Creating and Managing Account Balances
You can create Balances for your end customer Accounts in m3ter directly from the Account details page. When you've added a Balance to an Account, you can open a Balance details page and from there:
Add Transactions for the Balance for credit or debit amounts.
Review Balance metadata.
This topic explains how to create Balances for your end-customer Accounts and how to review Balance metadata:
Important: Understanding Billing for Balances! Please review the Understanding and Managing Billing for Balances topic above before creating Balances for your end-customer Accounts.
Creating a Balance on an Account
To create a Balance for an Account:
1. Select Accounts. The Accounts page opens.
2. Select the Name text of the Account for which you want to create a Balance. The Account details page opens with the Overview tab selected.
3. On the Account actions menu, select Balances>Create balance:
Alternatively:
Select the Balances tab. Any existing Balances created for the Account are listed on the Balances panel.
Select Create balance.
The Create page opens.
Warning: You must create at least one Currency for your Organization before you can create a Balance! If you haven't, the Create page will not open and you'll see a warning:
Select the Manage currencies hotlink text provided. This takes you directly to the Create page to create the Currency you want to use for the Balance. See Creating and Managing Currencies.
When you create the new Currency, you are taken directly back to the Balance Create page and the Currency is selected.
4. Enter the required Balance details:
Name. (Required)
Code. (Required)
Currency. Use the drop-down list to select the currency you want to use for the Balance. (Required)
Start date (inclusive) and End date (exclusive). Use the calendar pop-ups to set start and end dates/times to define the time period the Balance will be active for the Account. (Required)
Consumptions accounting product. For accounting purposes, select to link any Balance consumed draw-down Bill line items against the Balance to a particular Product for accounting purposes. (Optional)
If you omit a Consumptions accounting product, then then Balance consumed Bill line items will not be linked to a Product and will be listed under Other line items.
Fees accounting product. For accounting purposes, select to link any Balance fee Bill line items to a specific Product for Charges against the Balance. (Optional)
If an Accounting product has been selected for a Charge against the Balance, this takes precedence and will be used.
If an Accounting product has not been defined for a Charge and you omit Fees accounting product for the Balance, then Balance fee Bill line items will not be linked to a Product and will be listed under Other line items.
Description. Enter a description for the Balance. (Optional)
5. Enter Balance draw-down settings, which are optional:
Draw-down products. Select the Products whose consumption charges can be drawn-down against the Balance amount.
Note: If you don't select any products for draw-down, by default the charges for all products consumed by the Account will be drawn-down against the Balance amount.
Draw-down charge types. Select the charge types that can be drawn-down against the Balance amount:
Minimum spend
Standing charge
Usage
Counter running total charge
Counter adjustment debit
Note: If you don't select any charge types, by default at billing all of these charge types will be drawn-down against the Balance amount.
Draw-down description. Enter a custom description that will appear against Bill line items for draw-down charges against the Balance.
Note that if you leave this blank, a default description will be used: Balance Consumed.
Tip: Draw-Down Order when Multiple Balances on Account?
If an Account has multiple Balances, the order in which Balances are drawn-down against is determined by Balance end date - the Balance with the earlier end date is draw-down against first.
If you have multiple Balances ending on the same date and want to enforce a particular draw-down order, please contact m3ter Support so we can guide you toward the best solution based on your current configuration.
6. Enter Balance overage and rollover settings, which are optional:
Rollover amount. If the charges drawn-down against the Balance during the period the Balance is active for the Account don't exhaust the Balance, you can have whatever remains of the Balance rollover. This means charges continue to be drawn-down against the unused amount beyond the active end date set for the Balance.
If you want to enter a cap on any rollover amount used for a rollover or grace period, enter the amount here.
You'll need to enter a Rollover end date also to enable the rollover/grace period - if you only enter an amount for rollover without entering an end date, you'll receive an error when you try to save the Balance.
Rollover end date. If you want to allow a rollover or grace period where any unused Balance amount continues to be drawn-down against charges due after the defined active end date, then use the pop-up calendar to define an end date for the rollover or grace period.
Note: Rollover on Balance not required? If you don't want a rollover on a Balance, simply leave Rollover amount and Rollover end date blank.
Overage surcharge (%). Optionally, enter a value for the additional surcharge (in percent) added to bills for overages on the Balance amount:
Note that you can enter a negative percentage if you want to give a discount rate for usage to end customers who exceed their Balance amount.
Overage description. Optionally, enter a custom description to be used for Bill line items for Balance amount overage surcharge.
Tip: Balances overage pricing? If you are using a tiered pricing structure when pricing Plans, you might want to set up overage pricing bands for Balance/Prepayment overage pricing, and instead of using a percentage addition/reduction on the standard pricing for usage. See Creating Pricing for a Plan.
Important! Balance Overage surcharge percentage overrides Balance Overage pricing. If you have set up overage pricing on a tiered pricing structure when pricing a Plan that will apply to billing for the Balance and you have also set up overage surcharge percentage when creating the Balance for an Account, any overage usage charges on the Account will be billed at the overage surcharge percentage rate and the Balance overage pricing will be ignored. See Creating Pricing for a Plan.
7. Select Create balance. You are returned to the Balances tab, where the new Balance is listed:
The Balance Amount shows as zero and you'll now have to create Transactions for the Balance to add credit or debit amounts to the Balance. See Creating and Managing Transactions for Balances.
8. If you want to review the details of the Balance, select the Name hotlink text. The Balance details page opens:
Note that on the Balance details card, you can:
Read-off the Balance ID and Copy it directly to your clipboard.
Check at-a-glance various amounts for a Balance: Current balance amount, Initial credit amount, Total credit/debit amounts, Rollover amount, and Rollover remaining amount. When an Account to which a Balance has been added starts to consume your Products and charges are drawn-down against it, these amount fields are very useful for tracking and managing the Balance.
Next Step? When you've created a Balance for an end customer Account, you can then create Transactions for the Balance to flexibly manage and maintain the Balance amount. See Creating and Managing Transactions for Balances.
9. If you want to edit the Balance's details, select the Edit button, make your changes, and click Update Balance.
10. Return to the Balances tab.
11. If you want to remove a Balance, select the Delete button for the Balance:
A confirmation popup opens.
12. Select Yes to confirm the delete action.
Reviewing Balance Metadata
On the Balance details page, you can review metadata for any External Mappings created for the Balance.
To review Balance metadata:
1. Select Accounts. The Accounts page opens.
2. Select the Name text of the Account for which you want to review Balance metadata. The Account page opens.
3. Select the Balances tab.
4. On the Balance panel, select the Name text of the Balance you want to review metadata for. The Balance details page opens.
5. Scroll down the page to the Balance metadata panel:
External mappings. Any existing mappings created for the Account are listed:
The external System and Table mapped to are listed.
The external entity ID mapped to is also shown and you can Copy this directly to your clipboard.
Note that you can start a Create external mapping workflow directly from here. See Creating and Managing External Mappings for Accounts for an example.
Additional Support
Login to the Support portal for additional help and to send questions to our Support team.