Add customer class

With customer classes you can define a set of parameters to be shared among a certain category of customers. For example, you can create two separate classes – one for your retail customers and the other for your business customers, plus define the relevant parameters for each class. After that, you only need to assign the required customer class to all the customers of a given category to ensure that all of them have the same parameters (such as grace period, invoice template, taxation, notification list, etc.)

There is a Default customer class in PortaBilling with default settings. You cannot delete it.

To add a new customer class, click + Customer class and fill in the details. To save the customer class, click Save. To save and continue editing the customer class details, click Save & Edit details. To create more customer classes, click Save & Add a copy.

On this tab, you can configure the general settings for the customers of this customer class, such as the billing period closure mode, periodic xDR export, and status change options.

Type a unique name for the customer class.

Use a business model to categorize customers by the type of service to be provided to them (for example, Cloud PBX, Internet access, etc.).

Specify in which currency you charge the customers of this customer class. Note that you can define the currency only when you create the customer class and can’t change it later. Also you can assign this customer class to customers that are charged in the same currency.

If you intend to include customers with different currencies into this customer class, you may leave this field empty. However, fraud protection configuration is disabled for such customer classes since a defined currency is required to monitor a customer’s daily expenses.

Specify the owner of this customer class:

• Administrator only means that only the administrators can edit and assign this customer class.
• Reseller name means that the customer class is intended to be used by this particular reseller.

Select how PortaBilling closes customers’ billing periods:

• N hours after it ends – the billing period ends at midnight and is closed after the global delay set on the Configuration web server interface (by default, 6 hours);
• With a specified delay – the billing period is closed with an additional delay set in the Delay field. Note that the global delay will also be considered.

Select the rounding method that will be applied to:

• invoice amounts, and
• charged amounts for subscriptions, promotional credits or charges, measured services, and DID charges in an individual xDR.

You can select one of the following rounding methods:

• Away from zero – this rounding method is selected by default. It works similar to rounding up but differs when rounding negative values. Positive and negative values round symmetrically. For example, if the rounding precision is set to two decimals, then:
  • 1.214, 1.215 and 1.216 all round up to 1.22.
  • – 1.214, – 1.215 and – 1.216 all round to – 1.22.
• Half away from zero – this rounding method works similar to arithmetic rounding but differs when rounding negative values. Positive and negative values round symmetrically. For example, if the rounding precision is set to two decimals, then:
  • 1.214 rounds to 1.21, 1.215 and 1.216 all round to 1.22.
  • – 1.214 rounds to – 1.21, – 1.215 and – 1.216 all round to – 1.22.
• Special rounding (malaysian) – formerly known as custom rounding. This type of rounding depends on the last decimal at precision point. For example, if the rounding precision is set to two decimals, then:
  • If the last decimal at precision point is [0…2], it is set to zero. For example, 1.204, 1.215 and 1.226 all round to 1.20.
  • If the last decimal at precision point is [3…7], it is set to 5. For example, 1.234, 1.255 and 1.276 all round to 1.25.
  • If the last decimal at precision point is [8…9], it is set to 0 and the previous decimal increases by 1. For example, 1.284, 1.296 all round to 1.30.

Define how to present invoice amounts to customers. PortaBilling calculates invoice amounts with five-decimal precision (e.g., 16.89306). PortaBilling rounds invoice amounts to the number of digits you specify here.

The difference between the sum of all the charges and the rounded off invoice amount is written as a separate xDR with the proper (plus or minus) sign.

To select the rounding method for invoice amounts, open the Finances > General info > Rounding method. The Away from zero rounding method is selected by default.

For example, if the Away from zero rounding method is selected and you select to round the invoice amounts to 2 decimals then 16.85306 rounds to 16.86.

Allow customers in this customer class to transfer available funds to each other. Only users of debit accounts or credit accounts with individual credit limits can transfer funds to each other.

Instruct PortaBilling to change the status of customers and/or their debit accounts when their funds are insufficient to cover subscription charges.

If the customer’s balance or available funds are insufficient to cover all their subscriptions (whether assigned to their credit accounts through a product, directly, or to the customer), you can:

• Enable the toggle to automatically suspend customer services. When suspended, customers no longer receive the service and therefore no subscription charges are generated. As soon as a customer’s funds are sufficient, PortaBilling resumes their service and generates new charges.

• Disabled toggle instructs PortaBilling to charge the subscription’s full amount regardless of the current balance status. The customer’s balance may exceed the credit limit or the amount of available funds (in this case the negative value of available funds appears).

  If you disable the automatic suspension, customer records already suspended for insufficient funds will not be reactivated automatically. These records will remain suspended until the customer pays the subscription charge (postpaid customers must also pay any overdue invoices in full) or an admin manually changes the customer status to “Active.”

Control service availability for debit accounts when their balance is insufficient to cover charges for subscriptions assigned to them directly.

• Turn on the toggle to automatically suspend an account. An account with the Suspended status has no access to services until it has sufficient funds to cover subscription charges. Once the administrator makes a payment or the customer tops up an account, PortaBilling automatically removes the Suspended status, resumes the service for the debit account, and assesses subscription charges.

• Turn off the toggle to instruct PortaBilling to charge the subscription’s full amount regardless of the current balance status. The account may go into overdraft (in this case the negative value of available funds appears).

  If you disable the Insufficient funds for subscription > Suspend debit accounts option, the accounts that have already been suspended for insufficient funds will remain suspended. They can only be activated after you re-enable the option and the account has sufficient funds to cover the subscription during the next charge attempt.

