Grant Discounts

A Grant discount grants the customer an award, for example free minutes, usually as part of a calling plan or promotion. Grant discounts are calculated when usage is rated.

Note:

If you’re adding a grant discount to support a refillable package, that option is available on the Units page of the grant discount configuration wizard.

Adding a Grant Discount

Start by adding a new item as a Discount in the Product Catalog. In the New Discount form specify the required SKU and Description fields and select Grant Discount in the Registry Description drop-down menu. You cannot edit the Discount Category at this time. This is deferred until after the discount has been saved and run through the discount wizard. It is also recommended to defer setting the Processing Order.

Notes:

• Tiered Group Discount is not available as an option for grant discounts.

• Associative Type options are based on Registry Description as described below.

• Other fields are described in Add/Edit Discount Form – Main Tab.

Associative Type

This drop-down menu lets you specify the calling network where the discount applies. The following options are available for grant discounts:

• None (Default) – The discount applies to all numbers (no specific network).

• Favorite Exact Dialed Digits – This is a specific list of service numbers that contribute to the discount, but they do not have to be subscribers. This list is maintained on the customer account on an individual service basis (in Customer Care or CostGuard Client Customer Management).

  Note:

  These numbers cannot be on the same account, be toll-free or international.

• Global Exact Dialed Digits – This is a specific list of service numbers that subscribers can call without a charge. This list is maintained in the Product Management Global Dialed Digits Numbers table (see Global Dialed Digits Numbers in the article on Finishing Discount Configuration).

  Note:

  Calls made to global dialed digit numbers are applied to the appropriate Global Dialed Digits discount when the calls meet these conditions:

  • The dialed number is included in the Global Dialed Digits Numbers table.

  • The date of the call falls within the effective and expiration dates for the dialed number as set up in the Global Dialed Digits Numbers table.

  • The service number’s total amount for calls to Global Dialed Digits does not exceed the number of units entered on the Units page of the Shared (Grant) Discount wizard.

If the call does not meet all these conditions, it is deducted from the next appropriate grant discount, such as Anytime, Night/Weekend discounts.

• Intra Account Calling – The discount is added to one service number on an account which can be considered the parent service number. That service number and all child service numbers on that account receive the discount.

Grant Discount (Shared Units) Configuration Wizard

The grant discount configuration wizard (labeled Shared Units Wizard) requires you to specify how the discount will (or will not) be shared across services on the account, and then takes you through a series of pages to specify other criteria. To configure a grant discount right-click on the Discount catalog item in the Product Catalog and select Configure to open the Shared Units wizard. On the welcome page, click Next to proceed and define the following options.

Shared Across Service Numbers

Specify how the discount will be shared across services on the account.

Note:

If you need to change this setup after the discount has been assigned to one or more accounts, you’ll need to submit a service request. If shared across all services on sibling accounts is selected, sharing will be allowed across services with the same corporate parent account. It will only share services on the accounts at the same level in the corporate account tree.

• Not Shared – If selected and the discount is assigned to a service, only that service receives the discount. If selected and the discount is assigned at the customer level, it behaves the same as Shared across all services on account.

  Note:

  • This option should be selected for AdvancePay discounts.

  • This option is not available for the Intra Account Calling associative type.

• Shared across all services onaccount – All lines on the account share the discount.

  • Caution: Do not use this option for refillable discounts.

  • Example: If the discount grants 100 free minutes to the service where it is assigned, and the account has five services, all five services will share 100 minutes.

• Shared across all services that have this discount – All lines on the account assigned this discount share the totals of this discount.

  • Example, If an account has five services and three of those services have the same discount for 100 free minutes, those three services will share 300 minutes.

• Shared across selected services (no max) – If selected, an unlimited number of lines from the same account can be added to share the discount. Caution: Do not use this option with the Intra Account Calling Associative Type.

  • Sharing Example: If the discount provides 100 free minutes to the service where it is assigned, and the account has five services, but only three services share the discount (service where the discount is assigned plus two other selected services on the account), then only those three services will share 100 minutes.

  • Configuring the selected services list – The list of selected services for the account where the discount will apply must be configured. When a shared selected services discount is sold, a dialog for selecting the services is displayed at the time of sale unless you suppress this dialog by checking the Suppress Shared Grant Discount Dialog setting in POS Backoffice > Locations > General Options tab. If the location for the sale is set up to suppress the dialog or the dialog is dismissed without selecting the services, a follow-up is generated as a reminder to populate the shared numbers list. In that case, the list must be configured on the service via the context menu for the discount (right click and choose Properties > Shared Services). This applies to both the no max and max lines options. This process is described in greater detail in the article on Managing Assigned Discounts.

