In H-Sphere 2.3 and higher, you can offer subsidized hosting to individual customers. Subsidized customers sign up for common plans with common prices, but get invoices with discounted totals. Subsidizing is available only for new signups; you can't apply it to existing accounts. Only credit card payment customers can use the subsidizing feature. This document covers the following issues:

• Creating Subsidies for Plans
• Editing and Removing Subsidies
• Disabling Subsidies
• Signing Up Users for Subsidized Plans

Creating Subsidies for Plans

To create a subsidy for a plan:

1. Select Plans in the INFO menu in your admin control panel.
2. In the list of plans, click the Settings icon against the selected plan.
3. On the page that appears, turn Subsidizing ON:

   

4. On the page that appears, choose Promotion as promotional type and click Submit. Sponsorship is not working yet. It's reserved for future implementation:

   

5. Fill in the form that shows:

   

   • Promotional Key - enter a unique keyword for this promotion. You should send this promotional code to subsidized users for them to enter it when prompted in signup wizard forms. Each subsidy should have its own promotional key. It should begin with a letter and have 2 to 20 characters.
     
   • Promotional Discount - the percentage of subsidy for this kind of promotion. If you enter 20, users will pay only 20% of each charge.
     Example: The domain set up is $10 and domain recurrent fee is $5, the user will pay $2 and $1 correspondingly.
   • Promotion Description - add a note to this promotion to show up in user billing entries:

     

6. Click Submit.

Editing and Removing Subsidies

You may create as many subsidies for one plan as you wish. You can also edit the existing subsidies in plan settings:

1. Select Plans in the INFO menu in admin control panel.
2. In the list of plans, click the Settings icon next to a plan:




On the page that shows you can:
• Edit a subsidy: click the Edit icon in the Controls entry. On the page that shows, change the subsidy percentage and description and click Submit.
• Add a new promotion: click the Add icon in the Key entry. Fill the form that shows and click Submit. The subsidy appears in the list of promotional entries.
• Remove promotional entries: click the Remove icon in the Controls entry.

Disabling Subsidies.

If a subsidizing period expires or you decide to stop all subsidies for this plan and permanently discard all promotion settings, you can disable subsidizing completely:

1. Select Plans in the INFO menu in the admin control panel.
2. In the list of plans, click the Settings icon next to a plan.
3. On the page that appears, turn Subsidizing OFF. This will disable any subsidizing for all users in this plan.

Signing Up Users for Subsidized Plans

Once you have configured subsidizing for a plan, send the promotional code to subsidized customers. A subsidy is activated for users' accounts at signup:

1. Select Signup in the Signup menu.
2. Click the Select icon next to a plan. This launches signup wizard.
3. When Contact Info page shows, enter the Promo Code at the bottom of the page.
4. Click the Arrows icon to proceed. Upon successful signup, the promotional subsidy is activated.

With this promotion, user is charged the reduced fee at the beginning of the billing period. The discounted fee is automatically calculated from the full amount of accruals. E.g: user's total amount accrued is 10 $. With a 20% promotion, user is charged $2 (not $8).

Warning: Please keep in mind that promotional discount doesn't affect signup invoice that shows on the last step of user signup process. Promotional discount is processed only when credit card is charged. It means that your users will see a full amount in their signup invoice but they will be charged a reduced fee. Discount will show in their Online Invoice when the account is created. Please make sure to inform your users about this feature to avoid misunderstanding.