FastSpring changelog fastspring.com

Improvement

Free Trial Without Payment Method: We’ve continued to iterate on our Trial Without Payment Method features. In addition to updated support for payments in our web storefront, we now allow buyers to automatically convert from a manual subscription (needs payment entry on a monthly basis) to an automatic subscription renewal. This can be done by buyers saving their payment details within the account management portal or at purchase when entering their payment details in the web storefront by checking the “save payment details” box.

We have further enhanced Trial Without Payment so buyers can see their billing terms within the web storefront. This clarifies to buyers when their next billing date is and exactly how much they will be charged.

Embedded Checkout Embedded checkout beta is now live for select sellers! This gives them the ability to add an inline checkout to a seller-hosted webpage with support for both dark and light mode along with the full FastSpring checkout functionality including: Payment Methods, Localization, Risk & Fraud Protection, Global Tax Collection & Remittance, and PCI/PSD2 Compliance.

Fix

Bug Fixes:

• Fixed a bug in Popup checkout where cart quantity modifications were unlocked for products that were quantity locked.

• Cleaned up our pricing code to support more VAT use cases when stores are in NET mode and utilize our volume discounts.

• Clarified our Postal Code collection field for Canadian buyers. Previously we asked for "zip code" and now we ask for "postal code".

• Fixed a bug where the quantity field for custom order items was too small.

• Fixed a bug in which the state/region field was blank when copying an order to a new custom order.

• Fixed a bug where Digital Invoicing Quotes were displaying incorrect values after the trial period.

• Fixed a bug for very rare cases in which coupons were deducted from quotes twice.

• Fixed a bug where Tax Exemption ID wouldn't show on invoices for some orders.

• Fixed a bug for certain transactions where orders were attributed incorrectly to the wrong seller.

• Fixed a pricing bug affecting certain German transactions processed in USD.

• Fixed a bug where some renewal dates in the AM portal were displayed incorrectly.

• Fixed a bug causing certain Store Builder Library (SBL) payloads to throw an address validation error.

• Fixed a bug with NPE when triggering webhooks for API quotes.

• Fixed a bug within webhooks regarding tax calculation.

• Fixed a bug in which a 500 internal server error was returned when a POST call with a nonexistent subscription ID was called.

• Fixed a bug where the “Pay Now” button was incorrectly displaying VAT/Tax calculations in the account management portal with certain subscriptions.

• Fixed a bug in the Popup checkout where the Continue and Download button settings were not being applied.

• Fixed a bug in which the “Gift Purchase” checkbox was displayed incorrectly in certain subscription trial conversions.

• Fixed a bug for very rare cases in which Account Management was incorrectly handling taxes.

New

Free Trial Without Payment Method: Available now, Trial Without Payment Method extends all the FastSpring subscription management functionality to free trials without requiring collection of a payment method. To further support free trials, we also offer a paid trial feature that allows businesses to offer a paid trial that can automatically convert into a full subscription at the end of the trial period.

Documentation is available at: fastspring.com/docs/trial-periods/

Popup Cart Quantity Field: We have updated the quantity field in the Popup Checkout Cart to allow numbers to be entered as well as the ability to use the + and - buttons to increase and decrease quantity respectively, thereby improving the customer experience for buyers purchasing a large quantity of items. A maximum value of 9999 can be entered into the quantity field.

GA4: Google Analytics 4 is replacing Universal Analytics. On July 1, 2023, standard universal Analytics properties will no longer process data. As such, we now support GA4 codes within our Google Analytics integration. Customers should only enter their GA4 property IDs when they are ready. For more information, here is a migration guide from Google: https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/10759417?hl=en&ref_topic=10737980

Improvement

Payment Approvals: To continue to improve approval rates, we have migrated existing subscriptions based in the UK to our new merchant account in the UK.

Webhooks: We now provide additional card data in the webhook and API for declined transactions.

Here is an example:

If the payment method is CC and the decline reason is “do not honor”, then the webhook and API will send the following additional information:

“Expiry”: “12/25”

“cardEnding”: “1234”

“cardType”: “VISA”

Platform Pricing Logic: General improvements to platform pricing logic and stability.

Fix

• Bug Fixes:

Fixed a bug causing some buyers to receive duplicate order and subscription emails in certain cases.

• Fixed an issue where select subscriptions were pushed into dunning prematurely in certain cases.

• Fixed an issue with PayPal where certain buyers were redirected to the Account Management Portal instead of the order completion page.

• Fixed an issue with setting the default payment method in the Account Management Portal.

• Fixed an error when localizing price through Store Builder Library (SBL), where an invalid zip resulted in errors.

• Fixed an issue with webhooks firing in certain tax refund situations when they shouldn’t.

• Improved retry logic for bank transfers.

