About Subscription Imports
Subscription imports in Novi allow you to add historical and/or current subscriptions, including the amount paid, the purchaser, and start/end dates.
Doing a subscription import along with your members import is completely optional. Some associations choose to keep a record of past subscriptions that have expired in an Excel spreadsheet, to reference if needed.
The other consideration for whether or not to import current subscriptions is if you plan to invoice or if you want them to auto-pay with a credit card.
Invoice: If you will be invoicing the subscribers when they auto-renew, then an import is a great option so you don't have to manually add them to Novi.
Auto-Pay: On the other hand, if you want them to add their credit cards to the new system so the subscription can automatically be charged to their credit card when it renews, they will need to log in and purchase a new subscription from the frontend of your site.
Please note: A guest cannot purchase a subscription due to the nature of subscription auto-renewals. Whether a member or not, they will need a record to link the subscription to.
When Subscription Imports Occur
The subscription import is done and approved at the same time as your members import, and has the same deadlines for receipt of your formatted data. Once your members data is approved, we move on to subsequent imports if applicable (e.g. subscriptions and events). Then, we will reach out to you to approve that they are correct. Once approved, any rollbacks or changes made to the database (by the Novi team) will incur an additional charge.
Please note that we will assist you throughout the import process, but you are responsible for exporting the data from your current system.
Setting Up Your Subscription Import File
Subscription data is imported in one spreadsheet (separate from the member spreadsheet). Keep in mind when setting up your data that data import is very literal. When the system reads your data, things MUST match up. For example, you can't call your subscription "Ad 1/2 page" in the spreadsheet if the product in Novi is set up as "Newsletter Advertisement 1/2 page".
Please see the information below for formatting and requirement guidelines.
Product Name
*Required. 100 character max.
If the product already exists in your QuickBooks Online account, then the name in the import spreadsheet should match exactly.
If the product is not already set up in QuickBooks Online, we can create it in Novi during the import. When we sync back to QuickBooks Online it will be sent over to your list of Products & Services.
Amount Paid
*Required. The amount that's listed in the spreadsheet is what will be billed for future charges, even if it does not match the product pricing in Novi/QuickBooks Online for that product.
If the subscription is free or will be billed using a recurring sales receipt in QuickBooks Online, then the value in this column should be 0. This is not common and would allow the subscription to auto-renew without having an invoice created by Novi. If charging via recurring sales receipt, an admin will need to set that up in QuickBooks Online manually.
Subscription Type
*Required. There are 3 types of subscriptions - please be sure to spell them exactly as they're listed here so we don't receive an error during import:
Monthly Subscription
Annual Subscription
Annual Subscription Billed Monthly
Start Date
*Required. This should be formatted as MM/DD/YYYY. This is the beginning date of the subscription.
End Date
*Required. This should be formatted as MM/DD/YYYY.
The End Date for each subscription will be one of the following, depending on the Auto-Renew value and whether the date is in the future or past:
The end date of an expired/cancelled subscription.
The Auto-Renew value should be False or blank.
This date will be in the past and is only being imported for historical reference.
The end date of an active subscription that will not auto-renew.
The Auto-Renew value is False.
The subscription will expire on this date.
The date an active subscription will auto-renew.
The Auto-Renew value is True. See the note below!
If there's an amount other than 0 in the Amount Paid field, an invoice will also be created on this date.
Note: For any subscriptions with a value of "True" for Auto-Renew, the End Date must be after your launch date because the system will not run auto-renewals until your site is live. We recommend bumping this out a couple of weeks as well, in case your launch date is pushed back.
Last Billed
*Required. This should be formatted as MM/DD/YYYY. While this field is required for all subscriptions, it only pertains to rows with a Subscription Type of "Annual Billed Monthly".
For Annual Billed Monthly subscriptions, this is the last time they were billed and will dictate when they are billed next (which will be one month later).
For Monthly and Annual subscriptions, you can simply copy the date from the Start Date column and paste it in the Last Billed column. Or, if you prefer, you can enter a different Last Billed date (e.g. for a monthly subscription you could enter one month prior to the End Date).
Auto-Renew
Enter a value of True or False based on whether the subscription is:
True = Current/Active (will auto-renew on the End Date)
False = Historical/Expired (will not auto-renew)
Blank = If this field is left blank the subscription will not auto-renew, and the following will apply:
A future End Date = Current Subscription
A past End Date = Expired Subscription
Purchaser Name
*Required. This should match exactly to the display name in your Members Import Spreadsheet.
For companies, this should be the Company Name
For people, this should be First + Middle + Last + Suffix
Billable Party
*Required. This should match exactly to the display name in your Members Import Spreadsheet. The billable party is the person or company that is responsible for paying the invoice. Learn more about Purchaser vs Billable Party.
For companies, this should be the Company Name
For people, this should be First + Middle + Last + Suffix
Important Notes:
All fields are required except Auto-Renew.
All rows with a "True" value for Auto-Renew must have an End Date in the future and must be greater than your launch date. This is because the auto-renewals will not run until your site is live.