Usage Rates Screen

Overview

From this screen you can configure rates for all the classes of usage you require (data, sms, airtime, etc.). Rates are organized into rate groups to suit your needs (e.g. a rate group could contain international rates, carrier specific rates, rates for a particular group of customers, etc.). There is no limit to the number of rates you can add to a rate group.

Rate groups are added to rate plans which are offered to customers (e.g. the customer's package is configured with the 'Mobile Enterprise Rate Plan').

Prerequisites

• Classes need to be configured before rates can be setup

• Rate groups need to be configured before rates can be setup

• If you intend to use the GeoTree for rating then GeoTree locations will also need to be populated (to configure the location where the rate applies)

The Usage Rates Panel

The Usage Rates panel on the left of this screen allows you to select an existing rate so that you can view and edit its details on the Edit Usage Rate Panel to the right. Actions are also available which are shown as icons above the Filter text box. The available actions are described below.

Actions

Icon	Description

Icon	Description
Open	Deletes the selected rate
Open	Adds a new rate

Rate List

The list of rates on the left of the screen shows rates currently configured in the system. For each rate in the list information is displayed providing details of the rate's configuration.

When you select a rate in the list all of its configuration details will be displayed in the Edit Usage Rate Panel on the right. These details are explained below.

The Edit Usage Rate Panel

The information in this panel reflects the currently selected rate. From here you can modify a rate's configuration (note: fields with a magenta left border are required).

• Group: the rate group that the rate is assigned to

• Type: the type of rate. This will be auto-populated based upon the configuration of the rate group that the rate has been assigned to (i.e. Standard, Aggregate, Use for Cost, Pass Through)

• Display Name: an optional name that describes the rate

• Class: the usage class of the rate, e.g. (Data, SMS, local, long distance, International, OnNet, etc.)

• Rounding: optional field that allows you to set a rounding rule on the rate. E.g. round all calls up to sixty seconds when determining the usage charge even if the call lasts only ten seconds. See the rounding rules screen help for more information

• Rate Type: determines how the amount will be rated. For usage rates of type ‘Aggregate’ only the ‘Rated’ and ‘Rated Markup’ options below will be available:

  • Rated: a rate determined by value (count/data) or duration (time). For instance, an amount of 0.01 would be one cent, depending on the Base Unit Type and Unit Type values the rate charge may be one cent per second, one cent per message, etc. This rate type will be set automatically if an aggregated (tiered) rate group is selected in the ‘Group’ field

  • Fixed: a set rate. E.g. enter 5 for five dollars/euros/etc. (determined by the rate group currency) and each instance of usage (call, session, message, etc.) will be billed at five dollars

  • Rated Markup: a count or duration markup added on top of the rate cost. For instance, if a rated markup usage rate is configured with: Amount:'1', Base Unit Type:'Count' and Unit Type:'Messages' then 1.00 ($, €, etc. based on the rate group currency) would be added on top of the rate cost per message to determine the rate charge. See the markup description below for details on how the cost value is looked up

  • Markup: a percentage markup on the rate based on the cost of the rate. Cost rates are rates which exist in cost rate groups (rate groups that have the 'Use For Cost' setting enabled). A markup rate configured in a rate group must exist in a rate plan which also contains a 'Rate For Cost' rate group. For more information see the rate group screen help

  • Fixed Markup: a fixed amount added on top of the rate cost

• Additional: configures the rate as an additional rate, which enables the ability to apply more than one rate to specific usage. For instance, if you wanted to charge for both access and usage you would configure two rates and set 'Additional' on one of them. E.g. to charge a fixed amount per call to information services as well as an airtime charge you would configure one 'Information Services' rate to rate by 'Time' and a second 'Information Services' rate to rate by 'Count', with one of the rates set with the 'Additional' option enabled. Additional rates are only applicable when the additional rate has the same class and location as the initial rate applied

• Base Unit Type: defines how the rate is calculated. The options are:

  • Count: indicates this is a count based rate (e.g. per SMS/per usage record/per api call). Used in conjunction with Unit Type

  • Data: indicates this is a data based rate (e.g. internet, MMS, etc.). Used in conjunction with Unit Type

  • Time: indicates this is a time based rate (e.g. call/airtime). Used in conjunction with Unit Type

• Unit Type: works with the Base Unit Type and Amount to determine the rate. Options are described below:

