Rate Table - Override
- Shawn Gordon
- SVK Support
The Rate Table - Override feature allows you to group 2 or more Rate Tables together allowing CDR2Cloud to use the Rate Table for billing customer CDR records based on characteristics of the records. For example a single customer may consume SMS, VOICE and MMS services on the same account which each carry a different charge. In such situations you are able to group 3 Rate Tables together and allow CDR2Cloud to the proper charge for each service from the applicable Rate Table in the Group. This is all facilitated by the Rate Table Override feature and is extremely useful when your CDR file contains billing records for many different services.
EXAMPLE
Challenge
You are a VoIP Retailer and your VoIP Wholesaler (Provider) provides you with 3 different services which you resell to your customers. They are SMS, MMS and VOICE services. Your VoIP Provider provides you with CDR files on a timely basis which you in turn use for billing your customers, however each CDR file contains CDR records for all 3 services as shown below in the CDR file extract:
CDR file extract showing SMS VOICE & MMS records in a single file
You charge your customers 3 different rates for SMS, MMS and VOICE, as follows:
| Cost | Destination Number | |
|---|---|---|
| VOICE | 80 cents @ minute (0.80) | 353838000001 |
| MMS | 70 cents @ minute (0.70) | 353838000001 |
| SMS | 60 cents @ minue (0.60) | 353838000001 |
You however can only assign one Rate Table to a Customer record, so you need a solution that will allow you to define 3 separate Rate Tables, for SMS, MMS and VOICE, allowing the CDR2Cloud system to use the applicable table depending on the type of service consumed by your customer.
Solution
You define 4 separate Rate Tables each having the same name but different Override expression as follows:
| Purpose | Rate Table Name | Override RegEx | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| For billing VOICE services | Customer Rates | (VOICE) | CDR2Cloud will use this Rate Table for billing all Voice services for customers assigned to the "Customer Rates" Rate Table |
| For billing MMS services | Customer Rates | (MMS) | CDR2Cloud will use this Rate Table for billing all MMS services for customers assigned to the "Customer Rates" Rate Table |
| For billing SMS services | Customer Rates | (SMS) | CDR2Cloud will use this Rate Table for billing all SMS services for customers assigned to the "Customer Rates" Rate Table |
| For billing Other services | Customer Rates | CDR2Cloud will use this Rate Table for billing all other services for customers assigned to the "Customer Rates" Rate Table |
The Override RegEx value must be entered as a Regular Expression which evaluates to true. As such the values in this example are enclosed in parentheses.
A quick way of creating multiple Rate Tables for a Group is to use the Rate Table Copy feature.
Note that when using the Rate Table Override feature to create a group of Rate Tables, there must always be a main Rate Table having the same name and NO Override RegEx value. As such you will have at least 2 Rate Tables with identical Rate Table Names, one with no Override RegEx and another (or multiple) with with an Override RegEx.
Lastly you will assign the Rate Table to the customer record(s) as shown below:
Note that you simply assign the customer record to the main Rate Table and CDR2Cloud will figure out which Rate Table in the Group should be used for each CDR record.