• Shared across selected services (max lines) – If selected, a limit is set on the number of lines that can share the discount. You must enter the maximum number of services per account that can share the discount. Again, if you need to configure the list after the discount is assigned, see Managing Assigned Discounts. The Sharing exmple for the no max option applies here as well.

• Shared across services with selected SKU(s) – If this option is selected, the system automatically checks all services on the account for their assigned products/packages. The associated SKUs are configured on the Associated SKUs wizard page.

This option works very much like the shared across selected services option. The difference is that you are not required to manually select the services to share the discount. When a service number is assigned the discount, the system checks all other services on the account for their assigned SKUs. If a service has at least one of the associated products (SKUs), that service shares in the grant discount’s minutes or occurrences.

For example, the grant discount Family Share includes the following SKUs:

• Family Share is assigned to service number 315-555-1212, Account 1234.

• 100Text SKU is assigned to 315-555-1313, Account 1234.

• 500Text SKU is assigned to 315-555-1414, Account 1234.

• 250Text SKU is assigned to 315-555-1515, Account 1234.

All service numbers receive the benefits of the Family Share discount, except 315-555-1515. The 250Text SKU was not included in the discount’s Associated SKUs list.

• Shared across all services on sibling accounts – If selected, sharing will be allowed across services with the same corporate parent account. It will only share services on the accounts at the same level in the corporate account tree.

Units

The Units page specifies the kind and amount of units granted by the discount.

Note:

There are considerations when you’re configuring the grant discount to support a refillable package.

Select a Units Type from the drop-down list:

• Minutes (used with voice-based calling)

• Occurrences (such as number of calls or texts, or amount of data)

• Currency (money)

Then enter the Number of Units for the discount as an integer value (no text).

Notes:

• 0 = no units. If the intention is for the discount to offer unlimited units, leave Number of Units blank and check the Unlimited box as described below.

• If Unit Type = Currency, enter the value as dollars up to two decimal places. Do not enter a dollar sign or other special characters.

• If Unit Type = Minutes enter the value as minutes; however, the value will be stored in seconds in the database.

• If Unit Type = Occurences, and you are entering a value for data, the Number of Units is binary measured in kilobytes. Remember to enter the binary value in kilobytes with no units suffix (KB, GB, etc). For example:

  • For values in kilobytes, like 100 KB, simply enter the integer 100.

  • For values in gigabytes, terabytes or anything larger, calculate number of units (GB, TB, etc.) based on the 1024 multiplier to get the actual number of kilobytes (1 GB = 1,048,576 KB, 2 GB = 2,097,152 KB, 10 GB = 10,485,760 KB ).

Note:

The CostGuard system will accept non-binary numbers. So, an entry like 6,000,000 will be accepted; however, it may NOT be accurate. Rather, you must calculate the exact number of KBs for the specified amount using the 1024 multiplier. So for example, for 6GB enter 6,291,456 (6 x 1024 = 6,144 bytes x 1024 = 6,291,456 KB). See the example below.

• If you’re creating a refillable discount, the Number of Units value is the base amount.

• If the discount is used by an AdvancePay product, leave the Number of Units field blank. The AdvancePay product’s price points overwrite the discount’s Number of Units when applied in POS or Customer Management.

• Authorized users (through permission profile) can modify the Number of Units field for an assigned/billed grant discount directly on a customer’s account. This lets you analyze actual usage on accounts and then adjust the discount to better fit your needs. See the article on Managing Assigned Discounts.

Check Unlimited if the discount is for unlimited units. Caution: If unlimited, DO NOT enter a value in the Number of Units field, as it may produce unexpected results when rating/billing occurs.

Note:

If you need to change this setup after the discount has been assigned to one or more accounts, you’ll need to submit a service request. If shared across all services on sibling accounts is selected, sharing will be allowed across services with the same corporate parent account. It will only share services on the accounts at the same level in the corporate account tree.

This completes unit configuration unless you’re configuring the discount to support a refillable package.

Refillable Grant Discount Considerations

A unique grant discount is required for each refillable discount offering.

Note:

The refill product must be set up before any discounts can be built. This is because the SKU/ID associated to this product will be used to associate the product to the discount when the discount is configured.

If you’re creating a refillable grant discount, select the Refillable check box.

Caution:

• You cannot have an Unlimited Units type with a refillable discount.

