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	Prepaid Subscriptions
Subscription Types	Configuration		CONFIGURATIONBILLING APPLICATIONSUBSCRIPTIONSSET UP TYPES	Subscriptions
Subscription Definitions	Configuration		CONFIGURATIONBILLING APPLICATIONSUBSCRIPTIONSSET UP BUSINESS DEFINITIONS	Subscriptions
Billing Term Definitions	Configuration		CONFIGURATIONBILLING APPLICATIONBILLINGSET UP BILLING TERM DEFINITIONS	Subscriptions
Prepaid Billing Run Definitions	Configuration		CONFIGURATIONBILLING APPLICATIONBILLINGSET UP PREPAID BILLING RUN DEFINITIONS	Prepaid Billing
Subscription Action and Sub-Action Types	Configuration		CONFIGURATIONBILLING APPLICATIONSUBSCRIPTIONSSET UP SUBSCRIPTION ACTION TYPES	Subscriptions
Deactivate Prepaid Subscriptions	Application		BILLINGSUBSCRIPTIONSDEACTIVATE PREPAID SUBSCRIPTIONS	Prepaid Subscriptions
Subscription Maintenance Utility	Application		BILLINGSUBSCRIPTIONSSUBSCRIPTION MAINTENANCE UTILITIES	Subscriptions

Step 1: Setting up Billing Term Schemes

Start by configuring 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 the Termed Services 'Billing Type' that distinguishes Pre-Rate and Post-Rate Services.

• Post-Rate: Services which are billed after being used for a certain period (usually daily); and funds are directly deducted from the Wallet.
  
• Pre-Rate: Services are billed for an upcoming period defined in the System and funds are directly deducted from the Wallet to cover the whole period.
  
  • Period Billed in Advance:  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

Configure an 'Active' Subscription Definition next.

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 follow. These are differentiated based on Classification, which can be 'Subscription' or 'Job'.

Billing Term is the 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 determine 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 set the business rules which validate processes applied to Subscriptions or Jobs, through their related Billing Term. For example, Rules can be defined where Regret is not allowed after a certain number of days, or where cancellation penalties are applied based on a Service's remaining Binding Period.  Rules are used across all Billing Terms, regardless of Scheme.  It is possible, however, to define whether a rule applies to particular schemes.

Step 5: Setting up Prepaid Billing Run Definitions

It's 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 are a set of business rules which are used to control the behaviour of Prepaid Billing Runs. Prepaid Billing Run Definitions are used to define several business rules that must be applied during the Billing Run, as well as default values that are used Prepaid 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 the configuration of these 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.

  • Subscription Actions and have two main characteristics, and these are configured in the Subscription Action Type and Subscription Sub-ActionType Level.

    It is not necessary to configure Subscription Action Types as all available Subscription Action Types and Sub-Types can be found in the Subscription's page.

    Configure new Subscription Action Types and Sub-Types only if you want to categorise executed Actions.

• Deactivate Prepaid Subscriptions: The process uses the amount of money left in the customer's Wallet and the rate of the Subscription Service as defined in the Price Plan, to identify Prepaid Subscriptions Services which should be deactivated.  The deactivation decision is based on the Prepaid rating Classification calculated by Prepaid Billing Runs before the process is executed.
  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!!