Adding Rates In A Rate Chart
We are done with rate chart creation, a rate chart has been created without any rates in it if you did not choose any base rate. If you choose any base rate, you will see all the rate item under the rate chart that was available on the base rate chart. We can add rates under create rate chart in both case. Now, we will see how to add a rate item under a rate chart.
- Go to Rates >> All Rtes Charts
- Click on rate chart name that you just have created from the list
- Click on Add Rate link under Rates tab
- Fill up the form with appropriate data
- After filling up the form, press Create Rate button.
Available fields for new rate chart are as follows:
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Rates per Minute
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This is the amount you want to charge for per minute call to your customer or user. If you put here $0.10 that means If your customer calls for 10 minutes, you will bill him (10 X $0.10) = $1.00. |
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Rates per Call
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This option allows you to charge a fixed charge for every call regardless the duration of call. For example, if you set $0.05 here, your rate per minute is $0.10. Now, lets say your customer have called for 10 minutes. His bill will be [(10 x $0.10) + $0.05] = $1.05. If he calls for 2 minutes then his bill will be [(2 x $0.10) + $0.05] = $0.25.
In maximum scenario, you will not need this. In that case leave it 0.000. |
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Destination
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Here, you will select specifically for which destination you are adding this rate item. This field is an auto search field. If you enter 88 on the field, it will list all the codes started with 88 automatically. Select the specific destination for which you want to add the rate here. Remember, you must need to select the destination from the list and click on it to select. Only entering destination by yourself will not work. |
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Grace
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Number of initial seconds that will not be billed if call get disconnected within that time. For example,If you set 5 seconds here and if any call gets disconnected less than or equal to 5 seconds then it will not be billed. |
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Minimum Duration
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Your least expected bill time for a call. For example if a call is disconnected within 10 seconds and the minimum duration is set to 20 seconds. Then the call will be charged for 20 seconds instead of 10 seconds. Point to be noted that, if there is any grace period set, minimum duration will come into effect after grace period. For example, if grace is set to 6 secs,and minimum duration is set to 30 seconds, if any call get disconnected within 5 seconds, there will be no bill for that call. But if a call gets disconnected within 7 - 30 seconds, it will be billed for 30 seconds. |
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Pulse
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Number of seconds which create a threshold for incremental billing. For example, if you set 5 here, that means billing will count bill for every 5 seconds and go on incrementally. Total number of second called will be divided by 5 second and billing will count bill for the next whole number. A mathematical example will help to clarify it more. For example, if any customer have called for 12 seconds, what will be the bill amount if rate is set $0.10 per minute and Pulse is set 5 seconds? Bill for every 5 seconds at the rate of $0.10 will be [$0.10 x 5 / 60] = $0.00833. Now, customer have called for 12 seconds. If we divide 12 with 5, we will get 2.4. The next whole number of 2.4 is 3. So bill will be as following calculation -3 x $0.00833 = 0.02499. Here one thing to be noted that, if you set any value as minimum duration, pulse will come into effect after the minimum duration. For example, if minimum duration is 30 sec. and pulse is 6 second, if the call duration is 11 sec, billing with count bill for 30 seconds. But if call duration is 31 seconds, here pulse comes into effect, call will be billed for 36 seconds. |
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Start of Time Slot
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Here you can set effective time for the rate. With this feature you can set peak and off peak price. For example if you want to charge $0.04 for Bangladesh mobile at the peak hours and $0.035 for off peak hours, you can do that with this feature. Here, time zone plays an important role. If your server time zone is set to GMT 0, and if you set 06:00:00 as start time for the rate, that means for it will be effective from GMT 06:00:00 hour. Before this time, this rate will not be effective. For example, if your peak hours are from GMT 06:00:00 to GMT 18:00:00, and rest of the hours are off peak, by adding three different rate, you can manage your peak-off peak rate. Let me show how. Add a rate item with Start time slot 00:00:00 and end time slot as 05:59:59 and set the off peak rate of $0.035. Then add another rate item with Start Time Slot of 06:00:00 and End Time Slot of 17:59:59. Set the peak rate of $0.04 for this rate. Now, lets cover the last part of the off peak time. Add a rate item with Start Time slot of 18:00:00 and end time slot of 23:59:59 and set the off peak rate for it again. Important thing to notice, we cant mixup twoseparate day together, also, we must need to cover all 24 hours of a day for such rating, otherwise calls will not get connected for uncovered time. We generally do not need peak-off peak pricing. In that case single entry is perfect for billing for a specific destination. In such cases set start time slot as 00:00:00 and end time slot as 23:59:59. |
