Governing the Change Lifecycle

Every plan change — an upgrade, a downgrade, a cancellation, an add-on — can take effect a different way. Business Rules are where you decide, per direction, exactly how and when a change happens: the moment it applies, whether money is refunded, and what happens to dependent add-ons. Set it once, and every change of that kind follows the same policy automatically — on the customer portal, in CSR and Sales flows, and through your AI agents.

Where to find it

Go to Rules & Automation → Business Rules. The list groups your rules by direction — Upgrade, Downgrade, Cancellation, Add-On, Remove Add-On, Retention Discount — and the summary cards show how many apply immediately versus at end of term.

Build a downgrade rule that protects revenue

1. Select New Rule and give it a clear name, such as Downgrades hold to renewal.

2. Set the Direction to Downgrade — a customer moving down to a smaller plan.

3. Choose the Timing — the key lever. Set it to End of Term so the downgrade is scheduled for renewal rather than applied now. The customer keeps the plan they've paid for through the current term, and you keep the revenue you've already earned.

4. Set the Proration to No Refund, because the plan runs its full term — no mid-cycle money back.

5. Leave it Active and Save. Every downgrade now follows this policy wherever a change can happen.

The timing options — and what each one means

Timing is the heart of a business rule. The same controls apply to any direction:

Timing	What happens
Immediate	The change takes effect right away. Typical for upgrades — the customer gets more, now.
End of Term	The change is scheduled for the next renewal. Typical for downgrades and cancellations, so the paid term is honored.
Custom Delay	The change applies after a set number of days you specify.
Grace Period	Keeps access for a defined window after a cancellation before it finalizes.
Next Chargeable Period	Aligns the change to the next billing cycle.

Pair timing with Proration — Full Refund, Prorated, or No Refund — to decide how the money is settled when the change lands.

Going deeper

• Applies when the subscription is — scope a rule by subscription state. Trial subscriptions are blocked from changes by default; open During a free trial to allow and shape what trial customers can do.

• Applies to — limit a rule to a surface (customer self-service, CSR, or Sales), so staff can be given more freedom than customers get on their own.

• Applicable products and categories — narrow a rule to specific plans, or leave it empty to govern every product.

• Add-on dependencies — for add-on and remove-add-on directions, a rule can decide whether a dependent add-on is cancelled with its base plan, converted to standalone, or held for a decision — so removing a plan never silently strands what was attached to it.

For hard ceilings a rule must never cross — a maximum discount, a downgrade that should be blocked outright — pair Business Rules with the Policy Engine, which enforces block, warn, or approval on top of the timing and proration a rule sets.

Tip: Give each direction its own deliberate policy — upgrades immediate, downgrades and cancellations at end of term — and your revenue timing stops depending on who processed the change or which surface it came from.

Learn more: Rules Overview · Creating and Managing Rule Sets · Protecting Margin with Policies.