Creating and Managing your API Engine Subscription

If the API Engine is your first Suite Engine product, it is necessary to create a new Suite Engine subscription. Suite Engine uses Stripe to manage subscriptions for its products.

You can set up you subscription in the Suite Engine Subscriptions page:

1. Choose the looking glass in Business Central and enter Suite Engine Subscriptions.
2. Choose the related link.
3. On the Customer Information FastTab, enter the following subscription information:
   • Name
   • Address
   • Address 2 (optional)
   • City
   • State
   • Postal Code
   • Country
   • Phone
   • Email
4. Choose the Actions ribbon, then choose the Create Stripe Customer action.
   
   With the exception of Address 2, you must supply values in all of the fields on the Suite Engine Subscriptions page in order to create an account. If you attempt to create a new Stripe account without populating one of these fields, an error message will inform you of what data you need to include. If all the required values are present, a new Suite Engine subscription account will be created and assigned in Business Central; the new subscription number will be displayed in the Customer Id field.
   
   Note: while the subscription management functionality will validate whether all the required fields have been populated when a subscription is requested, it will not validate the information itself. Please be certain the values you enter in these fields are accurate.

When you have created a new Suite Engine account, you can then request a trial subscription for the API Engine:

1. On the My Products FastTab, select the line for the API Engine.
2. Choose the Manage ribbon, then choose the Create Free Trial Subscription action. A subscription wizard will be presented to you.
3. On the first page of the wizard, place a check mark on the line for the subscription plan you want to enable (there should only be a single line) then choose the Next button.
4. On the subsequent wizard pages, validate your account details and subscription plan, then click Next.
5. On the final wizard page, choose the Finish button.

When you have completed the wizard, a new trial subscription for the API Engine is created under your account. The relevant subscription status fields on the My Products FastTab are updated to display the remaining length of the trial subscription. Suite Engine products by default allow for a 30-dayday trial period, during which you have access to the full 
functionality of the application. If you wish to use API Engine following the trial period, you must activate your subscription by providing a valid payment method. You can supply a payment method and manage other aspects of your Suite Engine subscriptions through the Suite Engine Subscription Self Service Portal, which is accessed from the Suite Engine Subscriptions page by choosing the Go To Payment Portal action in the ribbon. This opens the Suite Engine Subscription Self Service Portal for the assigned Suite Engine customer ID. The portal presents information on the API Engine and any other Suite Engine solution subscriptions that have been set up under the same account; from here, you can add payment methods and adjust your existing subscriptions. The Suite Engine Subscription Self Service Portal is completely secure, and your payment information is safe. 

Note: to minimize disruptions to your business, it is recommended that you visit the Suite Engine Subscription Self Service Portal and set up a payment method before your API Engine trial expires. You will not be charged until your trial period ends, at which point your subscription will be automatically activated.

If you determine that the API Engine does not meet your business needs, you can cancel your subscription through the Suite Engine Subscription Self Service Portal at any time.

If the API Engine is being installed in a Business Central environment in which any of Suite Engine’s other solutions have been deployed, the trial subscription will be created for the customer ID subscription account that is already assigned in Business Central. Although rare, there may be situations where a Suite Engine subscription account exists but no account details are present in Business Central; in such a scenario, it is necessary to link the Business Central environment to the appropriate subscription account from the Suite Engine Subscriptions page by choosing the Link to Existing Customer action on the Actions tab in the ribbon. In the Link Existing Customer page, you must enter the following information:

• The Suite Engine customer ID for the relevant subscription.
• The billing e-mail for the relevant subscription.
• The billing address (Address 1 only, information such as city and postal code is unnecessary) for the relevant subscription.

Note: if you do not know these values, please contact Suite Engine support for assistance.

When this information is supplied, choose the OK button. The application will automatically assign the proper subscription account in Business Central and then update this account to include the API Engine.

After the initial entry of billing details on the Suite Engine Subscriptions page, these values become un-editable. If it is necessary to modify any of this information, you can do by choosing the Edit Customer Information action in the ribbon.  This will open a separate window containing the existing customer values, which can then be edited. Changes that are 
made to this customer information will be automatically synchronized with the related Suite Engine subscription account.

It is also possible to make customer changes through the subscription licensing system and then synchronize these changes in Business Central from the Suite Engine Subscriptions page by choosing the Force Refresh action on the Actions tab in the ribbon. This instructs the application to obtain updated subscription information from the subscription licensing system.

Next: Using API Engine