What Counts as an Entitlement
Some products sell a right rather than a physical item or one-time service, such as exam sittings, continuing education credits, a year of access, or job postings. When a product is set up to grant entitlements, Rhythm creates one for each order line that buys it as soon as that line is fulfilled. This works for merchandise and for products sold by other Rhythm applications through the same checkout, so a Career Center job posting package can grant entitlements the same way a merchandise item does.
Not every product grants entitlements. A product creates them only when it has an entitlement type and quantity set up. Ordinary merchandise, event registrations, and other purchases without that setup grant nothing. If a purchase did not grant something you expected, check the product’s entitlement setup. For example, a merchandise item can grant access to a document when you turn on the item’s Documents feature and attach a file. After a fulfilled purchase, the buyer receives a document entitlement that makes the file available in their digital library.
A fulfilled purchase normally grants the entitlement. If you cancel the order line that granted it, Rhythm normally finds that entitlement and reduces or removes it; see How Entitlements Are Reduced, Removed, or Expire for the details.
Some organizations also use an entitlement as a marker on a contact or organization. Buying one product grants an entitlement, and a second product requires the buyer to hold enough of that entitlement type before they can purchase it. This lets you gate eligibility for one purchase based on an earlier one, using the same entitlement mechanism described in this article. See Entitlement Checks and API Access for how a consuming application checks whether a contact or organization holds enough of an entitlement type.
How Much Is Granted
An entitlement’s quantity comes from the number of units on the order line. If a product grants one entitlement per unit, buying five units gives the customer five units of that entitlement type. A line with a quantity of zero still grants one unit’s worth because Rhythm treats zero as one for this purpose. A negative quantity, such as one from an unusual adjustment, lowers what the entitlement contributes instead of increasing it.
Rhythm fixes the amount granted per unit when the grant runs. If staff later change the order line’s quantity by hand, that change does not adjust an entitlement that was already granted.
Who Receives It
An entitlement belongs to the party the order line ships to, which is not always the person or organization that pays. If an order line is billed to a company but shipped to an employee, the employee holds that line’s entitlement, not the company. See How Order Pricing Works for how a line can be priced and delivered for someone other than the buyer.
Rhythm decides who owns an entitlement when it is granted. Changing the order’s ship-to party later does not move an entitlement that already exists. To change ownership, correct the entitlement record directly.
When It Expires
A product’s entitlement setup decides how long each grant lasts in one of three ways:
- A fixed date. Every entitlement the product grants expires on the same calendar date, no matter when it was bought. Buying it earlier does not make it last longer.
- A relative period. Each entitlement expires a set length of time after it is granted, counted from when the order is processed rather than when it was ordered.
- No expiry. If the product sets neither of the above, the entitlement never expires on its own. It lasts until a cancellation, a return-driven adjustment, or a staff correction removes it. See How Entitlements Are Reduced, Removed, or Expire for what does and does not take an entitlement back.
Rhythm fixes the expiry date when the entitlement is granted. Changing the product’s expiry setting later does not affect entitlements already issued under the old setting.
Tip
An entitlement type does not need to be active for a purchase to grant it. If a type is switched off later, entitlements already granted under it are unaffected, and new grants for that type continue as before.
Where an Entitlement Is Traced From
Every entitlement records the order and order line that granted it. On an order’s page, the Entitlements tab lists the entitlements that order granted, including the entitlement type, the order that granted it, the quantity, and the expiration date. Because the entitlement stays linked to the order, a later cancellation of that specific line can find and reduce the entitlement it granted; see How Entitlements Are Reduced, Removed, or Expire.
A contact’s or organization’s page lists every entitlement that party holds, from any order, in the same way.
Related
For how a purchase gets far enough to grant anything in the first place, see How Fulfillment Is Triggered.