--- title: "Trials" description: "A non-technical ecosystem overview of Trials in RevCent, focused on how Product-level trial offers create customer Trial items, how Trials connect to Sales, Products, Customers, Subscriptions, payments, shipping, tax, refunds, recovery workflows, Email Templates, Functions, AI, voice, shops, and BigQuery relationship/reporting context." type: "item" company: "RevCent" canonical: "https://revcent.com/documentation/markdown/ecosystem/item/Trial.md" relationships: - name: "Product" url: "https://revcent.com/documentation/markdown/ecosystem/feature/Product.md" - name: "Sale" url: "https://revcent.com/documentation/markdown/ecosystem/item/Sale.md" technical_links: web_app: "https://kb.revcent.com/en/revenue/trial" api: section: "https://revcent.com/docs/api/v2#section-trials" operations: - name: "Get Trials" operation_id: "GetTrials" operation: "https://revcent.com/docs/api/v2#operation-GetTrials" schema: "https://revcent.com/documentation/files/api/operation/GetTrials.json" - name: "Get A Trial" operation_id: "GetTrial" operation: "https://revcent.com/docs/api/v2#operation-GetTrial" schema: "https://revcent.com/documentation/files/api/operation/GetTrial.json" - name: "Expire A Trial" operation_id: "ExpireTrial" operation: "https://revcent.com/docs/api/v2#operation-ExpireTrial" schema: "https://revcent.com/documentation/files/api/operation/ExpireTrial.json" - name: "Extend A Trial" operation_id: "ExtendTrial" operation: "https://revcent.com/docs/api/v2#operation-ExtendTrial" schema: "https://revcent.com/documentation/files/api/operation/ExtendTrial.json" - name: "Shorten A Trial" operation_id: "ShortenTrial" operation: "https://revcent.com/docs/api/v2#operation-ShortenTrial" schema: "https://revcent.com/documentation/files/api/operation/ShortenTrial.json" - name: "Cancel A Trial" operation_id: "CancelTrial" operation: "https://revcent.com/docs/api/v2#operation-CancelTrial" schema: "https://revcent.com/documentation/files/api/operation/CancelTrial.json" - name: "Search Trials" operation_id: "SearchTrials" operation: "https://revcent.com/docs/api/v2#operation-SearchTrials" schema: "https://revcent.com/documentation/files/api/operation/SearchTrials.json" mcp: overview: "https://revcent.com/documentation/markdown/mcp/operation/OverviewTrial.md" operations: - name: "Get Trials" operation_id: "GetTrials" markdown: "https://revcent.com/documentation/markdown/mcp/operation/GetTrials.md" available_via_ai: true - name: "Get A Trial" operation_id: "GetTrial" markdown: "https://revcent.com/documentation/markdown/mcp/operation/GetTrial.md" available_via_ai: true - name: "Expire A Trial" operation_id: "ExpireTrial" markdown: "https://revcent.com/documentation/markdown/mcp/operation/ExpireTrial.md" available_via_ai: true - name: "Extend A Trial" operation_id: "ExtendTrial" markdown: "https://revcent.com/documentation/markdown/mcp/operation/ExtendTrial.md" available_via_ai: true - name: "Shorten A Trial" operation_id: "ShortenTrial" markdown: "https://revcent.com/documentation/markdown/mcp/operation/ShortenTrial.md" available_via_ai: true - name: "Cancel A Trial" operation_id: "CancelTrial" markdown: "https://revcent.com/documentation/markdown/mcp/operation/CancelTrial.md" available_via_ai: true - name: "Search Trials" operation_id: "SearchTrials" markdown: "https://revcent.com/documentation/markdown/mcp/operation/SearchTrials.md" available_via_ai: true bigquery_schema: "https://revcent.com/documentation/files/bigquery/dataset.json" bigquery_tables: - "trial" --- # Trials Trials are customer-level trial-period records in RevCent. A Trial is created when a customer purchases or starts a Product that has trial behavior configured. The Product defines the trial offer. The Sale captures the purchase attempt. The Trial is the individual customer lifecycle item created from that offer. In plain language, a Trial represents the period between a customer starting a trial offer and RevCent later expiring that trial according to the configured expiration date. Trials are important because they make trial offers measurable, manageable, and connected to the rest of the RevCent commerce graph. A trial is not just a marketing concept. In RevCent, it can connect to the Product, Sale, Product Sale, Customer, payment method, tax, shipping, discounts, subscription lifecycle, trial-expiration payment, failed-payment recovery, refunds, chargebacks, customer communication, AI workflows, voice workflows, and reporting. ## Why Trials Are an Item Trials are an item because each Trial is created from actual customer activity. A business configures a Product as a trial offer. When a customer starts or purchases that Product, RevCent creates a Trial record for that specific customer and that specific purchase context. The distinction is important: - Product