Rate cards and bundles

A rate card says what a call costs. There are two kinds: a cost card is what a carrier charges you, and a sell card is what a customer pays. Rating uses both, so every call has a charge, a cost and a margin.

Open Sales and billing > Rate cards. The page has two tabs, Rate cards and Bundles.

Cost cards, sell cards and plans#

• A cost card belongs to a carrier (a supplier). Calls from call record sources with that supplier are costed on it. One cost card can be the default cost card, used for carriers with no card of their own.
• A sell card for one customer is that customer's own price list.
• A plan is a sell card with no customer, which many customers are on. A customer is on one plan at most. One plan can be the default plan, used for customers with no card or plan of their own.

Which card prices a call: the customer's own card first, else its plan, else the default plan. A customer with its own card still gets its plan's bundles.

Add a rate card#

1. Press New rate card.
2. Choose the Kind: Cost (a carrier) or Sell (customers).
3. Give it a Name.
4. For a cost card choose the Carrier. For a sell card choose the Customer, or leave it empty for a plan.
5. Choose the Currency (fixed once the card has rates) and the Time zone, in which time bands and effective dates are read.
6. Tick the default option if this is your default cost card or default plan.
7. Press Add rate card.

On a plan's page, Customers on this plan is where you put customers on it.

Prices: bands and rates#

Open a card and press Edit prices. Bands and rates are edited in one sheet.

Time bands are optional. A band has a name, days and a from and to time, such as weekday daytime, evening and weekend. New cards can start with those three in place (Settings > Telephony, under Rate cards). With no bands, every rate applies at any time. A call is priced in the band its local start time falls in.

Rates have one row per destination class and band. Add a row for Every other class to cover any class without a rate of its own. Each row has:

Amounts take as many decimal places as the carrier uses, for example 0.0125 a minute. Each call's cost and charge is then rounded to a whole penny or cent, to the nearest by default or always up, as set by Round each call's charge in Settings > Telephony.

Destination classes come from the number plan. See The number plan and destination classes.

Price versions#

Prices live in versions, each from a date. A call is priced by the version in force on the day it was made, so a price change applies from the right day and old calls keep their rate.

1. On the card press New version.
2. Choose the date the prices start. The version starts as a copy of the one shown, unless you tick Start empty.
3. Edit the prices and save.

Once a version has priced a call its prices are fixed, so a rated call always points at the prices that priced it. For a change after that, make a new version from the day it starts.

Import a rate file#

Carriers send price lists as spreadsheets. To load one:

1. On the card choose Import a rate file from the menu and pick a CSV or Excel file (up to 5,000 rows).
2. Check the column for each field: destination class, time band, pricing, per minute, connection fee, minimum charge, minimum seconds, billing increment and, on a sell card, the markup and minimum margin.
3. Set Prices from and whether Amounts in the file are in the currency (0.0125) or in pence or cents (1.25), as many carriers quote.
4. Press Check the rows. The dry run lists every row with a problem, and nothing is imported while any row is wrong.
5. Press Import.

Export these rates (CSV) gives a file in the same shape, for editing prices in a spreadsheet and importing them back.

The price check#

Before relying on a card, test it. Price check on the card works out what one call would come to, exactly as rating would.

1. Choose the destination class, when the call Starts at and its length in Seconds. For a markup rate, give Its cost.
2. Press Work it out.

The answer shows the charge, the exact figure before rounding, the seconds billed and the band used. If the call cannot be priced it says why: no version in force on that day, or no rate for that class or for every other class in that band.

Bundles#

A bundle is inclusive minutes each month, for example 2,000 minutes to national landlines and mobiles.

Open the Bundles tab and press New bundle.

1. Give it a Name.
2. Choose who it is For: One customer, or Everyone on a plan, where each customer on the plan gets its own allowance.
3. Set the Minutes a month, and whether that is one pool for the customer or an allowance for each extension or each trunk.
4. Choose the Destination classes it covers. With none chosen it covers every billable class.
5. Optionally set what a minute costs once used up. Left empty, the sell card's rate applies.
6. Set when it Starts and, if it does, Ends.
7. Tick Unused minutes roll over if they should, with an optional cap.
8. Press Add bundle.

How bundles are used:

• Calls draw on the bundle in the order they were made.
• A call bigger than what is left takes the rest, and the remainder is charged.
• A call fully inside a bundle is charged nothing.
• Rolled-over minutes carry to the next month only and are used first, so the same minutes never roll twice.

The Bundles list shows each bundle with Used this month and what is left. Open one for its months, with any minutes carried in.