Getting Started with Customer Transfer

This guide provides a comprehensive overview to facilitate customer transfers by adhering to Chargebee's operational standards and ensuring business continuity.

Prerequisites

Before leveraging this feature, it is crucial to meet specific requirements to ensure a successful transfer:

• User Permissions: Ensure you have the appropriate permissions, typically restricted to Site Admins or Owners, to initiate customer transfers.
• Data Mapping: Prepare necessary customer data to map the destination business entity accurately.

During the transfer process:

• Entity Selection: All business entities within the same site will be available in the Source & Destination dropdowns. Note: The source and destination entities must be distinct.

Operational guidelines: To maintain system harmony and avoid conflicts:

• Avoid Simultaneous Operations: Refrain from performing other customer transfer operations concurrently.
• Site-level Locks: Beware of the site-level locks that prevent concurrent operations, which are vital for a seamless transfer.

Status Checks and Validations

Embarking on a customer transfer within Chargebee's Multi-Business-Entity framework necessitates a comprehensive understanding of the various validation and verification steps integral to the workflow. This section details these critical checkpoints to ensure a smooth and compliant transfer process.

• Customer Active Status: Ensure that the customer is in an active status before initiating the transfer.
• Subscription Status Requirements: Subscriptions eligible for transfer should be in one of the following statuses: active, future, paused, or metered.
• Handling Trial Subscriptions: For customers with trial subscriptions, defer the transfer until the trial period concludes. The transfer can proceed once the trial has ended.
• Account Hierarchy Considerations: If the customer is part of an account hierarchy, all such relationships must be dissolved before the transfer.
• Billing Cycle Alignment: Verify that the billing cycle of subscriptions earmarked for transfer aligns with the transfer date. Subscriptions that align will be transferred to the destination entity, while others remain at the source entity for the current billing cycle.
• Closing Pending or Metered Invoices: Address any pending metered invoices in a draft state by marking them as "Payment Due" to ensure a seamless transfer.
• Management of Unbilled Charges: Invoice any unbilled charges at the subscription or customer level before initiating the transfer. If invoicing is not feasible, these charges should be deleted.
• Application of Refundable Credits: Apply any refundable credits to unpaid invoices before the transfer.
• Handling of Excess or Unused Payments: Manually apply excess or unused payments to existing unpaid invoices. Failing to do so will result in automatic application to outstanding invoices.
• Dealing with Open and Accepted Quotes: Document the details of any open and accepted quotes. Customers with such quotes should not be part of the transfer process.
• Contract Term Constraints: Ensure that the transfer of customers does not conflict with existing contract terms. Transfers should ideally occur at contract renewal, usually coinciding with a new billing cycle.
• Advanced Invoices Check: Customers with advanced invoices, either existing or scheduled, are not eligible for transfer.
• Transaction Review: Examine customer transactions for any marked as in progress. Only customers with resolved transactions are eligible for transfer.
• Unpaid Invoices and Authorization Transactions: Scrutinize for any outstanding invoices and authorization transactions with a non-zero "amount_capturable" and a "success" status. Customers meeting these criteria are not eligible for transfer.
• Gift Subscriptions: Before transferring customers between business entities, ensure they do not have unclaimed gifts. The customer can only be moved after all associated gifts are claimed or canceled.

The process would proceed with the customers who pass the above validation checks and exclude those who fail.

Transfer Customers

To transfer customers from one business entity to another, follow these steps:

1. Log in to your Chargebee Site as a Site Admin or Owner.

2. Navigate to Customers and click Transfer Customers.

   

3. On the Transfer Customers page, use the dropdown options to select your SOURCE ENTITY and DESTINATION ENTITY and click Select Customers. You can also create a new destination business entity by clicking New Entity in DESTINATION ENTITY dropdown.

   

4. Select one or more customers to transfer to the destination business entity, and click Check Eligibility. You can use this screen's search or filter option to select any specific entity.

   
   1. If the customers are eligible to transfer, a message displays saying All customers are eligible to be transferred; click Transfer customers.
      
   2. Otherwise, you will see a message saying customer isn't eligible to be transferred. Click Skip ineligible customers & proceed to unselect the ineligible customers, and click Transfer customers.

5. Click Confirm.

   

   You have to restart from Step 4 again if any message says Unable to transfer customers. Please start over.

   

6. Click View in Destination Entity to check the transferred business on the destination entity's Customer Index page. Learn more about Data Management Navigation.

   

How it Works

The feature operates in two modes:

• Manual Process: For transferring up to 100 customers directly via the Chargebee user interface, ideal for a small number of customer transfers.
• Batch Process: Use the batch process with CSV data upload for larger transfers (coming soon).

Limitations

When conducting transfers, be mindful of:

• Batch Size and Frequency: Each individual customer record can only be transferred between entities a maximum of three times per calendar year. This limit includes both initial transfers and any subsequent transfers of returning customers to their previous business entity. Adhering to this limitation is crucial for maintaining data accuracy, ensuring financial stability, optimizing operational efficiency, and simplifying tracking and reporting.
• Data Accuracy: Ensure all customer data is up-to-date and avoid simultaneous operations involving the same customer group.
• Resource Dependency: Customer transfer operations are subject to the existing workflows and resource dependencies within your Chargebee setup. Before initiating transfers, review this documentation to understand the associated workflows and ensure compatibility with the business entity configuration.