is the reusable offer definition. - Sale is the purchase event that starts the trial. - Product Sale is the line item inside the Sale. - Trial is the customer-specific trial period that results from that purchase. A Product can be sold many times. Each customer who starts the trial can have their own Trial item with its own start date, expiration date, customer context, payment context, and lifecycle outcome. For ecosystem graphing, Trials are valuable because they turn a trial offer into a visible relationship node. They show which Products created trials, which Sales started them, which customers are still active, which trials expired, which became paid, which failed, which were cancelled, and which recovery actions happened afterward. ## Core Purpose The core purpose of a Trial is to represent a customer's temporary access, introductory offer, delayed-billing offer, sample period, or trial-to-paid conversion path. Trials help ecommerce businesses: - Reduce friction at the beginning of a customer relationship. - Offer introductory pricing before a later charge. - Delay the main payment until after a trial period. - Support free-plus-shipping, sample, starter kit, or try-before-you-buy offers. - Create trial-to-subscription funnels. - Track upcoming expirations and conversion opportunities. - Recover revenue from failed trial-expiration payments. - Connect trial performance back to Products, Campaigns, Shops, and Customers. Trials are especially useful for products where the customer needs time to experience value before the full billing event happens. ## Where Trials Fit in RevCent Trials sit in the revenue lifecycle between the initial Sale and a later trial expiration outcome. A typical trial flow looks like this in business terms: 1. A Product is configured as a trial offer. 2. A customer purchases or starts that Product. 3. RevCent creates a Sale and Product Sale. 4. RevCent creates a Trial item connected to that Sale and Product. 5. The Trial remains active until its expiration date. 6. RevCent automatically expires the Trial when the configured time arrives. 7. At expiration, RevCent can attempt the trial expiration payment where applicable. 8. The expiration can produce payment, tax, shipping, subscription, refund, or recovery records depending on the offer design and outcome. This places Trials near the center of acquisition, conversion, payment recovery, and subscription-start workflows. ## Relationship to Products Products define trial behavior. A Product can be configured so that when it is sold, RevCent creates a Trial. The Product determines the business rules of the offer, such as how long the trial lasts, what the trial-expiration charge should be, and whether shipping should happen when the trial starts, when the trial expires, or both. This is why Product setup matters so much for Trials. A Trial is not configured from scratch every time a customer buys. The Product carries the reusable trial offer behavior, and the Trial is the customer-specific item created when that offer is used. Common product-based trial patterns include: - Introductory access trial. - Sample or starter kit trial. - Free-plus-shipping trial. - Low-cost trial followed by a higher expiration charge. - Trial that converts into a subscription. - Shippable product trial that sends a physical product at creation, expiration, or both. - Trial bundle where a single offer represents multiple products or components. For relationship graphing, Product is the source offer, while Trial is the customer-specific instance created from that offer. ## Relationship to Sales A Sale is the purchase attempt that starts the Trial. When a customer buys a trial Product, RevCent creates a Sale that captures the commerce event. That Sale can include the customer, payment type, campaign, shop, product line items, tax, shipping, discounts, payment records, tracking context, and other related items. The Trial connects back to that Sale so the business can understand where the trial came from. This relationship answers questions such as: - Which Sale started this Trial? - Which customer started the Trial? - Which Product was purchased? - Which Campaign or Shop generated the trial start? - Was there an initial payment? - Was shipping or tax created during the initial Sale? - Did the Sale also create a Subscription or other related item? The Sale is the origin event. The Trial is the time-based customer item that follows from that event. ## Relationship to Product Sales A Product Sale, also known as a Product Sold, is the line item inside a Sale. Trials often need line-item visibility because a Sale can contain more than one Product. The Product Sale identifies the specific Product line that created or relates to the Trial. This matters when a customer buys multiple items in