---
schema_version: "1"
id: 82a63c66f6daac70d9b53882b8713b2e7d2c1c2542df857dbd6d30807f1d82a6
title: Product Lifecycles in EPC
collection: admin
version: current
locale: en-us
portal_url: https://docs.salesforce.com/admin/current/en-us/ind/264-0-0/comms_product_lifecycles_in_epc.md
canonical_url: https://help.salesforce.com/s/articleView?id=ind.comms_product_lifecycles_in_epc.htm&release=264.0.0&type=5
source_site: help.salesforce.com
content_type: documentation
content_hash: 7afc02ec74c9c8c1917fcbdb004fa8b70c7d2b0e9107791eb2f19f0d36f0c21f
description: Using the Shared Catalog or EPC, you can configure products at any level in the bundle, add new products, and importantly, maintain the product entities through their entire product lifecycle. EPC and the Shared Catalog supports the commercial product lifecycle by allowing you to define current, future, past and retired products.
products:
  - Communications
  - Media
  - Energy and Utilities
release: "264"
---
# Product Lifecycles in EPC

Using the Shared Catalog or EPC, you can configure products at any level in the bundle, add new products, and importantly, maintain the product entities through their entire product lifecycle. EPC and the Shared Catalog supports the commercial product lifecycle by allowing you to define current, future, past and retired products.

You can consolidate products and services from different lines of business in commercial packages or bundles. Customers ordering such packages can take an advantage from special pricing applied to the bundles of products and from new functional capabilities created by combining different types of products or services.

For details on how the **Lifecycle Status** field works with versioning, see [Lifecycle Status for Objects, Products, Projects, and Picklists](https://help.salesforce.com/s/articleView?id=ind.comms_lifecycle_status_for_objects__products__projects__and_picklists.htm&release=264.0.0&type=5 "The Lifecycle Status field is available for objects, product specifications, product offers, picklists, and EPC projects. Using the lifecycle status allows you to manage changes to picklist values over time in a controlled way.").

- Current Product is a product that is currently available for sale.
- Future Product is a product that will be sold in the future. This product can be configured and ordered, but will be fulfilled once its selling period and fulfillment begins. In order to ensure that future products are not assetized until they are fulfilled, Future Date Ordering functionality must be implemented.
- Past Product is a product that is no longer for sale but still can be fulfilled for orders that have already been placed and changed for orders that have already been assetized.
- Retired Product is a product that is no longer supported, cannot be ordered or fulfilled, or changed for orders that have been assetized.

The product catalog defines these stages of the product lifecycle using Product Selling Period dates. For more information, see the following topics.

- **[Product Selling Period Dates in EPC](https://help.salesforce.com/s/articleView?id=ind.comms_product_selling_period_dates_in_epc.htm&release=264.0.0&type=5)**  
    Product Selling Period Dates allow you to set the selling period, the fulfillment start date, and a date to retire commercial products. The selling period is the time period between the selling start date and the selling end date of a product, and it controls when the product can be ordered or sold.
- **[Product Selling Period Definition in EPC](https://help.salesforce.com/s/articleView?id=ind.comms_product_selling_period_definition_in_epc.htm&release=264.0.0&type=5)**  
    You set the product selling period fields in the product dialog or in the **General Properties** facet for products in **Vlocity Product Console**. This sets when products are available for sale to customers.
- **[Product References in EPC](https://help.salesforce.com/s/articleView?id=ind.comms_product_references_in_epc.htm&release=264.0.0&type=5)**  
    Use the **Find References** button in **Vlocity Product Console** to find references to a given product in active promotions, product bundles, assets, quote line items, order line items, and opportunity line items. This button assists you with determining the effect of changing product selling period and end of life dates.
- **[Product Selling Period Dates and CPQ Cart](https://help.salesforce.com/s/articleView?id=ind.comms_product_selling_period_dates_and_cpq_cart.htm&release=264.0.0&type=5)**  
    The Industries CPQ Cart supports product selling periods. At runtime, users can see products in the Products list and in the Cart based on the Order Start Date.