App Store Connect session — one sitting

A1 Paid Applications Agreement GATES EVERYTHING

1. ASC → Business (formerly "Agreements, Tax, and Banking").
2. Under Agreements find Paid Applications → View and Agree to Terms → read, tick, accept.
3. Status becomes "Pending — add banking and tax info". Expected; A2 clears it.

Nothing IAP works — not even sandbox purchases on the beta app — until this shows Active.

A2 Banking + tax WAIT: UP TO ~48 H

1. Bank account (same Business section): bank name, IBAN, SWIFT/BIC, account-holder name exactly as the bank has it. UAE accounts are fine.
2. Tax forms: the U.S. W-8BEN digital questionnaire (all non-U.S. developers). "No U.S. activities" is the normal path. Complete only the country forms ASC marks required.
3. Contacts: senior / financial / technical / legal — you for all four is fine.
4. Wait for Business → Paid Applications → Active. Bank verification is the slow part.

A3 Small Business Program — 15% instead of 30% 5 MIN

1. developer.apple.com/app-store/small-business-program → Enroll (Account Holder only).
2. Confirm: latest Paid Apps Agreement accepted (A1) · Associated Developer Accounts: none · prior-year proceeds under US$1M (new accounts qualify automatically).

The 15% rate starts 15 days after the end of the Apple fiscal month in which approval lands — enrolling now, pre-launch, makes the lag irrelevant. That's why it's P0.

A4 Consumption-data prep NO ASC TOGGLE EXISTS

1. Server notification URLs: ASC → Apps → ELA → General → App Information → App Store Server Notifications → set Production URL https://api.ela.now/v1/webhooks/appstore (note the /v1 — corrected 27 Aug; the old runbook line missed it) + the staging URL engineering gives you, version 2. Engineering can do this step.
2. In-App Purchase API key: ASC → Users and Access → Integrations → In-App Purchase → generate. Download the .p8 once (it can never be re-downloaded), note Key ID + Issuer ID, hand all three to engineering over a secure channel. Goes root-only on the VPS like the APNs key.
3. Customer consent is product/legal work (counsel list), not an ASC setting.

A5 Sandbox tester 5 MIN

ASC → Users and Access → Sandbox → Test Accounts → +. Fresh email alias (e.g. stevan+elasandbox1@…), region United Arab Emirates so sandbox prices render in AED. Never sign a real device's main Apple ID in with it — enter it only when a StoreKit sandbox sheet prompts.

A6 Subscription group + the three products

ASC → Apps → ELA → Monetization → Subscriptions.

Create the group

Reference Name ELA Essential Membership → open it → add an English localization: Display Name ELA Membership (what members see in iOS Settings → Subscriptions) · App Name Display Option "Use App Name".

Create the three products (repeat ×3 — Product IDs are immutable, type exactly)

Per-product settings

• Family Sharing: OFF on all three — and it can never be turned off once enabled, so do not touch it.
• Availability: all countries and regions — a Dubai resident on a UK Apple ID cannot buy if we restrict to UAE.
• Pricing: base storefront United Arab Emirates (AED), enter the price, let ASC auto-generate the other 174 storefronts, then manually review Saudi Arabia · Qatar · UK · US (Kuwait/Bahrain/Oman bill in USD). If the picker doesn't offer the exact value, pick the nearest and tell engineering the final numbers.
• Review Information: leave blank today — required before "Ready to Submit", not for sandbox. Real paywall screenshot + notes come at P5.

Ranking, grace, hygiene

• Edit Order: all three at the SAME level (level 1) — interval switches become crossgrades at next renewal, no proration, matching your ruling. Do not rank annual above weekly.
• Billing Grace Period (Subscriptions page → Set Up): duration 16 days (Apple caps weekly at 6 automatically) · All Renewals · Production and Sandbox.
• Delete any abandoned draft products/groups — a stray draft IAP is its own rejection class. The first auto-renewable sub must ride a new app version at submission (P5); creating them today is correct and required for sandbox.