Defines how often are the subscription Purchases generated. Used together with subscription_period_units: to issue Purchases once a month, use "...period": 1 and "...period_units" == "months".
Variable number of days in a month is respected; e.g. if subscription has a period of 1 month, a client had its billing cycle activated on January 30 and there are 28 days in February that year - billing scheduled for February will happen on 28th.
Both fields are required when creating a BillingTemplate with is_subscription == true/editing a BillingTemplate with is_subscription == true as long as there aren't any launched subscribers; they are read-only otherwise, whether it's BillingTemplate's editing when there already are clients activated or if is_subscription == false.