Configuring a distributor for prepaid services

This section demonstrates how to configure a distributor who will be selling your prepaid products to end users. The procedure is very similar to the general prepaid set-up described in the Prepaid services section. Only a few additional comments are necessary:

• You (the administrator) will generate a batch of accounts for the distributor, who will then activate individual accounts when they are ready to be sold.
• Accounts are initially created as inactive, and the distributor must activate them before they can be used.

1. Steps performed by the admin:
   • Create a distributor
   • Create a customer class
   • Create a customer
   • Generate a batch of accounts for the distributor
   • Assign a commission rate to the batch
2. Steps performed by the distributor:
   • Login to the distributor web interface
   • Activate accounts
   • Create a subdistributor (optional)
     • Assign accounts to the subdistributor

The distributor entity you are about to create will define your relationship with a business partner who distributes your services and allow him further service management (e.g., creating his own customers and accounts).

1. On the navigation menu, select Sales, then Sales agents and click Distributors.
2. On the Create distributor panel, fill in the distributor details:
   • Name – a short name for this distributor; this will be used on the web interface.
   • Customer class – customer class allows you to define a policy for automated payment collection. By choosing a specific class here the distributor will automatically inherit all of the class properties (grace period, invoice template, etc.).
   • Currency – the currency in which this distributor will be billed.
   • Billing period – choose a billing period for the distributor. A billing period defines the frequency of invoicing for this distributor.
   • Billing period time zone – the time zone in which the distributor will see his xDRs, and which will also define his billing period. For example, if you choose America/New_York here and the billing period is Monthly, the billing period will start on the first day of the month at midnight (12 am) New York time.
   • Default sales commission – this commission is applied when an account is created or a distributor is assigned (e.g., if the distributor's commission percentage is 15%, and a new account with a $10 balance has been created, then the distributor is charged $8.5 and has a $1.5 profit).
   • Default payment commission – this commission is applied when payment is entered (e.g., when the distributor makes payment of $10 towards an account, and his payment commission is 10%, then the distributor is charged $9 and has a $1 profit).
   • Credit limit – assign a credit limit for the distributor.

     

3. Click Save.

A customer class provides the ability to define a group of parameters in a centralized manner, and then apply those parameters to many customers simultaneously.

1. On the navigation menu, select Sales, then select Customer classes.
2. On the Create a customer class panel, fill in the customer class details:
   • Name – provide a short name for this customer class.
   • Business model – select which customers this customer class will apply. Select Prepaid cards holder.
   • Currency – specify the currency in which you want to set the collection threshold. When specified, this customer class can only be assigned to distributors with the same currency. Once the currency selection is saved, it cannot be changed.
3. Click Save.

   

4. On your customer class panel, click Finances, then click General info.
5. On the General info panel, fill in general information about the customer class:
   • The billing period is closed – select Automatically.
   • Configure the Statistics parameters:
     • Generate statistics – leave this option enabled to generate statistics for customers who belong to this customer class.
     • Send statistics via email – define how you will provide statistics to your customers.
   • Configure the Status change parameters:
     • Suspend customers – specify whether PortaBilling should check whether the reseller has sufficient funds for their subscription charges.
     • Permanently terminate customers after provisional termination – enable this option to permanently terminate resellers and define the amount of days for termination delay.

       

6. On the Taxation panel, select the taxation method and specify the taxation parameters:
   • Taxation plugin – select Fixed VAT rate or the Custom taxation plugin to calculate taxes based on the tax rate and top up amount.
   • Taxes included into the rates/fees – leave this option disabled.
   • Assess taxes – select At the end of billing period.

     

7. Click Save.

In the case of prepaid card services, the identity of the actual customer (end user) is not stored in the billing, and he or she is identified only by the PIN number used. Still, you will need at least one customer object in PortaBilling to maintain the customer-account hierarchy, so that all of the prepaid card accounts are organized in one location.

1. On the navigation menu, select Sales, then select Customers.
2. On the Create customer panel, fill in the customer details:
   • Name – type a short name for the customer object; this will be used on the web interface.
   • Balance control – specify the way the customer will pay for the service. Select Prepaid in this field.
     • Postpaid – after consuming the services;
     • Prepaid – prior to consuming the services.
   • Currency – choose the currency in which this customer will be billed.
   • Available funds – since this customer is used as a placeholder for storing accounts, the amount of available funds is insignificant. Type zero here.
   • Business model ­– a business model defines what type of service is to be provided to the customer. Select Prepaid card holder for this customer.
   • Customer class – choose the customer class you have created for your prepaid cards holder.
   • Billing period – choose a billing period for the customer. A billing period defines the frequency of invoicing for this customer.
   • Billing period time zone – choose a time zone in which customer’s billing period will be closed and invoices will be generated.

     

3. Click Save.

To generate a batch of accounts under the distributor, use the account generator. When a distributor is selected, the account generator automatically enables only inactive debit accounts to be created.

1. On your customer’s panel, click Accounts.
2. On the Create an account panel, click Account generator.
3. In the Account generation dialog, fill in information about accounts.

   Initial configuration

   Link copied to clipboard
   • Account role – the defined usage for the account. Select Prepaid card from the list.
   • Product – select the product for prepaid cards you have created.
   • Quantity – number of accounts (prepaid cards) to be generated.
   • Batch – accounts are grouped into batches. If Add a new batch is selected, all accounts will be placed into a new batch. Otherwise, an existing batch should be selected from the drop-down list.
   • New batch name – type a name for the new batch. When this batch is generated and assigned to a specific distributor, its name will be visible to the distributor on their web interface.