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End of Time Slot
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Described above, set the End Time Slot to complete effectiveness of a rate item. |
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Seconds per minute
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We know as a standard that we have 60 seconds in a minute. But for profit maximization, in many countries there is a tradition of providing less minutes in a second (specially in calling card industry). In such cases you can set whatever the number of seconds you want to provide to your customer. For example, if you set 55 seconds in a minute and sell it to customers, and you purchase from a provider who is charging you for 60 seconds, you are earning 5 seconds for every minute you charge to your customers. This can generate substantial profit for you. But customers can react negatively if they understand. So, our recommendation is to understand the market and customer properly before applying this feature. Until then you can keep it to standard 60 seconds. |
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Day of Week
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Days of the week for which the rate will be applied. You can add a rate item for a specific date only. For example, if you want to provide a special weekend rate to your users, say for sunday, you can set that rate item for that day. But you must need to cover all 7 days of week for a specific destination. So, if you add special rate for Sunday, you need to add another rate which is available for Monday to Saturday. |
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Currency
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Currency with which you will charge the customer, you can select your desired currency from the list of available currency. |
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Searching Rate Item
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Rate items under a specific rate chart are searchable by destination name anddestination code. If you want to find out a specific destination and its rate settings, you can find them by searching from here. As well as, you can download the entire rate chart in *.csv format and process that according to your need. You can access searching option from Navigation Menu >> Rates >>[Click on the rate chart name for which you want to search rate item] >> Rates Tab >> All Rates.
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Editing A Rate Item
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From the search result table, by clicking on a destination name, you can edit any rate item. We have discussed various fields for a rate item settings in previous section. You can edit any field data as you want. After editing, by clicking on Save button, you can save changes you have made. You can edit any rate item by following link. Navigation Menu >> Rates >> [Click on the rate chart name for which you want to search rate item] >> Rates Tab >> All Rates >> [Click on the destination name that you want to edit] >> Edit.
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Deleting A Rate Item
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You can delete a rate item from a rate chart by following the same way you did for editing a rate chart. Besides edit tab, you have another tab over that named Delete, by clicking on that and confirming, you can delete any rate item. Navigation Menu >> Rates >> [Click on the rate chart name for which you want to search rate item] >> Rates Tab >> All Rates >> [Click on the destination name that you want to edit] >> Delete.
A very important point to be noted here, deleting a rate item from an active rate chart, which have calls running for this particular destination, may cause inconsistency. It will not bill for calls that was active. So, before deleting any rate item from a rate chart, it is strongly recommended to ensure that this rate chart is not being used anywhere or there is no calls running for the particular destination that is being deleted. We generally do not permit deleting rate item under a rate chart anyway. But if you require, we can enable this feature for you.
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Searching Rate Chart
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Rate chart’s can be searched by rate chart name. You can perform search from Navigation Menu >> Rates >> All Rate Charts. Search results will be listed in a table in the same page.
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Editing A Rate Chart Details
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Details of a rate chart can be edited as well. You can change some common settings from here which will be effected for all rate items under the rate chart. You can change parameters such as Grace Period, Minimum Duration, Pulse, Seconds per minute etc. If you change grace period from here, it will change grace period for all the rate items under it. For details explanation about these fields, please refer to section “Adding Rate Item Under Rate Chart”. You can access edit by following link Navigation Menu >> Rates >> All Rate Chart >> [Click on the rate chart name for which you want to search rate item] >> Edit.
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Deleting A Rate Chart
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You can delete a rate chart by following link Navigation Menu >> Rates >> All Rate Chart >> [Click on the rate chart name for which you want to search rate item] >> Edit. If the rate chart is not being used in any account right now, you can delete the rate chart. If it is being used in any account, you will be prompted. In that case, remove the rate chart from those account first and then delete.