one checkout. A single Sale might include one trial Product, one standard Product, one shippable Product, and one bundled Product. The Product Sale helps RevCent and the business understand which specific line item generated the Trial. Product Sale visibility also helps with: - Product-level trial performance. - Refunds tied to a specific line item. - Discounts tied to a specific product purchase. - Shipping tied to specific purchased products. - Trial-to-subscription reporting. - Support questions about exactly what the customer bought. ## Relationship to Customers A Trial belongs to a customer lifecycle. The customer relationship is important because trial offers often need communication before and after expiration. The customer may need reminders, support, payment updates, cancellation help, shipment tracking, or retention outreach. Trials help support and automation answer questions like: - Which customer started this trial? - Is the trial still active? - When does it expire? - Did the customer already become paid? - Did the expiration payment fail? - Should support contact the customer? - Should the customer receive a payment update link? - Is there a related subscription? - Is there a related shipment? This makes Trials useful not only for revenue reporting, but also for customer success and retention. ## Trial Lifecycle A Trial generally has four major lifecycle stages. First, the trial is created when the customer starts or purchases a trial Product. This is the acquisition moment. Second, the trial remains active during the trial period. During this period, the customer may use the product, receive a shipment, receive reminder emails, or interact with support. Third, the trial expires. RevCent automatically handles trial expiration based on the configured expiration date. Fourth, RevCent records the outcome. Depending on the trial setup, this may include a successful trial-expiration payment, a failed payment, a subscription lifecycle event, a shipment, tax, a salvage recovery opportunity, a refund, or a cancellation. In graph terms, the Trial is a time-based bridge between the original Sale and the later expiration outcome. ## Active, Expired, and Cancelled Trials Trials are easiest to understand through lifecycle state. An active Trial is still within its trial period. It has not yet expired or been cancelled. An expired Trial has reached its expiration point. The expiration may have produced a successful payment, failed payment, tax, shipping, subscription activity, or recovery context. A cancelled Trial has been intentionally stopped before normal completion. Cancellation can have consequences for related items, especially if the Trial is connected to a Subscription. This lifecycle state is central to support, reporting, automation, and customer communication. ## Automatic Trial Expiration RevCent automatically expires Trials based on their expiration dates. This is a key benefit of managing Trials inside RevCent. Businesses do not need to manually track each trial, build external timers, or rely on a storefront plugin to decide when a trial should expire. When the expiration date arrives, RevCent can process the trial expiration behavior. Depending on the setup, that may include attempting a payment, creating tax, creating shipping, connecting to subscription lifecycle, or creating recovery opportunities if payment fails. Manual expiration should be treated as a special action, not the normal workflow. The normal business model is that RevCent automatically handles the scheduled expiration of each Trial. ## Manual Trial Adjustments Trials can sometimes need operational adjustments. A business may need to extend a Trial because a shipment was delayed, a customer had a support issue, or a retention offer grants additional time. A business may need to shorten a Trial if the customer asks to move forward early or if the trial period was created incorrectly. A business may need to cancel a Trial if the customer opts out. These are real support and lifecycle actions, but they should be used intentionally. Important business considerations: - Extending a Trial can delay the expiration payment. - Shortening a Trial can move the expiration payment closer. - Expiring a Trial early can trigger expiration behavior sooner than originally planned. - Cancelling a Trial can also affect related lifecycle items, including subscriptions when applicable. For ecosystem understanding, these actions show that Trials are active lifecycle items, not static records. ## Trial Expiration Payments Many trial offers are designed so that a customer is charged later, when the Trial expires. The initial Sale may be free, discounted, low-cost, or limited to shipping. The trial expiration can then represent the main charge or conversion charge. At expiration, RevCent