• Fixed a pricing bug in our DI quoting tool that misapplied net pricing (tax exclusive) as gross pricing (tax inclusive).

• Fixed an error that occurred in certain cases when a buyer attempted to create a quote directly from the Popup Checkout.

• Fixed an issue where some iDeal orders were not completing automatically.

• Updated translations for test emails.

New

Changes based on your feedback:

• Short paid orders: Historically when buyers delivered a payment that was less than the full amount due, the order would not be automatically completed, which caused several issues like delayed or stalled fulfillment. This was often related to wires where an intermediary bank was involved and charged an unforeseen fee. The default minimum is $20 or 2%, whichever is lower, but sellers can also define how much they are willing to accept below the full order value in order to streamline their operations and keep fulfillment on time and automated. We will allow this at the company level - this can be updated in the Account Summary > Product Ordering Terms section. The Order Details page will now show a Settlement Amount and a Settlement Discrepancy amount when there is a discrepancy.

Fix

Bug fixes:

• Outbound bcc: We’ve removed the "Outbound bcc address" option.

New

Features:

• Revenue Overview analytics dashboard beta release: This is an initial release that is not yet broadly available. If you have interest in getting early access, please reach out to aholmes@fastspring.com.

Changes based on your feedback:

• Subscription reports: Sellers can now create subscription history reports.

Fix

Bug fixes:

• German language: Improper capitalization of "Alle" in German popup. This has been fixed.
• Duplicate emails: Certain buyers cited receiving duplicate order and subscription emails. This has been fixed.
• iDeal transactions: Fixed a bug causing iDeal orders from completing automatically. One-time setup fee: One-time setup fee was shown on some manual renewal orders. This has been fixed.
• Coupon: When a coupon discount duration is 3, sometimes the periods were not honored and extra discounted charges were made. This has been fixed.
• PayPal button in Popup Checkout: The “Pay” button was grayed out when PayPal was selected by buyers in Canada.
• Resuming a paused subscription: We fixed a but causing an error message that said, "Next subscription charge is not due yet" when trying to resume a paused subscription.

New

Features:

• SEPA: Give European buyers what they want! SEPA is one of the most popular payment methods across Europe, and it is now available in 9 countries through your FastSpring checkout: Germany, Austria, France, Belgium, Netherlands, Lithuania, Estonia and Portugal. Learn more here.
• Risk improvements: Added new data points that we feed into our machine learning risk model, so that we reduce the number of false positives.

Changes based on your feedback:

• Withholding Tax API: The GET /Orders API did not contain withholding information. We added withholding information to the GET /orders API responses. We are supporting the multiple iterations of the API - product path, date range, product path & date range; end date; and with returns only. If there was no tax withholding, we are still adding a boolean that says taxWithholding = FALSE; but not including any other data such as currency, amount, or percentage.
• Withholding Tax for refunds: Sellers can now understand if a refund has Withholding Tax associated with it via webhook. We added a Withholding area to the return.created webhook. It includes a boolean about whether the return has withholding or not; if the boolean is True, we will include currency, amount, and percentage rate. If it's False, we'll just include the boolean indicating that TaxWithholding is FALSE.

Fix

Bug fixes:

• Account Management Portal subscription management: Increasing quantity of a subscription threw unexpected errors in certain cases when clicking the “Pay Now” button. This has now been fixed. VAT checkout: We fixed a bug where the total amount was incorrect for certain tax exempt orders when a product level discount was applied.
• VAT on shipping charges: Taxes were missing from shipping charges on certain orders in the Classic Store. VAT exemption: VAT was still being charged despite VAT exemption on certain orders when store was in gross pricing mode. This has been fixed. Popup Checkout country selector: The Popup Checkout country selector was ignoring certain settings. This has been fixed.
• Subscription add-ons: We fixed a bug that caused an error when applying a discount to a subscription's add-on product.
• Account Management Portal: Fixed a bug where the "View Details" link did not take the buyer to appropriate subscription when the subscription was on page 2, 3, etc. Coupon: Fixed a bug that occurred when applying a coupon with discount duration = 0 to a subscription shows undiscounted price.
• German language: "Test2" appeared on language box when Deutsch was set as the preferred language. This has been fixed.

New

Features:

• Fallback logic: Improved our fallback logic to improve approval rates.

Changes to keep you compliant:

• Mexico invoice disclosure: We are now supporting a requirement to show the VAT ID on all invoices whenever the buyer's address is in Mexico. We now display our Mexican VAT ID just under our Vendor information on applicable invoices.

Fix

Bug fixes:

• Store Builder Library (SBL) with Web Storefronts: SBL whitelisting now excludes Web Storefronts to avoid errors.

New

Features:

• UK approval rates: We have added a UK merchant account with several processors to improve UK approval rates.

