This new import tool called Additional Billing Data is different from the existing Usage Data import tool because it provides you with the flexibility to import usage records including the unit price and unit cost, without the need to create PPU add-ons and PPU product types to configure the metered resources. Therefore, for the new tool to be operational, you just need to create a PPU container product as well as a PPU subscription based on that product, without the need for extra maintenance that the existing import tool requires.

A PPU subscription containing a metered resource has a cost per use of this resource as time goes by within a given timeframe (billing period). However, there are often times when these metered resources exceed the soft quotas imposed on those resources in the service definition, and as a result, this extra usage is considered overage.

A typical example is the bandwidth of a Virtual Machine. If the bandwidth quota for a Virtual Machine has been set to 2 TBs/month and the end user of the VM has consumed 2.3 TBs in a month, then the end customer must be billed for the extra 0.3 TBs he consumed.

For billing resources overage with specific pricing, the Additional Billing Data import tool was created to meet this need. Let’s further examine its use case.

Locating the Additional Billing Data Importer

The Additional Billing Data importer tool can be found in BSS by navigating to BSS > Billing > Usage Data, and clicking on the Import File button.

Then, the new tool resides next to the existing “Import Usage Data” import tool. Within this latest tool, the BSS user can import usage records with overage, as well as the unit cost and sell prices for these overages, and the initial quantities of newly created PPU Subscriptions, from manually created Excel spreadsheets, directly into the BSS portal.

Preparation Before Importing Overage Usage Records with Billing Data

As previously mentioned, BSS users can import additional billing usage records with overage while the initial quantity of newly created PPU Subscriptions is automatically been filled-in with the default value of one(1).

The BSS user must first create an Excel spreadsheet with eight (8) distinct column titles, namely, AccountCode*, Subscription, Resource, Quantity, Start Date, End Date, Unit Cost, and Unit Price.

Then, to import additional billing usage records with overage into the Additional Billing Data tool, each row must be filled in with the respective data representing the Account identifier(be that the account description or account code or another custom account field), the Subscription name, the Resource name of that subscription, the Quantity of the overage(not the total resource consumption but only the amount that is considered overaged), the Start and End Date of the billing period, as well as the Unit Cost price and the Unit Price (sell price) of the PPU metered resource.

Also, during the first import, the initial quantity of a newly created PPU Subscription will be filled in automatically by the system with the default value of one(1). Therefore, this action of defining the PPU subscription quantity is handled directly and automatically by the system during the first import of usage records and overages for newly created PPU subscriptions. Furthermore, deleting the import file will not decrease the subscription quantity down to 0.

Once the Excel file is created and saved, the BSS user can continue with the import.

Importing Overage Usage Records with Billing Data

To begin the import of the Excel spreadsheet containing the overages per Subscription resource, per BSS Account, the BSS user can proceed with the following steps:

Click on the Import File button.

1. Choose the previously created Excel file, by clicking on the Browse button,

   

   
   and then choose the specific spreadsheet that you wish to import.

   

   
   

2. Once the Excel spreadsheet is loaded, you have to map the required fields of the import tool with those defined in the Excel spreadsheet columns.

   

   These are the following:

   • Account Identifier* (Mandatory): The account identifier is used to make sure which account the usage record is for. 

   • Subscription (Mandatory): The name of the subscription for which the usage record is for.

   • Resource (Non-mandatory): The name of the product characteristic. If this field does not contain any value, it means that the specific record refers to a pay-per-use charge for this subscription. 

   • Quantity (Mandatory): The quantity that needs to be billed/subtracted. 

   • Start Date (Mandatory): The date that this resource was consumed. In case of a metered resource, it is the starting date of the measuring period (billing period).

   • End Date (Non-mandatory): This field is only used for metered resources since it defines the end of the measuring period (billing period). 

   • Unit Cost (Mandatory): The default unit cost price in which the cost prices will be added is the currency retrieved by the PPU subscription.

