SAMP - Subscription licenses and maintenance renewals

[webdev123]

What's the best way / practice to track licensing and maintenance of subscription software

We have subscription based licenses that renew on a yearly basis.  We are creating a PO for the initial purchase, and beyond that are unsure which contract type to use - maintenance or subscription?

Related question - is there a way to tie the entitlements back to the contract in such a way that it will automatically update the subscription end dates on the entitlements, or do we need to set up workflow to update as the contract gets renewed?

We're having trouble finding documentation that states best practice, so this is what I've come up with on my own, playing in our dev instance.

1. Create PO, including PO line for purchase of software

2. Create contract for the maintenance (separate line item on the PO. I'm unsure if this should be reflected in step #1, or if I should be using contract type of maintenance or subscription)

3. Create receiving slip and lines

4. Update entitlement to reflect allocated users, subscription based license and associate with the contract. (Note: I'm unable to associate the entitlements to a contract unless type is "subscription" - is this by design?)

Thanks in advance.

[Mike Condon]

Thanks so much for this! I'll see if we can get it implemented in DEV and watch the magic happen!