You can choose to charge end users only for the days when they use the service, see the Credits for period with no service option. In this case, PortaBilling first applies charges for the whole billing period and then issues a refund for the period during which the service was suspended. Thus, PortaBilling produces two xDRs for the end user: one xDR is for the whole subscription charge and another one is for the refund amount.

When you manually change the customer’s record status to Provisionally terminated, you need to set the date for Permanent termination. By default, it’s 30 days after the Provisional termination. You will be able to set an earlier date, but the customer’s record cannot be terminated permanently later than 30 days.

If you want to change the default value, turn on the toggle and specify the new default number in the Days after provisional termination field. The minimum value is 1.

For example, say you set 45 days here. When you set the Provisionally terminated status for any customer of this customer class, the default date for Permanent termination will be 45 days after Provisional termination. You will be able to set an earlier date for a specific customer, but a later date will be unavailable.

Manage xDR export for customers in this customer class.

Choose whether to generate xDR reports (exported as .csv files) at the end of the billing period.

You can define which fields are included in the reports made available to customers by configuring a custom report structure in the Configuration server web interface using the CustomXDRReport plugin.

Depending on whether the CustomXDRReport plugin is enabled in the Configuration server web interface, this field appears either as a toggle switch (Enabled/Disabled only) or as a dropdown with additional report type options that define which reports should be available to customers in this customer class (via downloads from the self-care web interface and/or email). When the toggle is enabled, default xDR reports are generated.

The following options are available in the dropdown:

• Disabled – do not export xDRs.
  In most countries, there is a legal requirement for service providers to maintain call history for a long time. Since xDRs are periodically cleaned up from the database, saving xDRs to files might be the only way to comply with local regulations. Disable xDR export to files only if you have some other means to store call history.

  By default, the generated .csv files are stored indefinitely in the system. To clean up these files after a specific period, go to the Configuration server web interface, select “Yes” for the EnableStatisticsCleanup option, and set the storage period in days in the KeepCustomerReportDays field. For instance, if you set a 365-day storage period, it means that .csv files older than a year will be automatically purged.

• Default reports only – generate xDR reports for customers using the default set of fields (Account, From, To, Country, Description, Connect Time, Charged amount, Service name, Charged quantity, Service unit). This is the default setting when a new customer class is created.
• Custom reports only – generate xDR reports for customers using a custom set of fields. The custom report structure is defined via the Configuration server web interface.
• All reports – generate both default and custom xDR reports for customers.

Specify whether customers receive the files via email:

• Do not send – customers don’t receive .csv files via email;
• Summary only – customers only receive xDR summary;
• All xDRs – customers receive the .csv files with all xDRs.

On this tab, you can define invoicing parameters common for all customers in this customer class.

To enable the generation of out-of-turn invoices, select the previously created invoice template that defines the invoice layout design.

Define when to send out-of-turn invoices to a customer by email:

• Never – customers won’t receive their .pdf invoices by email.
• Automatically – the invoice PDF file will be automatically sent to the customer’s email.

You can configure PortaBilling to automatically deduct the subscription fee from customers’ credit cards while the available funds on the customer’s balance remain intact (see Auto-charging for subscriptions).

PortaBilling will produce separate (out-of-turn) invoices that contain only subscription fees and taxes and automatically deducts this amount from the customer’s credit card.

To use separate invoices for subscriptions, turn on the Separate invoice for recurring fees toggle.

Choose when the invoices become due. Terms for payment collection are measured in days.

• Due upon receipt – this is the default option. In this case, the invoice generation and due dates are the same.
• Net – select this option to give your customer a specific number of days to pay their invoice before it becomes overdue. The invoice due date is calculated as the invoice generation date plus the specified period.

For example, if the invoice generation date is June 1st and you specify 15 days here, it means that on June 16th the invoice becomes due. If the payment is not received, on June 17th the invoice becomes overdue, and the collection process will be initiated.

Specify the number of days before an invoice is due that the customer receives a notification. This option is available only if you choose the Net option above and specify the period.

To send several notifications, specify comma-separated values in descending order. For example, “14, 7, 3” means that the customer receives a notification 14, 7, and 3 days before the invoice due date (if the customer pays after the first notification, no further notifications are sent).

Configure actions and notifications if payment is past due.

Send a notification regarding the overdue invoice to the customer. Specify the number of days after the invoice due date that the customer receives such a notification. An empty field disables these notifications.

You can define several thresholds to send multiple notifications to a customer. Specify values separated by commas and in the ascending format (e.g., 10, 12, 15).

For instance, “0, 7, 14” values mean that the customer receives a notification on the due date and again 1 and 2 weeks later.

You can set a specific number of days after the due date when the service will be suspended due to non-payment. On the suspension date, the customer’s status will change to “Suspended.” When a customer is suspended, their services are blocked though some subscription fees may still apply (this depends on the subscription configuration).

Specify the number of days after the due date that the customer becomes suspended. The minimum value is 1 day. The empty field means no suspension applies.

Specify how many days before the suspension date to send a notification to the customer. The value here must be equal to or lower than the suspension period.

On this tab, you can configure how to calculate taxes and which taxes apply for the services provided to customers in this customer class.

On this tab, you can configure self-care interface access settings, assign a fraud traffic profile to the customer class to protect customers from fraudulent activities, and configure how to handle customers’ personal data with respect to the demands of the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDRP).