Search/create distributor

This panel helps you find a specific distributor. Specify one or more of the search criteria listed below and click Apply filters. To reset the search criteria, click Default filters.

Filter distributors by name and other fields, e.g., billing address, login, phone, etc. By default, the quick search is performed only by name.

To set the search through other fields, click Change right under the Quick search field and select the corresponding checkboxes. Once the options are selected, the changes are automatically saved and applied to the next searches.

By default, PortaBilling searches for distributors by their data that starts with your input. To change the search filter, click

Search filter  and select another option:

• Exactly matches – PortaBilling filters distributors’ data that exactly match your input.
• Starts with – PortaBilling filters distributors’ data that start with your input.
• Contains – PortaBilling filters distributors’ data that contain your input anywhere in the content.
• Ends with – PortaBilling filters distributors’ data that end with your input.

Filter distributors by customer class.

• Select Any to search among distributors with any customer class assigned.
• Select a particular customer class to display distributors with this customer class assigned.

To obtain more precise results, click to open advanced search criteria.

Filter resellers by status:

• Select Any to search among distributors with any status.
• Select Any except terminated to display all distributors except those having the Permanently terminated status.
• Select Open to display distributors who can operate without any restrictions.
• Select Provisionally terminated to filter distributors who don’t have access to any operations but who can be reactivated.
• Select Permanently terminated to display distributors who have no access to any operations and can not be reactivated.
• Select Suspended to display distributors who currently do not have access to operations because of an overdue invoice.
• Select Exported to display distributors whose data has been transferred to a new PortaSwitch installation. For such distributors, service provisioning and billing is stopped in the source system.

Other search criteria in this section relate to the distributor contact information and are self-explanatory. You can also search distributors by the information defined in custom fields. Fill in the respective search criteria fields.

A distributor is a sales agent represented by an individual or a company. Distributors can sell prepaid services to end users or refill a customer's balance on a straight commission basis.

For example, let's say a distributor's sales commission is 15% and the distributor sells a prepaid calling card with a $10 opening balance. When the customer pays him, he activates the customer's account. PortaBilling calculates the sales commission at $1.50 and subtracts that from the amount that equals to the the card's opening balance amount, which increases the distributor's balance by $8.5. Thus, the distributor earns $1.50 and owes you $8.50 from the sale.

The same thing happens when a distributor enters a cash payment and receives a payment commission from that payment amount.

To create a new distributor, fill in the distributor details and click Save.

Type a unique name for the distributor.

Choose a currency to charge the distributor in.

Choose a customer class for the distributor. A customer class defines a set of parameters shared among a certain category of distributors (such as grace period, invoice template, notification list, etc.).

Choose a billing period for the distributor. This defines the frequency of invoicing.

• Daily – covers a 24-hour period.
• Weekly – covers a 7-day period (Monday through Sunday).
• Semimonthly – covers a period from the 1st to the 15th or from the 16th to the last day of the month.
• Monthly – covers the period from the 1st of the month to the last day of that month.
• Monthly (anniversary) – covers the period from the Nth day of the month to the day before the Nth day of the following month. N is the day of the month when the distributor was created.

  If a distributor was created on March 19th, his invoices will always cover the period from the 19th of the current month to the 18th of the following month.

  To avoid complications for distributors who were created on the 29th, 30th or 31st day of the month, their first billing period will cover the time until the 28th day of the following month, and thereafter will always cover the period from the 28th until the 28th.

• 30 days – covers exactly 30 days.

  If a distributor was created on March 20th, the first invoice will cover the period from March 20th to April 18th, the second invoice will cover the period from April 19th to May 18th, and so on.

Choose a billing period timezone in which to close the distributor’s billing period and generate invoices.

Type in the percentage that a distributor gets from each sale. PortaBilling then calculates the amount of sales commission from the account’s opening balance.

If the account’s opening balance is $10 and the sales commission is 15%, the amount of sales commission is $1.50.

Sales commission applies when a distributor creates/activates a debit account or when you assign a distributor to an existing active debit account.

Type in the percentage that a distributor receives when they collect cash from customers and enter it as a payment in PortaBilling. The system calculates the amount of payment commission from the payment amount.

If the distributor receives a $10 cash payment and the payment commission is 10%, the amount of payment commission is $1.

Set up a credit limit for the distributor. When their balance reaches that credit limit, the distributor is no longer allowed to activate/create accounts or enter payments until a payment is made.