We are trying to determine the best methodology for tracking new vs renewed subscription packages so that we can report on total seats and total revenue (at the package seat level). We'd love to hear how other organizations are doing this - i.e. using distinct price types, price type reason, etc.
In our local subscription history table with have a calculated field that displays whether the subscription is new or renew. The basic gist is if an account has any sublineitems with subscription pricetype category, in seasons (of specific season types) that have the previous fyear, it's rene. If not it's new. We have a couple of custom reports that either reference that or use the same logic. As yet we don't distinguish lapsed returning or anything like that. For any given season it's either new or renew. It's worked well so far.
I don't know if you're using T-Stats or not, but it is really helpful in getting this information quickly and easily if you have set up your appeals to distinguish renewal vs new. We use the Appeal Category of New Sub or Renewal Sub for the different appeals specifically for processing subscriptions, this way we can use the same price types for new and renewal. The reporting in T-Stats is helpful because it will also keep track of the original amount of the subscription and you don't need to worry about what happens once tickets are exchanged or create customized reports to do this for you.
We use T-Stats as well, with Subscription Status from the Subscription Summary window as the determining parameter. Status options include New and Renewal so we set up our analysis and reporting for this purpose based on these numbers.
Duane