Overview

Prepaid subscriptions are funded directly from the wallets of subscribers. Subscription services can be pre-rated (billed for an upcoming predetermined period).  Billing takes place either when the service is activated or a prepaid billing run is executed. There must be sufficient funds in the wallet to cover the billing period in order for services to be activated. If there are insufficient funds during the billing run to cover billed services, the services become candidates for deactivation.

More specifically billing process is responsible for:

• Billing the services
• Renewing services
• Setting services as candidates for deactivation

Available Billing/Payment Models

According to the billing/payment model applied on the subscription through its billing term scheme, subscriptions will be billed for different periods

• Prepaid (pre-rated) - Subscription Driven: The subscriber selects the pre-rated period at the subscription level, money is paid against the wallet and the software spends it FIFO based on the services consumption
• Prepaid (pre-rated) - Payment Driven: Services are billed for a period based on the available wallet funds

Billing Prepaid Subscriptions

Billing Runs are used to bill multiple subscriptions in a go. Prepaid billing run is a background process executed in an hourly basis with no need of user interaction. (While user interaction is not required, you need to make sure that the process is started through :Foundation / Platform / Manage Admin Settings / Batch Processes Admin Board)

 Once the Billing Run is executed, credit and debit wallet transactions will be generated which will credit and debit wallets accordingly. The billing process identifies the price and period that subscriptions and services should be billed for.  The services are then renewed and billed, or are placed in a queue for deactivation following the logic in the table below:

The billing process is executed per subscription service and it takes into consideration 'Ranking'

Viewing Prepaid Billing Run results

Once the runs are completed you can view results in the following two pages:

• Foundation / Platform / Manage Admin Settings / Batch Processes Admin Board
• Billing / Billing / Perform Billing Runs

Including Usage Services in Billing

In addition to termed services and expenses Usage based subscriptions or subscriptions that include usage services among others are subscriptions where customers will be billed based on the usage they have done. These This kind of subscriptions can be used in various different business such as

• OTT : Over the top refers to audio, video, and other media content delivered over the Internet without the involvement of a multiple-system operator (MSO). When OTT is provided through subscriptions, it is usually measured and invoiced based on its usage. i.e. how many VODs where ordered.
• Fleet Management: In the fleet management business usage subscriptions are used for fleet members in order to keep track and measure usage of the product being offered. i.e. petrol

Billing of usage services is done by the use of UDRs (Usage Detail Records) which hold raw information describing the use of 'usage services' . For more information on UDRs refer to Setting up Usage Based Subscriptions

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