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Prepaid subscriptions are either billed for a passed period (post-rated) or funded directly from the wallets of subscribers. Subscription services can be pre-rated (billed for an upcoming defined period (prepredetermined period) or post-rated ), usually by the prepaid billing run. Once billed, subscribers must pay for the billed services else they will be candidates for deactivation. Post-rated service billing is only handled by the prepaid billing run, however billing of pre-rated services is also done when added to a subscription; if there are not enough (billed after being used).  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 for the whole billed period, the services won't billing period in order for services to be activated.

Prepaid subscriptions are paid through the subscriber's wallet rather than the account which is used for normal subscribers. 

Setting up Prepaid Billing Runs

Configuration required before executing prepaid billing runs is available at Billing Definition at Prepaid Billing Settings tab.

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If there are insufficient funds during the billing run to cover billed services, the services become candidates for deactivation.

Setting Up Prepaid Billing Runs

In order for the prepaid billing run to be executed the necessary configurations in the Prepaid Billing Settings tab of the billing definition must be made.

Managing Prepaid Billing Runs

Once the billing settings are defined, the prepaid billing run is executed by a system background process (without the need for user intervention). The results of the billing run can be viewed from a dedicated page or through the Batch Process Admin Board (from where you can manage their schedule and view logs of all executed runs).

Prepaid Billing Run

Prepaid billing run fields

This table contains an explanation of The table describes the sections of the normal billing run Data Entry page, a description of the usage of its fields and additional informationPrepaid Billing Run Data Entry page and explains how the fields on the page are used.

 Mandatory   Configurable

Creating and executing a prepaid billing run

Navigate to prepaid billing run and specify the criteria that match the billing run you are interested in, or click on NEW from the Actions menu to create a new billing run. Provide the mandatory information as defined in the fields table above and save the billing run. 
Once you create your billing run you must execute it. Once executed the progress of the run is determined by its life cycle state.  

1. Select Actions > Execute 
2. In the Execute Prepaid Billing Run Modal:
   1. Execute Now: Check the box to execute the Billing Run directly.
   2. Scheduled Date: Click on the calendar to select a date and time to start the execution. Click DONE when completed.
   3. Click SAVE

When a prepaid billing run is executed a series of steps take place as explained below.

Identification 

Identifies all the unrated billable (chargeable or creditable) information which is ready to be billed based on the conditions and filters (if any) set on the billing run:

For each subscription the following entities are identified:

• Subscription usage detail records that should be billed or credited and have a posted life cycle state
• Post-rated services that should be billed or credited (based on their billing directive), are not yet fully rated and their billing effective date is before or equal to the bill as of date
• Pre-rated services which have not been rated before or their latest "Rated Up To Date" is equal to or before the billing run's performed date

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Batch Process Admin Board

Use the board to stop the prepaid billing run from being executed or to view its logs.

1. Navigate to the Board
2. Go to Recurring System Process
3. Find the prepaid billing run.
   1. Click on View Logs
      or
   2. Stop the run.

Executing a prepaid billing run

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The steps of a run include:

• Identifying the items to be billed
• Rating the items 
• Debiting (or crediting) the subscription wallet.

Identification process 

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Locates unrated billable items that, according to billing run conditions, are ready to be charged or credited. The following entities are considered:

• Subscription Usage Detail Records that should be charged or credited and have a 'Posted' life cycle state.
• Post-rated services that:
  • Should be charged or credited (depending on the value of the billing directive)
  • Are not yet rated 
  • Have a billing effective date up to and including the bill as of date.
• Pre-rated services that have not been rated before or whose latest 'rated up to' date is up to and including the billing run's performed date.

Terminated accounts are excluded from billing.

Rating

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Calculates and applies the rates on each service that has  

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Creates rated billing items for services using the rate from the price plan and information from the following entities:

• Usage services 
  Usage Detail Records (UDRs) with a 'Pending' (not yet processed) rating state

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• are considered for billing.  The UDR billing directive specifies whether a debit or credit rated billing item

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• should be created. The period to be billed is indicated by the 'Started on' and 'Ended on' dates. 
  
