Managing subscriptions is more than tracking renewals. You need accurate data, figures that stand up to an audit, finance that reconciles and a customer service team that can find things. That's what Avio is for. This guide explains what it does, who it suits and how it fits alongside Adeptis, our other platform.
What is Avio?
Avio is a web-based subscription management platform built for publishers and media owners. It began life as Achieve, software that came from CDS Global. Adept Data Services acquired it in 2024 and our in-house UK development team has been building on it ever since.
It isn't a generic billing tool with a magazine bolted on. It's designed around the things publishers actually deal with: print and digital subscriptions, controlled circulation, corporate licences, audit readiness, several titles and several currencies.
Who is it for?
Avio is aimed at larger publishers and media owners. Typically that means several titles or product families, a mix of paid, trial and free (controlled circulation) readers, corporate and site-licence deals, and international sales. In short, businesses that need finance-grade reporting, not just a mailing list.
If you're a smaller publisher and you also want your news CMS, advertising, media pack and email insight in the same place, Adeptis is probably the better fit. We've set out the differences on Avio or Adeptis.
What Avio does
| Area | What it does | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| Single customer view | One record for every contact, address, order, preference, note and payment. | Customer service can answer the phone without opening four systems. |
| Orders and subscriptions | Paid, trial, bundled and controlled circulation orders, in print and digital, with a dedicated wizard for qualified free readers. | The request data audit bodies ask for is captured when the order is taken. |
| Corporate subscriptions | Multi-seat licences, named recipients and IP-based access. | Selling to organisations is as easy as selling to individuals. |
| Renewals | Renewal series set per product, bulk renewals and tracked renewal batches. | Every title follows its own renewal plan, on schedule. |
| Audience selection | Point-and-click selections with live counts, including counts as at any date. | Point-in-time circulation figures without writing SQL. |
| Data quality | Scans, side-by-side merge and dated marketing preferences. | Cleaner data, fewer wasted copies, consent you can prove. |
| Fulfilment | Issue schedules, galley upload, gone-aways and missed copies. | Print and digital schedules run from the system that holds the subscriber. |
| Finance | Multi-currency sales ledger, a full month-end pack in one run, deferred revenue and a rules-based VAT engine. | Finance and circulation finally agree. |
| Reporting and BI | Analysis, finance and operational reports, plus Metabase dashboards set up by our team. | Answers in seconds rather than a request to IT. |
Avio and Adeptis: two products, not two editions
Older versions of this article talked about "Avio Publisher Suite" and "Avio Enterprise". We've since tidied that up. What was Avio Enterprise is now simply Avio. What was the Publisher Suite is now Adeptis, an all-in-one platform for SME publishers that covers CRM, circulation, a news CMS, advertising, a media pack generator and email insight.
They share the same disciplines (clean data, proper circulation records, renewals that go out on time). Avio goes deeper on volume and finance: multi-currency, corporate licences and accounting that your finance director will actually sign off.
Use cases
- A B2B publisher running several titles with a mix of paid and controlled circulation.
- A publisher selling internationally in more than one currency.
- A media owner selling corporate licences with named seats or IP access.
- Any publisher preparing for an ABC or BPA audit. See our guide on how to prepare for an ABC audit.
Getting started
- Take an honest look at your current subscription and circulation data.
- Write down how print, digital, corporate and controlled circulation orders work today.
- Plan the migration carefully.
- Train the people who'll use it, across departments.
- Agree the dashboards and reports you need from day one.
- Make sure audit and compliance processes are covered.
- Review and improve once the reports start telling you things.
We've written a separate, more practical piece on what a move to Avio looks like.
Common questions
Can Avio handle print and digital together? Yes. Prices can be flagged as print, digital or both, and gone-away flags are kept separately for each.
What about corporate subscriptions? Multi-seat licences, a corporate dashboard and IP-based access are built in.
Does it work internationally? Yes. It handles multiple currencies with dated exchange-rate history, and the VAT engine works from the customer's VAT number, invoice and delivery countries and EU status.
How does audit support work? Controlled circulation orders capture request source and method, status codes and qualification answers, and selections can count circulation as at any date. Our ABC and BPA audit bureau can help with the rest.
Does Avio include a CMS or ad serving? No. If you want those in the same system, look at Adeptis.
Why Avio from Adept
You get software and the people behind it. We're a team that has spent a long time in subscription management, audits and fulfilment, and we also run a circulation and subscriptions bureau. Because our development team is in-house, changes ship in days rather than months. There's more on that in how we build.
Who it's for, and when it's more than you need
A good fit for mid-sized to large publishers with hybrid print and digital models, anyone managing corporate subscriptions, publishers who need ABC or BPA audit reporting, and teams spending too long on manual subscription admin.
Probably more than you need if you're a small or digital-only title with simple renewals and no audit. In that case Adeptis may suit you better.
If you'd like to see it working on realistic data, book an Avio demo.
Rob Sherwood is Managing Director of Adept Data Services. He has spent his career in subscriptions and circulation, at WDIS, Optima and CDS Global before founding Adept.