Subscription plans enable the management of different customer billing plans. It associates usage with tariff tables, custom charges, surcharges, taxes, usage counters, special access number billing. The subscription plan also determines the features per account: members, lines, voicemail, IVR settings. Finally, route sets, translation sets, number sets, PIN batches are distributed to it. The system supports unlimited number of subscription plans which can be assigned to many user accounts.
Please note that each account may have only 1 subscription plan. The Subscription plan adds rate plan and all other billing related details to the account.
1. Creating Subscription Plans
Rating and Billing > Subscription Plan > Add Plan
First, you have to enter a name for your plan.
Next, you should choose the currency for the plan – this will be the currency of the accounts and all the components assigned later to this plan.
Please note that after a plan is assigned to accounts, its currency cannot be changed anymore.
You have to choose the billing cycle of your plan:
- Fixed Period – generate invoices on every Nth of day, e.g. 5th day (in this case the period between the invoices will 5 days)
- Fixed Date – generate invoices on a specific date of the month, e.g. on each 1st day of the month
- On Demand – this is a special billing cycle used only for call-shop and hotels, a session will have to be opened in order for calls to be made and billed
- Subscription Date – to generate invoices on the date of subscription
- Week – to generate invoices weekly on a specific day of the week, e.g. Tuesday
- Manual – to generate invoices manually for a past un-invoiced period as needed
The “Plan Effective Date” is the start date of the plan.
The “Grace Period” is the period after the invoice generation with no penalty for late payment.
You can set the maximum number of notifications that will be sent to clients and the notification interval in days (this is the interval between different notifications).
The Default Critical Balance (in plan’s currency) will be applied as default critical balance value to each account created with this subscription plan.
The Default Credit Limit (in plan’s currency) will be applied as default credit limit value to each postpaid account created with this subscription plan.
The Minimum Balance to Make Calls (in plan’s currency) will be applied as default value to each account created with this subscription plan.
You can choose when the invoice will be issued:
- End of Billing Cycle – this plan is used for accounts which have usage (calls), the invoices will be generated at the end of the cycle and will include the charges for previous period (these are the standard postpaid invoices).
- Start of Billing Cycle – this plan is used for accounts which don’t have usage but only custom charges, the invoices will be generated at the start of the cycle and will include charges for a future period (these are advance invoices) – you cannot select this option if the plan billing cycle is On Demand or Manual.
Please note that once accounts are assigned to the plan you cannot change any more when invoices are issued.
Select “Lock accounts based on prorated charges” when you want to stop accounts to make calls when their prorated critical balance is reached. This is used when the accounts have custom charges together with usage charges and you want the account balance to be used first for the planned custom charges and then for the calls. The account status will be changed to “Locked” when the account balance is not enough to cover the custom charges.
Select “Active” if the plan is in use – otherwise the plan is inactive.
Please note that subscription plans can be active even if there are no tariffs assigned to call zones or if there are no custom charges.
2. Manage / Update Subscription Plans
Rating and Billing > Subscription Plans > Update Subscription Plan
Use the “Update” menu option to change the plan settings after its creation – the options are the same as in the Add Subscription Plan section (please see above)
Rating and Billing > Subscription Plans > Plan Name > Call Billing
In “Call Billing” the user assigns different rating and billing tariffs for the particular Zones.
Please note that if a tariff is not selected for the specific zone, the calls will be rejected. Even for free on-net calls you should assign tariff for both inbound and outbound calls so that customers can make calls – in this case you can add prefixes from 1-9 with rate $0.00.
Rating and Billing > Subscription Plans > Plan Name > Call Routing
In the “Call Routing” section the user chooses the default Route Set and Translation Set assigned to the account at the time the account is created – these sets can be changed from the account context later.
Check “Allow negative margin calls” if you want the system to allow calls with negative margin (cost is higher than revenue).
Please note that if this settings is not selected the system will reject all calls with negative margin.
Rating and Billing > Subscription Plans > Plan Name > Members
In the “Member” menu the user sets the maximum number of members each account assigned to this plan can have – you may also select the option “No Limit”.
Rating and Billing > Subscription Plans > Plan Name > Lines
The number of lines shows how many simultaneously calls one account can have.
In the “Lines” menu the user sets the number of lines the newly created accounts assigned to this plan will have – the initial lines should always be greater than 0 if the account is to be able to make calls.
Rating and Billing > Subscription Plan > Plan Name > Custom Charges
You can create Custom Charges here which will be applied to accounts assigned to the plan.
Custom charges enable the management of custom recurring or one time charges and fees – please refer to “How to Create Custom Charges” for full details about this topic.
Rating and Billing > Subscription Plan > Plan Name > Surcharges
Surcharges are special type of fees which are added on top of other fees or charges.
You have to enter the surcharge name, choose its type (percentage or flat rate), enter the surcharge amount, assign the zones or charges for which you want this surcharge to be applied, and press the “Submit” button.
