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Overview

Usage buckets are attached to services in order to provide included usage and usage tiers. Usage buckets utilize base buckets to define basic bucket properties such as the unit of usage deducted from the bucket (data, time etc.), the usage classes that apply to the bucket (data, airtime, events, etc.) and the locations that are applicable to the bucket (Everywhere, North America, etc.). Usage buckets extend the attributes provided by base buckets to create the bucket that is attached to services. With usage buckets you can configure a one-time or recurring bucket, setup usage tiers with flat charges, amongst other options explained further below in this document. Usage buckets can be attached to services in the product catalog, or added as needed to services on accounts.

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• Name: a unique name for the bucket

• Bucket Type: allows you to specify if the bucket is for Usage (a particular class of usage such as ‘data’ can be deducted from the bucket) or Money (multiple classes of usage can be rated and have their rated usage amounts deducted from the amount of money configured on the bucket. E.g. a $100 bucket which can be reduced by data usage, airtime usage, messaging usage, etc.)

• Convert Data to Binary: When this setting is enabled a data bucket's tier units will be configurable as binary units (kibibytes, mebibytes, etc.). When this setting is disabled a data bucket's tier units will be configurable in decimal units (kilobytes, megabytes, etc.). This setting will be disabled when configuring buckets that do not support data usage (i.e. buckets configured with a Unit Type of ‘Time’ or ‘Count’)

• Recur Type: determines if the bucket will be replenished or will expire after being used up. The options are:

  • Nonrecurring: used to create a one-time bucket. When the allotted bucket usage is consumed it will not be replenished

  • Recurring: the bucket is reset (replenished) based on the recur frequency specified on the bucket. When the bucket recurs usage will again count against the 1^st tier configured on the bucket

  • Recurring with rollover: unused usage will rollover after the bucket recurs. E.g. if a bucket contains 100 GB of usage and 80 GB are consumed at the time of recurrence, the user will have 120 GB of included usage in the bucket. The bucket size is determined by the size of its last tier

• Expire After: when a nonrecurring bucket should expire. The Expire After field will only appear when selecting the 'Nonrecurring' Recur Type

• Recur Frequency: how often the bucket will be replenished. Enter a number and unit e.g. to configure a monthly recurring bucket set Recur Frequency to '1' and Unit to 'Month'. This field will only appear if the bucket is configured to recur

• Expire After Recurrence: allows you to expire the bucket after it recurs a specific number of times. If left empty the bucket will recur indefinitely. This field will only appear if the bucket Recur Type is configured with a recurring option

• Overage Rate Plan: Allows a rate plan to be added to the usage bucket which will be used to rate usage when the usage provided by the bucket is fully consumed. Overage rate plans can be configured on recurring buckets (with or without rollover) but not on nonrecurring buckets. Overage rate plans are not applicable to activation buckets or share plan add-on buckets. An overage rate plan set on a usage bucket will override rates configured in price plans

• Billing Activation: this setting will configure the bucket as a billing activation bucket, which can only be added to billing activation services (see the services screen help for more information on billing activation services). When this option is enabled usage threshold and time expiry settings will appear. These activation settings determine when to trigger billing for packages that are configured with a billing activation service. For example, you could configure '1‘1' 'Megabyte' and '1' 'Week' and any package setup with an activation service using the activation bucket would become active when either a megabyte of data is used (calculated using the combined usage from all of the services in the package) or a week has gone by passed since the package was added to the account became effective (whichever condition is met first). This option is not available when configuring money buckets

• Prorate: if enabled this setting will prorate the usage provided in the first tier when a recurring bucket is added to a service on an account. E.g. if a monthly recurring bucket is added in the middle of the month and the account's bill day is set to the 1st of the month, the normal allotment of Tier 1 usage on the bucket will be halved. If this setting is enabled proration will also occur when canceling the service that the bucket resides on, truncating the usage that the bucket provides and potentially pushing the usage that has been accumulated into additional bucket tiers and/or overage. This setting will be disabled when configuring a nonrecurring bucket

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