If you are working with Universal analytics we recommend you to follow the detailed migration instructions from Google. For changes in our platform, follow the instructions below. Depending on whether you use a Google Tag Manager based installation or Google Analytics directly, the instructions vary.

• Prerequisites
• Google Tag Manager Integrations
• Google Analytics Integrations
• Migration Setup Table

Prerequisites

• Create the new GA4 property and obtain the new Measurement Id.
• Follow the migration steps suggested by Google.

Google Tag Manager Integrations

In the case of integrations with Google Tag manager you don’t have to change anything in the FastSpring App, the same ID is kept. In this case you must change the internal tag configuration inside the tag manager to start using GA4, also you must change the cross site domain tracking configuration for popup front store.

Replacing universal analytics tags

Without deleting the previous universal analytics configuration, follow the instructions to configure GA4 within GTM

Modify the code for cross site tracking

If you are using a popup storefront in your website, eliminate the previous version of the decoreCallback function and all the references to the ga function, the new version of GA4 uses the new gtag name for pushing events and pageviews to google analytics. For more information about the ga and the gtag javascript function, click here. The new version of the decorateCallback function must no longer use references to the ga function. 

The new decorateCallback function must looks like this:

function decorateURL(url) {
      var _pl = '&clientId=' + window.clsid.client_id + '&sessionId=' + window.clsid.session_id;
      return url + '?' + _pl;
}

If you are using a web storefront you should be sure that the domains are linked in the google analytics platform. Follow the next steps:

1. Open your Google Analytics account. Go to the Admin menu.
2. Choose the GA4 property that you want to modify. Then select Data Streams.
3. Choose the data stream to modify.
4. Under the Google tag section, select Configure tag settings.
5. Under the Settings section choose Configure your domains.
6. In the form add a new row with the following data (as the following image):
   a. Match type: Contains
   b. Domain: onfastspring.com

7. Repeat the previous steps to also include the domains paypal.com and sofort.com

Confirmation

Once you are sure that you are collecting all the events in your GA4 platform, you can proceed to delete the old universal analytics tags.

Troubleshooting: If you are not sure if you are collecting all the events, we recommend that you follow the steps to configure GA4 within GTM

Google Analytics Integrations

To perform the google analytics migration on your website:

• Remove the old universal analytics code and all versions and references to the GA library. For additional information click here. 
• Review the code for cross site tracking

Code changes for cross site tracking

When using Store Builder Library, Popup Storefront or Embedded Storefront, include the following attribute in the script that loads the FastSpring library: data-decorate-callback=”decorateURL”

Example of loading the FastSpring library with the data-decorate attribute included:

<script id="fsc-api"
src="https://d1f8f9xcsvx3ha.cloudfront.net/sbl/0.9.2/fastspring-builder.min.js"
type="text/javascript"	data-storefront="yourexamplestore.onfastspring.com/popup-yourexamplestore"
data-decorate-callback="decorateURL">
</script>

Copy and paste the following code into your page, replace the <MEASUREMENT_ID> with your own:

function decorateURL(url) {
      window.clsid = {
         client_id: '',
         session_id: ''
      };
      gtag('get', '<MEASUREMENT_ID>', 'client_id', function(r) {
         window.clsid.client_id = r
      });
      gtag('get', '<MEASUREMENT_ID>', 'session_id', function(r) {
         window.clsid.session_id = r
      });
      var _pl = '&clientId=' + window.clsid.client_id + '&sessionId=' + window.clsid.session_id;
      return url + '?' + _pl;
}

Platform Changes

For all Storefronts:

1. In the FastSpring App, navigate to Integrations > Extensions > Google Analytics.
2. Click Setup.
3. Replace your Google Analytics Measurement ID in the Google Analytics Property ID field and click Enable.

For Individual Storefronts:

Only configure custom Google Analytics integration for individual Storefronts if you need to use different IDs for different Storefronts. Otherwise, configure Google Analytics integration for all Storefronts following the steps above.

1. In the FastSpring App, navigate to the Storefront you want to modify and click Settings.
2. Within the Storefront Settings, click Analytics Integration in the left menu.
3. In the Google Analytics Integration Behavior drop-down, select Use custom Google Analytics property ID for this storefront.

Replace your Google Analytics Measurement ID in the Google Analytics > Custom Google Analytics property ID for this storefront field and click Save at the top right-hand corner of the page.

Migration Setup Table

Use the table below to identify possible steps in your migration setup. According to your storefront selection and your kind of integration there are different steps to complete the migration process. Columns refer to using Google tag manager or Google Analytics with the previous version.

The current version of Google analytics is GA4. Google Analytics 4 introduces a set of features that change the way data is collected and organized in your Google Analytics account, so you can get a better understanding of how users interact with your online content. This article will assist you with the integration of Google Universal Analytics 4 with FastSpring (Classic Platform only). For more information about the migration from previous versions please refer to the Google documentation.

Configure your domains in Google Analytics

Enable the cross-domain measurement and further define which links on your site do not trigger Outbound Click events when using enhanced measurement.

1. Open your Google Analytics account. Go to the Admin menu.
2. Choose the GA4 property that you want to modify. Then select Data Streams.
3. Choose the data stream to modify.
4. Under the Google tag section, select Configure tag settings.
5. Under the Settings section choose Configure your domains.
6. In the form add a new row with the following data (as the following image):
   • Match type: Contains
   • Domain: fastspring.com

FastSpring Setup

1. Go to SpringBoard’s Store Home > External Tracking.
2. Click Add Tracking Method. 

FastSpring offers four tracking types:

• Google Analytics
• Google Universal
• Google Adwords
• Custom Tracking

3. Select Custom Tracking Method and click Next.
4. Enter in a Name that will be used for management purposes only, we recommend “GA4”.
5. Determine if you want the tracking code to Apply to All Pages (recommended) by selecting the checkbox or only apply to the final order completion page by leaving it unchecked.