Rating and Billing > Subscription Plan > Plan Name > Taxes
This functionality enables you to setup and manage the most complex taxation cases – our tax engine is made to support US taxation but is flexible enough to be able to implement every need of yours.
The user can select the name of the tax from the drop-down menu which lists only taxes with the same currency as the plan.
You have to assign the zones this tax should be applied to and press the “Submit” button.
Please note that you have to first create the Tax in Rating and Billing > Taxes and Localities > Taxes.
Rating and Billing > Subscription Plan > Plan Name > Usage Counter
This functionality allows volume-based billing – usage counters enable the setting of custom occurrence counters in the system.
As each account consumes services, the usage counter will be incremented until the counter threshold is reached – once this threshold is reached any further usage of services will be charged using the regular tariffs for the account.
Please note that when a counter is created, it is automatically assigned to the default account members of all existing accounts from this plan. Also, when a new account is created from this plan, the counter will be assigned to the default member of this account.
When you create a usage counter first you need to enter the name of the counter.
The Usage Counter Threshold is the limit (in seconds) up to which the counter will be active – Usage Counter New Threshold is used when you want to change the initial threshold.
You have to select also the counter tariff based on which the calls will be billed until the above threshold is reached.
Recurring Charge is used to assign a recurring trigger charge (already created in Custom Charges) to be used for subscriptions.
The user can also choose how taxes will be applied – based on the counter tariff above or based on the regular plan tariff.
Using the checkbox “Mandatory for All Accounts” you can choose whether the usage counters will be mandatory or optional for the accounts in the plan:
- if they are mandatory (checked) all new accounts (and their members) get the usage counter when they subscribe or when the counter is created and cannot cancel it unless canceled by administrator
- If they are optional (unchecked) usage counters are available in the subscription plan and accounts can purchase and/or cancel them as needed
The system allows you to select if the usage counter will carryover minutes between billing cycles (from the previous to the current billing cycle).
The “Reject Calls on reach Threshold” option allows you to specify what will happen when the counter is depleted – whether to fail back to call zones or to reject calls to counter destination.
You have to check “Active” in order to activate the Usage Counter
Rating and Billing > Subscription Plan > Plan Name > Invoice Message
You can add a custom invoice message for all accounts on this subscription plan – this message will be shown on the bottom of the generated invoices.
Rating and Billing > Subscription Plan > Plan Name > Batches
Use this functionality to assign PIN Batches to the subscription plan – this feature is used for Calling Cards.
Please refer to “How to Create PINs for Calling Cards” for more details about this topic.
Rating and Billing > Subscription Plan > Plan Name > Access Numbers
Access numbers are DIDs which are set in the IVR server as extensions for Calling Cards or Callback applications.
Once set in the IVR server (Asterisk), there is an option for the user to charge customers differently based on the Access Number they dial.
From this menu the user chooses which tariff to assign to the access number. There is no need the access numbers that are already added in the IVR server to be set up in this menu – only special-tariff numbers should be added and a tariff assigned here.
Rating and Billing > Subscription Plan > Plan Name > Voicemail
From the Voicemail menu the user can enable Voicemail features for the accounts assigned to this plan – the Voicemail Server is chosen from the existing Voicemail Servers (Routing -> Voicemail Servers).
Please note that only one voicemail server can be assigned to subscription plan- the server should be active and should be reachable in order for the voicemail to be enabled.
Rating and Billing > Subscription Plan > Plan Name > IVR Settings
With this plan property, the user can define the default IVR settings for the new accounts created with this plan – this is useful for Calling Cards platforms where the accounts are created automatically and they will inherit the settings for the IVR (e.g. play account balance, play available time, or both). Also you can choose the default IVR language.
Rating and Billing > Subscription Plan > Plan Name > Number Sets
This is where the user can assign one or more Number Sets to the Subscription plan.
Number sets are used for distribution of Numbers or Toll Free Numbers to the accounts assigned to this plan.
Customers can purchase numbers from the number sets assigned to the plan – number sets can contain fake numbers used for On-Net calling. From this list the user can change the priority of the Number Sets – from which set the distribution of numbers to start.
Before you can add a number set here you need to create it first (Routing -> Number Sets).
Select the set you want to add and click on the “Add Number Set to the Plan” button.
The drop-down menu will show only the number sets which are not assigned to any plan.
If the user needs to assign recurring charges to the numbers and toll-free numbers, these charges should first be created in the custom charge menu in the plan – they should be triggered charges from type “Number Recurring Charge” or “Toll Free Number Recurring Charge”. Only after they are created they will appear in the drop-down here.
You can choose the Number Selection Priority of the set here – it can be changed in the Number Set list later.
Please refer to “How to Create Number Set” and “How to create Custom Charges” for more details about this topic.