> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.m3ter.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.
# Attaching Plans to an Account
When you attach a Plan to an Account, this creates a link between them to create an *Account Plan*. Attaching priced Plans to an Account determines the charges incurred by end customers who consume your Products:
* **Active Account Plan**. You can set the start and end dates to define the period for which the Account Plan will be *active* for the Account.
* **Plan per Product**. If the end customer Account consumes more than one of your Products, you can attach a Plan to the Account for each of the Products.
* **Attaching Multiple Plans**:
* **Default Organization setting**. The default Organization setting for attaching multiple Plans to the same account allows you to attach more than one Plan to an Account, but imposes the restriction that *only one attached Plan per Product can be active at any one time*. For example, you can attach a Product Plan to an Account to create an Account Plan that will active for the first six months, and attach another Plan for the same Product to create a second Account Plan that becomes active for the following twelve months. If you try to attach a Product Plan to an Account with start and end dates that overlap with an existing Account Plan for the same Product that is already active, you'll receive a notification with an option to end the currently active Account Plan on the start date you've set for the new Account Plan.
* **Overlapping Plans**. If your billing use case requires you to attach more than one Plan to an Account for the same Product at the same time, then you must first enable the **Allow overlapping attached plans** setting for your Organization. See [Viewing and Editing Organization Configuration](/guides/organization-and-access-management/viewing-and-editing-organization/viewing-and-editing-organization-configuration) for more details.
* **Reviewing Plan Attachment**. When you've attached a Plan to an Account, you can open a Plan Attachment page and:
* Review and edit the details of the Account Plan created when you attached the Plan to the Account.
* Review the Account Plan metadata for any Custom Fields, External Mappings, or Integration runs.
* Review details of the Plan itself and any associated pricing.
* **Replacing Plan Attachment**. You can quickly replace an existing attached Plan on an Account. When you do this, the start date you define for the replacement Plan is used to automatically end date the existing attached Plan.
* **Custom Plans and Custom Plan Groups**. You can create a custom Plan or a custom Plan Group for an Account, which means the Plan or Plan Group can only be attached to that Account. See [Creating Custom Plans for Accounts](/guides/end-customer-accounts/creating-custom-account-plans) and [Creating Custom Plan Groups for Accounts](/guides/end-customer-accounts/creating-custom-plan-groups-for-accounts).
This topic explains how to attach a Plan to an Account, review the Plan attachment, add an attached Plan to or remove it from a Contract, and replace an attached Plan:
* [Attaching a Plan to Create an Account Plan](/guides/end-customer-accounts/attaching-plans-to-an-account#attaching-a-plan-to-create-an-account-plan)
* [Reviewing Plan Attachment](/guides/end-customer-accounts/attaching-plans-to-an-account#reviewing-plan-attachment)
* [Adding Attached Plans to or Removing from Contracts](#adding-attached-plans-to-or-removing-from-contracts)
* [Replacing a Plan Attachment](#replacing-a-plan-attachment)
If you want to delete an Account Plan from the Account, you can do this from the **Attached Plans** tab:
* [Deleting an Account Plan](/guides/end-customer-accounts/attaching-plans-to-an-account#deleting-an-account-plan)
**Tip: Attach Plan before Pricing?** You can attach a Plan to an Account *before* you have configured Pricing for the Plan, and price the Plan at some later date.
## Attaching a Plan to Create an Account Plan
You can attach a Plan to an Account to create an *Account Plan*. An Account Plan determines the charges incurred by end-customers who consume the Product the Plan is for.
**To attach a Plan to an Account and create an Account Plan:**
1. Select **Accounts**. The **Accounts** page opens.
2. Select the **Name** text of the **Account** to which you want to attach a Plan. The **Account** page opens with the **Overview** tab selected.
3. On the **Account actions** menu, select **Plans>Create plan attachment**:
Alternatively:
* Select the **Attached plans** tab.
* On the **Active and pending attached plans** panel, select **Create plan attachment**.
The **Create** page opens:
* **Plan** is selected by default for **Plan attachment type**.
4. Select **Next**. The **Create** page adjusts.
5. On the **Plan attachment details** card, enter the required details of the Plan you want to attach to the **Account**:
* First, select a **Product** from the drop-down list. The **Plan** drop-down list is populated with the Plans belonging to the selected Product:
* Note that the **Plan** drop-down list will include any custom Plans you've created for the Account.
