Billing Models

When creating a service offer, you must choose a billing model, which will determine the billing dates on which and billing periods for which your customers will be charged for services. The supported billing models are described in the table.

Billing model	Purpose	How customers are charged
Charge Before Subscription Period (BSP)	For your customers to pay upfront for the whole period of service use.	On the date of purchase (sales order), the customer is charged the subscription setup fee and the setup fees for the purchased resources. On the date of renewal (renewal order), the customer is charged the renewal fee.
Charge Before Billing Period (BBP) (default)	To divide the subscription period into portions (billing periods) and charge your customers monthly, quarterly, semiannually, or annually at the beginning of each billing period.	On the date of purchase (or renewal), the customer is charged the subscription setup fee (or renewal fee, respectively), setup fees for the purchased resources, the subscription recurring fee for the first billing period, and the recurring fees for the purchased resources for the first billing period. On each billing date, the customer is charged the recurring fees for the subscription and purchased resources for the next billing period and the resource overuse fees for the previous billing period (even if the subscription is on hold).
Charge After Billing Period (ABP)	To divide the subscription period into portions (billing periods) and charge your customers monthly, quarterly, semiannually, or annually at the end of each billing period.	On the date of purchase (or renewal), the customer is charged the subscription setup fee (or renewal fee, respectively) and the setup fees for the purchased resources. On each billing date, the customer is charged the recurring fees for both the subscription and purchased resources for the previous billing period and the resource overuse fees for the previous billing period (if the subscription is not on hold).
Use External Rating	To perform data rating (calculation of charges) on the vendor side, not on your side. Vendor-rated data are imported to the platform. To configure service plans with this billing model, you must additionally install the Rating Engine microservice and the APS connector must support a certain interface. For more details, please refer to the Rating Engine documentation.	Imported charges without modifications are included into the invoices of resellers and end-customers.
Charge on purchase only	To charge your customers only once, during purchase. Note: This billing model is only available for the plans managed by PLM. Refer to the Creating One-Time-Purchase Products section for details.	On the date of purchase (sales order), the customer is charged the subscription setup fee and the setup fees for the purchased resources.

Related Topics

• Creating Service Plans: detailed instructions on how to create a service plan

• Creating a Generic Service Plan: step-by-step creation of the most widely used type of service plan with a chosen billing model and configured billing parameters and setup, recurring, overuse, and transfer fees

• Billing Model Calculations: calculation examples

• Putting a Subscription on Hold: information on how to suspend subscriptions

• Managing Orders (Sales & Account Management): information on order types and how to manage orders.