• Also the sharing option – Shared across all services on account – is not compatible with refillable discounts and will cause issues with rating/billing. If you’re configuring this discount for a refillable application, be sure Shared across all services on account is not selected.

Selecting Refillable enables the Amount and SKU fields. These fields are required for refillable grant discounts. For refillable discounts the Number of Units value is the base amount, and the Amount value is the number of units for refills.

• For refillable discounts the Amount value is the refill amount. This field has the same validation as Number of Units (which is the base amount for refillable discounts). This field only allows a limited number of digits depending on the Units Type selected. Guidelines for Occurrence amount (for data, based on KBs and the 1024 multiplier) applies here as well and is shown below.

  

• The SKU field can be entered manually, or a value can be selected from the Discount Factors window, which is available by clicking the ellipses button next to the SKU field. This field is validated to make sure the value entered is a valid Product (ProductCatalog.ProductType = 1).

  Note:

  If the SKU is not found in the list, an error is displayed when you try to continue. Products cannot be shared and can only be applied to a single discount. This validation is done on the final wizard page when the data is committed. An error message is displayed if this validation fails.

Recurrence Type

The Recurrence Type page specifies whether the discount is applied only once or every bill period.

• One-Time – If checked, the customer receives only one grant or block of units (pools of minutes). If you are creating a discount to be used with an AdvancePay Product, select One-Time. When customers select an AdvancePay plan, they are purchasing one block of units at a time.

• Recurring – If checked, the customer receives new grants or blocks of units (pools of minutes) every bill period.

Notes:

• For refillable discounts, Recurrence Type applies to the base discount, which is recurring in most cases. Refills are applied as needed (could be just one in a bill period); however, the base discount is granted again in full during the next bill period.

• If you need to change this setup after the discount has been assigned to one or more accounts, you’ll need to submit a service request. If shared across all services on sibling accounts is selected, sharing will be allowed across services with the same corporate parent account. It will only share services on the accounts at the same level in the corporate account tree.

Grant Expiration

The Grant Expiration page specifies when the discount ends.

If you check Can be overridden, a sales or customer service representative can override the Expires on Disconnect option of the discount assigned to the service or customer.

Note:

Can be overridden can be checked regardless of the expiration method chosen. It can also be used in conjunction with Expire Units on Disconnect.

• Expires at the end of billing period

• Never Expires

• Expires after certain number of days – Enter the number of days as a whole number.

• Expire Units onDisconnect – This can be selected in conjunction with any of the above options.

• If you check Expire Units on Disconnect, the remaining unused minutes expire on the discount disconnect date, even if the discount expiration date is in the future.

• On the customer record, the unit balance’s expiration date remains the same, but the units get an expiration ledger row with a post date equal to the disconnect date of the discount. Leaving the expiration date as originally calculated allows for any POS return logic to correctly determine the amount of money to refund the customer.

• Whether you check Expire Units on Disconnect or not, the minutes may still be prorated based on the configuration of the discount which may cause changes to the Unit Balance.

• If the discount is disconnected before the expiration date has occurred, Expire Unit on Disconnect overrides the amount of end grace added.

• If you do not check Expire Units on Disconnect, the units are still valid until their expiration date is reached.

• Can be Overridden – If checked a sales or customer service representative can override the Expires on Disconnect option of the discount assigned to the service or customer.

Notes:

• If the discount is used by an AdvancePay product, that product’s price points overwrite the expiration days/dates when applied in POS or Customer Management.

• For refillable discounts, this Grant Expiration applies to the base discount. The refill expires automatically at the end of the bill period and is not rolled over. The granted base amount behaves according to this setting.

• If you need to change this setup after the discount has been assigned to one or more accounts, you’ll need to submit a service request.If shared across all services on sibling accounts is selected, sharing will be allowed across services with the same corporate parent account. It will only share services on the accounts at the same level in the corporate account tree.

Proportional Allocation

This page is only displayed if Number of Units on the Units page is not left blank.

Check the Proportional Allocation of Units check box to use proportional allocation when connecting or disconnecting the discount. This tells the system to calculate a portion of whatever is being granted (minutes, occurrences, currency) relative to the time between when the feature is assigned and when it is FIRST billed, and then only allocate that amount. This only applies to the amount granted during that interim period up to the first invoice.

• Unchecked – The customer receives the whole granted amount (say 100 minutes), regardless of when the item is assigned relative to when their first bill period occurs. For example, the discount is assigned on 1/15, and billed on 2/1. Despite having the discount for just half the bill period, the customer gets the full granted amount = 100 min.