  • Count Options: Events, Messages, Occurrences, Pages, and Records. Count provides the flexibility to rate a wide range of usage activities. Depending on what value you configure to be counted you can rate virtually any activity, for example: Events (per API call), Occurrence (each time a customer calls a specific phone number), Pages (each page in a fax transmission), Messages (per SMS) or Records (per usage record, e.g. rate an entire call regardless of its length). An example of a count rate configuration would be to charge fifty cents per SMS (Amount:'0.50', Base Unit Type: 'Count' and Unit Type: 'Messages')

  • Data Options: Bytes up to Tebibytes. To charge two dollars per Megabyte you would set Amount: '2.00', Base Unit Type: 'Data' and Data Type: 'Megabytes'

  • Time Options: Days down to Seconds. E.g. to setup a rate at ten cents a minute you would set Amount: '0.10', Base Unit Type: 'Time' and Unit Type: 'Minutes'

• Amount: the amount billable for the rate. The currency of the rate will be determined by the currency set on the rate group that this rate belongs to. This value works in conjunction with the Base Unit Type and Unit Type fields. E.g. to charge one dollar/euro/etc. per minute for airtime you would set amount: '1.00', Base Unit Type: 'Time' and Unit Type: 'Minutes'. This field will not be displayed on rates configured to be aggregated

• Minimum Charge: optional field that sets a minimum amount to be charged for this rate. For example, if you set a Minimum Charge of '1.00' then one dollar would be charged even if the rate was configured to charge at fifty cents per minute and the usage lasted only thirty seconds. This field will not be displayed on rates configured to be aggregated

• Location: optional field that lets you specify that the rate is location specific. Selectable locations are pulled from the GeoTree. If the class selected for this rate is not configured to use the GeoTree as its rater then this field will not be displayed

• Location Group: optional field that lets you specify that the rate is specific to a location group. If the class selected for this rate is not configured to use the GeoTree as its rater then this field will not be displayed

Tiers tab

This tab is displayed when adding/editing an aggregated (tiered) rate. From here you can configure bracketed tiers which will adjust the usage rate applied based upon the tier reached.

Adding Rates

Rates are typically imported into the system, however if you need to add a rate in a one-off scenario do the following:

1. At the top of the Usage Rates panel click the  action button

2. Populate the fields as desired. See the field descriptions in the Edit Usage Rate Panel section above for information on each field. Note: some fields may not be editable until certain basic details are provided (for instance, the ‘Class’ field will not be configurable until the ‘Base Unit Type’ value is selected)

3. If you are configuring an aggregated (tiered) rate, see the Configuring Tiers on Aggregated Rates section below

4. Click Save

Configuring Tiers on Aggregated Rates

1. Add or Edit a rate that is configured with an aggregated rate group in the Group field in order to access the Tiers tab for the rate

2. Under the Tiers tab select a Tier Type:

   • Bracketed: means the rate applied is based upon the tier that the total usage count reaches. For example, if tier 3 on a rate is reached at 20 GB of usage and the price per GB is $0.50 in tier 3, then a user who uses 20 GB of data at the end of their billing period would be billed at $0.50 per GB. Bracketed tiers can be configured to utilize counting rules if desired, which will instead apply rates based on the number of packages/services on the account. For instance, apply a rate of $0.02 per MB if there are less than ten Service X’s active on an account and apply a rate of $0.01 per MB if there are ten or more Service X’s active on the account. The particular service or package that is counted is configured on the counting rule

   • Progressive: means that rates are applied to usage in each tier as the total usage amount progresses through the tiers. For example, if usage in tier one costs $0.90 per GB and the tier ends at 5 GB then the first five Gigabytes of usage will be billed at ninety cents per GB. If the total data usage in the usage period exceeds 5 GB then the price defined in tier 2 will apply to the usage until the allotted tier 2 size is reached. In which case the tier 3 rate is applied and so on until the total usage amount has been charged

3. For Bracketed tiers specify a Counting Rule if desired

4. Specify the tiers by defining a Start and End value. The final tier end value must be open ended (not set). When the tiers have been defined enter the rate to apply per tier in the Amount Per Unit fields

5. Click Save to save the tier configuration

Editing Rates

To edit an existing rate in the system, do the following:

1. Select the rate from the list in the Usage Rates panel

2. In the Edit Usage Rate panel on the right modify the values as needed

3. Click Save when finished

Deleting Rates

To delete a rate, do the following:

1. Select the rate from the list in the Usage Rates panel

2. Click the  action button

3. Click Yes on the confirmation pop-up that appears