Normal Billing & Subscriptions Getting Started

A Subscription is a collection of Services which are provided to customers and billed on a recurring, usage or One-Time basis. The Subscriber is the customer who owns the account associated with the Subscription and receives its Services.

What Comes First

To start using Normal Subscriptions, configure the System to support your business model. In the following table, you can find the configuration modules related to Normal Subscriptions

Sub-module	Type	Classification	Navigation	Dig In
Billing Term Schemes	Configuration		CONFIGURATIONBILLING APPLICATIONBILLINGSET UP BILLING TERM SCHEMES	/wiki/spaces/WIP/pages/10008620
Subscription Types	Configuration		CONFIGURATIONBILLING APPLICATIONSUBSCRIPTIONSSET UP TYPES	/wiki/spaces/WIP/pages/10008626
Subscription Definitions	Configuration		CONFIGURATIONBILLING APPLICATIONSUBSCRIPTIONSSET UP BUSINESS DEFINITIONS	/wiki/spaces/WIP/pages/10008628
Billing Term Definitions	Configuration		CONFIGURATIONBILLING APPLICATIONBILLINGSET UP BILLING TERM DEFINITIONS	/wiki/spaces/WIP/pages/10008621
Normal Billing Run Definitions	Configuration		CONFIGURATIONBILLING APPLICATIONBILLINGSET UP NORMAL Billing Run DEFINITIONS	/wiki/spaces/WIP/pages/10008768
Subscription Action and Sub-Action Types	Configuration		CONFIGURATIONBILLING APPLICATIONSUBSCRIPTIONSSET UP SUBSCRIPTION ACTION TYPES	/wiki/spaces/WIP/pages/10008627
Bill Sending Runs	Transactional		BILLINGBILLINGPERFORM BILL SENDING RUNS	Using Bill Sending Runs
Deactivate Normal Subscriptions	Transactional		BILLINGSUBSCRIPTIONSDEACTIVATE NORMAL SUBSCRIPTIONS	Using Deactivate Normal Subscriptions Run Definitions
Subscription Maintenance Utility	Transactional		BILLINGSUBSCRIPTIONSSUBSCRIPTION MAINTENANCE UTILITIES	Using Subscription Maintenance Utilities Run Definition

Step 1: Setting up Billing Term Schemes

First, you must configure the Billing Term Schemes.

Billing Term Schemes are used to control the creation or modification of Billing Terms. They provide information on the options available when creating Subscriptions and Jobs, such as the products that can be added or the Price Plans that will be used for their billing. The Schemes also control Billing Engine processes by providing the billing rules and policies that should be applied during Billing Runs.
Once created, Billing Term Schemes are added on Subscription Types.

Step 2: Setting up Subscription Types

A Subscription Type defines the company's commercial policies which are applied on Subscriptions of that type, such as what Services and what Physical Goods can be added on each Subscription Type, which Billing Term Schemes will be made available for each Subscription Type as well as the company's departments (Organisational Units) can create Subscriptions of the specific Type.

Step 3: Setting up Subscription Definition

An active Subscription definition must then be configured.

A Subscription Definition is a set of business rules and conditions which are used to create and maintain Subscriptions throughout their Life Cycle. For example, through the Subscription Definitions, you can define the maximum number of Subscriptions you can have per account or the maximum number of Main Services and Physical products that can be added to a Subscription. 
Subscription Definitions provide a number of restrictions and controls and can be used to define product dependencies. For example, a rule can be set where additional channels cannot be added unless one of the Main channels is added first.

Step 4: Setting up Billing Term Definitions

Billing Term Definitions come next. They are differentiated based on Classification, which can be Subscription or Jobs.

Billing Term is the agreement/contract between the customer and the company. It provides information with regards to billing, contract dates and billing periods. Billing Terms are created every time a Billing Term Scheme is added or updated on the Job or Subscription, and it determines whether a Subscription will be handled by Normal or Prepaid Billing. Billing Term behaviour is governed by Billing Term Definition rules.

Billing Term Definitions are used to define business rules used to validate several processes applied to Subscription or Jobs, via their related Billing Term. For example, you can define rules where you will not allow Regret after a number of days, or define cancellation penalties based on a particular service and remaining binding period. Rules are used across all Billing Terms, regardless of their Schemes, however, for each rule, you can define whether it is only applicable to particular schemes.

Step 5: Setting up Normal Billing Run Definitions

Time for Billing!!!

Normal Billing is the mechanism used to bill customers before or after they start using Services they have bought or are subscribed to. Normal Billing is handled by the execution of Normal Billing Runs that create Financial Transactions which are used to debit or credit the customer's Accounts Receivable and which are then grouped and presented to the customers through Bills.

Normal Billing Run definitions is a set of business rules used to control the behaviour of Normal Billing Runs throughout their whole Life Cycle. Normal Billing Run definitions are used to define several business rules that are applied during the Billing Run, but also default values, which are used while running Normal Billing Runs.

Step 6: Setting Up Subscription Action and Sub-Action Types, Bill Sending Runs, Disconnection and Activation Runs

Configure the following modules for additional functionality and categorisation. You can skip configuration of the modules if not required by your business model

• Subscription Action Type:
  The modifications performed on a Subscription when a Subscription Action is executed depend on the Subscription Action's Type, while the Subscription Sub-Action Type is used to apply a business meaning.

  • There are 2 main characteristics that all Subscription actions have, and these are configured in the Subscription Action Type and Subscription Sub ActionType Level.

    There is no need to configure Subscription Action Types as you can find all available Subscription Action Types and Sub-Types in the Subscription's page.
    Configure new Subscription Action Types and Sub-Types only if you want to categorise actions executed.

• Bill Sending Runs: Once the Billing Run is executed Bills are created. Bill Sending Run Definitions are used to determine the business rules that are used to identify Bills to be sent through Email, SMS or an external System. Configure the Bill Sending Runs if you would like to directly handle Bill sending from CRM.COM

• Subscription Maintenance Utilities Run Definition provides a set of utility batch processes that can be used to maintain Subscriptions.
  • Activate Settled Subscriptions
    Activates 'Not Effective' Normal Subscriptions that belong to Accounts Receivable that have not exceeded their Credit Limit and that had their balance changed within a specified timeframe
  • Execute Scheduled Actions
    Executes all Scheduled Subscription Actions whose Scheduled Execution date is equal or before the current date.

  If not configured then deactivated Subscriptions will only be activated by the respective Activation Subscription action, while scheduled actions will never be executed

   

• Deactivate Normal Subscriptions Run Definition are used to define the rules to be followed when executing Runs to deactivate Subscriptions. The decision on which Subscriptions should be deactivated is based on the criteria set on the Definitions, among which, you can define criteria related to the Accounts Receivable Classification, Subscription Type and Frequency. 
  Additionally, you can define whether the deactivation is done based on an Accounts Receivable outstanding amount or the Credit Limit of the Accounts Receivable or both.
  

  If not configured then Subscriptions will only be deactivated by the respective Deactivate Subscription action

Do it Yourself!!