Extending Products & Services: Pricing, Offers, Tasks, Deliverables, Marketplaces, and Workflows
This article extends the basic Products & Services architecture by introducing more powerful primitives that support pricing rules, workflow automation, multi-step services, deliverables, digital transformations, reservations, catalogs, and marketplaces — all using the Qbix Streams model.
Pricing & Offers
In many scenarios, the same product or service may be offered under different conditions, durations, bundles, prices, discounts, or capacities.
To support this, we introduce:
Assets/offer
A reusable, composable object that defines how a Product or Service is being offered right now.
An Offer can reference:
- a Product or Service
- a Pricing object
- an optional Inventory object
- optional Availability windows
- optional Rules (discounts, time windows, group pricing)
This allows the same Product or Service to be priced differently for:
- early-bird vs. regular
- weekday vs. weekend
- different communities
- different staff providers
- group discounts
- special events
- limited-capacity services
Relationships
Offer → Product (or Service)
Offer → Pricing
Offer → Inventory
Offer → Availability (optional)
Offer → Rules (optional)
Pricing Objects
Pricing is captured in reusable objects.
Assets/pricing
Defines the base price and billing structure.
Attributes may include:
basePricecurrency-
unit(per hour, per item, per seat) -
billingCycle(one-time, recurring) -
minQuantity,maxQuantity metadata
Assets/pricing/rule
A small independent object that modifies pricing when its conditions apply.
Examples:
- early-bird discounts
- group-size discounts
- volume tiers
- time-window promotions
- membership or community-based pricing
- surge pricing (capacity-based)
Rules attach to Pricing and can be reused across Offers and Services.
Orders & Items
When a user purchases an Offer or places a reservation/order from a Catalog, the system creates:
Assets/order
Represents a user’s request, including:
- instructions
- selected products/services
- payment status
- community/provider
- total cost
- discounts applied
- timestamps
An Order can produce multiple Items.
Assets/item
Represents one purchased unit within an Order.
Each Item:
- points to the Offer used
- records the final price after all rules
- carries the inventory reservation
- generates one or more Tasks
- produces Deliverables
Items must be immutable, because pricing and rules may change later.
Catalogs
Catalogs organize Products or Service add-ons.
A Catalog can be attached to:
- a Service (e.g., restaurant lunch menu)
- an Availability (happy hour deals)
- an Event (conference merchandise)
- a Place/Area (table-specific menu)
Catalog items can include:
- Products
- Subproducts
- Variants
- Combinations
- Task-driven deliverables
- Input parameters for service customization
Products inside a Catalog may have:
- availability windows
- ordering rules
- dependencies
- required inputs
- customization options
- deliverable specifications
Availabilities & Events (Live Services)
Services that occur Live and In-Person may expose Calendars/availability:
- a time window with capacity
- optional staff assignment
- optional area/room/table
- optional group discounts
When a user reserves an Availability, the platform may:
- create or join a
Calendars/event - assign staff (with possible substitutions)
- activate the Catalog specific to that Event
- track check-in and live deliverables
This covers scenarios like:
- restaurants
- salons
- massage therapists
- tours
- classrooms
- conferences
- meetups
- live performances
Tasks & Deliverables
Most Services involve workflows.
The Qbix approach models them through Tasks.
Streams/task
A Task is a unit of work with:
- Inputs (Products or earlier Deliverables)
- Outputs (Deliverables or new Products)
- Assigned worker (person or bot)
- Status lifecycle
- Duration estimates
- Instructions
- Parameters
Tasks may be:
- created from Order Items
- created from Availability bookings
- created by providers in response to requests
- automatically spawned from Task Templates
Task Templates
Templates define parameter schemas, inputs, outputs, and deliverables:
Streams/task/images_remove_background (template)
Streams/task/design_logo (template)
Streams/task/write_article (template)
A template can be reused across all communities.
Subtasks
Tasks may generate subtasks. Providers may hire other providers to complete them. All progress is recorded through Streams.
