Tariscope 4.x. Administrator's guide
Chapter 3. Tariscope configuration
3.9. Rates
Tariscope provides a flexible call rating that takes into account a currency, day type, time of day, different types of rounding, free seconds and many others.
Entering and editing rate data are available in two places:
- in a root of the Tariscope configuration tree,
- in data of a specific telecommunications service provider.
Both options are intended for creating and editing rates. The Tariscope administrator can type and edit data of rates that are used for any telecom providers in the Rates configuration page of the configuration tree root. Accordingly, this page contains all rates of all providers included in Tariscope. The Rates configuration page from data of a specific provider provides entering and editing rates that are used just for this provider. In the rest, these two options are identical. Therefore, we describe only the Rates page located in the root of the configuration tree.
Click on the Rates branch of the configuration tree. The program will be as shown in Figure 3.9.1.
Figure 3.9.1
The right part of the window displays a rate table and a list of rate plans.
The rate names can be the same for all rate plans. All other parameters of rates can be completely different. The user can create individual name for every rate plan. In this case, rates that are not used in a rate plan will be displayed but will not contain any data.
To create a new rate, click the Add icon on the toolbar. As a result, the Edit rate window appears as shown in Figure 3.9.2.
Figure 3.9.2
From the Plan list, select a rate plan, for which parameters will be set. By default, the rate plan is set, which has been selected in the rate table (Figure 3.9.1).
For users of the Tariscope Enterprise edition a concept of rate plan is usually not used. As a rule, for the Tariscope Enterprise edition is enough to use only the Base rate plan.
Next, in the Edit rate window, click Add date and select the date from which a new rate takes effect.
You must correctly set the rate date, since if a call will have a date earlier than the rate date, the cost calculation of such a call will not be performed or performed incorrectly.
You can also add a new date to the existent rate. This allows to edit its parameters or type a new rate value which will be used from this date.
After entering the date, entering other rate parameters becomes available, as shown in Figure 3.9.3.
Figure 3.9.3
In the Rate name box, change the New rate name on any other one.
If necessary to change the rate date, click on the Edit date icon and select a new date.
If necessary to remove the rate date, click on the Remove date icon and add a new date.
The Edit rate window includes three tabs: Rate, Modifiers, and Accounts.
The Rate tab is used to type the main rate parameters.
In the Currency list, select a currency for this rate.
A table of rate parameters contains at least one row if a rate value does not depend on the day type and time of day. In this case the values of the Day type, Rate factor, From hour and To hour columns are not edited. If a rate value depends on the day type and (or) time of day, you should add rows to the table with the appropriate parameters.
In the case where the rate value is appied for 1 minute, in the Round call duration list, select the Round to minutes values (this is the default value). In this case, the second column of the rate table is called the Rate per 60 seconds. In the case, where the rate value is applied for 1 second, in the Round call duration list, select the Round to seconds. In this case, the second column of the table is called the Rate per 1 second.
To type a rate value, double-click on the Rate (per minute) or Rate per 60 seconds (Rate per 1 second) cell depending on what time interval is used in the rate. Next, type a rate value.
To add a new row to the table of rates, edit or delete a row, right-click on any place in the rate table, except the header. The menu appears as shown in Figure 3.9.4.
Figure 3.9.4
To add a new value of a rate, select Add. The Rate edit window appears as shown in Figure 3.9.5.
Figure 3.9.5
This window allows you to type the main parameters of the rate.
In the case where this window is opened for the first row of the table, the following boxes are not edited: Rate factor, Hour from, To, Day type.
When you have a rate per 1 minute, in the Rate box, type the rate value. The Rate per 1 second (Rate per 60 seconds) box will display the appropriate value. The Rate per 1 second (Rate per 60 seconds) box is intended for entering the appropriate rate value. Note that this box name is determined by the selected value in the Round call duration list (Figure 3.9.3).
When you have a rate per 1 second, you can type its value in the Rate per 1 secondbox.
When you enter a value in this box, the value of the Rate box is automatically recalculated.
If the rate cost may not be less than a minimal specific value, you should type this value in the Minimal call cost box. All call costs that are less than this value will be rounded up to the value.
The Rate factor, Hour from, To, and Day type boxes are available for editing only for the second and subsequent rows of the rate table (Figure 3.9.3). These parameters are used when a rate is changed in dependence of the time.
The Rate factor box allows to set a rate value using a factor with respect to the base value of the rate, i.e. the rate value that has been entered in the first row of the rate table. When you type a value in this box, the values of the Rate and Rate per 1 second (Rate per 60 seconds) boxes are automatically recalculated.
The Hour from and To boxes allows you to set the time range when the rate value is applied. You can enter only integer values of hours in these boxes.
The Day type box specifies the type of the day for which the rate value is applied. Select from the following:
- Workday,
- Saturday,
- Sunday,
- Holiday.
After entering all data, click OK. A new row will be added in the rate table (Figure 3.9.3).
To change the rate parameters excepting the first rate date, select the required row in the rate table and right-click. In the appeared menu (Figure 3.9.4), select Edit.
To remove the rate parameters from the rate table, select the required row in the table and right-click. In the appeared menu (Figure 3.9.4), select Remove.
You can export the rate parameters to an external file of the following formats: Excel, HTML, CSV, PDF.
As described above, you may specify various options of the period of rounding. To do this, use the Round call duration list (Figure 3.9.3), which contains the following options:
- Round to seconds.
- Round to minutes. In this case, if the Round down box is not selected, the call duration is rounded to the minute. For example, a call duration of 1 minute 8 seconds will be rounded to 2 minutes. Accordingly, when the Round down box is selected, the call duration of 1 minute 51 seconds will be rounded to 1 minute. Similarly, when using a rate for data, the received / transmitted data will be rounded to a megabyte.
- Custom rounding. If you select this option, the Account every box is active. In this box you should specify the desired number of seconds to which a call duration will be rounded. For example, if rounding will be set to 6 seconds, the call duration of 13 seconds will be rounded to 18 seconds.
The Minimal duration box (Figure 3.9.3) allows you to specify a value to which all calls with duration less than this value will be rounded. For example, if you specify to round to minutes and a value of the Minimal duration box is 1, then all calls less than 1 minute will be calculated as calls with duration of 1 minute.
To specify number of digits after decimal point in a call cost or traffic cost, use the Digits after decimal box.
The Modifiers tab of the Edit rate window is shown in Figure 3.9.6.
Figure 3.9.6
The Modifiers tab allows to modifies the call costs in dependence of number of parameters.
The Free seconds box allows you to specify the number of call seconds, which will be taken into account in some situations. When a call duration is less than a value is specified in this box, the call duration shall be deemed null, When a call duration is longer than the value, all call seconds will be accounted in in the call duration.
The Subtract seconds box allows you to specify the number of call seconds that will be deducted from the call duration and the cost of these seconds will not be charged.
In the Cost modifiers partition you can set parameters which will change the call cost by adding a connection cost.
This setting is applied only to the Tariscope Provider edition.
In the Less then box you can specify the value of the call cost which affects the calculation of the connection cost value. If the call cost is less then this value, the connection cost value is applied from the Conn. fee box which is located on the right from the Less then box. Otherwise the connection cost value is applied from the Conn. fee box which is located on the right from the Else position.
Tariscope allows to change a rate depending on the duration of each particular call or all calls for one month. This modification is specified in the Service amount dependency partition.
For example, the rate value is equal to X should be used for each call with duration to 600 seconds. If a call duration is in the range from 600 to 1200 seconds, you should use the rate value is equal to Y. Finally, the rate value is equal to Z should be used for a call duration more than 1200 seconds. A similar approach can be applied to all calls for one calendar month. If the Single call box is not selected, the rate modification parameters defined in this partition will be applied to all calls for one calendar month. To specify parameters of the rate modification, right-click anywhere in the table, except for its title, and from the appeared menu, select Add. As a result, the window shown in Figure 3.9.7.
Figure 3.9.7
In the To amount (seconds) box, type a value of seconds to which will be applied a factor.
In the Factor box, type a factor value that is applied to the base rate.
Click OK. A new row with entered parameters will be displayed in the table (Figure 3.9.6).
Repeat the above steps to enter new parameters.
The entered data for the above example is shown in Figure 3.9.8, where the rate of X is calculated as the base rate, multiplied by a factor of 1, the rate of Y as the base rate, multiplied by a factor of 0.9, and the rate of Z as the base rate, multiplied by the factor of 0.7.
Figure 3.9.8
The Accounts tab is used to set the parameters associated with the charging of service cost to a customer's (subscriber's) account. This tab is used only for the Tariscope Provider edition. An example of this tab is shown in Figure 3.9.9.
Figure 3.9.9
If the call costs are not required to charge to the accounts of customers, clear the Enable accounting mode for this rate box.
If a customer has multiple phone numbers / IP addresses and you want to perform the charging of call cost / IP traffic to each telephone number / IP address separately, select the Every subscriber's number separately box. By default, the box is clear.
In the Description list you can select or type a name, which will be used in the customer's account when charging the call cost is executed. Accordingly, this name will be used at formation of billing documents and reports.
When you have entered all the parameters of the rate, click OK. In the table of rates (Figure 3.9.1), a new line with the entered data is appeared.
Except of the addition rate, the rate table (Figure 3.9.1) allows to perform actions, which are available either from the toolbar or from the context menu (it appears when right-click on the table):
- Refresh. Refreshes the table information.
- Add copy. Allows you to create a copy of a selected rate. It is recommended to use this action when you enter a rate that is not significantly different from the selected rate.
- Edit. Allows to edit the parameters of a selected rate.
- Copy from plan. This item is used when there are multiple rate plans (for the Tariscope Provider edition). Allows you to copy all parameters of a selected rate to another rate plan.
- Delete. Removes the selected rate.
- Show all date entered. When you select this action, the rate table will be displayed all existing rates and also those which are inactive in the current time and was replaced by the new rates.
- Rename. Allows to rename a selected rate.
- Set provider. It allows you to bind to a selected rate to a provider.
- Clean dates. Cleans dates and all data from a selected rate.
- Multiple rates. The item allows to multiply a rate values on the desired factor and save these changes in the rate.
