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R9 - Understanding Prepaid Billing

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What is Prepaid Billing?

Prepaid Billing is used for business billing models where customers pay in advance for services/products they would like to buy. The payments which can be done via Vouchers or other type of payments, top up the customer's Wallets which is in turn credited via wallet credit transactions and debited via the debit wallet transactions that can be created via prepaid billing runs. In such models the system usually executes a daily billing run deducting from the customer's wallet the amount of money used for the usage of the service.

AVAILABLE FROM CRM.COM R9.0.0 - Prepaid Billing also deals with services that apart from being prepaid they will also be pre-rated (i.e: pre-billed) In such a model the system will bill a service not for a passed period but for an upcoming period defined.

Prepaid Billing Glossary

TermDescription 
Billing TermBilling terms is an entity which is related directly with billable entities and it is used to, represent the agreement between a customer and the company, but also to define the rules and conditions that should be applied during the billing of the specified billable entity 
Billing Term SchemesBilling term schemes are used to control the creation or modification of billing terms by providing the allowed options for each input field and by setting the default values, and also to control billing engine processes by providing the billing rules and policies that should be applied during billing runs 
Prepaid BillingPrepaid billing is a billing mechanism which is used in cases where customers pay first for the services/products, and are then allowed to start using them. 

Terminated Billing Terms

Billing Terms become terminated whenever they are replaced by a new instance of Billing Terms. Terminated Billing Terms will be used by the billing engine as long the period during which the record was effective is not billed yet. Billing Terms can also be terminated in cases in which the related Subscription becomes terminated.

 

Terminated Billing Term Schemes

Billing Term Schemes become terminated whenever they are replaced by a new instance of Billing Term Schemes. Terminated Billing Term Schemes will never be used again in order to create new Billing Terms. However, Billing Terms that were created prior the scheme’s termination, will continue using its settings.

 

Billable entities

Billable entities are a set of entities which can be billed through the billing engine.

 
Concurrent usage based pricingConcurrent usage based pricing is used to apply price plan rates based on the number of concurrent usage of the services or the installed items that will be billed, and a rate percentage which is agreed between the customer and the company providing those services. 
Estimation of wallet consumption dateEstimating the date that the wallet balance will be consumed, is done based on the billing terms and the usage of the subscription services. The date which is calculated is a near proximity estimation of the consumption date, meaning that it can slightly be different to the actual date, if it is more than 6 months ahead. 
Billing Effective DateThe date from which you should start taking into consideration the Billable item for billing. 
Billable Period Start DateDetermines the start date of the billable period of each subscription service 

Post-Rate

 

A subscription service supported by a Billing Term Scheme of billing type Prepaid can be classified as post-rated which indicates that the service will be rated and billed up until the Prepaid Billing Run is performed. 

Pre-Rate

AVAILABLE FROM CRM.COM R9.0.0

A subscription service supported by a Billing Term Scheme of billing type Prepaid can be classified as pre-rated which indicates that the service will be rated for an upcoming period during Prepaid Billing Run, i.e. for a period after the Prepaid Billing Run is performed. 

Prepaid Billing Key Processes and Concepts

Processes / ConceptDescription
Prepaid Billing Run -Step Process

Prepaid billing run is a billing mechanism which is used in cases where customers pay in advance and after that start using the services that were subscribed to, by deducting the used amount from the paid amount, using the wallets module.

 It is usually performed on a daily basis and is responsible to:

  • Identify the service usage
  • Rate the used services
  • Debit the related wallets based on that usage

In addition there are optional services to:

  • Stop subscription services which are left with no wallet credit
  • Start services which were stopped and are now having enough wallet credit
  • Estimate the date that the wallet amount will be consumed by the subscription services, based on their existing usage and billing term schemes.

In contrast to Normal Billing Run you do not have the option to select up to which step the Prepaid Billing Run will be executed, however you have the option to choose whether Stop and Start Service as well as Estimation steps will take place or not.

Visit  Interpreting Prepaid Billing Run Execution Steps for a full description of the Prepaid Billing Run processes

Single Billable Entity Bill Preview

Prepaid Billing Run is responsible for billing all accounts/subscriptions whenever executed in a batch mode.

While for Normal Billing you have the option to bill individual billable entities; prepaid billable entities cannot be billed in an individual basis, but you have the option to get a bill preview.

