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Manage subscription orders

A guide to managing subscription contracts, recurring billing, payments, renewals, cancellations, and KPI tracking in Sanka.

In a SaaS or subscription business, the key is not one-time order handling but the stable operation of ongoing contracts, recurring invoices, payments, and renewals. In Sanka, you can combine objects such as Subscription, Invoice, and Payment to manage subscription operations in one place. This page organizes a typical subscription management process in English.

End-to-end subscription management flow

The standard flow is:
  1. Register the subscription contract
    Record the plan, price, contract term, and billing cycle.
  2. Manage the billing schedule
    Decide when each billing period should be invoiced and prevent missed billing.
  3. Issue and send invoices
    Generate invoices for the target billing period and send them to customers.
  4. Record and reconcile payments
    Confirm incoming payments and reconcile them against invoices.
  5. Handle renewals, plan changes, and cancellations
    Manage upgrades, downgrades, renewals, and terminations.
  6. Monitor KPIs and accounting linkage
    Visualize metrics such as MRR, ARR, and churn, and connect billing data to accounting.

Step 1: Register the contract

Start by registering each customer contract in Subscription. Typical fields include:
  • Contract customer: Company / Contact
  • Plan or service type
  • Pricing model: fixed fee, usage-based, minimum charge, and so on
  • Billing cycle: monthly, quarterly, yearly
  • Start date, end date, and renewal pattern
With these fields defined, you can clearly understand who is on which plan, for what term, and at what price. Related pages:

Step 2: Manage the billing schedule

Based on the contract, decide when and for which period you should bill. Important operational points:
  • Standardize billing cycle rules, such as billing on the first day of each month or charging in arrears
  • Decide how to treat first invoices, prorated amounts, and setup fees
  • Clarify renewal-month billing rules and any increase or decrease in billed amounts
When contract and invoice data are connected in Sanka, it becomes easier to confirm whether a contract has already been billed and when the next invoice should be issued.

Step 3: Issue and send invoices

Once the target billing period is fixed, create an Invoice and send it to the customer. Before operating at scale, define rules for:
  • Showing the contract ID or plan name on the invoice
  • Clearly indicating the billing period, such as January 2025
  • Handling cases where multiple subscriptions are billed together
These conventions reduce customer confusion and unnecessary inquiries. Related pages:

Step 4: Record and reconcile payments

After invoicing, confirm incoming payments and record them in Payment. Typical operations:
  • Import payment data from bank statements or payment services
  • Track payment status by subscription or by customer
  • Extract unpaid or delayed invoices and follow up in a structured way
This makes it easier to identify customers with higher churn risk and understand which customer segments have stronger retention. Related pages:

Step 5: Manage renewals, plan changes, and cancellations

Subscription businesses depend on lifecycle management.
  • Renewals: manage renewal timing and deadlines
  • Upgrades / Downgrades: handle price differences and billing timing when the plan changes
  • Cancellations: record cancellation dates, reasons, and whether post-cancellation billing still applies
When this information is managed in Sanka, it becomes easier to analyze churn reasons and find upsell or cross-sell opportunities.

Step 6: KPI monitoring and accounting linkage

Finally, organize subscription-specific metrics and your accounting connection.
  • Visualize MRR, ARR, churn rate, LTV, and related KPIs in reports and dashboards
  • Send billing and payment data to accounting so revenue recognition and bookkeeping stay consistent
For the billing and reconciliation side, also review: Sanka’s subscription workflow helps you reduce operational overhead by keeping contract, invoice, and payment data on one platform while giving you clearer visibility into retention, pricing, and customer health. A practical rollout is to start with your main plans and major customers, then expand the standardized process gradually.