Deliverables
Every Task produces one or more Deliverables, which may be:
- digital files
- URLs
- documents
- processed results
- manufactured outputs
- uploaded media
Deliverables may be:
- previewed
- downloaded
- versioned
- referenced by later tasks
- encrypted and hosted with capability keys
- time-limited or renewable
Products & Services Together
A Service may:
- consume Products (ingredients for cooking)
- produce Products (logos, designs, videos)
- include Products in its Catalog (menu items)
- require Products as input (photo to edit)
- produce Products as Deliverables (finished assets)
- attach Warranty Services to Products
A Product may:
- have services associated with it (maintenance for a car)
- belong to Catalog categories
- be an input to Tasks
- be an output of Tasks
- be tied to Subscription Plans
- be provisioned by a Service
Products and Services are co-primary types.
Neither is “above” the other — they interact through Offers, Tasks, Deliverables, and Events.
Subscriptions & Warranties
Assets/subscriptionPlan
Defines recurring services:
- hosting
- updates
- moderation
- maintenance
- premium access
- storage/replication (AppBux)
Warranties
A Product may come with one or more Warranty Services:
- repair
- inspection
- updates
- replacements
- continued hosting or access
These are simply Services tied to a Product Deliverable.
Marketplaces & Interests
Services can be published into a marketplace by relating them to an Interest:
Examples:
- Dining
- Fitness
- Software development
- Cleaning
- Delivery
- Tutoring
- AI transformations
- Beauty & grooming
Clients can:
- subscribe to Service availability
- filter by rating, price, or provider
- bid on Tasks
- negotiate with providers
- hire staff or teams
- request bundles of services
Providers can:
- accept or decline requests
- subcontract subtasks
- produce Deliverables
- host Deliverables securely
- earn reputation
Accounting
Cost breakdown includes:
- Product inputs
- Task labor
- Staff time
- Subcontracted Services
- Deliverable valuation
- Inventory costs
- Overhead
- Final sale revenue
This supports:
- transparent pricing
- bulk discounts
- multi-step cost aggregation
- complex billing
Example Scenarios
1. Restaurant
- Service = Lunch (Live)
- Availability = 12–3 PM
- Event created at 12:00
- Catalog = burgers, soups
- Products prepared through Tasks (kitchen workflow)
- Deliverables: prepared meals
- Inventory tracked per ingredient or per dish
- Staff assigned per area (table)
2. Salon / Barber
- Service = Haircut
- Availability windows with staff
- Event per appointment
- Catalog = wash, dye, styling
- Tasks = cut hair, mix dye, wash hair
- Deliverables = photo, styled hair
3. Software Agency
- Service = Branding Package
- Order spawns Tasks (logo, palette, icons)
- Deliverables = SVG, PNG, brand guide
- Subscription = ongoing hosting or support
- Products = digital assets
4. AI Processing Marketplace
- Product = image/video/text
- Service = remove background, upscale, summarize
- Task templates = GPU-based jobs
- Deliverables = processed files
- Hosted securely with client capabilities
5. Car Ownership + Multi-provider Services
- Product = Toyota Corolla VIN#123
- Services = maintenance, detailing, inspection
- Providers = multiple mechanics
- Deliverables = maintenance logs, reports
- Subscription = extended warranty
6. Manufacturing Pipeline
- Products = materials
- Tasks = cut, weld, polish, assemble
- Deliverables = final product
- Services = QC inspection, delivery
- Multi-step production tracked automatically
Bringing it All Together
By combining Products, Services, Catalogs, Offers, Orders, Items, Tasks, Deliverables, Availabilities, and Events into a unified model — all expressed using Streams and Relations — the Qbix Platform supports a seamless range of real-world scenarios:
- commerce
- reservations
- marketplaces
- manufacturing
- digital processing
- staffing
- multi-provider workflows
- subscriptions
- hosting
- encrypted deliverables
- Intercloud notarization
This extended model remains fully compatible with the simpler base model while enabling arbitrarily complex applications and ecosystems.