   • Unit Price (Mandatory): The default unit sell price in which the sell prices will be added is the currency retrieved by the PPU subscription.
     
     *As previously mentioned, the Account Identifier field, during the mapping process, can be any Account Identifier or Account Custom Field that the BSS user wishes to utilize in order to map the overages to a specific BSS Account containing the specific PPU subscription. Therefore, the Usage Data import field called Account Identifier facilitates exactly that freedom of choice by utilizing a drop-down menu containing all the available BSS Account identifiers (such as the Account Code or Account Description) and any predefined Account Custom Fields (such as the Custom Acc Identifier).

   

   
   Please note that the usage data records need to comply with the following rules, to be successfully imported:

   1. The value of the Account Identifier in the import Excel file must be the value of the selected Account Identifier.

   2. The selected resource needs to be activated for usage-based charging for the product of the specific subscription. 

   3. The selected subscription must belong to the selected Account. 

   4. The quantity can be negative only when the usage record is used to increase or decrease the quantity of the subscription.  

   5. In case the resource is a metered one, then the end date is a mandatory field. 

   6. The selected subscription doesn't have to be an active one. But the start and end date need to belong to a period of time that the specific subscription was indeed active. 

   7. Both the Start and End dates need to be older than or the same as the date that the import wizard ran. 

   8. When charging a product in PPU mode, the Start Date of the usage record cannot be older than the Start Date of the specific subscription.

   9. In the case of a usage record with a metered resource, Start Day can be set to anything. 

   10. End Date must always be bigger than the Start Day.

   11. In case the value of the Account Identifier is not unique per Account (for example, two Accounts have the same Accounting No.), then the update is performed at the most recent account.

   12. Unit Price and Unit Cost columns should be positive numbers. These numbers must be the default unit cost and unit price of the resource without any margin, markup or VAT.

   13. Unit Price and Unit Cost columns: can have zero (0) as a value.
       

   When the Account Identifier field has been matched with the respective Excel column, and all other fields have been mapped to their respective Excel spreadsheet columns, the BSS user can click on the Run Import button to initiate it.
   

3. The import of the overaged usage charges along with their billing data is initiated. The actions of the importer tool for every record are the following.

   1. PPU Mode (no change in the subscription quantity): Only the first of the two following things happen when a usage record file refers to a PPU product:

      1. The usage record gets connected to the subscription, and the record can be shown on the "Pay-per-use Data" tab of the Subscription view page. 

      2. Currently, the subscription quantity will not change according to the quantity declared in the usage record, but at a later release this quantity change of the subscription will also become available.  

   2. Metered Resource: In this case, the usage record gets connected to the subscription, and the record can be shown on the "Metered Resources" tab of the Subscription view page.
      ⚠️ If an Account has two or more subscriptions with the same name, the resources get connected to the most recent one.
      

4. Upon the completion of the import, the imported usage records along with their billing data will be related to the corresponding subscriptions, in order to then be billed.

Viewing the Import Results

When clicking on the view log highlighted text, under the Log File column, the user gets navigated to the Import Results pop-up window. In there, the user can check two main elemental information.

1. The Summary of the import process, which contains information such as the start and completion date as well as the import status and the comments of the import.

2. The Detailed log of the import process, which contains granular information detailing the steps of the importer per each import sub-tasks.

Viewing the Imported Usage Records with Billing Data Object

When clicking on the submission page, the user gets navigated to the Additional Billing Data object view page.

On this page, the following sections exist: 

1. Basic Information: Submission Date, Source Type, Source Name, Log File, Status.

   • Import Results: Three fields are shown here, the amount of total usage records, the amount of successful imports, and the amount of failed ones.

   • Notifications & Updates Section: The section that can be seen in every object in BSS. 

   • Detailed Log  All records stemming from the import through the Import File Wizard or the call of the import API can be seen here. Two tabs can be shown in this section, and in each tab, 10 records can be viewed. 

