Add customer

A customer is your client (an individual or a company) to whom you provide services. To create a new customer, click + Customer on the customer list page and fill in the details. To save the customer, click Save. To save and continue editing the customer details, click Save & Edit details. To create more customers, click Save & Add a copy.

On this tab, you can set the main customer details.

Choose the customer’s balance model:

• Prepaid – the customer first pays for the services and then uses them (e.g., they are not able to make calls or use the internet without topping up their balance first)
• Postpaid – the customer pays for the services at the end of their billing period

Type a unique name for the customer.

Choose a currency in which you will charge the customer.

To prevent misuse of services and fraudulent traffic, set up a credit limit for a postpaid customer. The balance for postpaid customers indicates the amount of money owed to the service provider. Once a payment is made, the balance decreases. When the balance reaches the credit limit, the customer is no longer allowed to use the services.

For a prepaid customer, you can specify the initial customer payment.

The balance for prepaid customers indicates the currently available funds. When a payment is made, the balance increases.

Choose a business model for the customer. A business model defines the type of service provided to the customer (for example, cloud PBX, internet access, etc.).

Select a customer class for the customer. A customer class defines a set of parameters shared by a specific group of customers. For example, you can create two separate classes – one for retail customers and another for business customers – each with parameters relevant to that category. Then, simply assign the appropriate class to each customer to ensure that all customers in the same group share the same settings (such as grace period, invoice template, taxation, notification list, etc.).

If a customer class has a specific currency defined, it can only be assigned to customers billed in the same currency.

Choose a billing period for the customer. A billing period defines the frequency of invoicing for this customer.

Choose the time zone in which the customer’s billing period closes and invoices are generated.

If a mandatory custom field has been assigned to a customer class, additional fields appear for entering the customer’s extra information (e.g., driver’s license ID, tax code, etc.).

Choose a distributor for this customer. Distributors earn one-time commissions by selling a service provider's packages or collecting top-up payments from end users. Click Show to open the distributor page.

Choose a representative for this customer. Representatives work on behalf of the company, selling services for a commission. Once you assign a representative, they begin receiving commissions according to their defined commission plan.

Click Show to open the representative page.

On this tab, you can specify customer contact information, address, and fill in custom fields (if any).

In the Contact section, specify the customer’s contact details, including salutation, first, middle, and last name, email address, and BCC email address.

Use the BCC (blind carbon copy) field, for example, to send copies of all customer emails to your financial team without revealing this information to the customer. You can enter one or more email addresses separated by commas.

You can also specify a contact person to be reached instead of, or in addition to, the customer. By default, PortaBilling automatically adds the customer’s first name to the Contact field.

In this section, specify the customer address: street address, city, country, postal code, phone number, etc.

In the Alt. phone field, specify the phone number to send SMS notifications to. In Alt. contact, specify another person to contact if the customer or their primary contact is unreachable.

Use custom fields to store additional information about a customer (for example, the customer’s bonus). These are custom fields enabled through the customer class. These fields are divided into those visible to end users and those that are hidden.

On this tab, you can assign a subscription to the customer and view the list of subscriptions assigned directly to this customer. To add a subscription, click + Subscriptions and fill in the information in the Add subscription configuration dialog:

• Name – select the subscription from the dropdown list.
• Name for end users – type a clear subscription name that end users will see on their self-care interface.
• Start date – choose a desired subscription activation date (by default, the current date is set). Click Calendar and set the date, or type it in the “yyyy-mm-dd” format (2022-09-07).
• Finish date – choose a subscription closing date (the finish date is not set by default). Click Calendar and set the date, or type it in the “yyyy-mm-dd” format (2022-09-10).
• Charging period – select the charging period if multi-month prepaid plans are configured for the subscription charged in advance, e.g., 6 months.
• Periodic fee adjustment – you can choose whether to apply the default customer discount (if it’s set for the customer), a specific discount/upcharge, or not adjust the periodic fee at all. The default option is Default customer discount. You can choose one of the following options:
  • No adjustment – the standard subscription fee will be applied (even if the default customer discount is set for the customer).
  • Default customer discount – a discount defined in the Set default discount dialog will be applied to the subscription fee, e.g., 10%. Note that a 100% discount means “free service”.
  • Discount – select this option if you want to set a specific discount for this subscription. Specify the fixed discount amount or discount rate in the corresponding field, e.g., “Discount 15%”. A 100% discount means “free service”. Also, specify the period during which the discount will be active using one of the following methods:
    • For specific periods, specify the start and end dates for each period (e.g., from February 18 to May 18). The last period can be without an end date.
    • For a set number of billing periods, specify the period (e.g., 6 months).
  • Upcharge – select this option if you want to apply an upcharge that increases the standard subscription fee. Specify a fixed amount or an upcharge rate in the corresponding field, e.g., “Upcharge 8 USD”. Also, specify the period during which the upcharge will be active using one of the following methods:
    • For specific periods, specify the start and end dates for each period (e.g., from February 18 to May 18). The last period can be without an end date.
    • For a set number of billing periods, specify the period (e.g., 6 months).

On this tab, you can assign an individual bundle that will be shared between all the accounts of this customer. For this, select a bundle in the dropdown list.  Click Show next to a bundle or code group set to open its page and view the details.

On this tab, you can add another main or add-on product to the agreement. For this, click + Item and define the number of accounts that can use the product.

On this tab, you can set up the customer’s self-care access – define their login credentials, language, time zone, and date formats, assign available self-care roles, and create individual logins with role-based permissions for the customer’s employees.