Chapter 3 The Tariscope program
3.11 Customers' Accounts
3.11.2 Periodic service charge
In the Tariscope system the periodic services mean any services which periodically provide to customers. As periodic services we can consider, for example, a monthly fee, conference call, call transfer, rent of some equipment and so on.
To charge periodic services to customers, firstly you should create the services in the Services configuration branch and assign them individually to each of customers. If there are such periodic services which have to be charged to all customers who have the same rate plan, it is easier to add such service to the rate plan, than to add such services to each customer. The addition of a periodic service into the tariff plan is carried out on Rate plans configuration page. The example of addition of the Subscription service into the Base rate plan is shown in the figure 3.11.11.
Figure 3.11.11
Periodic services can be automatically charged for all customers by the Tariscope Tasks service or manually if, you select Parse -> Charge services for month. Also you can manually charge services for specific customer in the Accounts view.
It is recommended to execute charges automatically. For this purpose in the Tariscope Tasks configuration branch it is necessary to create and activate the task. Such task is included in the Tariscope installation package. You can read the description of settings of tasks in the Tariscope Tasks in the document of Tariscope 4.x. Administrator's guide, section 3.18.
In case you want to add manually periodic services to the specific subscriber, go into the Accounts view. Choose the required customer and the required month. At the toolbar, select the Account actions list, and in it, select the Charge periodic services item. The Charge of services view and the Action parameters window appear. An example of this window is shown in Figure 3.11.12.
Figure 3.11.12
If you have correctly chosen the customer, month, and year for charge of periodic services in the Accounts view, it is not necessary to perform configuration in this window. Click OK.
If it is required to change something in parameters, then the Action parameters window contains the following settings:
- Month list. By default, it displays month and year which were chosen in the Accounts view. If necessary you can select another month and year.
- Node list. By default, the list displays the communication node name which was chosen in the Accounts view. If you have several communication nodes and wish to add periodic services to another customer who belongs to this communication node, select the required communication node.
- Subscriber box. The box allows you to choose the required subscriber (customer) who should charge periodic services. For the choice of another subscriber click on the "..." button, located to the right of the Subscriber box. The Choose subscriber window appears. Choose the required subscriber and click OK in the window.
- Use multithreading (experimental) checkbox. Check on the box to accelerate the process of charge.
After performance of charge the message appears: Action complete. The view can be closed.
Go to the Accounts view and refresh information on a month by ckicking on the Refresh icon on the toolbar.
To charge periodic services to all customers, select in the menu Parse → Charge services for month. The Action parameters window appeas an example of which is shown in the figure 3.11.12. In the Subscriber box the value of Without filter is displayed that means the charge will be executed for all customers of the selected communication node. If there are several communication nodes in Tariscope, select the required communication node in this window and click OK. The periodic services will be charged.