can attempt the payment using the appropriate payment context. If the Trial is connected to a Subscription, subscription-related billing settings can influence how the payment is processed. If the Trial is not connected to a Subscription, the original Sale payment context can be used as the basis for the expiration payment behavior. Trial expiration payments matter because they are often the true conversion point of a trial funnel. They help answer: - Did the customer convert after the trial period? - How much revenue did trial expirations generate? - Which Products produce successful trial expirations? - Which Campaigns or Shops bring trial customers who convert? - Which expiration payments failed? - Which failures are recoverable? ## Trial Expiration Declines A failed trial expiration payment is not just a failed charge. It is a recovery opportunity. When a trial expiration payment fails, RevCent can connect that outcome to the customer, Trial, Product, Sale, payment attempt, and recovery workflow. This gives the business context for deciding what to do next. Some failures may be recoverable with a payment update, a delayed retry, an email, a voice call, or a support follow-up. Other failures may be hard declines, fraud-related, or otherwise poor candidates for retry. The value of RevCent's Trial ecosystem is that the failed expiration is not isolated. It can be connected to customer history, product value, campaign source, shop source, payment type, AI review, voice outreach, and reporting. ## Relationship to Salvage Transactions A declined or partially declined trial expiration can create a salvage recovery opportunity. A Salvage Transaction represents revenue that was intended to be collected but was not fully captured. For Trials, this often means the expiration payment failed or only partially succeeded. This is important because many trial businesses lose revenue not when customers start trials, but when trial expiration payments fail. Salvage workflows help the business decide whether, when, and how to recover that revenue. A good recovery workflow might involve: - Reviewing the decline reason. - Waiting before retrying when appropriate. - Asking the customer to update payment information. - Sending a trial expiration failed email. - Triggering an AI Voice Agent for high-value recoverable cases. - Creating an internal memo for support. - Skipping unrecoverable or risky cases. The goal is not to retry everything blindly. The goal is to turn failed trial expiration outcomes into structured, measurable recovery workflows. ## Relationship to Subscriptions Trials can be connected to Subscriptions. A Product can be configured so that a customer begins with a trial and later transitions into a recurring subscription lifecycle. In that model, the Trial represents the introductory period, and the Subscription represents the longer-term recurring billing relationship. This relationship is important because changing a Trial can affect subscription timing. For example, extending a Trial may delay the start or renewal timing of an attached Subscription. Cancelling a Trial can also affect an associated Subscription. For ecosystem graphing, this means a Trial can sit between the initial Sale and the ongoing Subscription: Sale starts the trial. Trial controls the introductory period. Subscription represents the longer recurring relationship. Subscription Renewals represent future recurring billing cycles. This makes Trials a key conversion bridge between acquisition and recurring revenue. ## Relationship to Shipping Trials can involve shipping when the Product is shippable. A shippable trial Product may create shipping at trial creation, at trial expiration, or both, depending on the Product's trial shipping behavior. This is important for physical product businesses. A trial might send a starter kit immediately, send a refill or full product at expiration, or send both an initial sample and a later paid shipment. Shipping relationships help answer: - Was anything shipped when the trial started? - Should something ship when the trial expires? - Which Fulfillment Account should receive the shipment? - Was the fulfillment provider notified? - Was the trial-related shipment shipped or delivered? - Did a shipping issue justify extending the Trial? - Did a refund or chargeback involve a trial shipment? For WooCommerce or other shop-originated trials, the initial checkout may provide storefront shipping context, while trial-expiration shipping later happens inside RevCent. That makes RevCent shipping configuration important for trial expiration workflows. ## Relationship to Tax Trial expiration payments can involve tax. A trial may start with one financial structure and later expire into a paid amount. When RevCent is responsible for the expiration