Community - About AmyLy

AmyLy · ‎05-20-2020

Q: Can I get the JSON for the sample workflow discussed? A: Please see the following: Discount Workflow Specific Steps and Instructions JSON Recall Workflow JSON Rollout Workflow Q: I have never used zuora before - where do I find out more information about Workflow? A: Here are some great place to start: Knowledge Center: Getting Started with Workflow https://knowledgecenter.zuora.com/Central_Platform/Workflow/C_Get_Started_with_Workflow/A_Zuora_Workflow_Overview Q: Are the Workflow tabs that are showing tied to user permissions or will the Workflow user see everything? A: The Workflow tabs are not tied to user permissions yet. We are working to add that level. Currently, Workflow users will see everything. Q: Is there a way to CC additional teams at my company (like finance or sales) with notifications from Workflow? A: Please see this Knowledge Center article about email notifications in Workflow: https://knowledgecenter.zuora.com/Central_Platform/Workflow/Workflow_tasks/IA_Email Q: On an ME environment, is it better/more efficient to perform a product update using Workflow from the Global entity to update the products so they can be dropped down to child entities, or running Workflow from individual entities to get the updates done? A: This will depend on your specific set up and use case. There may be cases where it is better to perform an update using Workflow from the Global entity but there are considerations such as timing of the change and when the child entities should be inheriting the changes. Please check with your team to determine the path for your use case. Q: What happens if we use Workflow and realize we made a mistake? How do we revert the change if something goes wrong with an update job or task? A: Workflow is a way to execute APIs, so the same principles that apply to APIs apply to workflows. There should be proper testing in your API Sandbox environment prior to ensure everything works as desired. Q: What are the advantages of setting a global constant? A: Global constants in Workflow are encrypted parameters that are valid for all workflows in a Workflow instance. A good scenario for using global constants is to record credentials for systems that you need to integrate Zuora with. Q: How long are tasks stored? A: For the Production environment, the default setting is 45 days. You can configure this time range from 1-90 days. Q: Can I call SFDC with Workflow? A: Yes! Please see this Knowledge Center article for more information: https://knowledgecenter.zuora.com/Central_Platform/Workflow/Using_Workflow/Make_API_Calls_to_Salesforce_from_Workflow Q: Can I use a microservice to call into Zuora to initiate a Workflow? A: Yes, Workflow has a set of APIs that can be used to trigger certain Workflow actions such as ‘Run a Workflow.’ You will need to use the OAuth endpoints. Please refer to this Knowledge Center article for more information: https://knowledgecenter.zuora.com/Central_Platform/Workflow/Using_Workflow/Use_Workflow_APIs Q: Can Zuora Data Query be accessed via Workflow? A: Yes, there is a Zuora Data Query task that can be accessed via Workflow: https://knowledgecenter.zuora.com/Central_Platform/Workflow/Workflow_tasks/AC_data_query

AmyLy · ‎05-19-2020

How to Leverage Zuora Revenue (RevPro) Reporting to Make Strategic Decisions - Q&A Q: What comes OOTB with the Zuora Revenue Product for Analytics? A: Revenue powered by RevPro has 50 standard and operational reports that can be personalized by each user to create different views. Revenue Waterfall, Revenue Contract Roll-Forward are examples of the most commonly used report for month end close processes. Contract modification reporting is another good example - if there are any amendments that cause changes to revenue - there are a lot of different reports that enable you to see the implications of these changes proactively. Q: Where is the best place to start with reporting if you are new to Zuora Revenue? A: Zuora Knowledge center has a full list of reports and descriptions. Identify key reports that you want to use to reconcile data and close the revenue accounting period. Learn to navigate the layouts and create views for stakeholders. Work with Reports https://knowledgecenter.zuora.com/Zuora_Revenue/Reports/A_Run_Reports Report Reconciliation https://knowledgecenter.zuora.com/Zuora_Revenue/Reports/Report_reconciliation Q: Where can I get more training on Zuora Revenue functionality and reports? A: Zuora University https://university.zuora.com/ You can find self paced courses and tailored training options.