Fix

Bug fixes:

• Paypal: PayPal was not appearing as a payment method option for buyers in countries outside Europe. This has been fixed.
• Digital Invoicing quote translation: The word “QUOTE” at the top of a quote was translated to “ANGEBOTS” in German. “Angebots” is plural, “Angebot” is the correct translation. This has been fixed.
• Email notifications: There were instances where multiple email notifications were being sent to buyers when only one was needed. This has been fixed.

New

Features:

• Subscription Pause: Sellers can now allow their buyers to Pause subscriptions from the Account Management Portal, directly from the App, or through our API. Pause can be an effective tactic for deflecting churn. Learn more here about how to configure this in the Account Management Portal, or Pause subscriptions through our API.

Changes based on your feedback:

• Tax Withholding reporting: Sellers can configure webhooks to notify them when a transaction is eligible for Withholding Tax. Sellers can also see Withholding Tax in the following exports: Order Export, Order Item Export, Base Order Item Export, Account Order Item Export.

Fix

Bugs fixed:

• Subscription details: Bug fixed that caused an error when trying to view subscription details.
• Account Management Portal subscription start date: Bug fixed that caused an incorrect subscription start date to show.
• Account Management Portal translations: Updated grammar on French translations on the Orders page of the Account Management Portal.
• Dropbox: File fulfillment through Dropbox resulted in an error. This has now been fixed.
• Webhooks: Webhook payloads were not updating when subscription is changed. This is now fixed.

Fix

Bug fixes:

• Web Storefront: Payment options don't get selected when "Short Checkout Flow" is unchecked. This has been fixed.
• Manual order taxes: Fixed a bug that caused tax to disappears from certain manually-created orders.
• Account Management Portal payment methods: Bug prevented buyers from adding payment methods other than credit cards to the Account Management. This has been fixed.
• Account Management Portal access: In certain circumstances buyers were unable to access their account management page to make changes to their subscription. This has been fixed.

New

Changes based on your feedback:

• Coupon limits for DI: Digital Invoicing now supports the ability to limit a coupon (e.g., if a quote with one use limit is accepted and paid then that coupon is no longer available)
• ADA Accessibility: We have made several enhancements to the Web Storefront and Popup checkouts to support ADA requirements, including support for screen readers for visually impaired.
• Support Community Single Sign On (SSO): Users can now use their FastSpring login credentials to access the Support Community.
• Tax exempt data: Added tax exempt data to webhooks and APIs with applicable.
• Withholding Tax webhook: Sellers will now be notified of withholding tax is applied to a payout. We added a sub-object to the webhook that will show whether any withholdings were assessed; and if true, then the amount, currency, and the percentage will be shared.

Keeping you compliant:

• Tax ID on invoices: In certain countries the Tax ID is required on invoices. This is known as an “Invoice Disclosure”. We already did this in many countries, including the EU, and with this change we have added several countries (e.g., Australia, Canada, South Korea, and South Africa).

Fix

Bug fixes:

• Billing terms hyperlink: The billing terms hyperlink on pop-up checkout was not displaying specific dates for billing terms, but rather generic subscription information. This is now fixed.
• Tax exemption in Quotes: When a buyer added a VAT exemption ID at checkout and then generated a quote they were able to remove VAT a second time when they checked out after accepting and paying for that quote. This was fixed so that once the VAT exemption ID is added in checkout and a quote is generated then buyers will no longer see the option to add a VAT ID when they check out from the quote.
• Tax exemption in Popup: In Popup, a buyer was able to enter their US tax ID before their postal code, which caused an error. Now buyers can enter their Tax ID before or after the postal code without issues.
• “Awaiting Payment” order due dates: Certain orders that were “Awaiting Payment” showed incorrect due dates. This is now fixed.
• Account Management Portal performance: We have improved the performance of our Account Management Portal and added pagination when there are more than 15 orders or subscriptions.
• Duplicate orders: Fixed a bug where we showed two orders for one payment.
• Reseller tax: Tax was being charged on certain reseller orders. This has now been fixed. Custom Order coupons: Custom Orders w/ 100% off coupon would not complete checkout when "Force Address Collection" is on. This has been fixed.
• Trial cancellations: Some canceled trials were not deactivating at the end of the trial. This is now fixed. Payment method updates: Some Contextual subscriptions were not allowing buyers to update their payment method. This is now fixed.
• PayPal postal code field: In the Popup checkout, postal code is hidden for certain physical products when PayPal is selected. This has been fixed.
• Multi-discount coupons: Multi-discount coupons being applied via Seller app (Orders -> Subscriptions) were not being appropriately applied to the subscription. This has now been fixed.
• Virtual Products: Canadian tax displayed as $0.00 on checkout but charged fully upon completing order. This has been fixed.
• Volume discounts: Fixed a bug preventing the proper volume discounts from resulting when a subscription is changed in the Account Management Portal or via API.