* Second, select the Plan you want to attach to the Account from the drop-down list.
* Now, select the **Start date** (*Required*) and **End date** (*Optional*) to define the period you want the Plan to apply to the Account for billing purposes:
* If you omit an **End date**, the Account Plan will be applied to the Account perpetually or until such time as you delete the Account Plan.
* End dates are *exclusive*. For example, if you set the **End date** of June 1st 2022, then the Account Plan ceases to be active for the Account at midnight on May 31st 2022, and any billing is calculated up to that point in time, NOT up to midnight on June 1st. If you want to include end customer Account usage occurring on June 1st for billing, you must set the **End date** to June 2nd.
**Warning: Overlapping Attached Plans!**
* **Default setting**. The default Organization setting imposes the contraint that an Account can only have one active Account Plan *per Product* - if you enter a **Start** **date** which would mean the new Account Plan overlaps with an Account Plan that is already active for the Account, then a warning will show and you'll be given the option to end the existing Account Plan on the **Start date** of the new Account Plan.
* **Allow overlapping attached plans**. If your billing use case requires you to attach more than one Plan to an Account for the same Product at the same time, then you must first enable the **Allow overlapping attached plans** Organization setting.
6. For other optional settings, use the **Plan attachment settings** card:
* **Billing cycle date**. Optional setting, which sets the date when the first Bill is created and acts as a reference for when in the applied billing frequency period subsequent Bills are created for the Account:
* For example, suppose you attach a Plan to the Account that is configured for monthly billing frequency and you've defined the period the Plan will apply to the Account to be from January 1st, 2022 until January 1st, 2023. You then set a **Billing cycle date** of February 15th, 2022. The first Bill will be created for the Account on February 15th, and subsequent Bills created on the 15th of the months following for the remainder of the billing period - March 15th, April 15th, and so on.
* If you leave this blank, then the **Billing cycle date** set for the Account will be used instead - see [Creating, Editing, and Deleting Accounts](/guides/end-customer-accounts/creating-an-account).
* If you want to add the Account Plan to a Contract you've created for the Account, use the **Contract** drop down to select it. For more details on Contracts, see [Creating Contracts for Accounts](/guides/end-customer-accounts/creating-contracts-for-accounts).
* If the Account is either a Parent or a Child Account, you can select for **Account hierarchy billing mode**, which determines how billing will be handled and shown on bills for charges due for the Parent Account and charges due for Child Accounts:
* **Bill parent account - bill line item per account**. Default setting.
* **Bill parent account - single bill line item for all accounts**.
* **Bill child account**.
**Important!**
* **Only Operative for Parent/Child Accounts**. The **Account hierarchy billing mode** options are only operative if the Account is a Parent or Child Account. For a full explanation of what each means when attaching Plans to create Account Plans for Parent or Child Accounts, see [Billing Hierarchy Modes for Parent/Child Accounts](/guides/end-customer-accounts/creating-and-working-with-child-accounts/billing-for-parent-child-accounts).
* **Parent/Child billing for Recurring Charges not supported**. If you price a Plan using a Counter to apply unit-based pricing for recurring subscription charges and attach the Plan to Parent or Child Accounts, Parent/Child billing is not supported for the recurring charges.
7. Add any required **Custom Fields** to the Account Plan. For more on Custom Fields, see [Working with Custom Fields](/guides/creating-and-managing-products/working-with-custom-fields).
8. Select **Create Plan attachment**. You are returned to the Account page with the **Attached plans** tab selected. The Plan is listed under **Active and pending attached plans**:
* Note that if the **End date** selected when attaching the Plan is in the past, then the Plan is listed under **Previously attached plans**.
* Attaching a Plan to an Account creates an *Account Plan*. The Account Plan will show as **ACTIVE** or **INACTIVE** or **PENDING**, and the **Start** and **End** dates are also shown:
**Tip: Account Consumes Multiple Products?** In this example, the Account Plan is attached to a Product called **Premium Data Storage**. If the Account consumes more than one of your Products and you've attached Plans to create Account Plans for each Product, these will be grouped accordingly under respective Products.
