Other charges

Smile includes other recurring and account related charges.

Invoice items—are used for one-off purchases and can be applied to any account or subscription.

Account recurring charges—can be applied at the account rather than subscription level. These type of charges are essentially recurring invoice items specified at the account level. For example, only invoice items can be used as the basis of account recurring charges so the invoice items must be defined before the account recurring charge is defined.

Subscription standard charges—can be applied to a specific subscription. Subscription standard charges are the equivalent of account recurring charges except that they apply to a specific subscription. These charges can be added after the subscription is created.

Tip: Service recurring charge, account recurring charge and subscription standard charge are collectively known internally to Smile as user auto charges.
  • Subscription custom charges—are no longer supported. They were the same as subscription standard charges, except that they were not restricted to predefined invoice items.

Contracts—are defined on a service and can be made available to the associated plans. A contract can have setup and termination charges.

Tariffs and Plan rules—are used for voice and data subscriptions. Collectively they referred to as usage charges.

Properties associated with these charges can be scheduled to take affect on a given date. Tariffs have a tariff start date. Plan rules have a more sophisticated date restrictions definition.

Tariff and plan rule changes, such as corrections, affect invoices as follows:
  • Rate on processing (standard Smile configuration 2014 and prior)—Rating occurs according to the tariffs and plan rules in effect at the time of invoice processing. Any subsequent change to tariffs and plan rules, even for dates that would be relevant to a previously processed invoice, have no affect, unless the invoice is regenerated.
  • Pre-rating—As per rate on processing. Pre-rating differs with rate on processing by virtue of its support for spend limit management during the rating period.
  • BigRating—Smile processes charges in real-time. Charges changed retrospectively cause automatic re-rating and the application of subsequent credits and debits to future invoices.
Usage charges are typically charged monthly.

Prepaid time and data—charges are used for voice and data subscriptions.

Bonds—are a special type of charge used for holding a deposit or security.

Surcharges—can be applied according to payment type. For example, MasterCard, Visa and Diners cards.

Late fees—can be applied by credit control.

Declined payment fees—are configured on payment methods.

Adjustments—such as credit notes and debt notes are transactions raised by the operator and applied to an account.

Managed plan upgrade / downgrade fees—are defined within the managed plan matrices.

Feature recurring charges—can be defined on features applied to subscriptions. Features are used to manage related functions that can be turned on and off multiple times during the course of the supply of a given service. For example, voice mail on a phone service.

Charges can be associated with the application of features to subscriptions, but not plans. Where charges are involved these are started and ended as the features are enabled and disabled.