6. Add the following code as it appears below, to the </body> (before) section, and remember to replace it with your MEASUREMENT_ID or you can set up your id using custom parameters. If you need to send more information you can review the Full #{order} Documentation.

<script src="https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtag/js?id=MEASUREMENT_ID"> </script>
<script><![CDATA[
window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || [];
function gtag(){dataLayer.push(arguments);}
gtag('js', new Date());
gtag('config', 'MEASUREMENT_ID', {'cookie_flags':'SameSite=None;Secure'});

<if test="#{complete}">

var items = [];
<repeat value="#{order.allItems}" var="orderItem">
items.push({
  'item_name': '#{orderItem.productDisplay}',
  'item_id': '#{orderItem.productName}',
  'price': '#{orderItem.priceTotal.textValue}',
  'quantity': '#{orderItem.quantity}',
  'affiliation': '#{order.siteName}'
});
</repeat>

gtag("event", "purchase", {
        'transaction_id': "#{order.id}",
        'value': '#{order.subTotal.textValue}',
        'currency': '#{order.currency}',
        'items': items
});
</if>
]]></script>

7. Click Next.
8. Move the tracking method to Active Status
9. Deactivate your old Google Analytics and other external tracking methods.

Subscription Preview API

The Subscription Preview API:

• Returns prorated estimates for both the current and proposed plans.
• Returns the amounts that the customer is most concerned with:
  • Total amount due
  • Date of the next charge
  • Cost for that next charge.

Example Usage: Upgrade from Basic to Premium with a support add-on

Proration Eligibility

If a proposed plan change is ineligible for proration, the endpoint will return one of the following reasons as follows:

Table of Contents

• Here’s what you need to know
• Frequently Asked Questions
• Accessing and Using your 1099-K

Here’s what you need to know

• US sellers with more than $20,000 in proceeds and more than 200 transactions within the year will receive IRS form 1099-K, Payment Card and Third Party Network Transactions, reporting total gross proceeds by month for the previous calendar year. Foreign sellers earning US source income subject to withholding will receive IRS form 1042-S, Foreign Person’s US Source Income Subject to Withholding. (This is rare.) 
• The IRS has delayed the implementation of the reduced $600 threshold until 2023. If your 2022 activity did not exceed $20,000 and 200+ transactions, you will not receive a form 1099-K. 
• Please be aware that the year end tax form will show FS Intermediate Holdings, Inc. as the reporter, this is the parent entity of FastSpring.
• If you haven’t already confirmed your tax status by completing the W8/W9 electronic questionnaire, please do so here. This information is used to report on form 1099-K. 
• Gross proceeds are different from profits. You pay tax on your profits, not your gross proceeds. You use gross proceeds to compute your profit, which also includes amounts for returns and allowances, operating expenses, etc.
• While we are unable to give direct tax advice to our sellers, we want to help make dealing with taxes as easy as possible and are here for you.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is a 1099-K?

• Form 1099-K is a document that taxpayers receive to report income from payment card and third party network transactions. It includes the gross amount of all payment transactions within a calendar year. It includes adjustments for discounts and taxes but NOT for refunds/returns and fees. We’ll send you a 1099-K if you meet the selling threshold of $20,000 in proceeds and more than 200 transactions in the calendar year.

Why do I need a 1099-K?

• Merchants of Record, and other online marketplaces like FastSpring must report certain transactions once they are over a stated amount. For payment processing activities, IRS regulations require FastSpring to issue 1099-K’s for qualifying US sellers. When calculating your taxable income for your income tax return, you should consider the amounts shown on your 1099-K.

What are the IRS requirements for Form 1099-K?

• The IRS is expanding its reach of reporting requirements to include online marketplaces. 2022 is the first year FastSpring is issuing form 1099-K. Starting January 1, 2023 the reporting threshold will drop to $600. A copy of form 1099-K will be mailed to the seller, the IRS, and FastSpring keeps a copy on file for 7 years. 

What about state level reporting requirements for Form 1099-K?

• A handful of states use a lower reporting threshold than the IRS including; AR, DC, IL, MD, MA, MS, NJ, VT, VA. State only forms will be issued to qualifying sellers.  

What does Form 1099-K include?

• Form 1099-K includes your total proceeds from all selling transactions within the year, if greater than $20,000 and 200 transactions or more. Total proceeds are broken out by month and adjusted for the following:
  • Discounts
  • Taxes
• Amounts are not adjusted for any returns and refunds or selling fees paid to FastSpring.
• Other identifying form information includes; 
  • Filers name, address, and TIN [FS Intermediate Holdings, Inc., Santa Barbara CA 82-4153417]
  • Payee’s name, address, and TIN
  • Total number of payment transactions
• Please note the reported amount is different from your FastSpring payout.

How to confirm 1099-K Gross amount from box 1a vs storefront Reports?

• Navigate to the Reports section and change the period to “Last Year.”
• “Net Revenue” + “Refunds” should tie to the 1099-K box 1a.
• If multiple storefronts, then repeat the process for each storefront and combine the amounts.
• Example:

How is Form 1099-K different from other 1099’s?

• The type of form depends on the characteristics of the money being received. The purpose of a 1099-K is to disclose the amount of money a payment processor or online platform is transacting with on your behalf. 

Will I have to pay taxes if I receive a 1099-K?

• Not necessarily. Just because you receive a 1099-K doesn’t mean you’ll owe taxes on the amount reported. The 1099-K shows your gross proceeds, which is different from profits. You pay tax on your profits, not your gross proceeds. You use gross proceeds to compute your profit, which also includes amounts for returns and allowances, operating expenses, etc.

What if I have multiple storefronts?

• Storefront activity will be aggregated under a sellers account ID and reported on a single form 1099-K. If a seller has multiple account ID’s but under the same organization, amounts will also be aggregated.

What if I have a split payee or receive payments as a split payee?

• The income a split payee receives is included in the 1099-K of the parent seller. A split payee will not receive a tax form.

I didn’t receive a 1099-K form for 2021, why am I receiving one for 2022?

