Some subscription vendors offer you a discounted subscription to their software or services. However, you’re expected to invoice your customers at retail price. AppBind takes care of this.

• Enter the amount of the partner discount when purchasing a subscription and AppBind will track the wholesale price from the subscription vendor, and show the retail price to your customer. 

Example:  If you had a 50% partner discount from ActiveCampaign and you were charged $50 by ActiveCampaign, we would show your customer a charge of $100 from ActiveCampaign:

• You can then add your own discounts to your customer, which are deducted from the retail price.

Example: If you want to offer your customer a 20% discount on ActiveCampaign’s retail price, add a “-20.00%” fee on the next line (see figure below).  This will then charge the customer $80, a 20% discount off the retail price of $100. Because your wholesale cost was $50, you’ll net the $30 difference:

AppBind handles all these calculations for every subscription charge, including for subscriptions like ActiveCampaign that increase in price naturally over time as the account grows. 

Just set it and forget it! Bookkeeping made simple.

Important: Please check the terms of your partner agreement if you’re allowed to offer discounts on the retail price to your customer.

See also How do I buy a subscription on behalf of a customer with AppBind?

Problems with partner discounts

Account transfer
If you are buying a discounted subscription as a partner, this makes transferring subscriptions much harder . When you transfer the subscription to the customer using AppBind’s transfer process, AppBind will remove your retail pricing and any optional discounts or fees. However, your customer will see the underlying wholesale price. You will have to transfer the account at the subscription vendor as well.

See also How do I transfer subscriptions to my customer?

Data Liability
When you’re retailing the software subscription, it also means you’re taking on the role of the software vendor selling the subscription to the end customer. This makes you liable for data breaches or other service issues by the software vendor. 

AppBind recommends rebating
Ask your vendor to switch to AppBind’s automatic rebate model that uses the AppBind virtual card to automatically calculate your margins as a partner and remits them to you.  We recommend using the rebating model because then you don’t have to set wholesale discounts, and you don’t have to remember to remove them before transferring the subscription to your customer.