In QuickFill, 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. The effect is that the expiration date of the subscription gets pushed back one issue for each issue served.
QuickFill never sends bills or renewals to complimentary subscribers. 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.
To keep track of these limited term complimentary subscriptions, you should define a separate tracking code(s) for them. When doing so, be sure to leave the 'Type' field set to "None." (Click here for details on the 'Type' field in the tracking codes definition.)