• Checked – The system calculates the number of days that exist between the date when the item is assigned relative to the first bill period. For the above example, the customer gets half the granted amount = 50 min.

Note:

Proportional Allocation can be edited on the discount in the Product Catalog after it has been assigned to a customer account. See Editing Discount Wizard Options in the article for Managing Assigned Discounts.

Favorite Numbers

This page is only displayed when Associative Type = Favorite Exact Dialed Digits. The Favorite Numbers page specifies the quantity of favorite numbers allowed on the service and whether they can be managed by OnlineBill subscribers. The Favorite Exact Dialed Digits list is set up and maintained after the discount is assigned to the account. This is done on an individual service basis (in Customer Care or CostGuard Client Customer Management).

Note:

These numbers cannot be on the same account or be toll-free or international.

Number of Allowed Favorites specifies how many active favorite numbers services using this discount can have at any one time. The service’s list of Favorite Numbers can be greater, but no more than this number can be active at the same time.

If OnlineBill is applicable, specify the level of access subscribers will have for managing favorite numbers in OnlineBill:

• Do Not Allow forces subscribers to contact your company to manage their favorite numbers.

• Read Only lets the subscriber see their list of favorite numbers in OnlineBill, but they cannot change them.

• Allow lets the subscriber make changes to their Favorite Numbers list when they are logged into OnlineBill.

Note:

A stand-alone (not shared) favorite numbers discount cannot be changed to a shared discount if it has been assigned to a service. To determine whether the favorite number discount has been assigned, right-click the discount and select View Assigned Instances in the Product Catalog.

Selected Usage Types

Select usage types to contribute to the discount. For example, if you add only the Domestic 1+ usage type, only domestic toll calls will be totaled and discounted.

Note:

Usage types are configured in Admin Console Data Management.

You can choose to include All usage types or specific usage types on an Inclusive or Exclusive basis. Selecting Inclusive or Exclusive enables the New button and associated ID (smaller) and Name (larger) fields. In this case you can:

• Click New to display the Discount Factors form. On this form:

• Double-click to select an individual usage type.

• To select a contiguous list select the first item, press shift and select the last item.

• To select a non-contiguous list, press ctrl while making your selections.

  

• Or you can manually enter usage type IDs or Names. The ID field accepts a comma-delimited list and requires exact matches. The Name field only permits one name at a time and permits wildcards (*). In either case, click New to add the specified usage types. When using wildcards, if one match is found it’s added to the list on clicking New. If more than one match is found, all matches are listed in the Discount Factors form to let you choose one or more using the methods described above.

Minutes-based discounts do not include any occurrence-based usage types. Occurrence-based calls are ignored even if All is selected.

Occurrence-based discounts can include minutes-based usage types. Minutes-based calls are counted as one occurrence per call.

Note:

Selected Usage Types can be edited on the discount in the Product Catalog after it has been assigned to a customer account. See Editing Discount Wizard Options in the article for Managing Assigned Discounts.

Selected Service Types

The Selected Service Types page specifies which kinds of services are eligible to receive the discount. This form works the same as the Selected Usage Types form.

Service types are defined in the Product Catalog. It is expected that when one or more service types are added here, they are used in combination with the Discount Factors specified on the other pages in the wizard. For example, if Usage Types = Domestic 1+ and Service Type = POTS, only Domestic 1+ usage against a POTS service would be discounted; Domestic 1+ against a Conference service or Toll free service would not be considered by the rater/biller.

Note:

Selected Service Types can be edited on the discount in the Product catalog after it has been assigned to a customer account. See Editing Discount Wizard Options in the article for Managing Assigned Discounts.

Selected Distance Types

The Selected Distance Types page specifies which kinds of distances are used to determine the discount. For example, if you add only the International distance type, only international calls will be totaled and discounted. This form works the same as the Selected Usage Types form.

Distance Types are added to the CostGuard system as seed values using the Distance Type table in Admin Console > Data Management.

Note:

Selected Distance Types can be edited on the discount in the Product Catalog after it has been assigned to a customer account. See Editing Discount Wizard Options in the article for Managing Assigned Discounts.

Selected Wireless Call Indicators

The Selected Wireless Call Indicators page specifies which wireless call indicators are included in the discounts. This form works the same as the Selected Usage Types form.

Notes:

• This is only used for wireless voice calling.

• Selected Wireless Call Indicators can be edited on the discount in the Product Catalog after it has been assigned to a customer account. See Editing Discount Wizard Options in the article for Managing Assigned Discounts.

Selected Originating Locations

The Selected Originating Locations page specifies call originating locations that contribute to the discount.

You can choose to specify All locations or specific locations on an Inclusive or Exclusive basis. Selecting one of these options enables the New button. Clicking New displays the Location form. Select the Location Type from the drop-down menu, then enter one or more locations as a comma-delimited list. Each location type requires specific information as follows:

• LATA.OCN: LATA (Local Access Transport Area) and OCN (Operating Company Number) separated by a period. You can look up LATAs in IDI Desktop Client Applications > BackOffice Management > NPA NXX Management > LATA Table. OCNs are listed in the Admin Console Data Management > OCN table.

• NPA: NPA number as set up in the NPAs table (IDI Desktop Client Applications BackOffice Management > NPA NXX Management > NPA Table).

• State: State abbreviation as set up in the State table (IDI Desktop Client Applications BackOffice Management > NPA NXX Management > State Table).

• Country.Region: Country code and Region code, separated by a period. For example, entering 33.9,39.2 adds Monaco, France and Milan, Italy to the list. The country codes and region codes must exist in the Countries and Regions table in Admin Console > Data Management.

• Dialed Digits are configured in IDI Desktop Client Product Management as part of rate plan setup. They are strings of digits that would be dialed. For example, 5859244110 to designate a specific phone number in the U.S., or 4822 to designate calls to Warsaw, Poland. The system matches the most specific first. For example, if the location of one rate detail in the rate plan is 585 and a later one is 5859244110, the system tries to match the more specific one (5859244110) before trying to match the less specific (585). As records are processed the [Orig. Number] value of each record is looked up to see if the Dialed Digits begins with the same value to apply rating.

• SIDs (system IDs) for CDMA/TDMA technology roaming partners are listed in CostGuard Client Applications BackOffice Management > Roaming > SID Maintenance.

• Serving PMNs (IDs) for GSN technology roaming partners are listed CostGuard Client Applications BackOffice Management > PMN Management > PMN.

Note:

Selected Originating Locations can be edited on the discount in the Product Catalog after it has been assigned to a customer account. See Editing Discount Wizard Options in the article for Managing Assigned Discounts.

Selected Terminating Locations

The Selected Terminating Locations page specifies call terminating locations that contribute to the discount. This form works the same as the Selected Originating Locations form.

Note:

Selected Terminating Locations can be edited on the discount in the Product Catalog after it has been assigned to a customer account. See Editing Discount Wizard Options in the article for Managing Assigned Discounts.

Selected Serving Locations

The Selected Serving Locations page specifies the SID, PMN or State of the serving location to be included in the discount. This form works the same as the Selected Originating Locations form.

Note:

This factor does not apply to wireline.

• State: State abbreviation as set up in the State table (IDI Desktop Client Applications BackOffice Management > NPA NXX Management > State Table).

• SID is the system ID associated to CDMA/TDMA technology roaming partners (IDI Desktop Client Applications BackOffice Management > Roaming SID Maintenance)

• Serving PMN is the ID associated to GSM technology roaming partners (IDI Desktop Client Applications BackOffice Management > PMN Management > PMN)

Note:

Selected Serving Locations can be edited on the discount in the Product Catalog after it has been assigned to a customer account. See Editing Discount Wizard Options in the article for Managing Assigned Discounts.

Time of Day

The Time of Day page lets you apply a discount to a particular time of day. The choices in the list are maintained the Rate Periods table in Data Management.

• Time of Day defaults to All. Click Inclusive or Exclusive to include or exclude times of day selectively. Clicking either of these options displays the specific times in the left panel with individual check boxes. This also enables the Select All and Deselect All buttons.

Note:

Time of Day can be edited on the Discount in the Product Catalog after it has been assigned to a customer account. See Editing Discount Wizard Options in the article for Managing Assigned Discounts.

Finishing the Wizard

On the Completing the Shared Units Discount Configuration Wizard page you can use the Back button to return to any wizard page to make changes or Finish to close the wizard and save the changes.

Note:

As indicated above, some discount wizard options can be edited after the discount has been assigned while some changes require a service request. See Editing Discount Wizard Options in the article for Managing Assigned Discounts.

Finishing Grant Discount Setup

After all grant discounts have been added and run through the configuration wizard, do the following to complete the grant discount setup:

• Assign discount categories.

• Set the processing order.

• Set up the discount processing rule (applies only to grant discounts).

• Set up general ledger rules.

• Tweak other parameters if needed.

These steps are covered in the article on Finishing Discount Configuration.