Abakion Subscription Management — App Overview
What the App Does
Abakion Subscription Management is a Business Central extension that enables companies to manage recurring subscription-based invoicing. The app introduces a dedicated Subscription Order document type — built on top of the standard Blanket Order — where users define what each customer subscribes to, at what price, and how often to invoice. When it's time to bill, the app automatically generates sales invoices from these subscription orders, calculating pro-rata amounts for partial periods, handling multiple invoicing frequencies, and supporting multi-language invoice line descriptions.
The app is designed for businesses that sell ongoing services, licenses, maintenance contracts, SaaS subscriptions, or any product billed on a recurring basis. Instead of manually creating invoices each month or quarter, users configure the subscription once and let the system generate accurate invoices — either on demand or fully automated via a Job Queue.
Top 5 Features
1. Subscription Orders
The core of the app — a dedicated document for defining recurring customer subscriptions.
A Subscription Order is a specialized Blanket Order that represents an ongoing agreement with a customer. It looks and works like a standard Business Central sales document, but adds subscription-specific fields that control how and when invoices are generated.
How it works:
On the Subscription Order header, you set the customer, billing details, payment terms, currency, dimensions, and shipping information — just like any sales document. The key difference is on the lines, where each line represents a subscription item with its own billing schedule.
For each subscription line, you configure:
Item and pricing — the product or service being subscribed to, with quantity, unit price, and discounts.
Starting Date — when the subscription begins.
Ending Date — optionally, when it ends (validated against the item's Notice Period).
Invoicing Frequency — a date formula (e.g.,
<1M>for monthly,<3M>for quarterly,<1Y>for annually) that controls how often invoices are created.Subscription Period Length — defines the period each invoice line covers, which can differ from the invoicing frequency.
Next Invoicing Date — automatically calculated; shows when the next invoice will be generated for this line.
Single-Use Invoicing Item — a toggle for one-time charges like setup fees or installation services that should only be invoiced once and then marked as "Completely Invoiced".
The subscription order maintains its own number series (separate from standard blanket orders), configured in Subscription Setup. A Subscription Details factbox on the order shows real-time financial KPIs: Sales Amount per Year, Monthly Revenue, Realized Sales/Cost/Profit/VAT Amounts, and Outstanding Amount.
From the order, users can directly navigate to Posted Invoice Lines, Posted Credit Memo Lines, and Open Invoices/Credit Memos related to that subscription — giving full traceability from subscription to billing history.
Example scenario: A software company sells a SaaS license at 1,200/year billed monthly, plus a one-time 500 setup fee. They create one Subscription Order with two lines: Line 1 has the license at 100/month with frequency <1M>, and Line 2 has the setup fee marked as Single-Use Invoicing Item. The first invoice run creates both lines; subsequent runs only invoice the recurring license.
2. Automated Invoice Creation
Batch-generate sales invoices from subscription orders — with flexible date control and grouping options.
The Create Subscription Invoice report is the engine that turns subscription orders into actual sales invoices. It reads all subscription lines where the Next Invoicing Date falls within the specified date range and generates sales invoices accordingly.
How it works:
When running the report (either manually or via Job Queue), you specify:
Include up to date — only subscription lines with a Next Invoicing Date on or before this date are processed. Default: end of next month (
<1M+CM>).Posting Date — the posting date applied to all created invoices. Default: first day of next month (
<CM+1D>).Document Date — the document date on the invoices. Default: today (
<0D>).Invoice Per — how lines are grouped onto invoices:
Customer — one invoice per bill-to customer, consolidating all their subscriptions.
Subscription — one invoice per subscription order.
Line — one invoice per subscription line (most granular).
Invoice Line Comment — optional text added as a comment line on each invoice.
The report handles complex scenarios automatically:
Pro-rata calculation for partial periods (e.g., a subscription starting mid-month). The app uses the Calc. End First Period setting (Actual Period Length, End Month, or End Current Period) and the Sales Days per Month setting to calculate the correct amount.
Odd period adjustment — when an invoice period differs from the standard subscription period length, either the Quantity or the Unit Price is adjusted, based on the Adjust For Odd Subscr Period setting.
Multi-language invoice descriptions — the app generates invoice line descriptions based on Subscription Text Translations, supporting different languages per customer. Translations can be set globally or per item.
Succeeding text lines — additional text lines associated with subscription items are carried over to the invoice.
After the report completes, the Sales Invoice List opens automatically showing all newly created invoices, ready for review and posting.
Example scenario: On January 25th, the billing administrator runs Create Subscription Invoice with Include up to date = January 31st, Posting Date = February 1st, Invoice Per = Customer. The system finds all subscription lines across all orders with Next Invoicing Date ≤ January 31st, groups them by bill-to customer, and creates one consolidated invoice per customer.
3. Job Queue Automation
Schedule subscription invoice creation to run automatically — no manual intervention needed.