payment, tax may need to be calculated at that later event. This matters because the trial start and the trial expiration are different lifecycle moments. The initial Sale may have tax supplied by a shop checkout, while the later trial expiration may require RevCent's tax setup to calculate tax correctly. Tax relationships help businesses understand the full financial outcome of trial offers, including gross amount, tax amount, refunds, and net revenue. ## Relationship to Payments Trials can connect to several payment paths. Depending on how the Sale and expiration are structured, a Trial can relate to credit card Transactions, PayPal Transactions, Offline Payments, Check payments, refunds, salvage recovery, and chargebacks. This payment visibility matters because trial funnels often have more than one financial moment: - Initial trial start. - Trial expiration payment. - Failed expiration attempt. - Recovery payment. - Refund. - Chargeback or dispute. RevCent connects these records so a Trial can be understood as part of the full revenue lifecycle rather than as a standalone date range. ## Relationship to Refunds Trials can connect to refunds when a trial-related amount is returned or cancelled. Refund context can involve the initial Sale, the Product Sale, trial expiration payment, tax, shipping, or a related payment record. RevCent's Pending Refunds help preserve the relationship between the refund action and the specific item-level pieces it affects. For businesses, this matters because trial refunds can distort conversion analysis if they are not connected properly. A trial may appear to convert, but then later be refunded. A product may produce high trial revenue but also high refund volume. A specific campaign may drive many trial starts but poor net value after refunds. Trial refund visibility helps keep reporting honest and customer support accurate. ## Relationship to Chargebacks and Disputes A Trial can be connected to chargeback or dispute risk. Trial offers can sometimes create customer confusion if expiration terms are unclear. When customers do not understand that a later payment will occur, disputes and chargebacks may increase. RevCent's relationship graph helps connect those outcomes back to the Trial, Product, Sale, Customer, Campaign, Shop, and payment record. This helps the business detect patterns such as: - Trial offers with high dispute rates. - Campaigns that generate low-quality trial starts. - Shops or checkout flows with unclear trial terms. - Products with high expiration-payment friction. - Customer support workflows that need better communication. This is one reason Email Templates and clear customer communication are important around trial starts and upcoming expirations. ## Relationship to Shops and WooCommerce Third Party Shops, including WooCommerce stores, can originate trial Sales. In this model, the shop is the storefront, and RevCent manages the backend trial lifecycle. The customer may start the trial through the shop, but RevCent tracks the Trial, expiration timing, payment behavior, shipping where applicable, tax where applicable, recovery workflows, and reporting relationships. This is useful for WooCommerce businesses because RevCent can act as the commerce backend for trial logic rather than leaving trial expiration billing, reporting, and recovery scattered across plugins. A WooCommerce trial business benefits when: - Products are synced and mapped correctly. - Trial behavior is configured in RevCent. - Initial Sales from the shop connect to RevCent Sales. - Trial expiration payments are handled by RevCent. - Trial-related shipping and tax are configured for the later expiration event. - Failed trial expiration payments can be recovered through RevCent workflows. - Trial performance can be analyzed by shop, Product, Campaign, and customer segment. ## Relationship to Campaigns Trials often need campaign-level visibility. A business may run different trial offers across ads, landing pages, affiliates, influencers, shops, regions, or promotions. The Trial's relationship to Campaign context helps the business compare which acquisition sources produce real trial value. Campaign reporting can show: - Which Campaigns generate the most trial starts. - Which Campaigns generate the best trial-expiration revenue. - Which Campaigns create high failed-expiration volume. - Which Campaigns create refund or chargeback risk. - Which Campaigns produce subscribers after trial. This helps businesses evaluate trial funnels beyond simple signup counts. ## Relationship to Discounts and Coupons Trials can connect to discounts and coupons. Discounts may apply to the initial Sale, trial offer, expiration amount, or related subscription lifecycle depending on the business configuration. Coupons can influence customer