PAYG ("pay-as-you-go") service plans can be of two types:
-
entirely PAYG: include only usage-based services
-
a combination of both PAYG and non-PAYG items
To create a PAYG service plan:
- In the Billing control panel, go to Products > Service Plans.
- To add a new plan, click Add New Service Plan.
- Select Generic Service Plan and click Next.
- Configure parameters in the General section.
-
In the Billing Terms section, configure the Billing Model setting:
-
For service plans that contain only PAYG resources, choose Use External Rating.
-
For service plans that contain a combination of PAYG and non-PAYG resources, choose one of the other billing models.
-
-
Price Configuration: This additional field is displayed only when Use External Rating is chosen for Billing Model. Use any of the field values (Fixed Price or Cost + Markup).
Note: This field is deprecated. It is not used by any CloudBlue Commerce functionality.
-
Important: Make sure that all the resource rates and fees in the subscription period configuration have zero prices, because the system will be importing the related charges from the vendor's system.
How PAYG Service Plans are Rated: Rules and Limitations
For subscriptions to PAYG service plans:
- The daily billing process does not generate recurring charges; instead, the system expects these charges to be imported.
- The daily billing process does not collect usage statistics and does not generate overuse charges.
- When charges are imported, the system processes them and generates billing orders and invoices. For accounts with consolidated invoicing enabled, the charges are included in consolidated invoices.
- When generating billing orders, BSS makes calculations according to the current taxation configuration in the system (including tax rates, tax categories, resource categories, and taxation rules).
-
BSS applies discounts to imported charges for the Price Rated and Cost Rated models only.
Important: If you need to set TOTAL MARGIN to 0% for a product item (for example, an Azure NCE resource), to avoid selling it below its cost to lower-level resellers and customers, do not apply discounts to this product item.
- Discounts are not supported for the Tiers Rated model. BSS considers such imported charges as already including all possible discounts.
- Imported charges must be in the same currency as the payment currency of the account.
-
Promotions are not supported.
- Subscriptions to PAYG service plans are continuous: auto-renewal is always on and no notifications about upcoming expiration are sent.
- Subscriptions to PAYG service plans can be put on hold or canceled. If charges are imported for a suspended or canceled subscription, the system generates a billing order and invoices the customer for the consumed services.
Plan Configuration Limitations
Service plans with the billing model Use External Rating have the following limitations:
- If there is a subscription to such a service plan, it is impossible to change the billing model from "Use External Rating" to another one.
- For any service plan with the billing model other than "Use External Rating", if there is a subscription to the service plan, it is impossible to change the billing model to "Use External Rating".
- It is impossible to configure an upgrade from a service plan with the "Use External Rating" billing model to a service plan with another billing model and vice versa.