• The reporting rules for online marketplaces changed January 1, 2022. FastSpring did not issue forms 1099-K prior to 2022.

Accessing and Using your 1099-K

How do I receive my Form 1099-K?

• For qualifying sellers, forms will be mailed out to your address on file. You can request an electronic copy by reaching out to support@fastspring.com.

What if my personal information or address on the form is not correct?

• Identifying information is pulled directly from your storefront. To make any tax form updates, please update your Tax Information within your storefront.

1. On the dashboard page select Account Summary.

2. Under the Tax Information section select Manage Tax Information.

3. Select update and complete the online questionnaire to update your tax information.

4. Once updated, reach out to support@fastspring.com to request form reissuance.

Will I receive a form if I’m not a US citizen or resident?

• 1099-K reporting requirements will not apply if you are a non-US citizen and non-US resident selling on FastSpring. We require a completed form W-8 in the online questionnaire in order to properly claim non-US status.

What should I do with Form 1099-K?

• The amounts reported on your 1099-K should be reported on your 2022 tax return. 
  • Sole Proprietorships would generally report this income on Form 1040 Schedule C
  • Corporations or partnerships would generally report this on the entity return: Form 1120/1120S/1065.
• The form does not need to be submitted with your return. The copy provided is for your internal records.

I lost my original form 1099-K, where can I find a copy?

• You can request an electronic copy by reaching out to support@fastspring.com.

Why is the form from FS Intermediate Holdings, Inc. and not FastSpring?

• Legally, under IRS entity rules the FastSpring operating entity (Bright Market, LLC) is disregarded for federal tax purposes. Bright Market LLC’s parent company FS Intermediate Holdings, Inc. is the reporter and filing entity of FastSpring operations.

_{^{FastSpring does not provide legal, tax, or accounting advice. This material is being provided for informational purposes only and is not intended as, and should not be relied upon for, legal, tax, accounting, or other professional advice. Please consult your own legal, tax, and accounting advisors for advice specific to your situation.}}

This handbook outlines the FastSpring Support Policy and is a guide to using FastSpring Support. We reserve the right to change these policies to stay aligned with our goal of offering an outstanding support experience.

Table of Contents

• Contacting FastSpring Support
• Standard Operating Hours
• Standard Support and Maintenance
• Opening a Seller Support Case
• Opening a Consumer Support Case
• Severity Levels and Response Times
• Case Status Check
• Support Case Priorities
• Customer Feedback

Contacting FastSpring Support

For your convenience we provide the ability to open support cases directly through our portal: 

Portal Community – https://community.fastspring.com/

Alternatively, you can open a support case via email:  support@fastspring.com

It is important that you contact us through these channels so that we can ensure you receive timely and effective assistance.

Standard Operating Hours

FastSpring Office Hours are Monday through Friday: 9:00AM – 5:00 PM Pacific Time.  

Customer Support is available 24/7. 

Standard Support and Maintenance

FastSpring shall provide the following support services as appropriate to address your issues:

• A customer support representative to answer your help desk questions regarding FastSpring software
• Assistance with errors related to product releases
• Help identifying and isolating the source of errors or failures, to the extent practicable
• FastSpring’s published product documentation
• Payout questions
• Support for your customer’s checkout and purchasing issues, Tax or VAT/GST, and subscription services controlled by FastSpring 

Opening a Seller Support Case

When requesting assistance and to ensure a timely response, please provide the following upon opening a seller support case:

• Subject of the issue
• Description of the issue:
  • The steps taken to replicate and reproduce the issue or the error
• Attachments including:
  • Screenshot(s) or screencast(s) of the error messages/error text  
  • Supporting documentation for a specific configuration or a business process that is not working properly per specification  

Once a ticket is open, please provide responses by replying to the email.

In the course of providing a resolution, we may ask to set up a mutually convenient conference call and/or a live meeting to better understand the issue or to walk you through addressing the problem.

Opening a Consumer Support Case

When requesting assistance and to ensure a timely response, please provide the following upon opening a consumer support case:

• Subject of the issue
• Order or invoice number
• Company or Billing Descriptor on the receipt or invoice
  • FastSpring is displayed on the receipt/invoice or combined with the company from whom you made the purchase
  • Examples: FastSpring; FSPRG; FS*<company name from purchase>; FSPRG*<company name from purchase>
• Description of the issue:
  • The steps taken to replicate and reproduce the issue or the error
• Attachments including:
  • Screenshot(s) or screencast(s) of the error messages/error text  
  • Supporting documentation for a specific configuration or a business process that is not working properly per specification  

Once a ticket is open, please provide responses by replying to the email.

In the course of providing a resolution, we may ask to set up a mutually convenient conference call and/or live meeting to better understand the issue or walk you through addressing the problem.

Severity Levels and Response Time

Based on the subject and description we will determine the severity level/priority

Severity levels are determined by meeting a certain number of Qualifications. 

Severity Levels

Qualifications

There are 4 Qualification areas to determine the severity level of an issue.

• Severity
• Breadth
• Urgency
• Visibility

Severity

Issue affects a critical platform function area, listed below:

Breadth

• Number of Sellers
• Impacted revenue amount
• Number of individual transactions
• Number of subscription instances
• Functionality used by 75% of sellers

Urgency

• Effects are ongoing, currently happening
• No acceptable workaround for the problem exists
• Likely to lead to a significant customer satisfaction drop, loss of confidence, customer churn
• Time dependency

Visibility

• Affecting multiple live stores

Response Time Targets

FastSpring Support make every attempt to meet stated targets.  There are time that Support does not have any control over dependencies and may miss the stated targets.

Case Status Check

The status of a case may be viewed directly through the portal or by contacting Support.

Case Status

Support Case Priorities

Cases are prioritized and escalated based on the severity of the issue as well as its overall impact, feasibility of a workaround, and the effort required for resolution. It is important to us to balance our available resources, and case prioritization is the key to allowing us to provide the most impact possible across the client base.

