Latest Product Catalog - FAQs

Problem Statement

You have questions about the Latest Product Catalog upgrade process, migration, and compatibility.

Solution

Additional Information

1. We want to move to the Latest Product Catalog. What is the process for upgrading to the Latest Product Catalog?

There are three stages to the the latest product catalog Upgrade:

1. Qualification (1 day-1 week)
2. Data Mapping (1-2 weeks)
3. Migration (1-3 weeks)

During the upgrade, you cannot make any changes to your Product Catalog and should plan on a two to six-week process. The timeframe depends on your response time, the complexity of your instance, and the current queue for Upgrading.

Qualification Stage: You control how quickly or slowly you move through this stage. You will communicate with your TSM, complete a qualification questionnaire, and sign a consent document.

Data Mapping Stage: (1-2 weeks) Our custom engineering team reviews your qualification checklist, asks questions and provides feedback about your instance for any items requiring further investigation. You will complete a Product Catalog Mapping sheet. The time needed for this step largely depends on the number of items in your Product Catalog. Once the Product Catalog Mapping sheet is finalized, you can only make changes to the Product Catalog after the Upgrade is complete. 1-2 Days: to Validate the Data on the sheet and confirm if we are good to proceed with the test migration

Migration: (1-3 weeks)

1-2 Days: Your Test site is cleared of data, and all product catalog data is transferred from Live to Test. This clean slate ensures we're testing the exact products on your Live site. You will update any APIs / drop scripts you utilize, perform testing, then upgrade your Live site. The test instance is upgraded, and test data migration. You will work closely with our custom engineering team to validate and test data. You will continue testing and provide your sign-off for the Live site migration. You validate and confirm the mapping sheet is still valid for Live migration.

1 Day: Live migration is performed. You're live site will be down for 2 hours max, and we will coordinate with you about the best time to complete this migration. You will need to deploy API / drop-in script changes to the Live Site at the same time

2. How long does the live migration process take? Will there be a service interruption for our customers with an active subscription?

We aim to keep Live site migrations under 2 hours of downtime for new customers. Please remember that the time taken is proportional to the amount of data on your Live Site. As a best practice, we suggest not using Chargebee Live Site during the migration, including new subscription sign-ups. Scheduled renewals will be unaffected.

3. How do I try out the features of the Latest Product Catalog? Why do I need to create a Latest Product Catalog Trial Site?

To be able to try the Latest Product Catalog features, Subscription behavior, and UI changes, you can create an additional trial site. Creating a Latest Product Catalog trial site is done the same way as any new Chargebee trial site:

1. To create a new trial site, access app.chargebee.com and click on SIGN UP.
2. You need to use an email that is not already attached to a Chargebee site.
3. If you do not have one, please add the '+' suffix followed by any number. For example: if the existing CB site is linked to sam@gmail.com, you can create a new trial site with the email sam+100@gmail.com. (Verification mail will still be sent to sam@gmail.com)
4. Verify the sign-up.
5. Invite the existing user to the new site: Navigate to Setup -> Team members -> Invite member -> Invite -> sam@gmail.com to the newly created site. Then you may follow the steps mentioned in this link and have the site ownership switched to the existing email address.
6. Send an email to your designated TSM to have the new site merged with your existing subscription with Chargebee. In the event that you do not have access to your TSM's email, please contact support and we will help with the next steps.

4. What changes do we need to make in order to move to the Latest Product Catalog?

Must change:*

• You will need to update these objects if you use Chargebee APIs for Checkout, custom integrations, or drop-in script.

• You will be upgraded to our new Leap UI, please review all changes, and update your documentation accordingly.

• If you have third-party integrations, they may not be compatible with the latest product catalog. Please ensure you list all integration on your "the latest product catalog Upgrade-Checklist".

• You must be on Salesforce Integration v1.48 or above

Encouraged to change:

• As a part of the latest product catalog Upgrade, you can merge Plans/Addons, which are the same product/service but have different currency/billing frequencies, into a single plan where the plans in the legacy product catalog become individual price points in the latest product catalog. Please review the Product Family structure for more information. *Please refer to "What causes the longer timeframe estimates in the upgrade process?" for more information.

5. How will this migration affect my existing subscriptions and customers?

Your customers will not notice any changes, though there will be a scheduled 2-hour outage (during live migration) that we'll coordinate with you. The Latest Product Catalog upgrade is a structural change to the Product Catalog. Actual Plan/Addon attributes like PLAN_ID/NAME/PRICE are not changed. Subscriptions and Invoices reference PLAN_ID to retrieve pricing and other data points from the product catalog. Under typical circumstances PLAN_ID remains the same.* Please review "Why am I being asked to changed my PLAN_IDs? - question no. 13.

6. Are all of my integrations compatible with the latest product catalog?

As a best practice, please list all integration on your Upgrade Checklist form provided by your TSM. This will allow us to identify any services not listed below as an exception.

