Configuring Customer Class

Each customer belongs to a certain customer class. Customer class is a category that defines service and credit terms based on which customers of such a category are served. Statement cycles are also bound to customer classes, allowing you to receive statements for all customers belonging to a customer class separately. Furthermore, customer classes may be used for easier grouping of customers by assigning a unique color to each class.

Customer class defines how customers are billed. Namely, whether the recurring billing for multiple subscriptions of a customer should be consolidated in a single invoice or should be split in multiple invoices. This is the default setting and can be changed for each customer individually. Available options are:

Note: The functionality is available if the default order flow is used for order processing.

1. Per Subscription - customer gets invoices for each of his orders on their completion.

   When a customer places new order, Billing checks whether processing of this new order will make customer's balance negative. Billing calculates customer's available balance, adds new order total sum and compares the result with zero. If the customer has enough money, Billing starts processing the order, otherwise the order gets to the Waiting for Payment status. A customer's available balance is calculated the following way: <current_balance> + <credit_limit> - <open_orders_total>.

   The <open_orders_total> includes total sums of orders that met the following criteria:

   • order status has the Is Final checkbox cleared;
   • invoice is not created;
   • order ID is less then new order ID.

2. Per Account - new customer pays for the first order and gets invoice.

   All following orders placed before the next account statement date are provisioned and stay in the Waiting for Payment after provisioning status. A single invoice on all orders is issued on the account statement date, customer pays the invoice and his orders get to the Completed status. Account statement date is defined by a statement cycle assigned to a customer class.

   Credit limit is not taken into account in this case. If a resulting invoice is not paid in time, a customer account may be put on hold according to credit terms. Since billing per account can result in financial loss risk, please assign customer class with Per Account billing type only to trusted customers.

If you prefer Per Account billing (i.e. use customer classes with the billing type Per Account) we recommend that you select Monthly on statement day as billing period type for your service plans (i.e. choose Monthly in the Billing Period field and select Align Billing Order with Statement Day when creating a service plan). This will ensure that:

• The billing dates for all the subscriptions to your service plans will be shifted to the same billing date (usually the first of the month).
• The billing periods for all those subscriptions will also be aligned and will be listed accordingly in the consolidated invoice.

For example, if your customer purchases some service plans on April 5, April 7 and April 14 with the subscription periods of at least 2 months, the first billing date for all these subscriptions will be May 1. The consolidated invoice issued to the customer on May 1 will show the subscriptions with their respective billing periods April 5 – April 30, April 7 – April 30, and April 14 – April 30. The consolidated invoice issued to the customer on June 1, however, will be listing all those subscriptions with the same billing period May 1 – May 31.

Important: Choosing the Per Account billing type for a customer class also means that you practically give your customers an unlimited credit line until the consolidated invoice is issued. In the example above, the services under the subscriptions created on April 5, April 7, and April 14 will be provisioned when ordered, while the payment will be invoiced via the consolidated invoice on May 1. That means that your customers can create any number of subscriptions within a month and consume the services for which they will pay later.

Creating a customer class

1. Open System > Settings > Customer Classes. The list of currently available customer classes appears on the screen (empty by default).
2. Click Add New Customer Class. The adding new customer class dialog window is displayed. Fill out the form:
   • Enter a customer class name into the Name field.
   • Select a credit term from the Credit Terms list. "Default" credit term is created automatically upon Billing installation. Changing the credit terms for the customer class automatically affects all customers within the class.
   • Select a statement cycle from the Statement Cycle list. "Default" statement cycle is created automatically upon Billing installation. Changing the statement cycle parameter for the customer class automatically affects all customers within the class.
   • Click next to the Credit Card Expiration Notification Schedule field. From the window that opens select credit card expiration notification schedule. This schedule defines how many days before credit card expires remain when notification about this is sent to customer. Customer class can be also associated with or detached from credit card expiration notification schedule from a credit card expiration notification schedule settings.
   • Enter the promotion code into the Promotion Code field. If customer inputs this code in the online store, he/she will automatically get the customer class and discounts assigned to it. Read more on customer class assignment priority here.
   • Select the Printed Statement Required check box to define whether customers of this class should receive printed statements. This is a default setting and can be changed for each customer individually.
   • Select Auto Apply Credits check box to make already existing credit documents of customers be automatically applied to their newly created invoices and debit documents.
   • The Billing Type option indicates whether all orders placed for all subscriptions owned by a customer should be consolidated in a single invoice (Per Account) or should be split in multiple invoices (Per Subscription). Please be aware that this setting cannot be changed for each customer individually.
   • Select a color for this customer class from the Color list. The selected color is assigned to all customers of the class for visual grouping.
   • If necessary, select Show Customers only Plans of this Class check box. When customer purchases service plan assigned to customer class, in future customer is allowed to purchase service plans assigned to the same customer class.
   • Select the Generate Billing Orders per Subscription option in case it is required that separate billing orders must be created for subscriptions even if they are billed on one day.
3. Click Save to finish adding new customer class.

Notes on consolidated invoices

1. If a customer for whom consolidated invoices are selected (Billing Type = Per Account) pays his single order without waiting the whole consolidated invoice, that order gets the Ready to Complete status. His other orders stay in the Waiting for Payment status. By this means, the Ready to Complete status distinguishes the orders for which the payments were already processed.
2. A consolidated invoice is always generated on the statement day, even if it is the first day when account was created.

Restricting payment methods for a customer class

For each customer class, a provider can define payment methods that will be available (visible and allowed to use) to all the customers of that class. Assignment of payment methods available for a customer class is configured in details of that class at the Allowed Payment Methods. If no payment methods are added at the tab then all vendor's (provider or reseller) active payment methods are allowed to the customers of that class.

Note: Payment methods have the Auto-assign customer class option that assigns a particular customer class to a customer who pays with that payment method. Make sure that the customer class to be assigned by this option have that payment method in the list of Allowed Payment Methods. Consider the following example: a new customer places an order paying with payment method X and thus gets the customer class Y automatically assigned. Whereas, the customer class Y is configured in such a way that it does not have the payment method X in the Allowed Payment Methods list. As the result, customer's order will not be placed.