If you feel the need to raise the priority of a case or if you are not satisfied with the course of action taken to address your issue, please inform your Support Agent so that they can take appropriate steps to meet your expectations. 

Customer Feedback

Our commitment and goal is to achieve 100% satisfaction from our clients, and we appreciate any comments, constructive criticisms, or suggestions regarding our department. We believe that communication is a key factor in helping us to improve our processes, and welcome feedback from each of our clients.

At the end of every case, we conduct surveys to measure our performance for that case’s client satisfaction. We encourage you to participate in these surveys so that we are able to make improvements to provide a better service to you and the FastSpring user community. We typically address the following topics:

• The overall quality of Technical Support services
• Timeliness and accuracy of service
• Friendliness and professionalism of Technical Support staff

Payout

How and when do I get paid?

I didn’t receive my payment

Orders and Purchasing

Why was a payment declined?

How do I locate an order?

Refunds and Chargebacks

What is the refund and chargeback policy?

How do I refund an order?

VAT and Sales Tax

Why was I charged Tax?

How is tax calculated?

Dashboards allow users to access all the important information in one place and help to diagnose the health of the business. You may access two dashboards from the navigation menu on the left.

Table of Contents

• Accessing Dashboards
• Dashboard Settings
• Filters
• Welcome Page
• Revenue Dashboard
• Subscription Overview
• Chargeback Overview
• Frequently Asked Questions

Accessing Dashboards

Dashboards can be accessed from the home page through the navigation bar on the left. There are two dashboards that can be viewed as dropdowns by clicking “Dashboards” on the left navigation Menu.

• Revenue Overview
• Subscription Overview

Dashboard Settings

Dashboard settings give you the option to do the following:

• Disable one or both dashboards for your store
• Select one of the Dashboards as a “Default Dashboard” to show up as a default landing page.

Access Dashboard Settings from Settings>Store Settings>Dashboard settings

Filters

There are three top filters to refine the analytics:

1. Time frame (filter data based on selected time frame)
2. Product (filter data for one or more products from the dropdown)
3. Country (filter data for one or more countries from the dropdown)

Save a Filter

“Save Filter” allows users to save filter options. The filter combinations used frequently can be named and used late from “All save filters” from the drop-down instead of applying all the filters every time.

The filters can be saved at the user level or at an account level. This setting is prompted when the filter is saved.

Welcome Page

Users may view the “Welcome” dashboard for important revenue metrics. 

• Net Revenue: A sum of all payments received from orders and rebills (excluding refunds and taxes).
  • The “This Month” timeframe represents the incomplete month to date.
• Account Balance: The USD amount that the account has accumulated for the current payout period.
• Refunds Last 30 days: The USD amount of refunds in the last thirty days.

Revenue Overview

The Revenue Overview dashboard gives users a comprehensive view of all the revenue-related metrics.

The Revenue Overview dashboard has the following Big number tiles:

• Average Transaction Amount: This is calculated as net sales divided by the count of transactions
• Transactions: Count of transactions (not including refunded transactions)
• Units Sold: Count of items sold
• Refund Rate: Refund Item Count divided by Transaction Item Count
  • This metric is calculated at the item level, not the transaction level.
  • Example: if ten items were purchased in one order and five items are returned, the refund rate is 5/10 = 50%

The Revenue Overview analytical tiles below are interactive and may be clicked to open a pop-up with the following analytics:

• Compare to the previous period
• Breakdown by product, country, coupon, discount, or relationship

The reports can also be downloaded for further analysis.

Following are the interactive analytical tiles:

• Net Sales: A sum of all payments received from orders and rebills. The tile displays the USD amount of net sales over timeline. 
• Cumulative Net Sales: A cumulative view of net sales over timeline.

Net sales or Cumulative net sales on a specific day can be viewed by hovering on the graph. The Net Sales and Cumulative Net Sales legend can be clicked on to add/remove one of the metrics on the graph. The graph has a dual Y axis where the left axis is for Net Sales and right axis is for Cumulative Net Sales.

FastSpring excludes refunds and taxes irrespective of gross or net pricing model. 

• Cumulative Net Sales: A cumulative view of net sales.

• Refund Amount: US dollar amount that was returned to customers over timeline.
• Refund transactions:Number of transactions that were refunded to customers over timeline.

Refund amount or Refund transactions on a specific day can be viewed by hovering on the graph. Refund amount or Refund transactions legend can be clicked on to add/remove one of the metrics on the graph. The graph has a dual Y axis where the left axis is for Refund amount and right axis is for Refund transaction.

• Transactions/Units Sold: Number of transactions or number of units sold over the given timeline. Transactions or Units sold on a specific day can be viewed by hovering on the graph.

• Net Sales/ Transactions by Product: Top ten products in descending order by net sales or transactions (selected from the dropdown)

• Transaction Currency: Filter on the transaction currency tile by clicking on one or more of the colored sections of the pie chart.
  • Note: Filtering on this tile will filter the currency on the entire dashboard. To remove the filter, click on “Clear Filter”.

• Net Sales by Country: A map view of Net Sales by buyer country. Hovering over a country can give net sales for that country.

Subscription Overview

The Subscription Overview dashboard gives users a comprehensive view of all subscription-related metrics.

The Subscription Overview dashboard has the following Big number tiles:

• MRR: Monthly Recurring Revenue for the selected time frame.
  • The MRR value is displayed on the last day of the selected time frame.
  • The MRR includes manual subscriptions as the revenue from manual subscriptions recurs on a monthly basis.
  • The MRR does not include on-demand subscriptions as the revenue from on-demand subscriptions does not recur on a monthly basis.
  • Refer to the MRR Frequently Asked Questions section for commonly asked questions about MRR scenarios
• Active Customers: A count of unique customers with active subscriptions in the selected time frame. This count includes customers who have canceled subscriptions that have not yet been fully deactivated. The value displayed is on the last day of the selected time frame.
• Cancellations: A count of subscriptions canceled in the given time frame. The value displayed is for the entirety of the selected time frame.
• MRR Churn Rate: MRR lost to downgrades and cancellations as a percentage of MRR before the selected time frame.

