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Usage Buckets are configured in Settings / Usage Rating / Bucket & Share Plans / Share Plans |
Guides in this article:
Overview
Share plans provide a fixed or variable pool of usage which can be utilized by specified services (devices). Before a share plan can be activated it must have at least one share plan bucket configured under it. Share plan buckets determine the type of usage that will be shared (data, messaging, airtime, etc.) and other usage contribution, usage consumption, and usage tiering options. Multiple buckets can be configured under a share plan allowing you to share various classes of usage all in one plan.
When share plans are activated on accounts they will take effect immediately so long as buckets are configured on the plan. Services or packages that are specified in the share plan configuration participate (consume usage and/or contribute usage) in the plan. Usage buckets that exist on an account-service/account/parent account with usage left to consume will be used up first before usage buckets are consumed from a share plan bucket (e.g. account-service buckets, account buckets and buckets shared from a parent account are prioritized for use before usage is applied to a share plan).
Prerequisites
Services need to be configured in order to have services participate in share plans. 'Selling Services' must also be setup and added to packages so that share plans can be activated on accounts
Packages need to be configured if you require packages to participate in share plans. Packages containing a 'Selling Service' must also be setup so that share plans can be activated on accounts
Base Buckets need to be setup in order to configure share plan buckets
Share Plans Panel
The Share Plans panel on the left of this screen allows you to select existing plans to view and edit on the edit share plan panel to the right. Actions are also available in this panel which are shown as icons above the Filter text box. The available actions are described below.
Actions
Icon | Description |
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 | Deletes the selected share plan if not in use (added to an account) |
 | Adds a new share plan |
Share Plans List
The list on the left of the screen shows share plans that are currently setup.
Share plan buckets under the plan are also displayed in this list. The icon next to the share plan name allows you to add additional buckets to the share plan. When you select a share plan or a bucket the details of the selected plan/bucket will be displayed in the Edit panel to the right. These details are explained below.
Edit Share Plan Panel
The information in this panel reflects the currently selected share plan. From here you can change plan details (fields will display a red left border if a value is required and purple text if the field is read-only and cannot be modified).
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Name: the name of the plan. This can be for internal plan description or a customer facing name (e.g. displayed on invoices if desired)
Active: if set this plan can be added to an account, if disabled this plan won't be available when adding a share plan to an account. Deactivating a plan here will not affect accounts which are already setup with the share plan
Description: a description of the plan for internal purposes or for presentation on reports and/or invoices (depending on your report and invoice configuration)
Share Level: allows you to enable sharing at an account level or shared at a usage invoicer level. If set to 'Account' only services on the particular account will be able to participate in the plan. If set to 'Usage Invoicer' then all accounts that are configured to pass usage charges on to the usage invoicer account will be able to participate in the plan (assuming the accounts in question have services that are permitted to the participate in the share plan)
Participating Type: the type of entity (service or package) which can participate in (be configured on) the share plan. For instance, if you select the type 'Package' here then you could configure the plan so that services within Package X are permitted to consume up to 1 GB of data from a share plan bucket. Additionally, you could have 100 MB of usage added to the same share plan bucket each time that Package X gets added to an account under the share plan. Only the type selected in this field can be added to the plan, you cannot configure both service and package entities to participate in the same share plan
Selling Service: a service that needs to be created, added to a package and then added to an account in order to activate the share plan
Usage Billing Frequency & Unit: defines how frequently rated usage applied to the plan is billed (e.g. every 3 months). Depending on the plan configuration this interval will also determine how frequently share plan buckets are reset (e.g. if a 1 month variable share plan with a recurring data bucket has ten services contributing 1 MB each to the plan, then when a new month is reached (new share plan period) a total of 10 MB of bucketed usage will be set on the share plan bucket for the ten participating services to use)
Convert Data to Binary: When this setting is enabled the share plan 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’). This also affects how the data units are shown on the Account Share Plan screen.
Participating Services tab
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A service or package can participate in at most one share plan. |
The Participating Services tab allows you to view, add, remove or services/packages that can participate in the share plan. Services/packages can be specified by selecting a particular service/package from the product catalog.
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Guides
Adding Share Plans
In the Share Plans panel click the
iconUnder the Add Share Plan heading on the right specify the plan details
To add participating services/packages click either in the Service or Package field, select a service/package and click the Add+ button to the right of the field
When you have finished adding participating services/packages click the Save button
To finish configuring your share plan add a bucket to it by clicking the
icon next to the share plan name. The help on the share plan buckets screen will walk you through the share plan bucket setup process
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Editing Share Plans
Under the Share Plans heading on the left click the share plan you wish to edit
Under the Edit Share Plan heading on the right modify the plan details
Click Save when finished making changes
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Deleting Share Plans
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Note: Share plans that have been added to accounts are in use and cannot be deleted. If you need to disable a share plan so that it can no longer be added to accounts simply uncheck the 'Active' option on the plan and save the change. |
Select the share plan you wish to delete in the list on the left under the Share Plans heading
Under the same Share Plans heading click the
iconOn the confirmation dialog click Yes to confirm that the selected plan should be deleted
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Adding Buckets to Share Plans
Under the Share Plans heading on the left click the plan you wish to add a bucket to
To the right of the share plan name click the
icon. Reference the help on the bucket screen for further details on share plan bucket configuration