A complimentary subscription is a free subscription that does not expire. When QuickFill serves an issue to a complimentary subscription, it does not increment the number of issues served for the order.
Note: complimentary vs. controlled subscriptions
For audited publications, complimentary and controlled subscriptions are not the same. Controlled subscriptions have a definite end and require qualification data.
QuickFill never sends bills or renewals to complimentary subscribers. In addition, if your publication is defined so that expiration issues are printed on the top line of issue labels (click here for details on the top line of issue labels), QuickFill will print "XXXX" for complimentary subscriptions. To change a complimentary subscription to a regular subscription, you can use the 'Adjust order' transaction. QuickFill will then send renewal notices as specified by the renewal series.
If you want to give people free subscriptions for a definite term, do not enter them as complimentary subscriptions. Say you give your authors free one-year subscriptions but want to renew them as regular paid subscriptions at the end of the year. You should enter them as regular orders with a one-year term and a zero price and use a renewal series that offers to renew the subscription at your regular renewal prices.
Like gift subscriptions, you can specify on the tracking code definition screen that all orders entered using a specific tracking code should be identified as complimentary (click here for details on 'Complimentary' field in the tracking code definition). You can also have QuickFill break out the labels for complimentary subscriptions into a separate group when you create issue labels. You specify this in the 'Comp' fields of the label split table definition. Finally, you can also select or exclude complimentary subscriptions when you run many of the reports.