Clients
In simplest terms, a client is an account that has an active subscription with ACST. The current implementation of this in Salesforce means the account has an active asset and (for some product groups) an active billing contract. Clients meet the following criteria:
The account has an active subscription asset.
The account is on an active billing cycle (Monthly, Quarterly, Annually).
The account would be on an active billing cycle if not for a billing exception (100% temporary discount, 100% Retention Credit)
The account's subscription is paid by a parent organization (i.e. a Diocese)
ACST chose the word Client to represent accounts with which the company has the closest relationship. This group of accounts is the highest priority in terms of access to services and products.
At any given time, the answer to "how many clients do we have?" is based on those accounts with an active subscription at that point in time.
Setting an account to Client has many downstream effects. Most importantly, business rules count these accounts in client count and churn numbers. Thus, an account set to client and later set to lead shows as churn.
Client vs Customer vs Ministry Partner vs Subscriber
These terms can be used interchangeably to describe ACST's relationship with accounts that are on an active subscription.
Client is the preferred term when discussing systems. For example
"We use the Type field in Salesforce to differentiate Clients from Leads."
"Total clients in reports indicate the total number of accounts on subscription"
Ministry Partner is the preferred term for any informal and formal communications in all other situations.
"We had a ministry partner contact our Contact Center, hoping for support on …"
"When you communicate with ministry partners on this issue, …"