9. If you want to edit the Account Plan, select the **Edit** icon:
10. Make your changes on the **Edit** page, and select **Update Plan attachment**. For example, you might want to add the Account Plan to a Contract you've created for the Account. The **Contract** is then shown against the Account Plan in the **Active and pending attached plans** panel:
11. If the end-customer Account consumes another of your Products, you can repeat steps 3 to 8 to attach a second Plan to the Account for the overall billing setup for the Account - Bills will be calculated for the Account in accordance with the Account Plans attached for each of your Products the Account consumes:
**Tip: Adding Custom Fields when attaching a Plan?** You can define Custom Fields when attaching a Plan to an Account to create an Account Plan. Note that:
* These Custom Fields will be *specific to the Account Plan* - they are separate from any Custom Fields you might have already added either to the Account itself or to the Plan that was used to create the Account Plan.
* Secondly, any Custom Fields you create for an individual Account Plan *override* those you've created for Account Plans at the Organizational level. See [Adding and Editing Custom Fields](/guides/organization-and-access-management/viewing-and-editing-organization/adding-and-editing-custom-fields).
## Reviewing Plan Attachment
When you've attached a Plan to an Account, you can open a *Plan attachment* page and review details of the attachment.
**To review a Plan attachment:**
1. On the **Account** page, select the **Attached plans** tab.
2. On the **Active and pending attached plans** panel, select the name hotlink text of the attached Plan you want to review. The **Plan attachment** page opens:
* For the *Account Plan* created when you attached the Plan to the Account, under **Plan attachment details** you can:
* Check the dates for the period the Account Plan will be active for the Account.
* Read-off the Account Plan **ID** with the option to **Copy** this directly to your clipboard.
* If a Contract is linked to the Account Plan, this will be shown and you can use a hotlink text to open the Contract details page.
**New Plan attachment page?** The new version of the **Plan attachment** page opens. If you prefer to work in the old version of the page, select **Use the old version**.
3. If you scroll down the page, you can review the **Plan attachment metadata**:
**Custom Fields**. Any fields created for the Account Plan entity are listed:
* If any Custom Fields have been created at the Organizational level, these are shown and you can **Copy** the number or string value to your clipboard:
* If the fields have also been created for an individual Account Plan, then the values configured for those created at Organizational-level are struck out indicating clearly that the individual Account Plan’s values will be used:
**External mappings**. Any mappings created for the Account Plan are listed:
* The **External system** and **External table** mapped to are shown - such as **Netsuite - Item** in the above example. The **External entity ID** mapped to is also shown.
* If a listed External mapping is linked to an Integration, under **Linked integration** a hotlink text will be shown which you can use to open the Integration.
* Under **Actions**, you can edit or delete the External mapping.
* If the Account Plan has multiple External mappings created for it, you can use *Search external mappings* to search by **External table** and **External entity ID** and filter the list.
* You can commence a workflow to **Create external mapping** for the Account Plan directly - see [Creating and Managing External Mappings for Accounts](/guides/end-customer-accounts/creating-and-managing-external-mappings-for-accounts) for an example.
**Integration runs**. If you go on to set up an integration that synchronizes the Account Plan data with an external system, the date/time and status of the **Latest** integration run will be shown. You can use a text hotlink to open details of this latest run or **View all runs**. See [Reviewing Integration Run Details](/guides/integrations/setting-up-integrations/reviewing-integration-run-details).
4. Scroll further down the page to review the details of the Plan that was attached to the Account to create the Account Plan:
* On the **Plan details** panel, you can:
* Check the details of the Plan.
* Use hotlink text links to open the **Plan details** page and details pages for associated entities - **Plan template** and **Product**.
5. Further details of the Plan attached to the Account are shown:
* **Standing charge**:
* **Pricing**:
* **Adjustments**:
* **Plan metadata**:
* **Custom fields**
* **External mappings**
* **Integration runs**
**Plan metadata!** The *Plan's metadata* shown at the bottom of the page should not be confused with the *Account Plan's metadata*, which is also shown immediately below the **Plan attachment details** card.
## Adding Attached Plans to or Removing from Contracts
From *Plan attachment details*, you can quickly add the attached Plan to a Contract or remove it from a Contract on the Account. This saves you having to open and edit the Plan attachment.
**Updating a Contract to add or remove an attached Plan.** Alternatively, you can open the details page of a Contract and add an attached Plan to it or remove an attached Plan from it. See [Adding Account Plans or Account Plan Groups to Contracts](https://docs.m3ter.com/guides/end-customer-accounts/creating-contracts-for-accounts/creating-and-managing-contracts#adding-account-plans-or-account-plan-groups-to-contracts). If you do this, then the **Plan attachment details** will update accordingly.
