FAQ. BILLmanager 6 Hosting&Cloud tariff

On May 2, 2023, a new BILLmanager 6 Hosting&Cloud tariff was announced. This article contains a description of the tariff, its features and answers to frequently asked questions.

Tariff description

Hosting&Cloud is a dynamic tariff, which takes into account the turnover for the reporting period. See Turnover Accounting for more details.

This billing system allows to determine the optimal amount to be paid for BILLmanager.

The following license periods are available for the Hosting&Cloud tariff:

License period	1 month	12 months
License fee	license is paid at the minimum cost when purchased	license is paid with the selected annual turnover limit when purchased
Calculation of excess	at the end of the reporting period, the excess and the additional payment of the license extension to the actual level of turnover are calculated. After paying for the license extension for the expired month purchasing a license for the following period becomes available	additional payment is made to extend the license to the planned turnover for the year based on the extent of the actual excess of the paid turnover limit
Turnover calculation	turnover is calculated from the date of license purchase to the 01 day of each month according to the actual turnover	turnover is calculated from the date of license activation to the date of the annual period end
License extension when the limit is exceeded	license must be extended within 15 days from the license expiry date	license must be extended within 15 days from the excess of the limit
Renewal period with an example	license is renewed for a calendar month. That is, if you activate the license on April 20, it will be valid until May 01	license is renewed for the actual year. That is, if you activate the license on April 20, 2023, it will be valid until April 20, 2024

Features of the Hosting&Cloud tariff

With BILLmanager 6 Hosting&Cloud, all the features of the platform are available out-of-the-box. The price of the license includes all modules, tools, and integrations. The tariff contains all the features of BILLmanager 6, which were previously available only for the tariff with the maximum set of options (Corporate). For example, features include reselling services.

Turnover accounting

Turnover is all paid expenses for the reporting period.

The tariff takes into account:

the portion of the credited payment in the reporting period that was used to pay any expenses for any period;
the costs that became payable in the current reporting period, even if covered by payments from the previous period.

Turnover includes:

credited payments covering expenses. Only a payment in the "Paid" status is considered a credited payment;
certificates for balance topup, partner program (referral program) payments, if they cover the costs;
test payments, if they cover the costs.

Turnover excludes:

promised payments covering expenses;
expenses covered by the credit limit;
balance topups, topup certificates if they do not cover expenses.

If a payment or a part of a payment is returned due to an incorrect expense, the turnover will be recalculated during the reporting period.

Frequently Asked Questions

The trial version of BILLmanager 6 Hosting&Cloud has a limit of 10 users. Are we talking about 10 clients that can place orders or are internal users also taken into account?

The system considers all clients from the BILLmanager Clients → Clients section, including inactive clients.

How does the new scheme of billing based on turnover work?

With monthly billing you purchase a license at a minimum cost of €50 and the system takes into account your turnover during the current license period. If you have exceeded a turnover of more than €5 000 in a period, the additional extension of the license is made on a postpaid basis within 15 days from the end of the license period.

With an annual tariff, license prepayment is made. You choose the range in which your planned turnover for the year falls and pay the cost of the license. For example, your annual turnover is planned from €240 001 to €360 000, then the cost of the annual license will be €3 600. If this limit is exceeded, you must purchase a license extension within 15 days of exceeding it. In your client area, the system will advise you of the current turnover and the cost of extending the license.

If a refund is made, will there be a recalculation of the cost of the license?

If a payment or a part of a payment is returned due to an incorrect expense, the turnover is recalculated during the reporting period. If the period is calculated and paid, there is no recalculation.

Is the renewal based on the calendar or the actual period?

Monthly licenses operated based on calendar withdrawals, while annual licenses are based on the fact.

the cost of payment for calendar withdrawals is calculated as follows:
- If there are less than 15 days left until the end of the month, the cost of the license will be 1 month + a pro rata balance of €50. For example, if you purchase a license on June 20, the license will be extended until August 01 and the payment will be €68,34;
- if there are more than 15 days left until the end of the month, the cost of the license will be a pro rata balance of €50. For example, if you purchase a license on June 05, the license will be extended until July 01 and the payment will be €43,16. The first turnover will be counted for the same period.
if you purchased an annual license on April 20, 2023, it will be valid until April 20, 2024, which is an actual year.

If a one-month license is purchased on April 22, what will the cost be?

In this case, the license will be extended until June 1 and the payment will be €65. The payment amount includes payment for the period from April 22 to May 01 (€15) and payment at the minimum rate for one calendar month of May (€50). In case the turnover limit is exceeded (turnover above €5 000), there will be an additional charge and a license fee for June. If there is no excess, the payment for June will be €50.

What happens if the turnover changes during the paid license period?

