Freeside:3:Documentation:Administrator:Fees

Overview

• Fees are charges automatically added to a customer's invoice based on some set of conditions.
• Unlike Freeside's traditional "one-time charges", charging a fee doesn't create a persistent package definition or a package on the customer's account.
• A fee definition can be a flat amount (e.g. a postal invoice fee) or a percentage of an invoice amount (e.g. a finance charge).
  • The fee can also be defined based on usage (CDRs), as either a flat amount per call or a percentage of rated price. These can be set independently for each usage class (local, intrastate, etc.).
• The fee can be charged based on past invoices, or on the customer's upcoming invoice.

Configuring the fee definition

You must have the "Edit fee definitions" access right to do this.

• Open Configuration -> Packages -> Fees, and click "Add a new fee definition" at the top.
• Set the fee's properties:
  • Description on the invoice. If you have multiple customer languages available, you will need a description for each one.
  • Comment (optional, for internal use)
  • The agent who will use this fee definition (optional)
  • Package class, for reporting purposes (optional)
  • Whether to treat the fee as "setup" or "recurring", again, for reporting purposes
  • The flat amount to charge
  • The basis for additional charges, one of the following:
    • "Amount charged" to charge a percentage of the invoice amount.
    • "Balance due" to charge a percentage of the unpaid amount (e.g. a finance charge). If charging the fee on an upcoming invoice, this is equivalent to "amount charged".
    • "Usage charges" to charge a flat amount per call and/or a percentage of the rated charges for certain usage classes. You can then set the amount and percentage independently for each class.
  • Minimum and maximum values of the fee (optional). Note that the maximum will be adjusted to allow for any taxes that apply
  • Whether to limit the fee to the customer's credit balance. (This is not generally useful.)
  • Whether the fee is taxable, and what tax class or product category it falls into.
• Submit the form.

Configuring the event

• Open Configuration -> Billing -> Billing events, and click "Add a new event".
• To charge a flat or percentage fee based on previous outstanding invoices:
  • Set Type = "Invoice".
  • Set Action = "Charge a fee based on this invoice."
  • Set any conditions that limit the invoices that should be charged for, such as invoice age and balance due.
  • Choose the fee definition you created.
  • If you want the fee to be charged only on the customer's regular billing cycle date, check the "Hold fee until the customer's next bill" box. Otherwise, the fee will be charged (and an invoice generated) as soon as the event conditions are met.

• To charge a fee whenever a customer is billed:
  • Set Type = "Customer".
  • Set Action = "Charge a fee based on the customer's current invoice."
  • Set any conditions that limit the customers that should be charged, such as payment method.
  • Choose the fee definition you created.

• To charge a fee whenever a package is billed:
  • Set Type = "Package".
  • Set Action = "Charge a fee when this package is billed."
  • Set any conditions that limit the packages that should be charged for, such as package status or class.
  • Choose the fee definition you created.

Examples

A finance charge

Fee definition:

• Description: Finance charge
• Report this fee as: a recurring charge
• Flat fee amount: 0
• Based on: balance due
• Fraction of balance: 5%

Event:

• Type: invoice
• Amount owed on specific invoice: over $5
• Customer balance: over $5
• Invoice age: 1 month
• Action: Charge a fee based on this invoice
• Hold until next bill

A $10.00 declined payment penalty

Fee definition:

• Flat fee amount: 10.00

Event:

• Type: Batch payment
• Batch payment declined
• Customer balance: over 0.00
  • (since you probably don't want to charge the fee if the customer has made other payment arrangements)
• Don't run this event after it has completed successfully
• Action: Charge a fee based on the customer's current invoice