acquisition and trial conversion strategy. Relationship visibility is important because a trial funnel can look successful on gross volume while being less profitable after discounts, refunds, failed payments, and recovery costs. Discount and coupon context helps answer whether a trial offer is genuinely profitable and which promotions bring durable customers. ## Email Templates and Trial Communication Email Templates are important for trial lifecycle communication. Useful trial email moments include: - Trial started. - Trial ending soon. - Trial expired successfully. - Trial expiration payment failed. - Payment update reminder. - Trial cancelled. - Trial shipment created. - Trial shipment shipped. - Internal high-value failed trial alert. Good trial communication reduces confusion and improves conversion. It can also reduce chargebacks by reminding customers before expiration and clearly explaining what happens next. RevCent Email Templates are useful because they can be tied to RevCent's authoritative Trial, Sale, Customer, Product, payment, and shipping context. ## Functions and Trials Functions can extend trial workflows when a business needs custom logic. For example, a Function might send trial data to an external CRM, notify a fulfillment system, update an external analytics destination, classify a trial outcome, or apply a custom business rule around a trial event. In the ecosystem, Functions are useful because Trials often sit at the intersection of marketing, payment, fulfillment, support, and retention. A custom action may need to happen when a trial starts, expires, fails, converts, or is cancelled. The key non-technical idea is that Functions can help connect Trial lifecycle events to systems or decisions outside standard RevCent behavior. ## AI Assistants and Trials AI Assistants can help automate trial review, communication, recovery, and reporting workflows. Examples include: - Monitoring newly created Trials. - Summarizing upcoming expirations. - Reviewing failed trial expiration payments. - Checking whether a salvage opportunity should be retried. - Creating internal AI Memos for high-value failed Trials. - Triggering an Email Template for payment update reminders. - Triggering an AI Voice Agent for selected recoverable cases. - Reviewing trial performance by Product, Campaign, or Shop. - Identifying shipping issues that justify a Trial extension. AI is especially useful when not every trial outcome should be treated the same way. A high-value recoverable failed expiration may deserve a voice call. A fraud-risk decline may deserve no retry. A shipping-delay complaint may justify an extension. A low-value abandoned trial may be left alone. ## AI Voice Agents and Trials AI Voice Agents can support customer conversations around Trials. Inbound voice use cases include: - A customer asks when their Trial ends. - A customer asks why they were charged after a Trial. - A customer asks to cancel a Trial. - A customer asks about a trial shipment. - A customer wants to update payment before expiration. Outbound voice use cases include: - Failed trial expiration recovery. - Payment update outreach. - High-value trial conversion support. - Trial retention calls. - Follow-up after a declined expiration payment. Voice workflows are most valuable when filtered carefully. Not every Trial should trigger a call. Good filters may consider customer value, recoverability, consent, phone availability, previous contact attempts, and risk signals. ## Customer Portal and Trials The Customer Portal can support Trial self-service. A customer may need to view account context, update payment information, understand subscription status, review shipment context, or contact support. When a Trial is nearing expiration or has failed payment, a Customer Portal path can reduce support friction and help customers resolve issues safely. Trial emails and voice workflows can direct customers to the Customer Portal when the customer needs to update payment information or review account details. ## Trial Bulk Management The RevCent web app includes trial management capabilities for reviewing and modifying groups of Trials. This is powerful because trial campaigns can involve many customers at once. A business might need to segment Trials by Campaign, Product, Payment Profile, gateway behavior, status, or other attributes before taking action. Bulk management should be used carefully because mass changes can affect expiration dates, payments, subscriptions, and customer communication. The business should understand the segment and intended action before changing many Trials at once. For ecosystem purposes, bulk management shows that Trials are not just individual support records. They are a scalable lifecycle area for businesses running larger trial funnels. ## Global