THE ESSENTIALS

Firstly, let's get to terms with some of the basic terminology used throughout the software regarding billing. Also, refer to the Subscriptions manual for more billing terms.

Billing Day

Billing day is when the contact will be billed for their subscription services. CRM.COM caters for both Anniversary and Period calendar billing, the business can select either one of these in the Billing Rules.

Anniversary billing is the day of the month or week on which the contact subscribed for the first time, i.e., the anniversary day that marks the beginning of each billing cycle.

When more services are added to a subscription, CRM.COM aligns the new billing-based services to the existing billing day. Each new service will be billed only until the next billing day, in other words, until the next billing cycle, with no prorating applied.

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.

The billing day in this model might change either:

• Upon contact request

• Due to various subscription events, which cause the billing day to be reset to another day of the month, i.e. the day that the services were either re-activated or changed. Resetting the billing day allows you to fully bill the service for a whole billing cycle

For Period Billing, things are simpler since all of the subscribers of the business have the same billing day for all subscriptions, based on billing rules. The billing day in this model remains the same throughout a subscription’s life cycle, no matter what.

Proration

Various changes can be performed for a subscription’s service during the billing cycle, in such cases, the CRM.COM billing process ensures that the subscription’s billing is adjusted accordingly by issuing the correct invoices and/or credit notes.

The prorate threshold day is used upon creating a subscription. If services are purchased before that day, they are invoiced until the beginning of the next billing cycle. Purchases after that day imply that the services are prorated for one more billing cycle. Proration is mostly applied during Period billing in an attempt to get all services aligned in terms of billed periods.

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.

Subscription Payment Methods

A subscription can be funded by either one of the contact’s online payment methods, such as a credit card or using the contact’s CRM wallet (since the wallet is also a payment method in itself). If the subscription has a specific payment method, implying that the contact opted-in to using that payment method for automatic subscription payments, then only that will be used by the billing engine to fund the subscription. In the case of a failed payment, the billing engine will deactivate the subscription service(s) due to insufficient funds.

However, setting up a payment method for a subscription is not mandatory. If the subscription doesn’t have a payment method, the billing engine will attempt to collect money using the contact’s primary payment method (if available). If payment fails, then the service is deactivated. No further attempts to retrieve payments are made.

Pre-bill vs Post-bill

CRM.COM supports two main 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.

Time Travel

The Time Travel tool is available in Test mode and allows users to navigate back in time, enabling them to examine the behaviour of core 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 results.

Billing Settings

Let’s start by having a look at the billing settings. CRM.COM requires a minimum set-up when it comes to configuring 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.

Billing Rules

Define the business’s billing rules and conditions

Open

Calendar Billing

Anniversary vs. Period Billing

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

For Anniversary billing, the contact’s billing day is set as the day they first subscribed. In the case of a trial period, the billing day is set as the trial period’s end date.

For Period Billing, on the other hand, all subscribers will have the same billing day, which must be set using this rule. A subscriber cannot change the billing day in this case. Billing subscriptions with daily frequency is not supported.

The billing day can be automatically reset on various subscription events (such as changing a service or re-activating a subscription).

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: On 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 can also change the billing day at any point in time.

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.

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 of 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.

Recurring Billing

Define when subscribers will be billed and if prorating applies.

Open

Billing run

Set when a subscriber 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.

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.

Usage Billing

For usage-based billing purposes (if applicable), the remaining usage allowance is returned upon submitting usage records.

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

https://crmdevelopment.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/CRM/pages/1460961433

Product Catalogue

https://crmdevelopment.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/CRM/pages/1397656045

Orders

https://crmdevelopment.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/CRM/pages/1413416382

Contacts

Payment Methods

Time Travel

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