THE ESSENTIALS

First, let's familiarise ourselves with some basic billing terminology used in the software. For additional billing terms, consult the Subscriptions manual.

Subscription Billing Terms

This is where users can find detailed billing information for a set of subscription services. The terms define the billing cycle, specifying the duration of the billing period and the billing day. Furthermore, any changes or additions to the subscription services are synchronised with the existing services based on these terms.

Subscription Payment Methods

A contact can have multiple payment methods. One of these online payment methods can be chosen to fund the contact’s subscription, effectively becoming the subscription’s payment method.

During the billing process, if issuing the invoice would cause the credit limit to be exceeded, the subscription payment method will be used to automatically retrieve funds for the subscription's recurring fee. Essentially, the credit limit enforces payment collection.

However, setting up a payment method for a subscription is not mandatory. If the subscription doesn’t have a payment method, the billing engine attempts to collect money using the contact’s primary payment method (if available) or the CRM.COM Wallet.

Calendar Billing

These rules define how the billing day for a subscription will be set (the same setting applies for all subscribers). There are two options to choose from:

• Anniversary - The billing day is associated with the day when the contact’s first service is activated on a subscription, marking the subscription’s ‘anniversary’.

• Period - All subscriptions are billed on the same day, as determined by the business.

Billing Day

Billing day is the day on which the subscription will be billed for each billing cycle. It is the day of the month for cycles longer than a month or the day of the week for subscriptions with cycles less than a month. The billing day is applied for all services of a subscription and it is utilised to align billing of new services added on a subscription.

A subscriber purchases a monthly service on the 10th of the month, so the billing day is the 10th of each month. Another monthly service is purchased 10 days later (on the 20th), CRM.COM bills the new service up until the next billing cycle which is the 10th of the following month.

Pre-bill vs Post-bill

CRM.COM supports two billing models:

• Pre-bill: The contact is billed in advance for the upcoming billing cycle, either at the beginning of it or a few days before, i.e. services are billed for before they are used.

• Post-bill: The contact is billed at the end of the billing cycle, i.e. after the services are used.

The billing model is specified per service price terms. This implies that the contact can select the billing model upon ordering the service.

Proration

Proration is a business rule primarily used in Period billing to ensure consistent billed periods for all of a contact's services.

The prorate threshold day is used when creating a subscription. If the services are purchased before that day, they will be invoiced until the beginning of the next billing cycle. If purchases are made after that day, the services will be prorated for an additional billing cycle.

Here’s an example where the prorate threshold day is set to the 15th of the month, and period billing is set to the 1st of the month. The threshold day is usually set based on when billing is performed.

Example 1 - Contact subscribes on the 10th of the month, so services are billed up until the 1st. The service will be picked up by the billing run, and then pre-billed for the next billing cycle.

Example 2 - Contact purchases a service on the 20th of the month, therefore the services are billed until the end of that month, plus one more month. In such cases, the new services will be aligned with the rest of the subscriptions.

Time Travel

The Time Travel tool is available in Test Data and allows users to navigate back in time, enabling them to examine the behaviour of various processes. With the necessary configuration in place, users can then move forward to the present and verify outcomes such as service billing, applied promotions, or pending changes, ensuring accurate and reliable billing results.

Billing Settings

Let’s start by reviewing the billing settings. CRM.COM requires a minimum set-up to configure your business’s billing rules. It is important to note that specific default settings are configured once a business signs up but can be changed.

Navigate to Settings > Subscriptions & Billing > Billing for the Billing system settings.

Calendar Billing

Open

Anniversary vs. Period Billing

Choose one of the two calendar billing options, either Anniversary or Period billing.

Immediate vs. Delayed Alignment

Two options exist for aligning the billing period when amending a subscription’s services.

• Immediate alignment: When adding a new service to a subscription, it is immediately aligned to the billing cycle of the rest of the subscription’s services and according to the subscription’s billing day. As a result, this service will be partially invoiced in the first bill and invoiced for the whole amount in the second bill

• Delayed Alignment: Upon adding a new service, it is always billed for one whole billing cycle regardless of the subscription's billing day. That service is aligned with the rest of the services' billing cycle during the next subscription’s billing. This option ensures that your business will always get the full amount for each new service added to a subscription.

Contacts may also change the billing day at any point in time but this applies only for Anniversary billing models.

Resetting the Billing Day

This setting can be enabled only for Anniversary billing, and the user can select which service actions will reset the billing day.

Billing Rules

Define the business’s billing rules and conditions.

Open

Billable life cycle states

By default, only services in the Effective state are considered billable, i.e. services are billed only for their Effective periods. However, by amending this rule, other states can also be included in the billing run too. This rule can also be configured so as to be applied only to specific services.

Non-creditable life cycle states

By default, a service in Draft or Effective state cannot be credited, alternatively, a service in any other state can, e.g. a service can be credited right after it's cancelled. This rule can be amended to extend the default behaviour to other states, too, i.e. not crediting the service for the specified states. This rule can also be configured so as to be applied only to specific services.

