Summary
Each Line Item represents either a "Subscription" (recurring revenue) or a "Fee" (non-recurring revenue)
Each Line Item belongs to a Deal, and each Deal belongs to a Company. This means that each Line Item will be something like "Advanced Data on Renewal Deal with Zoom"
Optionally, each Line Item may be connected to (populated from) a Product from the Product Catalog. Each Product acts as a template for a Line Item (e.g. "Advanced Data"), making it easy to add Line Items to Deals
Who is this article for?
All Planhat Users
This article is for anyone who would like a little more detail than our overview article
This article refers to new revenue features in Planhat, launching in early 2026, so you may not have access to them yet. Please speak with your Planhat CSM if you would like to discuss the rollout.
Introduction
In early 2026, we are introducing a new series of data models for revenue, further enhancing Planhat's offering as an operational revenue platform, where you can manage your sales/subscriptions both pre-sales (opportunities) and post-sales (licenses and fees). In this specific article, we'll focus on the Line Item model.
📌 Definition: "data model" or "model"
In Planhat, data is organized in various "data models" (also called simply "models") - similar to the "objects" you may be familiar with in other tools
For example:
The Company model is used for organizations that you deal with (customers or prospects)
The End User model is for external people - your customers, prospects or other contacts
And there are many other models for other purposes
Each model has its own characteristics designed for its use case, such as system (default/standard) fields
The individual instances of data inside those models are called records - e.g. Company records could be Dell, Nestlé or Nissan
Let's begin with a quick summary of the Line Item model:
🔑 Line Item - key points
Each Line Item (i.e. each Line Item record) represents either a "Subscription" (recurring revenue) or a "Fee" (non-recurring revenue)
Each Line Item belongs to a Deal (so a Line Item is a "child" of its Deal "parent"), and each Deal belongs to a Company. This means that each Line Item will be something like "Advanced Data on Renewal Deal with Zoom"
Optionally, each Line Item may be connected to (populated from) a Product from the Product Catalog. Each Product (Product record) acts as a template for a Line Item (e.g. "Advanced Data"), making it easy to add Line Items to Deals. (It is also possible to create a Line Item without referring to a Product)
In this article, we'll go through these points in further depth.
If you're an existing Planhat customer and are familiar with our previous revenue data models, here's a summary of the changes.
📌 Line Item - comparison with legacy revenue models
Subscription-type Line Items replace legacy Licenses
Fee-type Line Items replace legacy Sales
Note that Line Items can represent both potential revenue (opportunities) and actual confirmed revenue (plus lost revenue)
What are Line Items?
Line Items are the smaller, specific units of revenue that are associated with Deals. Each Line Item is either a Subscription (recurring revenue) or a Fee (non-recurring revenue).
Each Line Item belongs to a specific Deal, which belongs to a specific Company. So, for example, it could be "Gold Service Package on Deal for Gong".
Details within each Line Item may be (but don't have to be) populated via a Product from the Product Catalog. Each Product is effectively a Line Item template.
Here is an example Deal Preview, with its component Line Items highlighted in green.
Clicking on one of these Line Items will open up its own Preview:
How to create a new Line Item
As each Line Item always belongs to a Deal (the Line Item being a "child" of a "parent" Deal), the Deal needs to be created before Line Items are added to it.
Typically, you will create Line Items directly on a Deal.
When viewing the Deal (via its Preview), in the "Line Items" part, you will see buttons to either add a single Line Item, or add Line Items in bulk.
If you click to add in bulk, you have the following options:
"Product" - select Products via checkboxes
"Package" - select one or more Packages, which are groups of Products
"Closed won deals" - select one (or more) Closed Won Deal, and it will add the Line Items associated with it
Line Items inherit data from their Products (i.e. the templated information in the Product Catalog). Currency converts via current exchange rates to match the Deal currency, as all Line Items must share the Deal currency.
Once you've added one or more Line Items to the Deal, ARR/MRR and Total Contract Value are automatically calculated based on the Line Items. (ARR and TCV will be identical for 12-month Subscriptions.)
Alternatively, you can create a Line Item and apply it to a Deal.
This option is less commonly used, but if you click "+ Line Item" in Data Explorer (with Line Item as the selected model) or a suitable Page, you'll find it opens up a Create Form with a required "Parent" field where you select which Deal the Line Item belongs to.
Viewing Line Items
Line Items are components of Deals, and you will most likely be viewing, tracking and interacting with your prospective and confirmed revenue via Deals rather than individual Line Items.
However, you can view and edit Line Items (for multiple Companies at once) via suitable Pages or the Data Explorer if desired.
Also, when viewing a specific Company's Full-Page Profile, you'll find a tab for Line Items within the "Revenue" section.
Click the image to view it enlarged
In all these locations, you can click on the name of a Line Item to open up its Preview, to see and edit its details.
Click the image to view it enlarged
System fields
Let's take a look at some system (standard/default) fields on the Line Item model.
Name - auto-populated for you
Product Type - this is a list field with two (locked) options:
"Subscription" - for recurring revenue (equivalent to the legacy License model)
"Fee - for non-recurring revenue (equivalent to the legacy Sale model)
Fixed Period
This is a Boolean field (toggle switch)
For Line Items where Product Type is equal to Subscription, this field defines whether there is a fixed end date (e.g. it's a 12-month contract) or it's an open-ended license
Auto Renewal
This is another Boolean field (toggle switch)
It applies to Line Items where "Product Type" is Subscription, and "Fixed Period" is True (enabled)
If "Auto Renewal" is set to True, i.e. enabled, a new Line Item of Type "Subscription" will be created upon expiry
Notice Period and Notice Unit
"Notice Period" is a number field, and "Notice Unit" is a list field (with options "days", "weeks" and "months")
Together, these two fields define a Subscription Line Item's renewal date. For example, 15 days' notice means renewal date is 15 days before the End Date
For auto-renewing Subscription Line Items, the new Subscription starts after the End Date. For example, if the End Date is October 30 and there is a 15-day Notice, then the Renewal Date will be October 15, and the new Subscription will start November 1
Status
This is a list field, with values/options "ongoing", "not started" and "lost"
Note that a "coming" list value may be added in future
MRR, ARR and Value
These are interlinked fields, where you can manually input data, and other fields automatically adjust. You can update ARR or MRR (with Start and End Dates in place) to adjust Value, or update Value to adjust ARR/MRR
Length (months)
Derived from Start and End Dates
If you created the Line Item from a Product in the Catalog (acting as a template), the Line Item will inherit the value of Length
Start Date and End Date
Fairly self-explanatory!
Inherited from the parent Deal's "Close Date", which becomes the Line Item "Start Date"; and the "Length" (e.g. as inherited from the associated Product), which defines the "End Date"
Currency - the value of this field for a Line Item matches the "Currency" field on the parent Deal
Product - if the Line Item was created from a Product from the Product Catalog, this field will automatically be populated with the record ID of the Product
Deal - the record ID of the parent Deal (i.e. the Deal that the Line Item is on)
Package - text field referencing the Product "Package" used for Line Item creation (if applicable)
Company - the record ID of the associated Company (i.e. the Company that the Deal / Line Item belongs to)
Created date and Updated date - automatically generated for record tracking
Source ID and External ID
These are reference values linking the Line Item with external systems
Source Id typically refers to a CRM integration; ExternalId is usually your own system
You can read more about these IDs in general (not model-specific) here
Further reading
If you'd like to learn more about the other revenue data models, check out the articles below: