Steps for a new Post Rate customer
* Follow the steps below in order to add a new customer.
* Instructions for each step are below in their own sections.
o Add a Domain
o Add a "domain" user
o Edit domain Service Plan
o Edit domain Rate Plan
o Add Post Rate schedule
o Add Billing Info
Creating a New SiPbx Connection on Netsapiens NAS
* Skip this section unless this is the First Domain!
* This step only needs to be done once per SiPbx and require root privileges, Netsapiens Support can assist on this.
* From the menu bar please select “Domains --> Connections”
* Click Add to add connection
* Enter A Unique DSN name. Also enter username and password, defaults are dbSiPbx/sipbx.
* Click Create
* You need to then add a ODBC connection in /etc/odbc.ini
o From a command line or other text editor, add the following information matching your remote sipbx.
[UNIQUE_NAME]
Description = MySQL
Driver = MySQL
Server = REMOTE_IP_OR_HOSTMANE
Database = SiPbxDomain
Port =
Socket =
Option =
Stmt =
* Example matching picture above and pointing to a SiPbx on a LAN connect of 192.168.139.10:
Creating a New Domain on Netsapiens NAS
* From the menu bar select "Domains --> Domains"
* Click "Add Domain" towards the bottom
* Pick from the dropdown selection of SiPbx servers configured previously
* Fill in the information required for this domain
* Each domain should have a Service plan and Rate Plan, this page allows you to copy from existing plans.
o [note] This copy feature includes a "smart replace" which will replace existing domain names with the new domain name
* Example of new Domain:
* [note] In a post paid setup, "Balance Status" and "Balance" are not used.
* [note] If you are looking to rate old calls, make sure you push back the "Rate Valid From date"
Adding a user to the Domain
* At least 1 user needs to be added to the domain in order to rate calls.
* [note] for post rating a whole domain into a bucket, you only need one user, user "domain"
* Add account via "Accounts --> Accounts"
* click "Add"
* It will ask you for a domain from a list of currently configured domains
* From there enter the rest of the information needed.
* [note] if rating calls earlier than your current date, make sure to push back the valid date
* [note] "balance" is unused in post-rate senerio
* [note] "Next Charge Date" is the next date that user will be charged services, it will be the same day each cycle
* example of a domain user addition:
Adding/Editing a Service Plan
* When creating a new Domain a blank rate plan will be created or copied form an existing rate plan.
* To change or edit a service plan go to "Accounts --> Service Plan"
* You will now see a list of Service plan's, each service plan can have any number of service items within it.
* To change service items within a Service plan click "Select"
* You will now see items in the Service plan
* There are different types of items that you can add
o Recurrent Service
+ Used to add a Service to be billed once a billing cycle (most common)
o Minute Bucket
+ Allows added fields for minute buckets.
+ Must match a Bucket ID with valid rates in the Rate Plan.
o Usage Charge Tax
+ Allows you to tax on $ value of minutes
o Usage Tax
+ Allows you to tax on duration value of minutes
o Non Usage Tax
+ Allows you to add a flat rate tax
* Example of Recurrent service addition:
Adding/Editing a Rate Plan
* When creating a new Domain a blank rate plan will be created or copied form an existing rate plan.
* To change or edit a service plan go to "Rating--> Rate Plans"
* You will now see a list of Rate plan's, each rate plan can have any number of rate entries within it.
* To change rate entries within a Rate plan click "view"
* You will now see entries in the Rate plan
* These entries are ordered and sorted by Term prefix, i.e. beginning part of number dialed
* To edit click the term prefix link
* You will see all the the different entries with that term prefix.
* [note] this is useful for allow different rates based on originating caller to the same number.
* to edit specific entry click "edit" next to the entry with the correct originating specifics
* this should bring up specific editable features of that entry.
* example of a rate entry from any originating number dialing a international number at .10/min
Adding a Post Rating Schedule
* A post rating schedule is needed to pull CDR's from a SipBx and rate them
* A separate schedule is needed for each domain configured
* You can add a schedule from "Accounts --> Post Rating Schedule" form the Menu bar
* You should see a list of currently configured schedules
* Click "Add Entry" to add
* It will ask you a series of questions about who you want to get calls from and who you want to bill them to.
o [note] if your bucketing calls per domain, you need to charge all calls to domain user.
* A example is below, this will pull cdr's for all years of netsapeins.com domain and charge them to domain@netsapiens.com
Adding a new Billing Account
* This is the last step a Post rate domain setup
* This step is where you will enter in all of the customer specific data not necessarily having any correlation to the SiPbx
* Information such as Company name,Address, phone number, etc will be entered here.
* Also information such as Bill dates, due periods, and whether to roll amounts over are set here.
* To create a new account go to "Accounts --> Billing Info"
* Click "Add"
* Enter the domain and user.
o [note] If you want a domain wide bill, please use "*" and not "domain" as "*" will get more information
o [note] You will want to have you bill date at least a day behind your normal service range on a user to eliminate any missed calls
* An example of a Domain bill is below:
Viewing a bill
* Netsapiens NAS will calculate all of the totals for a month on the Bill date at 00:00:00.
* This process will sum up all of the services, minutes, and taxes into a total.
* These total values are available immediately in the UI via "Charge --> Bills"
* After this time BillGen a feature of Netsapiens NAS will make create bills.
* BillGen will run every minute looking for new bills to make, but has an adjustable window to force it to only work during off hours
* Customized bills will be available for download in 3 formats
o PDF - Portable Document Format
o XLS - Microsoft Excel (editable)
o PPT - Microsoft PowerPoint (editable)
Troubleshooting / FAQ
* Q: I can't see any domains when i try and add one?
o A: Check your connection settings to the SiPbx, check with Netsapiens support
* Q: No services are showing up on my bill?
o A: Check in "Charges --> Service Record" to see if they are there and correct
o Q: No services are showing up in Service Records.
+ A: Make sure the account's valid dates are correct?
+ A: Make sure the account's next/last charge dates are correct?
* Q: No minute charges are showing up on my bill?
o A: Check in "Charges --> Call History" to see if they are there and correct
o Q: No calls are showing up in Call history.
+ A: Check the post rate schedule to see if correct. Should show last cdr pull and next pull.
o Q: I see the calls but it says "No Rate"
+ A: This means that it could not find a valid rate. Check the Rate table for that domain.
+ [note] Make sure rates are valid and the correct rate plan is selected for the Account.
* Q: I changed the rate table, how can I re-rate calls?
o A: In "Accounts --> Post Rate Schedule" push back the next poll time, it will override the old call with the new.
* Q: I changed things now i need to re-run services and bucketed minutes calculations?
o A: In "Accounts --> Accounts" push back the next/last poll time
o [note] If you want to override old service charges you need to keep the same day of month. i.e change only the month and year values
* Q: I re-rated calls and service, how do i recreate a bill?
o A: In "Accounts --> Billing Info" push back the next/last poll time
o [note] If you want to override old bill you need to keep the same day of month. i.e change only the month and year values
* Q: minutes are not being bucketed properly?
o A: Check in Call History to see what bucket ID a call was credited to by clicking on the "Rate Entry" column
o A: Make sure the Account has a Bucket item with the correct Bucket ID on it
o [note] If need be re-rate the calls and services (question above)
* Q: Bills don't show countries by name for all international numbers?
o A: In "Rating --> Country Codes" verify the term prefix's country code is correct.
