Upon checking the 'Enable Ordering' option inside the new Account form, the ordering and billing section of the Account form becomes available and ready for receiving the configuration that is necessary for any given customer (Direct CSP, Client, Reseller), based on 2 options in the form of radio buttons. The following analysis explains the fields, their options and features available for the configuration to take place as well as some use cases in order to provide you with working examples on how to set up your customers. |
Set account ordering options: This option enables billing for the customer. The system will generate all charges directly on this customer, using the rules that are defined in the next fields. |
→ Unlimited (checkbox): Causes the Credit Limit (amount) to become unlimited and disregards any amount inserted within the 'Credit Limit' field.
The option of 'Enable Prorate Billing' is only applicable when the service you are providing to your customers is recurring. |
→ First day of the month: This means the renewal of the customer's subscription happens on the 1st day of each month.
→ Last day of the month: This means that for this customer the renewal of the subscription will happen on the last day of each following month whatever it is (28/29/30/31).
→ First order day: This means that if the first order was placed on the 5th of a given month, every following month on the 5th will be set as the billing day of the customer .
→ underneath these 3 main choices, all calendar days are displayed for the customer to choose a particular day
→ on billing day: This means that the customer's invoices will be generated on the day that he chose the billing to occur; for example, if an order was placed on the 3rd of this month and chosen to be billed on the 5th of each month, then (in general) the next invoice will be generated on the billing day which is the 5th and not on the 3rd.
→ on order day: This means that the customer's invoices will be generated on the day the order was placed; for example, if an order was placed on the 6th of this month then the next invoice will be generated on the 6th of the next month and so on.
Enable Billing Plans: Enabling this option will create billing plans for the BSS account, which can be used to make all future purchases.
2. When 'Enable Ordering' is checked and the 'Define a 'Bill To' account' is selected, the following fields become available for interaction:
Define a 'Bill To' account: This option directs all billing for this customer (reseller) to another account (reseller's customer). |
The field 'Enable Prorate Billing' is not necessary to be checked (enabled) since if it is deactivated, then the invoices will be generated upon the date the order was placed. Also, please note that there are cases in which even if the 'Enable Prorate Billing' is checked (enabled), a specific service/product (i.e. From Microsoft) might disregard this option because it will have a rule that overpowers the enabled billing proration. The fields 'Country' and 'State' must always be populated because they are the basis for any taxation policy. This tip doesn't apply for non-taxable entities/organizations. The main reason for having the 'Country' as the first field in the ordering section of the Account form is because depending on which country the customer resides, we may need to display different information. |
An Account can either be a customer who will be billed directly from the platform or a customer who will be billed through another Account, which will function as a Reseller. On a latter scenario, the Account cannot have more than one designated 'Bill-to-Accounts'. |
An explanation of customer setup scenarios is in order, and as such here are 4 invoicing examples that will clarify the 4 main customer ordering setups, that are being utilized in most use cases for ordering and billing.
1st Example: Customer A wants to receive the invoices on the purchase date and wants to be billed for the whole billing cycle.
Option | Value |
---|---|
Enable Prorate Billing | False |
Partial Charging Invoicing | On Order Date |
2nd Example: Customer B wants the renewal date of his subscriptions to be every 1st of the month, but he wants to receive the invoices on the purchase date.
Option | Value |
---|---|
Enable Prorate Billing | True - First Day of The Month |
Partial Charging Invoicing | On Order Date |
3rd Example: Customer C wants the renewal date of his subscriptions to be every 1st of the month and he wants to receive an aggregated invoice on the 1st of the month.
Option | Value |
---|---|
Enable Prorate Billing | True - First Day of The Month |
Partial Charging Invoicing | On Billing Day |
4th Example: Customer D wants the renewal date of his subscriptions to be the billing date of the month and he wants to receive an aggregated invoice also on the billing date of the month.
Option | Value |
---|---|
Enable Prorate Billing | False |
Partial Charging Invoicing | On Billing Day |