Below these tiles, a Monthly Recurring Revenue bar graph is shown which displays MRR for the past 12 months. On hover, each bar shows the Month, MRR in USD, and, MRR Growth Rate for a particular month. To gain more insight into the MMR, click on any of the bars displayed to open the Monthly recurring revenue Pop up chart.

Monthly Recurring Revenue pop-up chart: A stacked bar graph opens on clicking the MRR bar graph.

The pop-up chart has multiple options, starting with filters on the top that can be used to filter the MRR based on:

• Monthly Recurring Revenue vs MRR Growth Rate
• Time frame
• Products
• Countries

The options under the filters can be used to change the time frame for each of the bars to monthly, weekly, or daily periods. The values shown are for the last day of the selected time frame, meaning the Monthly Recurring Revenue shown for each month is for the last day of each month.

The stacked bars can be further drilled deeper by adding or removing the following variables within each bar:

• Contraction: MRR lost to cancellations and downgrades.
• Existing: MRR from the existing customers who have not made any changes to active subscriptions
• Activation: MRR contribution from new customers
• Expansion: MRR contribution from upgrades by existing customers

The MRR and MRR growth rate can be broken down by product, country, coupon, discount, or relationship type. The results in the table list can be sorted in ascending or descending order using the arrows beside each column.

Under the Monthly Recurring Revenue bar graph tile, there are 3 tiles:

• Annual Run Rate: Annual Run rate is the annualized recurring revenue, calculated as MRR*12. The line graph has a time frame in weeks on the X-axis and USD amount on the Y-axis. On hovering, the value of the annual run rate on a given date can be viewed.

• Average MRR per Customer: Average MRR per customer is the USD amount of MRR for each individual customer, calculated as MMR divided by the number of unique customers. The line graph has a time frame in weeks on the X-axis and USD amount on the Y-axis. On hovering, the value of the average MRR per customer on a given date can be viewed.

• Lifetime Value: Lifetime Value is the revenue generated per customer over their lifetime, calculated as the average MRR per customer divided by customer churn rate (number of customers deactivated/ total number of customers). The line graph has a time frame in weeks on the X-axis and USD amount on the Y-axis. On hovering, the value of the annual run rate on a given date can be viewed.

The last row in the Subscription Overview dashboard has 3 tiles:

• Activations and New Customers
  • Activations: This is the number of new subscriptions over a time frame. The line chart has a time frame in weeks on the X-axis and the number of subscriptions on the Y-axis.
  • New Customers: This is the number of new customers you have acquired over a time frame. The line chart has a time frame in weeks on the X-axis and the number of new customers on the Y-axis

The Y-axis scale values represent a different metric based on the metrics selected.

• For Activations, the number value represents new subscriptions.
• For New customers, the value represents the number of customers the business has acquired.

• Active Customers and Active Subscriptions
  • Active Customers: This is the number of unique customers with active subscriptions over a time frame. The line chart has a time frame in weeks on the X-axis and the number of active customers on the Y-axis.
  • Active Subscriptions: This is the number of subscriptions that are active. The line chart has a time frame in weeks on the X-axis and the number of active subscriptions on the Y-axis.

An active customer may have more than one subscription so these two metrics are different.

The Y-axis scale values represent a different metric based on the metrics selected.

• For active customers, the number value represents the number of customers.
• For active subscriptions, the value represents the number of subscriptions.

• Customer Churn Rate and Revenue Churn Rate
  • Customer Churn Rate: This is the number of customers who canceled the subscriptions as a percentage of total customers. On any given day, the customer churn rate value considers cancellations in the last 30 days and the current count of active customers. The line chart has a time frame in weeks on the X-axis and customer churn rate as a percentage on the Y-axis.
  • Revenue Churn Rate: This is the USD amount of monthly recurring revenue lost to cancellations and downgrades as a percentage of MRR. On any given day, the revenue churn rate value considers MRR lost in the last 30 days and the current MRR. The line chart has a time frame in weeks on the X-axis and revenue churn rate as a percentage on the Y-axis.

The Y-axis scale values represent a different metric based on the metrics selected.

• For Customer Churn Rate, the number value represents the percentage of customers.
• For Revenue Churn Rate, the value represents the percentage of MRR.

Chargeback Overview

The Chargeback Overview dashboard gives users a comprehensive view of all chargeback transactions. 

The Chargeback Overview dashboard has the following Big number tiles:

• Transactions: Total count of transactions
• Chargeback Rate: Number of transactions marked as chargebacks/ total number of transactions
• Chargeback USD Amount: Total USD amount for the chargeback transactions + applicable chargeback fee for respective transactions.
• Chargeback Transactions: Count of transactions marked as chargebacks.

Chargeback-o-meter

This chargeback-o-meter indicates the health of the business with respect to the Chargeback rate. 

• A chargeback rate in green is safe.
• A chargeback rate in orange indicates it is getting closer to the threshold that can impact payouts.
• The chargeback rate in red indicates that the threshold has been reached and payouts may be impacted.

Monthly Chargeback Transactions(Non-subscription vs Subscription Initial vs Subscription Recurring) – Last 12 months

A stacked bar chart that has month on month Chargeback transactions for the last 12 months. The color stacked based on:

• non-subscription
• subscription initial billing
• subscription recurring billing transactions. 

NOTE: The items on the legend are clickable and can be used to filter the chargeback transactions on the graph based on the description. 

Top Chargeback Transactions by Product

A horizontal bar graph that gives a comparison of chargeback transactions by product. 

• The horizontal bars are clickable and can be used to filter the dashboard based on the selected product(s)

Chargeback Transaction by Country

A map view of chargeback transactions by buyer country. Hovering over a country can give chargeback transactions for that country.

Chargeback Transactions by Payment Method

Chargeback transactions are segmented by payment method in the donut chart.

