Billing Models

When creating a service offer, you can choose when and for what period you want to charge your customers for services. You can make this choice by selecting a billing model when creating a service plan. The differences between the supported billing models are described in the table.

Billing model	Purpose	How customers are charged
Charge Before Subscription Period (BSP)	If you want 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)	If you want 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)	If you want 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	Data rating (calculation of charges) is performed on the vendor side, not on the platform side. Vendor-rated data are imported to the platform. To configure service plans with this billing model, you should additionally install the Rating Engine micro-service and the APS connector should support a certain interface. For more details, refer to the Rating Engine documentation.	Imported charges without modifications are included into the invoices of resellers and end-customers.

Related topics:

• New Generic Service Plan – step-by-step creation of the most widely used type of service plan with choosing a billing model and configuring billing parameters and setup, recurring, overuse, and transfer fees

• Creating a Service Plan – detailed instructions on how to create a service plan

• Billing Models Calculation – calculation examples

• Putting Subscriptions on Hold – information on how to suspend subscriptions

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