  • Individual Subscriptions can be previewed via the Subscription Action Bill Subscriber. Visit Bill Subscriber for a step by step process of how the action can be used.
  • Individual Accounts can be previewed via the action Bill account which is accessible via the Accounts Receivable detail page. Visit Billing Accounts Receivable for a step by step process of how to bill the account.
Rated Billing Items created for Prepaid Billing

Rated Billing Items is information generated by the billing engine, that represents a set of services and physical goods that were provided to customers along with the applicable rates and information on how those rates were calculated. Rated Billing Items are Implicit Viewing Access Entities and the owner group is implied from the related subscription.

Rated Billing Items to be created, are identified via the Identification process of the Billing Run, while the Rating process is responsible to create them.

Rated Billing Items is one of the main sources of information which is being used by the next steps of the Billing Run to proceed with the creation of Financial Transactions which will later be grouped into a single bill per account. 

Both Normal and Prepaid Billing Runs are using Rated Billing Items.

Visit Rated Billing Items for a full description of the processes available for handling Rated Billing Items

Billing Prepaid services in advance

AVAILABLE FROM CRM.COM R9.0.0

Subscription services supported by Prepaid Billing Term Schemes have 2 options of being billed:

  • Post-Rate: A prepaid service which will be rated up until the date that the Prepaid Billing Runs is performed.
  • Pre-Rate: A prepaid service which will be rated for an upcoming period of time in advance by Prepaid Billing Runs.

Pre-Rated (i.e billed services) which go through amendments (i.e. removed or cancelled) will be credited through Credit Wallet Transactions during Prepaid Billing Runs as part of this billing adjustment.

Prepaid Billing Network Characteristics

Network Characteristics define the level of access for each record. i.e. Whether it will be available for selection, for viewing or editing etc.

EntityNetwork Characteristics
All Prepaid Billing Related entities
(defined in Prepaid Billing Manual) 

Prepaid Billing Related Modules

Interaction EntityHow
SubscriptionsSubscriptions of prepaid billing term are taken into consideration by Prepaid Billing
Accounts ReceivableAccounts Receivable balance (only if configured in Wallets Definition) is updated according to wallet changes, that may have been caused by the Prepaid Billing
WalletsPrepaid Billing credits and debits the wallet related to the billable entity
Wallet TransactionsDebit Wallet Transactions created by Prepaid Billing Run
VouchersVouchers can be used to top up wallets
Rated Billing ItemsRated Billing Items are created by Normal Billing Rating Step
Price PlansPrepaid Billing takes the price rates from the price plan defined on the billing term of the billable entity

 

Prepaid Billing - Business Examples

The following section provides business examples to help you understand how CRM.COM Prepaid Billing module is used

Configuring Prepaid Billing Run Definition for Daily Invoicing Runs

Company ZX Daily Invoice Run

Business Requirement 

Company ZX bills has the following requirements regarding its subscribers billing

  • Billing Run executed every day and the Bill as Of date should be one day after the previous Billing Runs Day
  • Blling Run should be executed with 32 threads
  • Subscription that have been disconnected should be restarted if there wallet balance is over 0
  • Subscriptions whose wallet balance is 0 or less should be disconnected
  • System should estimate wallets that have been changed since last Billing Run execution
  • Normal Debit Wallet Transaction type should be created when executing Billing Run 

CRM.COM Solution

A billing run definition will be set up in the system with the following configurations

 Solution
Prepaid Billing Run definitions

Billing Run executed daily with 32 threads

  • Settings - Generic
    • Recurrence Settings: 1 Day
    • Number of Threads: 32
  • Settings - Rating
    • X UOT after Previous Billing Run: 1 day

Subscription that have been disconnected should be restarted if there wallet balance is over 0

  • Settings - Processing
    • Enable Start Service Step by Default
  • Settings - Start Service: 
    • Reconnection Amount Threshold = 0

Subscriptions whose wallet balance is 0 or less should be disconnected

  • Settings - Processing
    • Enable Stop Service Step by Default
  • Settings - Start Service: 
    • Disconnection Amount Threshold = 0
System should estimate wallets that have been changed since last Billing Run execution
  • Settings - Processing
    • Enable Wallet Consumption Estimation Step: Re-Estimate Wallets with changes
Wallet Definitions
Normal Debit Wallet Transaction type should be created when executing Billing Run
  • Wallet Causes - Debit Wallets
    • During Prepaid Billing Run
    • From the drop down list: Select Normal Debit

More Information on Billing Run definitions can be found at: Configuring Prepaid Billing Run Definitions

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