Configuring Bandwidth Usage Billing

Bandwidth Billing monitors and bills your clients for the bandwidth they use. You can also include a bandwidth usage graph and chart on your client's invoice.

In order to begin billing for this service, you need to configure Ubersmith. Once all the necessary pieces have been configured, any current or new service based on the service plan will be ready. The configuration steps are as follows:

1. Create a generic bandwidth usage billing service plan.
2. Configure a monitor to track bandwidth usage.
3. Configure the Bandwidth Monitoring device module.
4. Add the Bandwidth Billing service module to your service plan.
5. Configure the service module (below).
6. Create a bandwidth usage billing service.
7. Configure the service plan with the service module fields (below).
8. Associate your monitor to your service.

Configuring the Service Module

The Bandwidth Billing service module monitors and bills your clients for the bandwidth they use. You can also include a bandwidth usage graph and chart on your client's invoice. 

1. In the Overage Precision field, select 0, 1, or 2 to determine how many decimal places to round the amount of bandwidth used.
2. In the Show Usage Chart in PDF invoice field, select Yes or No.
3. In the Show Usage Graph in PDF invoice field, select Yes or No.
4. In the Error when no devices are associated field, select Yes to receive notification if there is no device to track your client's backups. Select No to continue renewing services even if there is no associated device.
5. In the Initial Overage Discount field, select No Discount, Client default, or Parent service discount.
    

Configuring Tiered Bandwidth Billing

When using Tiered Bandwidth Billing, clients can be charged at different rates depending on the amount of bandwidth used.  The number of tiers available is unlimited, and additional tiers may be added by creating the appropriate service metadata fields in the 'Custom Service Data Fields' section of 'setup & admin', i.e.:

bw_tierX_minimum
bw_tierX_rate

where X is a number greater than 2.

Each 'tier' of bandwidth usage is defined by a minimum amount and a rate, with the standard bandwidth billing fields comprising 'Tier 1', with a minimum of zero.

In order to configure a server with 100GB included transfer, then $0.50/GB up to 1000GB total transfer, then $0.30/gb for any further usage, the configuration would be:

bw_billing_method         transfer
bw_included_transfer      100
bw_included_transfer_unit GB
bw_overage_unit           GB
bw_overage_rate           0.50
bw_tier2_minimum          900
bw_tier2_rate             0.30

Note that the tier minimum values are based on the overage, not the usage. You can set default values for these items on a per-service plan basis within the 'Service Plans' section of 'setup & admin', otherwise they can be configured on a per-client service basis in the 'Custom Data' section for the service.

Service Module Fields in Service Plan

Related Topics 

Managing Service Plans

Adding and Configuring a Monitor

Associating a Device with a Client and a Service