The Subscription Job Queue Setup page lets you configure Business Central's Job Queue to run the invoice creation process on a recurring schedule. Once configured, invoices are created automatically in the background.
How it works:
The setup page has three sections:
Invoice Creation Parameters — the same parameters as the manual report, but defined as date formulas that are calculated relative to the current date at each execution:
Include Up To Date Formula — e.g.,
<1M+CM>means "end of next month from today". A live Example Date preview shows the calculated result.Posting Date Formula — e.g.,
<CM+1D>means "first day of next month".Document Date Formula — e.g.,
<0D>means "today".Invoice Per and Invoice Line Comment — same as the manual report.
Schedule — full control over when and how often the job runs:
Earliest Start Time — the earliest time of day the job can start.
Recurring Job — toggle for repeated execution.
No. of Minutes between Runs — e.g., 1440 for once daily.
Next Run Date Formula — alternative recurrence pattern (e.g.,
<1D>).Run on [Weekdays] — select which days the job should run.
Inactivity Timeout Period — how long to wait before the session is canceled.
Last Run Information — monitoring dashboard showing Last Run Date Time, Last Run Status (Success/Error), Invoices Created Last Run, and Last Run Error message.
Key actions include Run Now for on-demand execution, Open Job Queue Entry to manage the underlying Job Queue Entry, and View Activity Log for full audit history. The Job Queue Entry is managed: scheduling fields on the standard Job Queue Entry Card are made read-only with a notification directing users to the Subscription Job Queue Setup page.
Example scenario: A company configures the Job Queue to run every day at 6:00 AM on weekdays, creating invoices with Include Up To Date = <1M+CM>, Posting Date = <CM+1D>. Every morning, any subscription lines due for invoicing are automatically processed, and the billing team finds ready-to-post invoices when they arrive.
4. Item-Level Subscription Defaults
Pre-configure subscription behavior on items so subscription lines are populated automatically.
The app extends the Item Card with a Subscription FastTab that lets you define default subscription properties per item. When an item is added to a subscription order line, these defaults are applied automatically — reducing manual entry and ensuring consistency.
How it works:
Three fields are added to the Item Card:
Default Subscription Period Length — a date formula (e.g.,
<1M>,<1Y>) that automatically populates the Subscription Period Length on the subscription line when this item is selected. This determines the billing period each invoice line represents.Notice Period — a date formula (e.g.,
<6M>) used to validate the Ending Date on subscription lines. If a notice period of 6 months is set, the ending date must be at least 6 months after the starting date — preventing premature cancellation that violates contract terms.Subscription Single-Use Invoicing Item — when enabled, any subscription line using this item is automatically flagged as single-use, meaning it will only be invoiced once and then marked as "Completely Invoiced". Ideal for setup fees, installation charges, or onboarding services.
Additionally, each item can have its own Subscription Text Translations (accessible via the Item Card's Subscription action group), which override the global subscription text when generating invoice line descriptions. This allows item-specific billing descriptions in multiple languages.
Example scenario: A managed services provider sets up their "Annual Support License" item with Default Subscription Period Length = <1Y>, Notice Period = <3M>, and their "Onboarding Service" item as Single-Use Invoicing. When a salesperson creates a new subscription order and adds these items, the lines are pre-configured correctly without any manual setup.
5. Subscription Financial Insights & Traceability
Real-time financial KPIs per subscription with full traceability from order to posted invoice.
The app provides a comprehensive view of each subscription's financial performance and links every generated invoice back to its source subscription order.
How it works:
The Subscription Details factbox on the Subscription Order calculates and displays in real time:
Sales Amount per Year — the total annualized value of all active subscription lines.
Monthly Revenue — the Sales Amount per Year divided by 12, giving a quick MRR (Monthly Recurring Revenue) view.
Realized Sales Amount — total invoiced and posted sales for this subscription.
Realized Cost Amount — total cost of goods sold against this subscription.
Realized Profit Amount — the difference between realized sales and cost.
Realized VAT Amount — total VAT collected.
Outstanding Amount — open (unpaid) invoice amount.
These figures are calculated from actual Customer Ledger Entries using a dedicated query (SCB Subscription Cust. Ledger), ensuring they reflect posted and real financial data — not estimates.
For traceability, every invoice line created by the app carries the Subscription No., Subscription Line No., and Subscription Info fields. These fields appear on both the Posted Sales Invoice Subform and Posted Sales Credit Memo Subform (via page extensions), allowing users to trace any posted line back to the originating subscription. From the Subscription Order itself, dedicated actions open filtered views of Posted Invoice Lines, Posted Credit Memo Lines, and Open Invoices/Credit Memos.
Example scenario: A finance manager opens a subscription order and immediately sees the factbox showing 48,000 annual revenue, 4,000 MRR, 36,000 already realized, and 4,000 outstanding. They click Posted Invoice Lines to see every invoice ever generated from this subscription — providing a complete billing audit trail without leaving the page.