AmyLy · ‎05-13-2020

As companies adjust to COVID-19, revenue is a lagging indicator of the impact on your business. It’s now as important as ever to report on these impacts accurately so that you can leverage this data to make strategic financial decisions. For customers using Zuora Revenue (formerly known as RevPro), there is an array of data and reports available to help you understand and analyze the data. In this session, we’ll show you how to use this information. Over 40 customer attendees joined experts from our customer success, global implementation, and Subscribed Institute strategy teams to demo best practices, answer questions, and facilitate peer-to-peer discussions. Attendees got the opportunity to: Learn how other companies are using Zuora Revenue (RevPro) to report on revenue and make strategic business decisions Hear from Zuora Revenue experts on financial operations and revenue accounting practices Learn how to immediately take advantage of this capability in Zuora Revenue (RevPro) We started with a 30-minute general session presentation on the subject, and then broke out into smaller "rooms" for further discussion and Q&A. Here you'll find: The slides that were presented in the general session The recording of the general session A written Q&A doc on the topic, summarizing questions that were asked and answered during and following the session ( in comment below ) Thank you to those who took part, and we hope this was a useful topic and format for you. Please let us know any feedback. Stay safe and well! Presentation Slides Recording Video

AmyLy · ‎04-05-2019

@MK_STP - since things are in development right now, there is functionality that is still changing. That being said, we may be opening up for beta testing in the near future. If you're interested in potentially being one of these early testers, send me a message and we'll put you on an interest list.

AmyLy · ‎04-03-2019

@christopherduke / @jtvega / @MK_STP -- We're working on another method that will allow you to tie these tables (as well as numerous others) together. Look for an update around our Subscribed event for more details! (Check the page out to register!)

AmyLy · ‎04-03-2019

@mariannhajas - sorry for the delay! I didn't see that this thread had a follow-up. The default "Standard" role under the Platform option does have API Write-access enabled. Unfortunately, there isn't an easy way to validate if an API user has sent over any calls so you'd have to check your code for that.

AmyLy · ‎01-31-2019

@hbahjawi - there should be no differences (as far as I know) between the different versions of Zuora. Just as a note, Zuora does monthly releases for the core that are pushed to customers so everyone is on the same version. If you haven't already, I would recommend signing up for the Release Notifications and Zuora Announcement boards under the "Announcement" area of Community. You'll be emailed any updates to those boards.

AmyLy · ‎08-09-2018

@ilya_y If you're looking to bill as they have been consumed, many customers take advantage of setting up an usage charge. Usage charges are billed in arrears (after the hours/units have been consumed) and can be set up in various ways. The model you're talking about is a classic model where you load and bill them at the end of a specified period. For example: Your customer is going to be billed $150/hr of consulting services. In July, the customer consumed a total of 6 hours: 2 hours on July 6 3 hours on July 10 1 hour on July 23 You load in the total of 6 hours into Zuora in a usage file on August 1st and when you generate your next invoice, you will see a charge that has the following: 6 hours consumed @ $150 hours = $900 for the period July 1st-July 31st. When you set up this type of usage, you will be able to specify and associate it with an accounting code and revenue distribution model to recognize that within the period they are being billed for (recognize upon invoicing). Here are some additional references: Product Catalog Concepts Charge Models Usage Charges Revenue Models

AmyLy · ‎05-16-2018

@ilya_y - Just curious about a few things as you are starting to set up your Consulting Services product. What time of charge model are you considering? Are you going with a predetermined bucket of hours, billed in advance? The tracking/consumption of those hours is outside of Zuora Are you thinking of a predetermined bucket of hours and any additional hours billed extra after they consume said hours (included units + overage) Are you going with bill upon use where maybe they negotiate a flat fee of $500 bucks for 10 hours and every hour used after that is going to be at a different rate (recurring charge + usage charge) Are you looking at something else entirely?

AmyLy · ‎05-14-2018

This is a fantastic thread! Here's one that I've seen customers use when looking at a lot of invoices: Instead of searching for the invoice using the search bar, click into any invoice from the invoice screen, and just edit the URL with the invoice you're looking for: This tends to be faster for me than searching.

AmyLy · ‎05-09-2018

@EllieMatthewman - unfortunately the password expiry setting is at the tenant-level so there isn't an option to disable for just a single UI user.

AmyLy · ‎05-09-2018

@PaulOSull - the short answer is no on the naming. Here's why: because the subscription has inherited values from the product catalog at a particular point in time, all the details associated (like the rate plan name, for example) are grandfathered in for historical tracking purposes. The only way to get the new name reflected on existing subscriptions is to do a "remove product" amendment and then a "new product" amendment to bring back in the same charge with the updated name. Connect Developer Tools can help you do this with the amendment loader, however I usually warn folks that this is a project and should be done with care since removing and adding things mid-term may cause prorations lines that you would have to explain to customers. While the value of the charge change should net out to zero, sometimes the end customer may still get confused.