• The payment methods in the legend of the tile can be clicked upon to apply filters for specific payment method(s).

Chargeback Transactions by Currency

Chargeback transactions are segmented by currency in the donut chart.

• The currencies in the legend of the tile can be clicked upon to apply filters for specific currency(s).

Recent Chargeback Transactions

A grid view of recent transactions that can be used to operationalize handling of the chargeback transactions on a daily basis.

The grid view has details of the following columns for each transaction:

1. Order ID: The unique ID for transactions marked as Chargeback.
2. Chargeback creation date: The date on which the transaction was marked as a chargeback.
3. Chargeback amount: The USD amount that is the sum of the order value and the chargeback fee on the transaction
4. Currency: The currency in which the user transacted.
5. Payment method: The payment method used for the transaction

NOTE: The arrows beside each column header can be used to sort the rows in ascending/descending order.

Frequently Asked Questions

MRR Frequently Asked Questions

How do annual subscriptions convert into MRR?

Annual subscription amount is divided by 12 to calculate the MRR.

Example:

A company offers an annual subscription for $1,200. The MRR for this subscription would divide the total annual amount by 12, as follows:

MRR = $1,200 / 12 = $100

The MRR for this annual subscription is $100.

How do deactivation vs cancellation events affect MRR?

When determining the MRR contribution of a subscription, FastSpring prioritizes cancellation over deactivation. If a subscription has a cancellation date, the MRR contribution is removed on that date, even if the subscription has a deactivation date. However, if a subscription only has a deactivation date and no cancellation date, then the deactivation date is used to remove the MRR contribution from the subscription.

Reason: A cancellation is a strong indicator that the recurring revenue from a subscription will not continue in the next billing cycle.

NOTE: Cancellation event is a user triggered event that occurs when a user clicks on the “Cancel Subscription” button. Deactivation is a system triggered event that happens when subscription expires and the dunning cycle has ended.

Example:

A customer subscribes to a service with a monthly recurring charge of $50, starting on January 1, 2023. On February 28, 2023, the customer clicks the “Cancel Subscription” button. However, the subscription is set to expire on March 31, 2023, due to non-payment.

In this case, the cancellation date of February 28, 2023, takes precedence over the deactivation date of March 31, 2023. The MRR contribution of $50 for the subscription will be removed on February 28, 2023, the cancellation date set by the customer.

If the customer had not canceled the subscription , the deactivation date would have been used to remove the MRR contribution of the subscription on March 31, 2023, when the subscription expired due to non-payment.

How is foreign exchange conversion calculation done in MRR calculation?

FastSpring calculates the MRR contribution of a subscription by looking at the most recent events on the subscription and using the foreign exchange rates that were in effect on the event occurrence date to convert foreign currency to USD. For instance, when an upgrade or downgrade activity occurs on a subscription, FastSpring uses the foreign currency to USD conversion rate on the activity date to adjust the MRR contribution of the subscription accordingly. Similarly, the foreign currency exchange rates for rebill/renewal, and resume activities are also updated in the same manner.

NOTE: If there is no other activity on a subscription except for activation, FastSpring uses the foreign currency exchange rate to USD as of the activation date to calculate the MRR contribution of the subscription.

Creating an Embedded Storefront

Embedded Storefronts are an embedded same-page checkout experience that enables your customers to purchase products without leaving your website. 

When a customer clicks “Buy Now,” your website prepares the order contents from our Store Builder Library. This creates the session, loading an embedded checkout to display on your chosen page and location on your website. You can customize the styling and localization of each embedded storefront. After your customer enters their payment information, FastSpring processes the payment and delivers their fulfillment. 

When editing your Embedded Storefront, select “Save and Preview” at the top right corner of the embedded configuration page to display the current configurations. This preview uses a sample $14.95 monthly subscription.

When using an Embedded Storefront, we recommend that you deploy a security certificate and use the https: protocol for your website. This prevents web browsers from displaying warning messages about non-secure pages.

Create an Embedded Storefront

1. Navigate to Storefronts > Embedded Storefronts. Click Create Embedded Storefront.
2. Below Company Sub-Directory Storefront ID, enter an ID for the storefront. This becomes part of the storefront’s URL. 
3. Click Create. Your new inline storefront appears on the Embedded Storefronts page. 

After you create the Embedded Storefront, you can click the Settings button to customize the styling, products, payment methods, and localization.

Configure a Checkout Experience

Click the Settings button on your Embedded Storefront. This directs you to the checkout configuration page where you can customize the customer experience. Click on a subpage to customize the associated settings.

Checkout Experience

Configure the information that you would like FastSpring to display to your customers at checkout, and their customization options:

• Country and Language selector: Select whether the country and language selector is visible and adjustable to customers at checkout. This localizes the language and currency displayed to the customer based on a customer’s locale and browser settings. Customers can override the country and language selection with this enabled. Be aware that this will only update the language and currency on the checkout and not the rest of your website.
• Tax Exemption: If enabled, a tax exemption link displays (e.g. ‘Enter VAT ID’ in the EU) to customers with applicable taxes at checkout. They can click this link to enter a tax exemption ID. FastSpring will remove taxes from their total. Norton
• Secured Seal: If enabled, the Norton security seal displays below the embedded checkout. 
• Open Footer Links in Overlays: If enabled, the Privacy Policy and Terms of Sale links will open in overlays in the same viewport instead of opening in a new browser window. This is recommended for in-app implementations.
• Allow Customers to Generate Quotes: If enabled, customers will be able to generate a quote from checkout.

Purchaser Settings

FastSpring can send fulfillments to recipients who did not purchase the product. 

• Allow Separate Billing Contact: Allow the billing information to differ from the fulfillment information. 
• Enable Gift Purchases: Allow customers to make purchases for someone else. Gift purchases do not support subscriptions. This does not apply if you enable Allow Separate Billing Contact.

Promotion

Enable customers to enter coupon codes at checkout to receive discounts. To configure a coupon or coupon code, see Coupons.

