Terminology and Definitions
- Subscriber
- Account Owner
An entity who owns a given subscription is considered to be legally responsible for the subscription. All financial transactions for a subscription is associated with a Subscriber Billing Account and by association a subscriber (in the general case).
- Subscription
An agreement for an organization to provide/deliver a service or product to a subscriber in a given period of time. A subscription is typically associated with a specific set of rules, called a plan, which describes the particular terms of the subscription. See plan for details.
- Subscription Plan
- Package
A set of rules that governs the details of a subscription, such as the included products, the duration, continuation, billing and fees.
- Template Subscription Plan
- Template Package
A template to simplify the creation of new subscription plans. The template is used to create a new plan with a specific set of rules during order registrations.
- Organization
A legal entity, company or similar who offers one or more products as a subscription.
- Payment
A Payment represents a transfer of funds from a subscriber to an organization as settlement for services or products provided. Specifically payments are incoming transactions from a subscriber to an organization, and refunds are outgoing transactions from an organization to a subscriber.
- Billing Account
- Subscriber Billing Account
- Subscriber Account
An account within an organization that belongs to a subscriber for a given Currency. A billing account is used to track all financial transactions (charges, payments, refunds) for a subscriber. Each Subscriber may have multiple billing accounts, but typically there is a one to one relationship between a subscriber and a billing account.
- Additional Product
A product that is not part of a subscription, but purchased as an add-on to a subscription. For instance for extra devices, TV-channel access, points or similar. An additional product is typically associated with a subscription, but it is not governed by the subscription plan rules.
- Product
A product is something that is sold/purchased either as a service, benefit or a physical wares that can be subscribed to.
- Payment Agreement
An agreement on a means of payment/billing between an organization, a subscriber and optionally a third party that allows the organization to obtain payments from the subscriber.
- Payment Service Provider
- PSP
From wikipedia : A payment service provider, offers sellers and merchants, services for accepting electronic payments by a variety of payment methods including credit card, bank-based payments such as direct debit, bank transfer, and real-time bank transfer based on online banking. Typically, they use a software as a service model and form a single payment gateway for their clients (merchants) to multiple payment methods.
- NETS
- Mastercard Payment Solutions
- Bankgirot
- SwedbankPay
- VippsMobilePay
A specific PSP - see PSP
- eFaktura
eFaktura is a Norwegian electronic invoicing method for invoicing through most Norwegian online banking solutions provided by Mastercard Payment Solutions. May be combined with AvtaleGiro AvtaleGiro
- Vipps
- MobilePay
Vipps and MobilePay is a scandinavian App for payments managed by mobile phone, either through payment cards or direct bank account transfers behind the scenes. It is currently available in Norway, Denmark and Finland merchant payments.
- AvtaleGiro
AvtaleGiro is the direct debit solution in Norway, handling recurring payments with little customer interaction after setup. It is provided by Mastercard Payment Solutions. May be combined with eFaktura.
- Autogiro
AutoGiro is the B2C and B2B direct debit solution in Sweden, handling recurring payments with little customer interaction after setup. It is provided by Bankgirot.
- BetalingsService
BetalingsService is the B2C direct debit solution in Denmark, handling recurring payments with little customer interaction after setup. It is provided by Mastercard Payment Solutions.
- Autogiro Norway
Autogiro in Norway is a special direct debit solution for B2B payments, it should NOT be confused with the Swedish Autogiro variant. It is provided by Mastercard Payment Solutions.
Conceptual Relationship Model
The following diagram illustrates the conceptual relationships between the some of the entities and terms defined in this document.
Simplified relationship between selected central entities.
Note
Please note that the diagram is a simplification and does not cover all possible relationships between the entities.