AmyLy · ‎05-09-2018

@josemark - there is! To disable the password expiration, do the following: Log in as an administrator account Click on your name and go to "Administration" settings Click on "Security Policies" Change the "Password Expiration" to "Never" Now, having shared this, I'm going to have to state the usual disclaimers. It is recommended that you still change your password on a regular basis for general security purposes. Should your sandbox be compromised, there is no way the Zuora team would be able to recover any lost information you've done in the course of testing.

AmyLy · ‎04-26-2018

@mschmitt1/ @SandyKing/ @heatherkunz, Thanks for all the interest! The Zuora folks are working on user group scheduling for the next few months and we'd love to have something in your area. There are a few things we need to make user groups happen: Minimum of 15-20 customers in attendance A company in the local area to host the event If you would be willing to host, please let me know via private message and we can get the conversation started!

AmyLy · ‎03-26-2018

@Bharath - This may be what you're looking for: Manually Create Revenue Schedules for Subscription Charges If you're looking to recognize the whole amount that would be invoiced for in 12 months ($1,000/month x 12 = $12,000) and have that distributed out across 15 months ($12,000/15 = $800/month) then you may be looking at the Unlimited Recognition Model. Using this model, you'll be able to create a revenue schedule from the subscription charge level without needing to wait for invoice generation.

AmyLy · ‎03-23-2018

Hey @ShahinKohan, So turning this on will add a few additional data sources to your view (both in the Data Sources area as well as Reporting). Here's what it looks like in Data Sources: In Reporting, you can build a basic report using the Orders MRR data source. Here is the filter I use to build a basic one that breaks it down by rate plan charge: Here's an example of what the results look like: Hopefully, this gives you a good start to get in there and experiment with the report!

AmyLy · ‎03-15-2018

@prad - you won't need the subscriptionID because the charge number is a unique value associated with that specific rate plan charge which is associated only with that subscription.

AmyLy · ‎02-17-2018

Response: For this particular scenario, here are the facts: Customer will start a free trial on 1/26/2018 (contract effective date) The customer is not supposed to be billed until 2/9/2018 (service activation date) The way the customer is set up, the charge's billing day is set to default from the customer account (in this case, the billing day on the account level is the 9th to mirror the original service activation) On 2/2/2018, the customer wishes to upgrade immediately to the full version. Here's how to take care of this: 1) Because billing has not yet to occur, you still have the ability to edit the Activation Dates. Go into the subscription and click on the Set Activation Date button. The following screen will appear: Change the Service Activation and Customer Acceptance Date to 2/2/2018 2) Now you will need to make a change which will change when the subscription ends– which should now be changed to the 2nd of the following year instead of the 9th. To do that, you will need to do a Terms and Conditions (T&C) Amendment. Update the term start value to update the end date. When you set the contract and service activation dates for this, make sure to set it to 2/2/2018. 3) The third step is now to update the customer’s bill cycle day at the account level. This is because you have the subscription set to “default from customer account” for the rate plan charge billing day. If you leave it as is, it will use the 9th as the billing day. If you don’t make the change, the bill will be the right amount, but you’ll see it does a funky proration: What you want is this (single line with the term correctly displayed to start this initial billing):

AmyLy · ‎02-17-2018

Question: During a two-week free trial (14-days), we have some customers that wish to purchase during that free trial period. Ideally, we'd like the subscription to start immediately and have that be the new start of the official subscription. How can we accomplish this given the fact that we originally set our product to start triggering upon the Service Activation date?

AmyLy · ‎02-13-2018

Hi @avi91 - I think part of it is the Update Subscription itself. I went through and read a bit and it says that this is supposed to be used for the following: Use this call to make the following kinds of changes to a subscription: Add a note Change the renewal term or auto-renewal flag Change the term length or change between evergreen and termed Add a new product rate plan Remove an existing subscription rate plan Change the quantity or price of an existing subscription rate plan I believe you can use update subscription to change something on the existing subscription rate plan, but you'd need to wrap it up like this: { "update": [ { "chargeUpdateDetails": [ { "quantity": 100, "ratePlanChargeId": "2c92c8f83dcbd8b1013dcce0eb555555" } ], "contractEffectiveDate": "2018-02-13", "ratePlanId": "2c92c8f83dcbd8b1013dcce0ea7e4444" } ] }