• ‘Promotional Code’ field: If enabled, a field displays in which customers can enter valid coupon codes to receive the configured discount.
• Automatically expand ‘Promotional Code’: Select the behavior for the promotional code field:
  • Yes: The promotional code field appears in the checkout.
  • No: Customers click a link to expose the coupon field.

Customer Information

Configure the information that you would like to collect from customers at checkout.

• Display Newsletter Subscription Checkbox: Displays a checkbox labeled “Get free updates about our products and offerings” below the email field. If the customer selects this checkbox, FastSpring sends mailing list webhooks.
• ‘Company’ field: Displays a field in which customers can enter the name of their associated company at checkout.
• Collect physical address: Requires customers to enter their billing address when they place an order.
• Collect phone number: Requires customers to enter their phone number when they place an order.
• Auto/Manual subscription renewal: Control whether customers can opt out of automatic renewals. This converts their subscription to a manual renewal subscription.
  • Do not allow customers to opt out from saving payment details: FastSpring saves the payment details and automatically processes applicable rebills.
  • Allow, Opt-Out: Customers can clear the checkbox to opt out of automatic renewals. Otherwise, FastSpring saves the payment details and processes automatic renewals.
  • Allow, Opt-In: Customers can select the checkbox to opt in to automatic renewals. Otherwise, FastSpring does not save the payment information. Customers must manually pay for the next billing period in their Account Management portal. This does not apply to managed subscriptions.

Completion Page

After a customer successfully completes their purchase, FastSpring displays a custom completion page.

• Display products on completion page: Select this checkbox to display purchased products on the completion page.
• Enable licenses on completion page: Select this checkbox to display licenses for the purchased products on the completion page.

Customize the Styling of Your Embedded Checkout

On the embedded storefront, click Settings > Styling. Here, you can adjust the appearance and styling of the storefront to match your website.

General Styling

• Background color: Select a color for your checkout’s background.
• Font: Select the font to be applied to all the text in your checkout.
• Body text color: Select what color to apply to all the text in your checkout, except for links and the pricing text (which have separate settings).
• Input field background color: Select the background color for all input fields.
• Input field border color: Select the input field border color for all input fields.
• Input field border color – on focus: Select the input field border color when clicked.
• Payment method logos light/dark mode: Choose whether your payment method logos display in light or dark mode to stand out against your chosen input field background color. The default is set to auto-detect, switching the images from light to dark at a specified threshold.

Link Styling

• Link text color: Select the color to apply to all links.
• Link text color – on hover: Select the link color when a customer hovers their cursor over it.

Pricing Text

• Price text color: Select or enter the color of the subtotal displayed at the top of your checkout.
• Price line font size: Select the size (in pixels) to display the pricing text in.
• Price line font weight: Optionally, select Bold to bolden your subtotal.

Payment Button

At the bottom of the embedded storefront, FastSpring displays a “Pay” button. After entering their payment information, customers click this button to submit their payment.

• Button color: Enter the color of the payment button.
• Text color: Enter the color of the text on the payment button.
• Button color – on hover: Enter the color that the button changes to when a customer hovers their cursor over it.
• Text color – on hover: Enter the color that the text changes to when a customer hovers their cursor over it.

Corner Radius

Customize the roundness of the buttons on your storefront. Selecting 0px results in square corners; higher pixels cause rounded corners.

• Call to Action buttons corner radius: Select the corner radius for the buttons in the embedded storefront.

Completion Page

After a customer completes their transaction, FastSpring redirects them to your completion page. You can customize the look and feel of any CTA button that may display on the completion page. CTA buttons include “View Quote”, “View Invoice” and any download links for fulfillments.

• CTA button color: Enter the color of the CTA button.
• CTA button text color: Enter the color the CTA button text appears in.
• CTA button color – on hover: Enter the color that the button changes to when a customer hovers their cursor over it.
• CTA button text color – on hover: Enter the color that the CTA button text changes to when a customer hovers their cursor over it.
• Color of the successful order check mark on the completion page: Select or enter the color for the check mark that appears at the top of the completion page.

Analytics Integration

Configure optional integrations with Google Analytics and Google Tag Manager on the Analytics Integration subpage. By default, your embedded storefront uses the settings configured in the Developer Tools menu, however you can override these settings on a specific storefront.

• Google Analytics Integration Behavior: Select whether you would like to integrate Google Analytics in this storefront. If you select Use custom Google Analytics property ID, enter a custom property ID in the field below.
• Google Tag Manager Integration Behavior: Select whether you would like to integrate Google Tag Manager in this storefront. If you select Use custom Google Tag Manager container ID, enter a custom property ID in the field below.

PayPal

Control the logo and store title that displays in the PayPal login window. This only applies if PayPal is enabled in your store and a customer selects PayPal as their payment method.

• Checkout Brand Logo: Select an image to appear at the top of the login window.
• Checkout Brand Title: Enter the brand title that appears in the ‘Cancel and return’ link on the PayPal login window.

Adding an Embedded Checkout to Your Website

After you customize your embedded storefront, use FastSpring’s Store Builder Library (SBL) to add it to your website. Follow the steps below to add the storefront to your website.

1. List your subdomains.
2. Add products to your inline storefront.
3. Test the storefront from the app.
4. Place the storefront on your website.
5. Test orders from your website.

In order to process live transactions, your storefront must be online. See Managing Your Storefront for more information.

List Your Subdomains

In the FastSpring App, list the subdomains where you plan to host the embedded storefront. This allows the domains and subdomains to process live transactions with your storefront. It also prevents the storefront from loading on external, untrusted domains.

1. Navigate to Storefronts > Embedded Storefronts.
2. On the applicable storefront, click the No whitelisted websites badge. A popup appears.
   • If you have previously listed subdomains, this badge appears green with the number of whitelisted subdomains.
3. In the text area, enter http:// or https:// and the subdomain of your website. In a new line, repeat this step until all subdomains are added.
4. After saving and subdomains, allow up to 20 minutes for any domain updates to be fully applied. If the storefront does not respond, list additional domains, such as: http://mydomain.com, https://mydomain.com, http://www.mydomain.com, and https://www.mydomain.com
5. Click Save. Customers can now process transactions on your Storefront.