     • "Failed" tab: In this tab, the user can view the failed records, but they are also offered the opportunity to fix the problems faced during import and resubmit these records.

       

       To this end, in this tab, the following elements can be seen: 

       1. The 8 aforementioned fields that every usage record has, but in text mode, so that the user can edit them. 

       2. Errors Found for the specific record. For example:

          • For errors related to the Account Identifier, the error message is dynamic and shown as: <Selected account identifier name> is Undefined

          • Error related to the Subscription: Subscription is Undefined

          • Error related to the Resource: Resource is Undefined

          • Errors related to the date fields: Start Date must be subsequent to Subscription SignUp Date, Start Date must be subsequent to Subscription Start Date for Pay-per user charges, End Date Cannot be after Current Date, Start Date must be an earlier date than End Date, etc.

          • Errors related to the unit cost and unit price: UnitCost or UnitPrice cannot be less than zero for Metered Resources.

       3. The problematic field, with red color. 

       4. In case the problematic field is the Account Identifier, the user cannot change the Account Identifier that was previously selected in STEP 2. If they want to change it anyway, they must cancel this import and start a new one.
          

     • "Successful" tab: In this tab, the user can view the successful records.

       

       Specifically, they can see the following: 

       1. Customer: Link to the customer for whom the usage record is.

       2. Subscription: Link to the subscription involved in the process.

       3. Resource: The name of the resource.

       4. Usage Type: Pay-per-use/ Metered/ Allocation.

       5. Charge Entity: In the case of a PPU product, this is a link to the product charged.

       6. Start Date: The beginning date of the consumption data.

       7. End Date: The end date of the consumption data.

       8. Quantity: The quantity of the resource.

       9. Unit Cost: The default cost price per unit of resource.

       10. Unit Price: The default sell price per unit of resource.

       11. Unit of Measure: The unit of measure of the product derived from the charge entity field. 

       12. Billed: A green checkbox appears in case the usage record has already been invoiced. Otherwise, it is left blank. 
           

2. Actions available on this page: 

   • "Apply changes and perform import again": This action is only available in the "Failed" tab and offers to the user the opportunity to re-import fixed usage records.
     

     

     The results of this action are: 

     1. If the import is not done immediately, the view returns to the list of the usage data objects, and the status of the specific object becomes "Import in progress". If the import is done immediately, the view page gets refreshed. 

     2. The indices for the amount of successfully imported/ failed records get updated. 

     3. In the history of this usage data object, an entry can be seen bearing the comment "Imported X corrected records". 

   • "Export": This action is available to both tabs, and it allows the user to export the usage data records of each tab in an Excel file.  

Invoicing of the Usage Records with Billing Data After the Import

Since the importing of the metered resources with billing data is allowed for previous billing cycles, as well as the current billing cycle, no Pending invoice is visible although it has been created, for successful imports. These records are directly stored in the system database. Each night when the billing service operates, it checks for any imported resources that have not yet been invoiced. The invoice will be generated automatically on the same night of the import date and the invoice will become available inside the invoices of the related account in the BSS portal.

Rounding Example During Invoicing

You can check the following example to have a better understanding of the rounding logic of additional billing data after their import and during their invoicing. Let’s assume the following Excel file for a PPU Subscription with the following data:

Step 1: Provided Excel Data

Step 2: Database Record Creation

 
Step 3: UI Display of Values in the Importer Tool

Step 4: Invoice Generation, assuming a Price List with 10% Markup

• Usage1: (0,3 * 250,20) = 75,06* 1,1 = 82,566 ~ 82,57 $

• Usage2: (2 * 3412,8645) = 6825,729 * 1,1 = 7508,3019 ~ 7.508,30 $

• Usage3: (3,48 * 6029,3986) = 20.982,307128  * 1,1 =  23.080,5378408 ~ 23.080,54 $