• Time Machine: Blank slate time machine is compatible. Scenario-based time machine will be added back to the product in H2-2023

• Zapier and Stitch are fully compatible but will need to be disconnected prior to the latest product catalog Upgrade, and reconnected after the upgrade

• ReferralCandy is not compatible and there are no plans to support a native integration. Please connect with your TSM or Support if you use this integration.

• ActiveCampaign is not compatible at this time, a release is planned but not scheduled - Mailchimp is not compatible at this time, a release is planned but not scheduled

• Third-party build integrations will require you to contact the provider: Natero. Baremetrics, Groww, EagleEye, Pipe, and Encharge.

• Klaviyo integration can be achieved with a Zapier connection.

• Checkout via drop-in scripts is compatible. Script / URL-based integration for existing customers requires updating usage with the updated script & URLs

. - Checkout via API is compatible

• (Checkout New & Checkout Existing) However it requires existing customers to update the APIs that are consumed in case of API-based integration.

• Workflows will need to be updated to create Customer first then Subscription. Creation of a new subscription without the customer in the system is NOT going to be possible in the latest product catalog.

7. Can we make changes to our prices? Are changes to our pricing required for this Upgrade?

No, as a part of the the Latest Product Catalog upgrade, there will be no changes to the price of any plans, addons, or charges. If you want to make pricing changes, we recommend updating any pricing post-migration.

8. Can we change the structure of our product catalog as a part of the Latest Product Catalog migration?

The Latest Product Catalog Upgrade is a structural change to the product catalog, and below are the activities that can and can not be done as a part of the latest product catalog Upgrade.

What CAN be done:

1. Consolidating Plans with Unique Currency Codes and Billing Frequencies into one Plan in the latest product catalog allows you to have 1 Plan with multiple price points for the same product.

2. Remove Unused Plans/Addons that have never had subscriptions. To verify, you can check in the references field in the UI; if it's blank can be deleted.

What CAN NOT be done:

1. Consolidate Plans with the same Currency Code and Billing Frequencies into one Plan in the latest product catalog

2. Merge Plans

3. Ignore or leave out specific plans/addons

4. Create new item price IDs not existing on the legacy product catalog as PLAN_IDs (unless required to fit the new structure).

9. Can we leave our Archived Plans out of this migration?

No, because subscriptions and invoices records are likely linked to the plans and addons. So it is necessary to move all the plans and addons to the latest product catalog, including the archived ones. However, if no subscriptions are attached to the plans and addons that you do not want to move to the latest product catalog, you can delete them immediately in the legacy product catalog.

10. We have more than one Live Site with Chargebee, can we merge our sites as a part of the latest product catalog migration?

No, Site Merging is a separate activity that can be performed before or after the the latest product catalog Upgrade. Please, reach out to your TSM to request support from the migration team for this activity.

11. How can we test our code after the Upgrade on our Test Site? How do we test our customer-facing workflows?

You can test code changes and integrations by creating subscriptions on the Test site.

1. Test all API Calls on the Test Site

2. Test all Third Party Integration Data Sync on the test site by connecting your Third-party integrations sandbox account with your Chargebee test site

3. Validate the product catalog for all custom fields, attached addons/charges and JSON meta data

4. Test the subscription creation workflow by creating test customers/subscriptions

12. Are there possible blockers to upgrading to the Latest Product Catalog Upgrade? What can cause delays in the process?

In short, the complexity of your site setup is a good predictor of your migration timeline. Consider the following items when creating the timeline for the migration:

• You should be on Hosted Pages Version 3 to be compatible with the Latest Product Catalog, Hence this process should be completed before you initiate the latest product catalog upgrade process

• You need to upgrade API integrations to the new structure. Please review the details here.

• You have SFDC integration (Then Upgrade the SFDC Integration to V 1.48 and above)

• Plan ID changes are required. The latest product catalog does not support special characters (£, &, !, etc), or there are duplicate IDs between a plan and addons.

• Please refer to the question "Are all of my integrations compatible with the latest product catalog?" for more details.

• It is a best practice to list ALL integration that uses Chargebee Billing Data on your Qualification checklist.

13. Why do our plan, addon, charge IDs need to change?

In most migrations, your IDs stay the same. An ID needs to change only when two of your plans, addons, or charges share the same ID. When this happens, Chargebee adds an error resolution sheet to your Latest Product Catalog template that lists the suggested changes. You review them, and Chargebee applies the changes during migration. You don't need to make them yourself.

14. What if we face issues post-live migration, can we roll it back to the Legacy Product Catalog? What are the process and timeframe?

Rollback is possible, but the reason for the rollback must be analyzed. The typical time needed for rollback to the Legacy Product Catalog on a Live Site is 3-4 hours post identifying the root cause for the issue leading to the rollback, and depends on the amount of data.