You can list each subdomain under multiple storefronts. To make future changes, click the green whitelist badge.

Add Products to Your Embedded Storefront

Adding products to an embedded storefront enables you to send API calls to the associated products, and access products from HTML and JavaScript.

1. Navigate to Storefronts > Embedded Storefronts. On the applicable storefront, click Products. The Homepage Products dialog appears.
2. In the Main Products field, select the product you want to add. Repeat this step for each product.

Test Your Embedded Storefront from the App

We recommend placing test orders while your storefront is offline, or through the app. This way, customers do not accidentally make test purchases on a live storefront.

1. In the FastSpring App, navigate to Storefronts > Embedded Storefronts. Select Preview. The Embedded Storefront appears in a new tab.
2. In the FastSpring App, navigate to Storefronts > Embedded Storefronts. On the same storefront, click Test. Input this credit card information in the test storefront.
   • Test a successful purchase: copy and paste the Card Number and CVV Code shown in the Success row.
   • Test a declined transaction: copy and paste the Card Number and CVV Code shown in the Failure row.
3. In the Expiration Date field, enter any date in the future.
4. In all other fields, enter the information desired. When finished, click Pay.

Place your Embedded Storefront on your Website

We recommend placing your Embedded Storefront on a page that is not accessible to your customers to test the user experience. When you are satisfied, repeat the process to place the Embedded Storefront on a customer-facing page.

After you list your subdomains, use the Store Builder Library (SBL) to place the Embedded Storefront on your website.

1. Navigate to Storefronts > Embedded Storefronts. On the applicable storefront, click Place on your Website.
2. Copy the SBL JavaScript snippet. Add it to the section of pages where you would like to use the Embedded Storefront.
3. After you have added the snippet to the <head> of the webpage, you can open the Embedded Storefront from that page.
4. If your page restricts sandboxes through a Content Security Policy header, add allow-top-navigation to the policy.
5. The Embedded Storefront will be displayed in a div matching ‘fsc-embedded-checkout-container’. This should be displayed in the section of your HTML markup.

The Store Builder Library does not support data-rocketsrc at this time. Because of this, third-party tools that attempt to compress or defer JavaScript loading may interfere with initializing the SBL. To ensure that the SBL loads successfully, avoid using these tools on pages that load the SBL.

Test Orders from your Website

After you add the storefront to your website, you can place test orders from your website. However, we only recommend using test storefronts that are not accessible to your customers; this will prevent them from accidentally placing live orders on the test storefront.

1. In the JavaScript library on your page, adjust the storefront’s URL by inserting .test. between the storefront name and onfastspring.com.
2. For example, if your Embedded Storefront’s URL is yourexamplestore.onfastspring.com/embedded, you would change the URL to be yourexamplestore.test.onfastspring.com/embedded.

Example Code:

<script
    id="fsc-api"
    src="https://d1f8f9xcsvx3ha.cloudfront.net/sbl/0.8.3/fastspring-builder.min.js"
    type="text/javascript"
    data-storefront="yourexamplestore.test.onfastspring.com/embedded">;
</script> 

3. Click a link on your webpage that was configured to invoke an Embedded Storefront. The Embedded Storefront appears on your website.
4. Use the test order information to complete a test purchase.

You can view test orders for your store at: https://fastspring.com/docs/test-orders/

After you are satisfied with your test orders, repeat the steps under Place your Embedded Storefront on a customer-facing subdomain. Then, customers can start making purchases.

Redirecting to a Custom Page After Checkout

When a customer completes an order in your embedded checkout, you can redirect customers to a different page on your website.

To implement the redirect, create a JavaScript function to handle the redirect. Add a single line to the Store Builder Library code that loads the Embedded Storefront.

More information about how you can redirect your customers after they purchase are available here.

Validate Order Information

If you plan to share access to the product or service immediately after FastSpring processes the transaction, we recommend that you validate the data. To do so, use the associated order ID to make a GET call to the /orders endpoint.

Spinner Placement

While the embedded checkout loads a spinner displays. By default, the spinner will be placed in the middle of the page.

To place the spinner in the middle of the checkout container, add style=”position: relative” to the embedded checkout placeholder “fsc-embedded-checkout-container” as follows:

<div id="fsc-embedded-checkout-container" style="position: relative;">
</div>

ACH Direct Debit

FastSpring supports ACH Direct Debit payments from US customers with a US or Canadian bank account using the Automated Clearing House (ACH) payments system operated by NACHA.

Unlike credit cards, there is no real time authorization mechanism therefore it can take 3-5 days to receive notifications if a sale or refund have completed. ACH payments are not guaranteed so chargebacks are possible.

FastSpring checkout has been updated to include a checkbox and NACHA compliant language.

We call this an online mandate collection, where the buyer explicitly agrees to NACHA language and gives consent to FastSpring to collect funds either one time or at regular intervals from the buyer’s bank account. Without accepting these terms we would not be able to initiate payment.

FastSpring invoices have been updated for ACH and will display both debtor and creditor details.

Payment Method Properties

• Customer Checkout Country: US and Canada
• Checkout Currency: USD
• Recurring payment: Yes
• Refunds and Disputes: Yes
• Settlement Timing: 3-5 Business days

Payment Flow

Timing: Initiation to Completion/Cancellation

T+0: Payment Initiated

T+1-T+4: Funds debited from customers account, and Order completion

Transaction Failures

ACH Direct Debit transactions can fail any time after the payment is initiated from the FastSpring checkout page. These failures can occur for a number of reasons, such as:

• Insufficient funds
• An invalid account number
• A customer disabling debits from their bank account

Once the payment fails FastSpring will cancel the order and trigger notifications(webhook and emails) to the seller.

We will trigger following webhook

We will trigger following email