Billing Sophos Services
- Panagiotis Mastrogiannis
- Panagiotis Papanastasiou
- Apostolos Karakaxas
Billing occurs monthly and is designed for efficiency, typically requiring only a few minutes to complete. This process involves a simple file modification to ensure compatibility with our platform’s data, followed by the upload of the file through our consumption importer tool. Before finalizing charges, you can review, modify, or restart the import process in case of errors. Invoices are generated per reseller, yet they provide detailed breakdowns for each end customer, with all consumed Sophos services itemized on separate lines.
You can check the following video on how you can seamlessly upload your Sophos consumption file to the interworks.cloud platform.
Of course, you can find in the following simple steps the analysis of the actual upload process. This will enable you to accurately generate monthly charges for your valued resellers:
Preparation Before Importing Sophos Usage Records
Each month, when you receive the consumption file from Sophos for each of your resellers, you can prepare it for importing into the interworks.cloud platform. Make sure the file includes these columns:
End User Identifier (Column H)
Start Date (Column B)
End Date (Column C)
Product Description (Column O)
Total Quantity (Column R)
Unit MSRP (Column T)
Unit Price (Column V)
Our system requires one additional piece of information, which is the Subscription name. When a subscription is created for an end customer, the Interworks.cloud platform automatically uses the customer's name and the service name (e.g., "ABC Company - Sophos Cybersecurity").
To meet this requirement, add a new column next to Column H in the Sophos consumption file. Combine the end customer’s name with the Sophos service name as shown in the interworks.cloud platform. You can do this easily using the CONCATENATE function in this format: =CONCAT(H2; " - "; "Sophos Cybersecurity").
Once you've made the necessary adjustments, the file is ready for import. Please refer to the screenshot below for the columns required for the import process, marked in green.
Please note, it's important:
Not to change the subscription name in the interworks.cloud platform.
Resellers should also avoid assigning a friendly name during the checkout process for the Sophos PPU service on the Storefront.
If any subscription names are changed, you will need to update the import file to ensure each end customer has the correct subscription name.
Prices (unit price and cost price) for all Sophos plans are provided in USD by Sophos.
If you wish to invoice your resellers in a secondary currency, you need to add two new columns to the billing file to apply the exchange rates and calculate the prices in your local currency.
Locating the Usage Data Importer
The Usage Data importer tool can be found in BSS by navigating to BSS > Billing > Usage Data.
Within this tool, the BSS user can import Sophos usage records along with their billing data and update the initial quantities of newly created PPU Subscriptions, from manually created Excel spreadsheets, directly into interworks.cloud platform.
Importing Sophos Usage Records
To import usage records from Sophos into the Usage Data tool, each row must be filled in with the respective data representing the Account identifier (it can be the account description), the Subscription name, the Resource name of that subscription (Sophos plans), the Quantity of each resource, the Start and End Date of the billing period, the Unit Price and Unit Cost of each resource.
To begin the import of the Excel spreadsheet containing the Sophos usages per Subscription resource and per end customer, the BSS user can proceed with the following steps:
Click on the Import File button.
Choose the “Import Usage Data with Billing Information” method
and then upload the previously created file, by clicking on the Browse button and applying the necessary Excel spreadsheet
Once the Excel spreadsheet is loaded, you have to map the required fields of the import tool with those defined in the billing file from Sophos.
These are the following columns for mapping:
interworks.cloud | Sophos | Note |
|---|---|---|
Account identifier (i.e. Account Description) | End User Identifier |
|
Subscription | Subscription Name | The subscription name is not included in the Sophos billing file and must be added manually. |
Resource | Product Description |
|
Quantity | Total Quantity |
|
Start Date | Start Date |
|
End Date | End Date |
|
Unit Cost | Unit Price |
|
Unit Price | Unit MSRP |
|
Viewing the Usage Data Import Results
Once the import process is completed, you have the option to select the submission page and review the Usage Data object view page.
On this page, you will find the following sections:
Success Tab: This tab displays the records successfully imported from the Sophos consumption file.
Failed Tab: This tab shows the records that failed to import. You can fix any issues encountered during the import and resubmit these records.
Invoicing of the Sophos Usage Records After the Import
Once the import of the Sophos resources is completed, an invoice is created on the same date from our billing engine containing each Sophos service as an invoice item. The billing period will be defined by the start date specified in the Excel spreadsheet and the end date of the corresponding subscription billing cycle.