• Termed services
  The source of information for rating termed services is their life cycle states.  Each life cycle state represents one period.  The 'Started on' and 'Ended on' dates indicate the period.  Life cycle states in a 'Pending' rating state are considered for billing.   The billing directive of each life cycle state specifies whether a debit or credit rated billing item should be created. 
  • For post-rated services, a rated billing item is created covering the period from the last

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• • Rated Up To Date

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• • until the

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• • billing run's

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• • Performed Date.

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• • For pre-rated services,

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• • a rated billing item

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• • is created covering the period billed in advance (as

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• • defined in the billing term scheme

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Pre-rated services that come out of grace period require customers to pay more than the standard pre-rated amount to include the number of days they were in grace. However, if the 'Decrease the prepaid pre-rated period by the total number of days in grace periods' setting is selected in the billing definition then the customers only need to pay for the pre-rated period from where the days that they were in grace will be deducted.

Wallet debiting process 

Responsible for the generation of wallet debit transactions, based on the amount in the rating step, or already existed rated billing items  that were not processed. In addition to the wallet transactions, the 'prepaid state' which is used by the deactivation process to decide whether to deactivate a subscription, is calculated. 

A global threshold set in the wallet definition sets the minimum amount that a subscriber's wallet can have. If during billing, the amount in the wallet, after deducting the rated amount, goes below the threshold then, then the prepaid state used to set it as candidate for deactivation is set to 'Invalid' and the service is not rated. If on the other hand there is enough money in the wallet, then the wallet is debited and the prepaid state is set to 'Valid' so that it will not be considered by deactivation.

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Estimations are performed only if enabled through the prepaid billing run and it estimates the date on which the wallet balance will be consumed, based on the billing terms and the usage of the subscription services. The maximum estimated time is one year by default, but can be configured for more through 'Prepaid Billing Run Settings' in the billing definitions. Information which is set at this step is the following

Wallets

• Estimated Consumption Days: An estimation of the number of days left until the entire wallet amount is consumed
• Estimated Consumption Date: An estimation of the date on which the entire wallet amount is consumed

Wallet Product Consumption

• Estimated Consumption Days: An estimation of the number of days left until the entire wallet amount allotted for the specified product is consumed
• Estimated Consumption Date: An estimation of the date on which the entire wallet amount allotted for the specified product is consumed
• Latest date of Estimation: The latest date that the estimation was performed.

• • ) up to the last 'Rated Up To Date'. 
• Expenses 
  The billing directive for the life cycle state of the expense specifies whether a debit or credit rated billing item should be created.
• Additive Discounts
  Additional discounts that should be applied to the subscription are taken into consideration after discounts that may have been applied through the price plans.

Rated billing items are created as long as they don't result in the wallet's balance falling below the threshold (established in the wallet definition). 
If the calculated balance of the wallet remains over the threshold:

• The wallet is debited
• The service is not rated for the upcoming period
• The prepaid state is set to 'Valid' and the service is not considered for deactivation.

If the calculated balance of the wallet drops below the threshold:

• The wallet is not debited
• The service is not rated for the upcoming period
• The prepaid state is set to 'Invalid' and the service is considered for deactivation.

If a service is coming out of a Grace Period, customers are also billed for the period spent in grace, unless the 'Decrease the prepaid pre-rated period by the total number of days in grace periods' setting is selected in the billing definition.

Wallet Debiting

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Uses the rated billing items resulting from the rating step and previously unprocessed rated billing items, to generate debit or credit wallet transactions.

Wallet Consumption Estimations 

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Calculates the date on which (or the number of days until) wallet funds (or the funds allotted for a specific product) will run out, based on the billing terms and use of subscription services.  The estimations must be enabled through the prepaid billing run.  

The maximum estimated time (one year by default) can be configured through the 'Prepaid Billing Run Settings' in the billing definition.  

Wallets

• Estimated consumption days
• Estimated consumption date

Wallet Product Consumption

• Estimated consumption days
• Estimated consumption date
• Latest date of estimation

Glossary  

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