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Implications of using Anchored + Incoherent

Before reading this article, an important distinction to make is that there are a couple of different types of product setups on Subbly. One of the most commonly used are adhoc and anchored. The third one, incoherent setup, can be used with both, but it's important to note that it interacts differently with each one of these and it carries some implications if it's used in conjunction with the anchored.

Main difference between the adhoc and anchored

The key difference between the two product setups is the use of specific billing and cut-off dates. While the ad-hoc setup is not reliant on those, on anchored it's mandatory which can work really well on a monthly basis but there's a caveat when you're looking to set up anchored + incoherent (meaning multiple shipments purchased in advance).

Anchored + incoherent

The cut-off date indeed plays a key role here. When a customer comes before the cut-off date, the shipping dates will be exactly as set in the product setup. While it works perfectly under such circumstances, the issue lies when a customer comes after the cut-off date on an anchored + incoherent.

Given that the cut off date serves as the last date the customer has to subscribe in order to be eligible in order to receive this payment's shipment(s), the situation where the customer subscribes after the cut off date means that the customer's first order will be scheduled for the next shipping period (which can be X months from now depending on your billing/shipping setup).

To further clarity the possible problem, let's take at the following example:

In this particular example subscribing before the cut off date (28th of March) will qualify the customer to receive his/her shipments in succession on the 1st of April, May and June. Customer will also be rebilled on the 25th of June as per the quarterly billing setup.

However, if the customer subscribes after the cut off date (after 28th of March), their shipments will be moved all the way to the next payment period (due to the customer subscribing this period's shipping period) and will be scheduled for the 1st of July, August and September. Consequently, the next renewal charge will fall no earlier than the 1st of October.

This is something we tried to explain as well by adding this small print on the product creation page:

Learn more on how cut off dates work in the separate article HERE.
When an account is on Advanced pricing plan it's possible to manually add the time of the day when the cut-off should end.

Alternative: Ad-hoc + incoherent

An alternative to this is to set up an ad-hoc incoherent setup, which allows more flexibility in this case. While not being tied to a specific billing or cut-off date, it operates per the shipping dates you've set. (if you have specific shipment dates set).

Most common example is that the customers comes after the first shipment and would like to start receiving as soon as possible! With the ad-hoc, if they missed the first shipment, they simply start from the 2nd one per the product set you have laid out and will not need to wait for the whole cycle to finish in order to start receiving their products.

Since it's a more complicated topic and not quite as straightforward or transparent as other parts of the setup, make sure to reach out to us on the support team 24/7 and will make sure to assist!

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