Released: July 15, 2021
Setting up anchors with Simple Subscriptions allows you to control the date when fulfillments are completed, or when delivery occurs for a given time cycle. For selling plans with configured anchors you can also define a cutoff for which customers are eligible to enter this cycle and the desired behavior for customers who start their subscription inside the cutoff period. We recommend using the "Subscription Plans" tab to configure anchors, as not all options are exposed from the product page.
For all scenarios select "
Anchor fulfillments to specific day(s)" for order fulfillment behavior, as this will expose the anchor behavior options.
Scenario: Start fulfillment on a specific date every month.
For this select "Day of Month" for anchor type and enter the desired day of the month e.g. 15 in the day field.
For this select "Day of Month" for anchor type and enter the desired day of the month e.g. 15 in the day field.
This will schedule fulfillments for the 15th of each month.
If using the creator available from the product page select type: "MONTHDAY", day: 15 and leave month empty.
Scenario: Fulfill orders the 1st of every quarter.
For this scenario, create four anchor dates for the selling plan using the "Add anchor dates" button. Each with anchor type "Day of Year" with the following values: (If using the creator available from the product page select type "YEARDAY" and use the numeric Day/Month options provided below)
For this scenario, create four anchor dates for the selling plan using the "Add anchor dates" button. Each with anchor type "Day of Year" with the following values: (If using the creator available from the product page select type "YEARDAY" and use the numeric Day/Month options provided below)
- Jan 1: Day 1, Month 1
- April 1: Day 1, Month 4
- July 1: Day 1, Month 7
- October 1: Day 1, Month 10
Scenario: Fulfill orders every Tuesday.
Select anchor type "Day of Week" and select "Tuesday" for the day field.
If using the Creator available from the product page, select "WEEKDAY" for type and enter 2 in the day field, leaving month blank. Valid values 1-7, where 1 is "Monday".
Cutoff: A buffer period for orders to be included in a cycle, determined by delivery anchors. Subscription plans without anchors have no cutoff period.
Pre-anchor behavior: Behavior of the first fulfillment when the order is placed before the anchor. The default value for this field is ASAP. Where ASAP will fulfill on the order date if the cutoff is made, otherwise it will fulfill on the next anchor date. NEXT will always fulfill on an anchor date. (See link below for examples)
Please note that fulfillments anchored to a specific date will be SCHEDULED until the date of the configured anchor and the time of the order purchase.
ie: An order created on January 1 at 10:00am with an anchor date of January 5 will not be OPEN to fulfill until January 5 at 10:00am.
ie: An order created on January 1 at 10:00am with an anchor date of January 5 will not be OPEN to fulfill until January 5 at 10:00am.
For more information on setting up anchors and examples with billing and delivery dates see: View examples of intended results and anchor values