Overview

Prepaid subscriptions are funded directly from the wallets of subscribers. Subscription services can be pre-rated (billed for an upcoming predetermined period) or post-rated (billed after being used).  Billing takes place either when the service is activated or a prepaid billing run is executed. There must be sufficient funds in the wallet to cover the billing period in order for services to be activated. If there are insufficient funds during the billing run to cover billed services, the services become candidates for deactivation.

Setting Up Prepaid Billing Runs

Before executing prepaid billing runs, perform the necessary configurations in the Prepaid Billing Settings tab of the billing definition.

Using Prepaid Billing Runs

Prepaid billing run fields

The table describes the sections of the Prepaid Billing Run Data Entry page and explains how the fields in the page are used.

 Mandatory   Configurable

Creating and executing a prepaid billing run

Under Billing > Perform Prepaid Billing Run, specify the criteria that match the run you are interested in, or use NEW from the Actions menu to create a new run. Provide the mandatory information and SAVE the run. 
A billing run must be submitted when it is created. A run's progress is reflected in its life cycle state.

1. Select Actions > Execute 
2. Execute immediately or schedule the run.

A prepaid billing run consists of the following steps:

Identification process 

Locates unrated billable items that, according to billing run conditions, are ready to be charged or credited. The following entities are considered:

• Subscription Usage Detail Records that should be charged or credited and have a 'Posted' life cycle state.
• Post-rated services that:
  • Should be charged or credited (depending on the value of the billing directive)
  • Are not yet rated 
  • Have a billing effective date up to and including the bill as of date.
• Pre-rated services which have not been rated before or whose latest rated up to date is up to and including the billing run's performed date.

Terminated accounts are excluded from billing.

Rating 

Creates rated billing items for services using the rate from the price plan and information from the following entities:

• Usage services 
  Usage Detail Records (UDRs) with a 'Pending' (not yet processed) rating state are considered for billing.  The UDR billing directive specifies whether a debit or credit rated billing item should be created. The period to be billed is indicated by the 'Started on' and 'Ended on' dates. 
  
• Termed services
  The source of information for rating termed services is their life cycle states.  Each life cycle state represents one period.  The 'Started on' and 'Ended on' dates indicate the period.  Life cycle states in a 'Pending' rating state are considered for billing.   The billing directive of each life cycle state specifies whether a debit or credit rated billing item should be created. 
  • For post-rated services, a rated billing item is created covering the period from the last Rated Up To Date until the billing run's Performed Date.
  • For pre-rated services, a rated billing item is created covering the period billed in advance (as defined in the billing term scheme) up to the last 'Rated Up To Date'. 
• Expenses 
  The billing directive for the life cycle state of the expense specifies whether a debit or credit rated billing item should be created.
• Additive Discounts
  Additional discounts that should be applied to the subscription are taken into consideration after discounts that may have been applied through the price plans.

Rated billing items are created as long as they don't result in the wallet's balance falling below the threshold (established in the wallet definition). 
If the calculated balance of the wallet remains over the threshold:

• The wallet is debited
• The service is not rated for the upcoming period
• The prepaid state is set to 'Valid' and the service is not considered for deactivation.

If the calculated balance of the wallet drops below the threshold:

• The wallet is not debited
• The service is not rated for the upcoming period
• The prepaid state is set to 'Invalid' and the service is considered for deactivation.

If a service is coming out of a Grace Period, customers are also billed for the period spent in grace, unless the 'Decrease the prepaid pre-rated period by the total number of days in grace periods' setting is selected in the billing definition.

Wallet Debiting

Uses the rated billing items resulting from the rating step and previously unprocessed rated billing items, to generate debit or credit wallet transactions.

Wallet Consumption Estimations 

Calculates the date on which (or the number of days until) wallet funds (or the funds allotted for a specific product) will run out, based on the billing terms and use of subscription services.  The estimations must be enabled through the prepaid billing run.  

The maximum estimated time (one year by default) can be configured through the 'Prepaid Billing Run Settings' in the billing definition.  

Wallets

• Estimated consumption days
• Estimated consumption date

Wallet Product Consumption

• Estimated consumption days
• Estimated consumption date
• Latest date of estimation

Glossary