Configuring a Customer Class

Each customer belongs to a certain customer class. A 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.

A 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: A customer gets invoices for each of their orders on order completion.

   When a customer places a new order, Billing checks whether processing of this new order will make customer's balance negative. Billing calculates customer's available balance, adds the new order total sum and compares the result with zero. If the customer has enough money, Billing starts processing the order, otherwise the order will have 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.

   Note: For additional information on credit limits, please refer to Notes on Credit Limit.

2. Per Account: A new customer pays for the first order and gets an 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.

   A 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 potentially result in a financial loss, please assign the customer class with the 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:
   • Name: Enter a name for the customer class.
   • Credit Terms: Select one of the options. "Default" credit term is created automatically upon Billing installation. Changing the credit terms for the customer class automatically affects all customers within the class.
   • Statement Cycle: Select one of the options. "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.
   • Payment Method Expiration Notification Schedule: Click next to the field. From the window that opens select one of the options. This schedule defines how many days before credit card expires remain when notification about this is sent to customer. A customer class can be also associated with or detached from credit card expiration notification schedule.
   • Promotion Code: Set a promotion code. If customer inputs this code, he or she will automatically get the customer class and discounts assigned to it. Read more on customer class assignment priority here.
   • Printed Statement Required: Select the checkbox for customers of this class to receive printed statements. This will be a default setting. However, it can be changed for each customer individually.
   • Auto Apply Credits: Select the checkbox to automatically apply existing credit memos to newly created customer invoices and debit memos. To apply credit memo to an existing order, you need to do this manually.

   • Billing Type:

     Note: This setting cannot be changed per customer.

     • Per Account: All orders for all subscriptions owned by a customer will be consolidated in a single invoice.
     • Per Subscription: Invoices will be issued per subscription.
   • Color: Choose from the options. The selected color is assigned to all customers of the class for visual grouping.
   • Show Customers only Plans of this Class: When enabled, after a customer subscribes to a service plan assigned to this customer class, the customer will subsequently be able to see only service plans assigned to this customer class.
   • Generate Billing Orders per Subscription: Select the option if you want separate billing orders to be created for subscriptions even if they are billed on the same day.
3. Click Save to complete the creation of a 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.