Prepaid 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.

Prepaid Billing is a business billing model where customers pay in advance for Services they want to buy or subscribe to, and the billing is handled by the execution of a Prepaid Billing Run.

What Comes First

Sub-module	Type	Classification	Navigation	Dig In
Billing Term Schemes	Configuration		CONFIGURATIONBILLING APPLICATIONBILLINGSET UP BILLING TERM SCHEMES	Configuring Prepaid Billing Term Schemes for Subscriptions
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
Prepaid Billing Run Definitions	Configuration		CONFIGURATIONBILLING APPLICATIONBILLINGSET UP PREPAID BILLING RUN DEFINITIONS	Configuring Prepaid Billing Run Definitions
Subscription Action and Sub-Action Types	Configuration		CONFIGURATIONBILLING APPLICATIONSUBSCRIPTIONSSET UP SUBSCRIPTION ACTION TYPES	/wiki/spaces/WIP/pages/10008627
Deactivate Prepaid Subscriptions	Application		BILLINGSUBSCRIPTIONSDEACTIVATE PREPAID SUBSCRIPTIONS	Using Deactivate Prepaid Subscription Run Definitions
Subscription Maintenance Utility	Application		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.

Define the Termed Services and Expenses to be available for selection and addition to Subscriptions and Termed Services 'Billing Type' that distinguishes which services are Post-Rate and which will be Pre-Rate

• Post-Rate: Services which are billed after being used for a certain period (usually on a daily basis); funds are directly deducted from the Wallet.
• Pre-Rate: Services which are billed for an upcoming period defined in the System; funds are directly deducted from the Wallet to cover the whole period. 
  • Period Billed in Advance: This is the number of days/weeks/months that a Pre-Rated Service should be billed in advance.
    If the Wallet of the Subscriber does not have enough money to cover for the Pre-Rated period, then the Service(s) cannot be activated.  

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 Prepaid Billing Run Definitions

Time for Billing!!!

Prepaid Billing is a business billing model where customers pay in advance for Services they want to buy or subscribe to, and the billing is handled by the execution of a Prepaid Billing Run.  The financial entity created by Prepaid Billing Runs is Wallet Transactions which are used to debit or credit the customer's Wallet.

This model supports:

• Post-rated Services: Services are billed after being used for a certain period (usually daily), and funds are directly deducted from the Wallet.
• Pre-rated Services: Services are billed for an upcoming period defined in the system and funds are directly deducted from the Wallet to cover the whole period.

Prepaid Billing Run definitions is a set of business rules used to control the behaviour of Prepaid Billing Runs. Prepaid Billing Run Definition is used to define several business rules that are applied during the Billing Run, but also default values, which are used while executing the Billing Runs.

Step 6: Setting Up Subscription Action and Sub-Action Types and Deactivate Prepaid Subscription Runs

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

• 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.

• Deactivate Prepaid Subscriptions: The deactivation process for Prepaid Subscriptions is used in order to identify Subscription Services that belong to Prepaid Subscriptions, which should be deactivated based on the amount of money left in their Wallet and the rate of the Subscription Service as defined in the Price Plan.
  The decision on deactivation, is based on the Prepaid rating classification, which is calculated by Prepaid Billing Runs that are executed before the process is executed.

Do it Yourself!!