The Usage Balance page provides usage, balance and overage information for each discount category and grant discount associated to a service, within a given bill period.
It’s commonly used with AdvancePay services to analyze the service’s discount unit(s) utilization and help customer service representatives answer balance-related subscriber questions. You can:
Quickly see the current balance and expiration dates of a discount category.
View a ledger-format history of the transactions that result in the current unit balance for a given discount category.
View the usage records that fall under a given discount category.
Directly adjust (as a debit or credit) the unit balance for a specific discount category to resolve issues without needing a separate transaction or running rating.
Access to this view is via the Customer menu: Billing> Usage Balance.
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Permissions
The Add Unit Balance Adjustments permission under the Customer Care category in the Security web module regulates users’ ability to perform unit balance adjustments. This permission is provided with the Customer Care Admin role and can be added to other roles as needed.
Setting Up the View
The Unit Balance page provides three selectors (filters) in the upper left that drive the display of (discount) Categories below the selectors. Selecting a Category displays the corresponding Unit Balance Ledger in the center-right panel.
View Options
Show Active Services and Units (default).
Show Active Services and Expired Units.
Include Disconnected Services and Expired Units.
Service Number
Viewing and selecting a service number is based on the chosen View Options, where either only active services are shown, or you choose to make disconnected services also available for selection.
Catalog Item
When applicable, you can choose a catalog item that is contributing to the unit balance. The selector defaults to no item selected. Selecting a catalog item displays only those discount categories where the selection contributed an amount of units.
Note: You can filter the Service selector to not list disconnected services.
Indicates units used is greater than the usage notification threshold for the category
Indicates units used exceeds the total units
The Categories area below the selectors use the above selections to display discount categories that have non-expired units available. The following information is provided for each discount category listed:
Category – the configured description of the discount category.
Remaining Amount – the current number of units that are still available in the category.
Expires on <date> - the date when the displayed units will expire.
The Unit Balance Ledger
Selecting a specific Category (when more than one apply) displays the ledger details containing the discount-related activity and/or transactions that affected the unit balance. Rows are filtered to activity where:
The expiration date has not been passed (unless you chose to show expired units).
The available date is not in the future (unless you chose to Show Future activity).
The following details are provided for each displayed row for a chosen discount category:
Discount - the configured description of the grant discount involved in the activity. Note: If the grant discount has no configured description, the SKU value is used.
Action - identifies the cause or what was done that resulted in a change to the unit balance. (e.g., Allocate, Extend, Usage, Expire, etc.).
Unit Change - the amount of units that were either debited or credited by the action.
Balance - the remaining balance after the unit change is applied.
Expiration Date - the date the remaining units are scheduled to expire (to be removed from the balance).
Available Date - the date the remaining units are scheduled to become available (or became available).
Post Date - the date the result of this action was posted.
Catalog Item - the configured SKU of the catalog item the grant discount was contained within when assigned to the service.
Selecting a Discount
The ledger’s Discount selector contains a list of the grant discounts for the selected Category. The discount name is the configured Description (or SKU, if no description exists). It defaults to no filter. When you select a discount, the listed discount activity is filtered to only those where the selection applies.
Showing Future-dated Units
The Show Future check box lets you choose to display future (yet-to-be-posted) units along with current units (and expired units when that option is selected). This is unchecked by default.
Showing Usage Records for a Unit Balance Ledger Transaction
For ledger rows where Action = Usage, a selector (kebab) is available in the far-right column to select and then view the associated usage. This helps you answer questions about a subscriber’s current unit balance by seeing the rated usage activity (calls, texts, data sessions) that affected the balance.
Selecting the View Usage option takes you to the Usage Discount Detail page for the account.
The view is pre-filtered by:
Bill Period = Bill Period associated to the transaction record.
Discount = Discount associated to the transaction record.
Adjusting the Balance of Granted Units
This lets you directly adjust the unit balance for a discount category. You can give a courtesy credit or resolve an issue with a unit balance adjustment. This option is available on rows where Action = Allocate and the Unit Change is not equal to Unlimited.
Selecting New Adjustment displays a Unit Balance Adjustment page with these fields:
Service Number - the service number associated to the Unit Balance Ledger being displayed.
Catalog Item - the catalog item associated to the selected ledger row.
Discount Name - the description of the discount associated to the selected ledger row.
Unit Type – derived from the discount’s configuration.
Available Date - the available date for the selected ledger row.
Expiration Date - the expiration date for the selected ledger row.
Amount - enter an adjustment amount (must be greater than zero). This is required to save the adjustment.
Credit/Debit Selector – this lets you specify whether the adjustment is to credit or debit the specified amount of units. This defaults to Credit.
Description - an optional text field.
Saving the adjustment results in the specified amount of units being added to or deducted from the unit balance.
Use the drop downs to select a billing period and service, then click on the discount category on the left to view the associated balances on the right.
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Summary View:
Detail View:
Note
You can filter the Service selector to not list disconnected services.
Indicates units used is greater than the usage notification threshold for the category
Indicates units used exceeds the total units