     

   Optional configuration

   Link copied to clipboard
   • Opening balance – the initial balance on the card.
   • Requires manual activation – it is normal practice to generate all prepaid cards as inactive so they cannot be misused before being sold to the dealer or end customer. You can always activate the whole batch of cards or an individual card later. If you plan to assign the cards to a distributor later on, the cards must be generated as inactive. Move the slider to the right to generate as inactive.
   • Generation method – the Random method means that every account will be assigned a unique, randomly-generated PIN.
   • ID prefix – if you would like all of the generated accounts to start with the same digit string (e.g., 12), enter it here. Thus, if you enter 12 and an ID length of 10, account IDs (PINs) will look like this: 12NNNNNNNN, where N = random digits.
   • ID length – all account IDs (PINs) will be numerical and of the specified length. In order to avoid problems with the prepaid card print-shop, PortaBilling will not generate account numbers with a leading zero. Also, PortaBilling will only allow generation of a batch with feasible parameters, e.g., it is impossible to generate a batch of 1,000 accounts with ID length 4 and ID starting at 55.
   • Service password – to improve security, you can use an account password during authentication, in addition to a PIN. If you choose Empty, no password will be assigned to the account, and the password check will be switched off during authentication. Choosing Empty is recommended by default.
   • Distributor – select the previously created distributor.

     Please refer to the Prepaid calling cards (using a gateway) section for a description of the other parameters.

     

4. Click Generate.

You can also assign a commission rate to the batch that the accounts belong to.  In this case, the batch commission rate will be used when the distributor activates the account.

1. While in the Edit Customer panel, click Batches, select the batch from the list and click Edit.

   

2. On the Edit the batch panel, specify the Sale and Payment commission.

   

3. Click Save.

At this point, you have finished with the administrator part of the work. You just need to send the distributor the credentials to their web portal, and the rest of the tasks described below will be performed by the distributor themselves.

Open the distributor web interface in a browser (by default https://<your-porta-billing- server-name>:8444) and type in the provided login and password.

To activate accounts assigned by the service provider:

1. Navigate to Sales > Accounts.

   

2. On the Account search panel, filter accounts by the batch they are grouped into. For this, select a specific batch as designated by the service provider (e.g., “Prepaid cards $10 - 10pcs”) in the Batch field and click Apply filters.

   

3. On the Batch account update panel, turn on the Change status to toggle and select Activate.

   

4. Click Update accounts.

When an account is activated, the distributor’s balance increases by the account's balance, minus the distributor's commission. In this example, the distributor owes the service provider $10 per account with a 15% commission, which results in $8.50 per account ($10 - 15% = $8.50).

These transactions are visible to the distributor on the xDRs results panel.

To check the amount the distributor owes for each account activation, they need to:

1. Navigate to My company > Company info > xDRs.
2. On the Search xDRs panel, specify the search parameters (e.g., from/to dates) to find the required xDRs in the list and click Apply filters.

   

If a distributor wants to organize a distribution network of their own sales partners and share the commission with them, the distributor can create subdistributors on their web portal.

In our example, the distributor John wants to make Alex his subdistributor and defines the following commissions for him: 10% sales commission and 5% payment commission.

When subdistributor Alex executes a business operation (e.g., makes a manual payment of $10 for a retail customer), the balance for each party involved changes as follows:

• The customer has $10 added to their balance that they can spend on services.
• Subdistributor Alex now owes the distributor $9.50 (the payment amount minus commission: $10 - ($10 x 5%) = $9.50).
• Distributor John owes the service provider $9 (the payment amount minus commission: $10 - ($10 x 10%) = $9).

To create a subdistributor:

1. Navigate to Sales > Subdistributors.

   

2. On the Subdistributor list panel, click  Add Subdistributor and fill in the details:
   • Name – specify the name of  this subdistributor, e.g., Alex Grey.
   • Credit limit – specify the credit limit for the subdistributor, e.g., $50.
   • Default sales commission – this commission is applied when an account is activated (e.g., if the subdistributor's commission percentage is 10%, and an account with a $10 balance has been activated, then the subdistributor is charged $9 and has a $1 profit).
   • Default payment commission – this commission is applied when payment is entered (e.g., when the subdistributor makes a payment of $10 for an account, and his payment commission is 5%, then the subdistributor is charged $9.50 and has a $0.50 profit).
     Subdistributor sales and payment commissions cannot exceed the commissions of the main distributor.

      

     

3. Click Save to save the subdistributor or click Save & Add a copy to add more subdistributors.

To start selling prepaid cards, subdistributors should be given accounts to operate with.

To assign accounts to the subdistributor, the distributor needs to perform the following steps:

1. Navigate to Sales > Accounts.

   

2. On the Account search panel, filter accounts by the batch they are grouped into. For this, select a specific batch assigned by the service provider (e.g., “Prepaid cards $10 - 10pcs”) in the Batch field and click Apply filters.

   

3. On the Batch account update panel, turn on the Subdistributor toggle and select a subdistributor from the dropdown list.

   

4. Click Update accounts.

Subdistibutors can now operate with accounts (activate and top-up them) the way main distributors do.