Bill subscribers

Set when subscribers will be billed. Recurring billing is triggered according to configured billing rules; at the beginning of the billing cycle or a number of days before. The billing process runs on a daily basis and identifies if there are services to be billed. Its time of execution is not configurable.

Set up your billing run process to bill subscriptions a number of days earlier, in cases where you want to ensure that contacts will settle their payments by the time the next billing cycle begins. Use this model for payments that require a number of days to be collected, as for account debit payment method types.

Subscribers billed on a post-bill basis

Post-bill services are always billed from the previous billing run and up until a certain date. Use this setting to specify up until which date the service will be billed:

• On their billing date - Billed up until the billing day.

• Up Until a cut-off date - Bill the service up until a date prior to the next billing date.

Recommended for businesses that frequently change prices of their post-bill services, to ensure correct billing based on past prices.

Assuming that he post-bill cut-off date is set for the 1st of the month, and the billing day of a post-bill service is set for the 5th of the month.

On the 5th of the month, the service is billed till the 1st of the month based on prices that were valid up until the cut-off date.

Enforce payments collection when there’s an outstanding amount

By default, payments are automatically retrieved if the issuance of an invoice would exceed the credit limit. The payment amount matches the total amount of the invoice to be issued. This setting ensures that the payment amount also includes any other outstanding amounts owed by the contact, enabling the business to collect not only the recurring fee, but also any previous outstanding debts.

Prorate Services

CRM.COM handles prorated billing so that contacts are not always billed a full amount if they purchase or change their service in the middle of a billing cycle. The threshold day represents a milestone day of the month based on whether prorating applies or not.

Let’s assume that the prorated threshold day is set to 15.

If a contact purchases a service after the 15th day of the billing cycle, they will be billed up to the next billing day plus the next period.

If a contact purchases a service prior to the 15th day of the billing period, they will be billed up to the next billing day only.

Financial Rules

Define what kind of financial transactions will be issued in cases where invoices and credit notes are posted for billing purposes.

To distinguish between invoices and credit notes generated by the billing engine, assign a unique financial transaction type. This will enable you to filter and analyse these transactions easily through CRM.COM's Analytics features.

Usage Billing

For usage-based billing purposes (if applicable).

• Verify remaining allowance on submitting usage records - When enabled, the system verifies the remaining usage of a service upon submission from a third-party system. If the usage is exceeded, it cannot be logged. Otherwise, CRM.COM accepts the usage and asynchronously rejects the usage record, thus avoiding billing.

• Allowance Change - A service's default pricing terms determine its usage allowance. However, you can allow users to customise the usage allowances of a service by activating this setting. This is suitable for B2B operations.

Usage Records are submitted by 3rd-party systems that keep track of the actual usage being consumed by subscribers like Online Charging Systems, Radius Servers etc.

Usage Charge Limits

Usage charge limits is a global business rule that defines the maximum allowed non-billed consumed usage for a contact. Once this threshold is reached, the contact will be immediately invoiced for the non-billed usage up until that point in time, even though it may not be time for the contact to be billed yet (prior to the end of the billing cycle).

Usage charge limits can be defined as:

• Maximum un-billed usage amount (e.g. maximum £50)  and/or

• Maximum number of un-billed usage records (e.g. up to 3 VODs, assuming that there's a usage detail record for each VOD)

Usage charge limits are included in the business rules applied across all subscriptions for all contacts and can be specified per product (usage service) or product type (service type).

Event-Based Charges

These are charges (or fees) applied to subscriptions upon the occurrence of a specific event and billed just once.

• Rule - start by selecting the rule name (these are products which have a product type classification of Expenses Service and also carry the charge to be billed)

• Action - select the service action that the contact will be charged for

• Period - select whether the charge will be applied immediately or will be included in the next billing cycle (upcoming bill)

• Conditions - the charges can be conditional, i.e. will be applied if the subscription event meets the specified conditions

Event-based Recurring Charges

Aside from one-off charges, recurring subscription charges can also be configured and billed on a recurring basis, i.e. once every billing cycle. Recurring expenses are not prorated, they are always billed the full amount.

• Rule - select the rule name (these are products which have a product type classification of Expenses Service and also carry the charge to be billed)

• Initiating action - select the event which will cause the recurring charge to be added to the subscription bill

• Terminating action - select the event which will terminate the recurring charge

• Conditions - set the conditions whereby the charges will be applied

Measurement Units

Settings > Commerce > Products > Measurement Units.

Define the measurement units to be used for usage services.

Reference Material

You may also find it helpful to refer to the following manuals for further reading about billing.

Subscriptions

Subscriptions

Product Catalogue

Product Catalogue

Orders

Orders

Contacts

Contacts

Payment Methods

Payment Methods

Time Travel

Time Travel

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