Submitting Test Usage Data

When you have set up pricing for your Product Plans, attached these to end customer Accounts, and created any Prepayments/Commitments for Accounts that need them, you can generate some test Bills for these Accounts. To do this, you'll need to feed some sample usage data into m3ter before you generate test Bills. You can exploit a very useful feature built into the Console, which allows you to submit test usage data into m3ter:

  • For a specific Account.

  • For those Meter data collection fields which are the basis for charging the Account.

You can then generate a sample Bill for the Account and check to see that your usage-based pricing set up is charging correctly before you deploy to production.

This topic explains how to submit data for an existing Account/Meter. To do this, you need to have the following to hand:

  • The Code of the Account for which you want to submit usage data measurements and then go on to check billing.

  • The Meters whose Data Fields are the Target Fields for the Aggregations which you used to configure the Pricing for the Plan you’ve attached to the Account.

Tip: Submit Test Usage Data from an Account page? Alternatively, you can follow similar steps to those explained here to submit usage data for a specific Account directly from the Account page. See Submitting Usage Data for an Account.

To submit usage data for an Account:

1. Select Usage>Meters. The Meters page opens.

2. In the Product drop-down, select the Product the Meter is linked to. The Meters configured for the selected Product are listed.

  • Note that if you want to submit test data for a Global Meter instead, don't select a Product and Global Meters in your Organization are listed.

3. In the list, locate the Meter whose Data Fields were Target Fields for the Aggregation used for pricing the Plan you've attached to the Account.

4. Select the NAME hotlink text of this Meter. The Meter Details page opens.

5. Scroll down the page and select the Submit usage data tab.

6. On the Submit usage data tab you can submit usage data for the Meter:

  • Using the default Simple UI format:

    • A measurement UID is entered automatically.

    • A Timestamp date/time is entered for the current date and time. You can adjust this as required, and you might want to enter a date/time value that is in the past for your submission - see the section below for more details.

    • The Code string for the Meter is entered - this is the required parameter for a Submit Measurements API call to the Ingest API.

    • You can select the Account for which you want to submit usage data for charging the Account.

    • Enter a Value for each of the Meter Data fields as required for the usage data submission. In this example, the selected Meter has a single MEASURE numeric Data Field:

  • Alternatively, you can switch to Advanced, where you can edit the raw JSON for the usage data submission:

Important!

  • The Submit Measurements call to the Ingest API requires the Account Code string for the "account" request parameter. On the Simple format you'll select by the Account Name, but when you switch to the Advanced format, you'll see that it's the Account Code that is being used.

  • For JSON well-formedness, do not have a trailing comma after the last Data Field parameter entry. If you do, then your Submit usage call will be rejected as invalid.

7. Select Submit usage. If the submission succeeds:

  • You'll see a { "result" : "accepted"} message under Log.

  • A Log item is shown for the measurement submission which reproduces the JSON.

  • Note that:

    • The usage data measurement UID - "uid" - has been automatically refreshed with a new unique value to allow a second submission for the same Meter and Account.

    • The timestamp - "ts" - is not refreshed and you can edit this as required for further submissions.

Warning! Repeated Test Submissions using the same UID: If you submit using the same measurement "uid", the Ingest API will accept the measurement, and then during enrichment the system will deduplicate the measurements and notify you of the duplicate.

8. If you want to send a second set of usage data for the same Meter but for a different Account, edit the Account Code, and a second set of measures for the Meter Data Fields.

9. Select Submit usage again to submit a second set of usage data.

Tip: Account consumes several Products? If the Account for which you want to test Billing consumes more that one of your Products, you can repeat these steps for each of the Meters used as the basis for pricing each of the Product Plans attached to the Account.

Tip: Using Data Explorer to check usage data ingest:

  • Submitted usage data can be queried for and then viewed using the Data Explorer. See Performing Usage Queries and Reviewing Results for details.

  • However, please note that in the special case where, after submitting some usage data for an Account, you have:

    • Deleted the Account and recreated it using the same Code.

    • Submitted further usage data for the recreated Account.

    • Then, usage data queries using the Data Explorer will not be synchronized fully with the usage data linked to the Account for Billing purposes.

    • This is because the usage data linked to the now deleted Account is no longer available for Billing against the new recreated Account, but remains available for Data Explorer queries using the same Account Code.

    • As a matter of best practice when managing your customer Accounts, we strongly recommend against deleting and recreating Accounts using the same Code. Please see Managing Accounts - Best Practices for more on the implications of doing this.

Next: File Uploads for Usage Data by Meter



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