that have been assigned, associated users, enrollments completed, the expiration date of the transaction, and the number of renewals.
Click on the ellipsis button at the end of the transaction row to perform one of the following actions:
- Renew: use this option to manually renew the licenses linked to the transaction
- Enroll Users: use this option to enroll users in the courses included in the purchased subscription. Select which branches, users, or groups to enroll in the slideout panel. Press Next to continue and select the courses you want to enroll the users into. Press Next to proceed. Then, assign a level for the users. If desired, select the option to set enrollment deadlines, then insert the activation and expiration dates. When finished, press Confirm.
- Assign Licenses: use this option to assign the licenses purchased with the transaction to your users, so that they can enroll in courses.
- Unassigning Licenses: use this option to unassign the licenses assigned with the transaction by selecting the users previously assigned to the license in the right panel. When you perform this action, the users enrolled in the courses and learning plans through the license can no longer access that content. The course and learning plan cards are locked and their enrollments are marked as expired on the date when you unassigned the license. To admit the user back to the locked content, edit their enrollment in the Enrollments tab for courses and in the Assign users section for learning plans by changing the end of validity date.
When a user has direct visibility on a catalog, and a subscription including that catalog is purchased for the branch the user belongs to:
- if the user has no seat or license assigned to any of the items included in the catalog, then they may not see any free item included in the catalog from the Course catalog page even when enrolled in the courses and/or learning plans included in the catalog.
- If the user has seats or licenses assigned for the courses included in the catalog, they can see only those courses on the Course catalog page
Subscription plans and Power Users
When working with Power Users, please consider the following scenarios:
- If a Power User is expected to assign seats for courses, the following Power User profile configuration is necessary:
- The Power User must have View permission for courses.
- The Power User must have View permission for users.
- The Power User must have View permission for enrollments.
- The Power User must have Manage Seats permission for subscriptions.
- The Power User must have visibility to the courses in the bundle.
- The Power User must have View permissions on groups to be able to select them from the dedicated dropdown menu during the purchase process.
- If Power Users are expected to enroll users in the learning plans included in subscription plans:
- If Power Uses have Manage Seats permission for subscriptions and Create and Edit permissions for enrollments, they can enroll users both in the learning plans assigned to them via the Power Users maintenance and in the learning plans included in the subscriptions they purchase (even if not directly assigned to them)
- If Power Users have Manage Seats permission for subscriptions but they do not have Create and Edit permissions for enrollments, they can only enroll users from the Manage Seats menu, only for the learning plans included in the subscriptions purchased by Power Users
- If Power Users do not have Manage Seats permission for subscriptions but have Create and Edit permissions for enrollments, they can only enroll users from the Learning Plan management, only for the learning plans assigned to them
- If Powers Users can manage seats from the corresponding platform menu, they are allowed to assign and unassign licenses to and from plans. When they unassign licenses, the counter of the Assigned column is not updated until a Superadmin unassigns the same licenses, thus confirming the action of the Power Users. The counter of the Associated Users column is updated, instead.
- Power Users can create subscriptions via the Subscriptions > Transactions management page.
- A Power User can only renew their own subscriptions (either via the Subscriptions > Transactions management page or through the Manage Seats management page).
- In case the Power User paid for the subscription, then the renewal will trigger a payment.
- If Power Users are expected to purchase seats and licenses for their assigned users, Stripe must be enabled as a payment gateway and the Renewal Method must be set either as Automatic or as Manual (it cannot be set as None).
Notifications
If you want your users and managers to immediately know when certain events have occurred, make sure that the Notifications app is active in your platform, and that you have correctly created and configured the notifications for subscription plans.
Best practices
- Once a course has been purchased via subscriptions, the learner will see that each course or learning plan card included in the subscription displays the Subscribed label. This will change to Enrolled in the event that the learner enrolls.
Tips & tricks
- Since subscriptions can be linked to branches, if a user is removed from a branch associated with a subscription, he or she will no longer be able to use his/her subscription. Depending on whether the subscription is linked to seats or licenses, if the Allow seats refunding or the Allow licenses refunding option is active in the Settings menu of the Subscription section of the Admin menu, the user will be refunded for the subscriptions linked to courses not started or not completed. Subscriptions used for courses already completed will not be refunded.