If the turnover increases, the system will offer to purchase an extension to the license limit.

If the turnover decreases, you can buy a license for the next period with a reduced limit.

What happens if I exceed the license limit and do not pay for it?

On the first day of exceeding the limit:

a notification about exceeding the turnover is sent to the client area;
BILLmanager interface displays a banner stating that the paid license does not comply with the terms of the license agreement.

After 15 calendar days of exceeding the limit, the following options will be blocked:

creating new clients;
creating new tariff plans;
renewal of the service for further periods.

After 30 calendar days of exceeding the limit, BILLmanager will be completely blocked.

To unblock it, you need to buy a license extension.

How much time do I have to pay for exceeding the limit?

15 calendar days from the date of the invoice for exceeding the limit.

What if I pay for the license renewal before I get the invoice for the extension?

For a monthly license, an invoice for the license extension is issued at the end of the reporting period (01 day of the next month). If the license has already been renewed, payment of the excess will be deducted from that amount.

Example: On May 31 the service was renewed for the following month, until June 30. In May, the turnover was €11 000 and the license extension was invoiced on June 01. The license fee in this case will consist of the following amounts:

€50 minimum cost payment made on May 31;
€150 — payment for the license extension invoiced on June 01.

The total cost of the license will be €200.

In the example above, if payment for the extension bill is not received within 15 days, the following options will be blocked until payment is received:

creating new clients;
creating new tariff plans;
renewal of the service for further periods.

For an annual license, the extension is invoiced from the moment the license limit is exceeded. If the license has already been renewed for the following year, the excess is payable in the current period.

Example: When purchasing a license, a turnover range of €60 001 to €120 000 was selected and payment of €1 200 per year was made. After 8 months, the total turnover was €130 000. The tariff for this range (€120 001 to €240 000) is €2 400. Within 15 days, €1 200 must be paid to reach the amount of the new turnover range.

The total payment for the license extension will be €1 200 (€2 400 minus the €1 200 that has already been paid), and the full cost of the license will be €2 400.

In the example above, if payment for the extension bill is not received within 15 days, the following options will be blocked until payment is received:

creating new clients;
creating new tariff plans;
renewal of the service for further periods.

What happens if there is no payment for the following period?

If you do not pay for a license for the following month, BILLmanager functionality will be completely blocked. Your BILLmanager will be stopped, you will not be able to login or interact with the interface, and your clients will not be able to log in or manage services.

What if I do not know my turnover when I buy an annual license?

In this case, you pay the minimum cost for the year (€600), and then BILLmanager will send a notice about exceeding the limit and the need to pay within 15 days.

Can I choose a turnover range for a monthly renewal?

No, you cannot. For a monthly renewal, you always pay the minimum license fee, and if you exceed the limit, you pay on the post-payment basis. At the end of the reporting period, BILLmanager calculates your actual turnover for paid expenses and issues an invoice to pay for the license extension up to the actual turnover. The invoice must be paid within 15 days of issuance.

What is necessary on my part for you to receive turnover data?

Open port 8443. This is necessary for the transfer of statistics on the company's turnover and the correct calculation of the tariff plan.

What if I do not have the ability to provide you with turnover data?

If BILLmanager does not receive data on turnover, the license is paid at the maximum rate. See our website for tariffs.

We have integrations set up. How will they behave when upgrading?

Your integrations will continue to work as the API in BILLmanager 6 Hosting&Cloud remains the same. For more information about API functions, see the List of API functions article in the BILLmanager documentation.

Correct work of self-written modules and plugins is not guaranteed. We recommend testing their update or consulting with technical support.

Does the product transmit my client data or other sensitive information?

No, it doesn't. The calculation of the amount of the license fee is performed on the client side, and the product sends only the final aggregate value. Also, in order to protect against further misuse in case of late payment, the registration number of the company created in the product is additionally subject to transfer.

How do I switch to Hosting&Cloud?

To switch to BILLmanager, follow the instructions in the article Transition between versions of BILLmanager 6 in the BILLmanager documentation.

We have updated the BILLmanager Advanced edition to Hosting&Cloud, but creating a new provider is not available to us. Why is that?

All BILLmanager features are available for the Hosting&Cloud edition. If some options are unavailable, most likely the update was performed incorrectly. For more information about the update process, see the article Transition between versions of BILLmanager 6 in the BILLmanager 6 documentation.

We recommend backing up the server before updating.

Repeat the update procedure with the command:

/usr/local/mgr5/sbin/billmgr-upgrade.sh corporate

CODE

After updating again, check for additional features. If the new menu sections are still unavailable, possible problems with the update are described in the article Problems with platform update. If the problem cannot be resolved, please contact our technical support via your client area under Support → Support tickets → Add.