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HI Can someone tell me what kind of Auditing system is normally used to
Re: Usage billing
From: Kevin Hope
Date: Saturday, January 31, 2004
Time: 9:32:54 am
Ensure when that customers are getting the value that they actually
purchase in their prepaid internet cards.
We currently used Optigold for our prepaid Internet service where
customers whould call a phone number and reach the opgold system where
they then setup their prepaid account for the first time. Thereafter
they call the same number and their credit on the card is update each
time they use the system.
Kevin Hope
-----Original Message-----
From: isp-list@optigold.com [mailto:isp-list@optigold.com] On Behalf Of
Alan Williamson
Sent: Friday, January 30, 2004 11:55 PM
To: isp-list@optigold.com
Subject: [Optigold ISP] Usage billing
Hi Shawn & list,
For some time, we've been doing a fair bit of manual work to manage
excess usage charges. I've been looking for ways to automate things,
but I've run into some difficulties. I thought it was time to bring my
problems here and see what suggestions I could get. Maybe we'll find
some enhancements for you to make Shawn, since you seem to have so
little to do of late... :)
We have a number of dial-up plans. All are offered on monthly,
quarterly or annual billing. We want to, wherever possible, combine
invoicing of the billing cycle items and excess charges onto a single
invoice (and this bit, we have working fine). We also want to raise
off-cycle invoices for excess usage charges, (ideally) limiting those
invoices raised to $20+ and letting smaller amounts carry over to the
next or later months.
To make life easier, we've now pro-rated all accounts to expire on the
1st of the month, and we raise invoices 21 days earlier (8th - 11th).
As I said, we've got usage charges adding to these regular invoices
fine, and charges for the current month (if any) are left off since the
month isn't complete. This bit's "just peachy". Last month I tried to
figure out how to raise the off-cycle usage invoices. I started by
turning on the "Create separate usage invoices" option, but when
"Generate invoices" still said there was nothing to do, I also turned on
"remind to invoice for excess usage".
When I said "Yes" to the dialog box ("Some customers have ... invoice
them now?") I got a list of the excess usage to be billed. I have two
problems here:
1. If you "Omit" any of these items, OG sets the "Billed" flag for that
usage even though it hasn't been billed. (I guess "Omit" in this case
means "Forget this one" or "Omit forever")
2. The list includes current month usage, even though the month isn't
complete. This is despite the "Usage invoicing delayed when in current
month" option being set to yes. This would appear to be a bug to me.
So... What I need is to be able to generate usage-only invoices
mid-month, after I've done my regular invoicing (which will include
excess charges as applicable for some customers). At the moment, I have
no automated way of doing that because the list on offer includes
current month charges that shouldn't be billed. Ideally, we would
generate usage-only invoices only for amounts above the $20 threshold,
but I'm guessing the chances of this aren't good. (We'll have to settle
for putting up with customers who ignore the "If the balance due is less
than $20, please don't pay now" notes I guess ...)
Basically, the only reason for raising these off-cycle invoices is to
make sure that the customer is aware of the bill they're racking up, and
to get them thinking about a change of service plan.
Any thoughts Shawn?
Regards,
Alan Williamson
Virtual Access
Web: www.virtual.net.au
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