Trial Settings RevCent includes advanced settings that can affect how trial expirations are processed. These settings are intended for advanced users. They can influence payment profile or gateway behavior for trial expiration payments. Most users should treat these settings cautiously. Changing global trial behavior can affect many future trial expiration payments, payment routing behavior, recovery patterns, reporting outcomes, and customer experience. The high-level idea is simple: a Trial's expiration payment needs a payment path. RevCent can determine that path from the related subscription context, the original Sale context, or advanced trial settings depending on how the account is configured. ## API, MCP, and AI Context Trials can be reviewed and managed through the RevCent web app, API, MCP, and AI-enabled workflows. At a business level, these interfaces allow authorized systems or assistants to: - Find Trial records. - Review a Trial's lifecycle state. - Understand the related Product and Sale. - See whether a Trial is active, expired, or cancelled. - Understand expiration timing. - Connect a Trial to payment, shipping, tax, subscription, refund, and recovery context. - Adjust Trial timing when there is an approved business reason. - Cancel a Trial when appropriate. - Support customer service, recovery, and reporting workflows. The ecosystem document should not be read as an implementation guide. Its purpose is to show that Trials are visible, connected, and actionable across RevCent's management, automation, AI, and reporting layers. ## BigQuery Reporting and Relationship Visibility The `trial` table in BigQuery gives RevCent users relationship and reporting visibility into Trials. At a business level, Trial data can connect to: - Products. - Product Sales. - Sales. - Customers. - Subscriptions. - Third Party Shops. - Campaigns. - Coupons. - Discounts. - Transactions. - Shipping. - Tax. - Salvage Transactions. - Pending Refunds. - Chargebacks. - Fraud Detection. - Customer lifetime value. This makes BigQuery useful for understanding how trial offers perform across the full commerce graph. Useful business reporting questions include: - How many Trials were created over time? - How many Trials are active, expired, or cancelled? - Which Products generate the most trial starts? - Which Products generate the most trial-expiration revenue? - Which Campaigns generate trial customers who convert? - Which Shops originate the best trial customers? - How many trial expiration payments fail? - Which failed trial expirations are recoverable? - Which Trials create subscriptions? - Which Trials create shipments? - Which trial offers create refunds or chargebacks? - Which trial funnels have strong gross revenue but weak net value? BigQuery is also useful for relationship graphing because it shows how a Trial connects to the surrounding RevCent ecosystem rather than showing the Trial as an isolated record. ## Trial as a Relationship Hub Trials sit at the intersection of acquisition, billing, fulfillment, recovery, and retention. A Trial can connect backward to the Product and Sale that created it. It can connect sideways to the Customer, Product Sale, Campaign, Shop, discounts, tax, and shipping. It can connect forward to expiration payments, Subscriptions, recovery workflows, refunds, chargebacks, and AI or voice actions. This makes Trials a strong relationship hub in the RevCent ecosystem. For graphing, the Trial node helps show: - Where the customer came from. - What offer they started. - What Product created the trial. - Whether the Trial is still active. - What happened when it expired. - Whether it created recurring revenue. - Whether it created fulfillment obligations. - Whether it created recovery work. - Whether it created risk or support issues. ## Common Trial Patterns ### Free or Low-Cost Introductory Trial The customer starts with little or no upfront cost. The main business goal is to reduce friction and collect payment later at trial expiration. This pattern benefits from strong expiration reminders, clear customer communication, and recovery workflows for failed expiration payments. ### Trial to Paid Product The customer starts a trial period and then pays for the product when the trial expires. This pattern is useful for products where the customer needs time to experience value before the full charge. ### Trial to Subscription The customer starts with a trial and later enters a recurring subscription lifecycle. This pattern connects Trials to Subscription Profiles, Subscriptions, and Subscription Renewals. It is valuable for continuity products, replenishment offers, memberships, and subscription boxes. ### Shippable Trial The Trial involves a physical product. The shipment may occur at trial creation, expiration, or both. This