AmyLy · ‎02-13-2018

Hi @avi91, So you may be getting this message for a couple of reasons and it doesn't necessarily mean it's an API issue, rather a Zuora behavior. You can only update a subscription's serviceActivationDate if the subscription has not yet been invoiced or an amendment has been created. If you've done either of those, the contractEffecitveDate, serviceActivationDate, and customerAcceptanceDate can not be updated. If the subscription that you're testing is completely new, then you should be able to update that. If the error is still coming up, you'll also need to add in customerAcceptanceDate because the customerAcceptanceDate must be equal to or later than the serviceActivationDate.

AmyLy · ‎02-09-2018

@MaggieL - I was curious if you ever got this working.

AmyLy · ‎02-08-2018

Hey @swoda, I'll help out with that. I think we can consolidate the threads we have via an email on our next call. Best, Amy

AmyLy · ‎01-29-2018

@thooker, for new accounts, the method described above will not work; it is meant more for updating data on existing customer accounts. One thing that customers have done to work with the ID requirement is to do the following: Create the basic account first so you can get a unique ID Use the method described in the post to load in all the other details. Depending on what you're trying to accomplish with account creation, it may be easier to develop thing to do the account creation via API. A third option is if you have Zuora Connect's Developer Tools which does have an Account API Loader which will allow you to create and edit account details via a CSV file. The tool itself does a lot more (info here) and if you're interested, I'd contact your Customer Success representative.

AmyLy · ‎01-26-2018

@ShahinKohan, It sounds like having metrics that can include discounts is important for you. Have you heard anything about Order Metrics? The reason I ask is because if you are able to enable it (with the current known limitations), you are able to access a few data sources that can get you those net numbers.

AmyLy · ‎01-26-2018

The short answer to the questions are: Yes, you can edit the standard reports. No, you will not accidentally save over the default reports. These reports will only allow you to "save as" which means you can edit to your heart's content, and then keep a personal copy that doesn't mess with the out-of-the-box one. Now how would you actually go about doing this? It's fairly simple! Go find a standard report (List of available reports here) and hit the edit button. Once you're in edit view, you can drag additional fields over, or toggle between the summary or detail view to build up both sides. This will be entirely up to you. When that is completed, go up and choose the "Save As" option, input a name, and choose the appropriate folder that you want to save it to. The system will default to your "My Reports" folder. Other resource links Customize a Standard Report

AmyLy · ‎01-26-2018

Question: Can I customize a standard report in Zuora? What happens if I accidentally save over the original report?

AmyLy · ‎01-17-2018

@btemko - I just saw your post, but I got an alert earlier today from the Zuora Status Page here: https://trust.zuora.com/ If you aren't already subscribed, I would recommend getting on the list so get updates.

AmyLy · ‎01-09-2018

Thanks for the post, @Azucena! Super interesting read, especially as someone who isn't familiar with any QA processes at all.

AmyLy · ‎01-09-2018

@mpastore, So changing your customers from evergreen to termed subscriptions will need to be a Terms & Conditions amendment change to all active subscriptions. You can do this via the mass order entry batch upload for amendments, but it sounds like you have access to the Zuora Connect Developer Tool. I find that the tool is much easier to use for these types of large-scale projects. If you're familiar with the tool, I would use the Amendment API loader, export out the subscriptions in question, and then use that data to get it into the right format for importing back for the Terms and Conditions type of update. The key field you'll be changing is: Subscription.TermType which will now be Termed. Things you'll want to consider: The length of your term (many that move from evergreen to termed just stick to a standard 12-month term/12 month renewal and set the subscription to auto-renew) Amendment contract effective date - this is the date the change will take effect and may cause billing implications depending on the types of rate plan charges on the actual subscriptions itself. TIming in general - are you going to be doing a hard cutover date for all existing subscriptions as of a particular date, or are you going to take into account original subscription start date and do it at a natural inflection point (ex. If the subscription was originally started 2-Feb-2016, you'll make this effective 2-Feb-2018), etc. As with all projects, I'd recommend testing in your sandbox first to ensure the basic Terms & Conditions changes does what you expect, and then I'd use the Connect Developer Tool and do a small batch of 5-10 records first to ensure it looks good before doing the big behemoth. Good luck!

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