1. We want to move to Product Catalog 2.0. What is the process for upgrading to Product Catalog 2.0?
There are three stages to the PC 2.0 Upgrade:
- Qualification (1 day-1 week)
- Data Mapping (1-2 weeks)
- 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 CSM, 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 Product Catalog 2.0? Why do I need to create a Product Catalog 2.0 Trial Site?
To be able to try Product Catalog 2.0 features, Subscription behavior, and UI changes, you can create an additional trial site. Creating a Product Catalog 2.0 trial site is done the same way as any new Chargebee trial site:
- To create a new trial site, access app.chargebee.com and click on SIGN UP.
- You need to use an email that is not already attached to a Chargebee site.
- If you do not have one, please add the '+' suffix followed by any number. For example: if the existing CB site is linked to [email protected], you can create a new trial site with the email [email protected]. (Verification mail will still be sent to [email protected])
- Verify the sign-up.
- Invite the existing user to the new site: Navigate to Setup -> Team members -> Invite member -> Invite -> [email protected] 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.
- Send an email to your dedicated CSM to have the new site merged with your existing subscription with Chargebee. In the event that you do not have access to your CSM’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 Product Catalog 2.0?
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 PC2.0. Please ensure you list all integration on your “PC 2.0 Upgrade-Checklist”.
- You must be on Salesforce Integration v1.48 or above
Encouraged to change:
- As a part of PC 2.0 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 PC 1.0 become individual price points in PC 2.0. 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 product Catalog 2.0 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 PC2.0?
As a best practice, please list all integration on your Upgrade Checklist form provided by your CSM. 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 Stich are fully compatible but will need to be disconnected prior to PC2.0 Upgrade, and reconnected after the upgrade
- ReferralCandy is not compatible and there are no plans to support a native integration. Please connect with your CSM 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 PC 2.0.
7. Can we make changes to our prices? Are changes to our pricing required for this Upgrade?
No, as a part of the Product Catalog 2.0 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 Product Catalog 2.0 migration?
Product Catalog 2.0 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 PC 2.0 Upgrade
What CAN be done:
1. Consolidating Plans with Unique Currency Codes and Billing Frequencies into one Plan in PC 2.0 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 PC 2.0
2. Merge Plans
3. Ignore or leave out specific plans/addons
4. Create new item price IDs not existing on PC 1.0 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 PC 2.0, including the archived ones. However, if no subscriptions are attached to the plans and addons that you do not want to move to PC 2.0, you can delete them immediately in PC 1.0.
10. We have more than one Live Site with Chargebee, can we merge our sites as a part of PC 2.0 migration?
No, Site Merging is a separate activity that can be performed before or after the PC 2.0 Upgrade. Please, reach out to your CSM 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 Product Catalog 2.0 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 Product Catalog 2.0, Hence this process should be completed before you initiate PC 2.0 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. PC2.0 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 PC2.0?" for more details.
- It is a best practice to list ALL integration that uses Chargebee Billing Data on your Qualification checklist.
13. Why do we need to change our Plan/Addon/Charge ID?
PLAN_ID changes are required when your plans or addons have special characters (£, &, !, etc) that are not supported in PC 2.0, Kindly Note that the only special characters supported in PC 2.0 are Hyphen (-) and Underscore (_), The Second reason for ID changes are when there are duplicate IDs between a plan and an addon. In these circumstances, you will have an additional error resolution sheet in the PC 2.0 template. You can review the suggested changes and the ID changes will be taken care of by Chargebee during the migration
14. What if we face issues post-live migration, can we roll it back to Product Catalog 1.0? 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 Product Catalog 1.0 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.