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Use subscription splitting when products bought together through Shopify Checkout need separate subscription lifecycles in Firmhouse. For example, a customer might add two subscription products with different shipment dates. Shopify can place both products on one subscription contract. By passing the selected shipment date as a line item property, Firmhouse can import each date as a separate subscription and give each subscription its own Shopify contract. This is an advanced checkout setup. You do not need it for a standard Shopify subscription widget or simply to offer multiple selling plans.

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Before you start

Shopify checkout subscription splitting is currently a staff-only preview feature. Ask Firmhouse support to enable Shopify checkout subscription splitting for your project. Once enabled, Firmhouse uses the new Shopify checkout importer and shows Subscription split order line attribute in the Shopify Subscriptions app settings. Disabling the feature returns the project to the previous importer and hides this setting.

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How Firmhouse groups checkout products

Firmhouse groups Shopify checkout products into subscriptions using:
  • the original Shopify subscription contract;
  • whether minimum commitment is enabled, including its period and unit;
  • whether maximum commitment is enabled, including its period and unit; and
  • the value of Subscription split order line attribute, when configured.
Products with the same values for all these dimensions stay in one Firmhouse subscription. A difference in any dimension creates a separate subscription. When Shopify placed those products on one shared contract, Firmhouse creates a separate Shopify contract for each resulting subscription. Billing frequency, delivery frequency, and selling plan ID do not by themselves split products. Plans with different frequencies but the same commitment settings remain together when their Shopify contract and optional split attribute value are also the same.

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When to configure a split attribute

Configure a split attribute when:
  • your storefront collects a value for each product added to the cart;
  • products with different values need independent subscriptions; and
  • those products can otherwise share the same Shopify contract and Firmhouse commitment settings.
Do not configure one when the normal Shopify contract and Firmhouse commitment grouping already produces the subscriptions you need.

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Configure the attribute in Firmhouse

  1. In Firmhouse, go to Apps.
  2. Open the Shopify Subscriptions app.
  3. In Configuration, find Subscription split order line attribute.
  4. Enter the Shopify line item property name, such as Shipment date.
  5. Click Save.
The property name is case-sensitive. Firmhouse ignores whitespace around the name, but using exactly the same spelling and capitalization in Firmhouse and Shopify is safest.

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Add the value to the Shopify product form

Add the line item property inside the existing Shopify product form that submits the product to the cart. Place it alongside the variant, selling plan, and quantity fields:
The text inside properties[...] must match Subscription split order line attribute. In this example, both use Shipment date. Do not create a second product form for this field. Shopify only attaches the property to the cart line when the field is submitted as part of the form that adds the product.

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What happens at checkout

Suppose a customer checks out with these products: Because the Shipment date values differ, Firmhouse creates two subscriptions. If both values were August 14, the products would stay together. Products that do not submit the configured property have no split value and stay grouped with other products that also have no value, provided their other grouping dimensions match. This setting applies when Shopify orders are imported. It does not retroactively regroup existing subscriptions.