**To add an attached Plan to or remove it from a Contract:**
1. Select **Accounts**. The **Accounts** page opens.
2. Select the **Name** text of the Account for which you want to add an attached Plan to or remove from a Contract. The **Account** details page opens with the **Overview** tab selected.
3. Select the **Attached Plans** tab.
4. On the **Active and pending attached plans** panel, select the name hotlink text of the attached Plan you want to add to or remove from a Contract. The **Plan attachment** page opens and on the Plan attachment details panel:
* If the attached Plan has not been added to a Contract, an **Add to contract** button is available.
* If the attached Plan has been added to a Contract, a **Remove from contract** button is available.
5. To add the attached Plan to a Contract, select **Add to contract**. A **Select contract** modal opens and lists the Contracts created for the Account.
6. Select the Contract you want to add the attached Plan to and select **Confirm**. The modal closes and the Contract is shown under **Plan attachment details**:
7. To remove an attached Plan from a Contract, select **Remove from contract**. A confirmation popup appears:
8. Select **Remove** to confirm. The popup closes and the Contract no longer shows under **Plan attachment details**.
## Replacing a Plan Attachment
From the *Plan attachment* page you can quickly replace an existing attached Plan. When you do this, the start date you define for the replacement attached Plan is used to automatically end date the existing attached Plan.
**To replace a Plan attachment:**
1. On the **Account** page, select the **Attached plans** tab.
2. On the **Active and pending attached plans** panel, select the name hotlink text of the attached Plan you want to replace:
The **Plan attachment** page opens:
3. Select **Replace plan attachment**. The **Replace plan attachment** page opens:
* **Plan attachment details**:
* The **Product** and **Plan** of the existing attached Plan will be pre-selected and you can edit these as required for the replacement.
* Enter a required **Start date** and optionally an **End date**.
* **Plan attachment settings**. The settings of the existing attached Plan are shown and you can edit these as required for the replacement:
* **Billing cycle date**.
* **Contract**.
* **Account billing hierarchy mode**.
* **Custom fields**. Any Custom Fields created for the existing attached Plan are shown and you can add, edit, or remove as required for the replacement.
**Important: Replacement start date must be before or equal to the existing end date!** If you enter a **Start date** for the replacement Plan attachment that is after the existing Plan attachment **End date**, you'll receive an error when you try to replace the existing Plan attachment.
4. Select **Replace plan attachment**. You are returned to the **Plan attachment** page for the replacement attached Plan:
5. Return to the **Attached plans** tab for the Account:
* We can see that the **Start date** entered for the replacement attached Plan has been used to update the **End date** for the originally attached Plan, which is now listed under **Previously attached plans**.
## Deleting an Account Plan
**To delete an Account Plan:**
1. On the **Active and pending attached plans** panel, select **Delete**:
A confirmation popup appears.
2. Select **Yes** to confirm the Account Plan deletion.
3. Alternatively, on the **Active and pending attached plans** panel, select the **Name** hotlink text of the Account Plan you want to delete. The **Plan attachment** page opens.
4. Select **Delete**:
A confirmation popup appears.
5. Select **Yes** to confirm the Account Plan deletion. You are taken back to the **Attached plans** tab.
**Important!**
* **Deleting the Plan**. Deleting the *Account Plan* does not mean the *Plan* is deleted - the Account Plan is created only when you attach a Plan to an Account and remains distinct from the Plan you attached. If you want to delete a Plan, you must go to **Pricing>Plans**, select the **Product** you created the Plan for, and then delete it from there. See [Editing and Deleting Plan Templates and Plans](/guides/plans-and-pricing/working-with-plan-templates-and-plans/editing-plan-templates-and-plans).
* **Removing or Changing Account Plans on Accounts**. If you remove or swap out Account Plans on and Account after Bills have been created on the basis of the Account Plans on the Account, simply recalculating those existing Bills will not reflect the change of Account Plans. You must first manually delete the previously created Bills and then re-run billing. See [Recalculating Bills after Billing Configuration Changes](/guides/billing-and-usage-data/running-viewing-and-managing-bills/troubleshooting-bills#recalculating-bills-after-billing-configuration-changes) in the [Troubleshooting Bills](/guides/billing-and-usage-data/running-viewing-and-managing-bills/troubleshooting-bills) topic.