pattern requires careful Product, Fulfillment Account, Shipping Profile, and customer communication setup. ### Trial Bundle The Trial is tied to a bundled Product or offer. This can be useful for starter kits, sample packs, subscription boxes, and multi-product introductory offers. Bundle behavior should be clear for fulfillment, customer communication, and reporting. ### WooCommerce-Originated Trial A connected WooCommerce store originates the initial customer purchase, while RevCent manages the backend Trial lifecycle. This pattern lets the business use WooCommerce as the storefront while relying on RevCent for expiration billing, recovery, subscriptions, shipping, tax, automation, and reporting. ## Common Mistakes to Avoid Do not treat Trials as just a countdown timer. A Trial is a connected commerce item with payment, product, customer, and lifecycle implications. Do not confuse the Product configuration with the Trial item. The Product defines the reusable trial behavior; the Trial is the customer-specific record created from it. Do not ignore trial expiration communication. Customers should understand what will happen when the Trial expires. Do not rely on manual expiration as the normal workflow. RevCent automatically expires Trials based on their configured expiration dates. Do not cancel a Trial without understanding whether a related Subscription will also be affected. Do not ignore shipping configuration for shippable trial Products. Trial creation and trial expiration can have different fulfillment consequences. Do not ignore tax setup for trial expiration payments when RevCent is responsible for calculating tax. Do not retry failed trial expiration payments blindly. Recovery should consider decline reason, customer context, risk, and timing. Do not evaluate trial performance only by trial starts. Look at expiration revenue, failed payments, refunds, chargebacks, subscriptions created, shipping issues, and net value. ## Ecosystem Relationship Summary Product defines the trial offer. Sale starts the customer purchase or trial-start event. Product Sale identifies the specific line item that created the Trial. Trial represents the customer's time-based trial lifecycle. Customer connects the Trial to identity, support, payment, and lifetime value. Subscription can represent a longer recurring relationship that follows or connects to the Trial. Shipping can represent physical fulfillment at trial creation, expiration, or both. Tax can represent tax calculated during trial start or expiration. Transactions, PayPal Transactions, Offline Payments, and Checks represent payment activity connected to the Trial. Salvage Transactions represent recoverable failed or partial trial expiration payments. Pending Refunds represent refund workflows connected to trial-related amounts. Chargebacks and disputes represent risk outcomes connected to trial billing. Third Party Shops, including WooCommerce stores, can originate trial Sales while RevCent manages the backend Trial lifecycle. Campaigns connect trial activity to acquisition source. Discounts and Coupons connect trial activity to promotion strategy. Email Templates communicate trial lifecycle events. Functions connect trial events to custom logic and external systems. AI Assistants can review, route, recover, summarize, and report on Trials. AI Voice Agents can support inbound trial questions and outbound trial recovery or retention calls. BigQuery makes Trial relationships visible for reporting, analytics, and ecosystem graphing. ## Summary Trials are customer-specific lifecycle items created when a Product with trial behavior is sold or started. They connect trial offers to the broader RevCent ecosystem: Products, Sales, Product Sales, Customers, Subscriptions, payments, shipping, tax, refunds, recovery workflows, Email Templates, Functions, AI Assistants, AI Voice Agents, Customer Portal, Shops, Campaigns, and BigQuery reporting. The business value of Trials is that they make delayed-billing and trial-to-paid offers manageable at scale. RevCent can track when a Trial starts, when it expires, what payment should happen, what shipment may be needed, what recovery workflow should run if payment fails, and how the offer performs across Products, Shops, Campaigns, and Customers. For ecosystem graphing, Trials are a bridge between acquisition and conversion. They show how an initial Sale can become a later payment, subscription, shipment, refund, recovery workflow, or customer lifecycle outcome. --- Document Parent Directory * [Items](https://revcent.com/documentation/markdown/ecosystem/item/index.md) - Non-technical markdown documentation for items within the RevCent ecosystem. An item is an entity that is spawned as a result of a feature or operation conducted within the RevCent ecosystem.