Creating Custom Plans for Accounts - m3ter Documentation

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You can create custom Plans for an Account:

• Custom Plans can only be attached to that specific Account.
• When you create custom Plans, they are attached to the Account to create an Account Plan based on the start and end dates you have entered.
• You can add Aggregations or Counters and price the custom Plan straightaway in the Plan details page.
• Lastly, you might then want to edit the details of the Account Plan you’ve created for the Account using the custom Plan, such as first bill date or adding it to a Contract that’s linked to the Account.

Attaching Plans to Accounts! We strongly recommend you review the Attaching Plans to an Account topic for more details before you proceed to create custom Plans for an Account.

Creating a custom Plan for an Account and performing the required configuration work to prepare the attached Plan for charging the Account involves four stages:

• Stage 1: Creating Custom Plan
• Stage 2: Attaching Custom Plan to Create Account Plan
• Stage 3: Pricing the Custom Plan
• Stage 4: Editing Account Plan Details

You can delete an Account Plan from an Account on the Attached Plans tab:

• Deleting an Account Plan

Creating Custom Plan

To create a custom Plan for an Account:

1. Select Accounts. The Accounts page opens.
2. Select the Name text of the Account. The Account page opens with the Overview tab selected.
3. On the Account actions menu, select Plans>Create custom plan:

Alternatively:

• Select the Attached plans tab.
• On the Active and pending attached plans panel, select the actions Menu button.
• On the menu, select Create custom plan.

The Create page opens for Stage 1: Create plan.

4. On the Plan details card, use the Product drop-down list to select the Product for the custom Plan you’re creating for the Account:

• If the Product you select doesn’t have any Plan Templates created for it, then you must first create one before you can create a Plan for the Product. You’ll see a warning with a hotlink create plan template text, which you can use to go directly to the Plan Templates>Create page. When you’ve created a Plan Template for the Product, you’ll be brought straight back to the Create custom plan page to proceed.
• If the selected Product has Plan Templates created for it, you can proceed and create a custom Plan based on one of the templates.

5. Use the Plan Template drop-down list to select the template you want to use for the custom Plan.
6. Enter the details of the custom Account Plan:

• Name. Descriptive name for the custom Plan. When you create a custom Plan for an Account, a default name is loaded, which prefixes the Account name. You can edit this name text as required.
• Code. Unique identifier for the custom Plan. When you create a custom Plan for an Account, a default code string is loaded. You can edit this code string as required.

7. Use the Standing charge card to enter settings for the custom Plan:

• Standing charge. You can override the value inherited from the Plan Template. For example, enter 20. The Value from template value is struck through.

• Standing charge billing. If you want to override the Use configuration from plan template setting for billing either in arrears or in advance - shown in brackets - then select the setting you want for the custom Plan.

• Standing charge accounting product. For accounting purposes, select a Product that will be linked to any Standing charge line items on Bills. (Optional)

• Note that if you leave this blank, then the Product the Plan belongs to will be used.

• Standing charge description. You can enter a description for any Standing charge amounts billed. This will override any description entered for the Plan template and will appear against this type of bill line item.

8. Use the Minimum spend card to enter settings for the custom Plan:

• Product minimum spend. You can override the value inherited from the Plan Template. For example, enter 125.

• Minimum spend billing. If you want to override the Use configuration from plan template setting for billing either in arrears or in advance for minimum spend amount - shown in brackets - select the setting you want for the custom Plan.

• Minimum spend accounting product. For accounting purposes, select a Product that will be linked to any Minimum spend or Minimum spend adjustment line items on Bills. (Optional)

• Note that if you leave this blank, then the Product the Plan belongs to will be used.

• Minimum spend description. You can enter a description for any Minimum spend amounts charged at billing. This will override any description entered for the Plan template and will appear against this type of bill line item.

9. Select Next. The page adjusts to show that Stage 1: Create plan is completed and you can now move to Stage 2: Attach plan to the Account to create an Account Plan.

Attaching Custom Plan to Create Account Plan

When you have completed Stage 1: Create plan, the Create page adjusts to allow you to complete for Stage 2: Attach plan. To attach a Custom plan to an Account:

1. On the Plan attachment settings card, enter Start date and End date to define the period you want the custom Plan to be active for the Account for charging for Product usage:

• A Start date is required.
• If you omit an End date, the Account Plan will be applied to the Account perpetually or until such time as you delete the Account Plan.
• Note that End dates are treated exclusively. For example, if you set the End date of June 1st 2022, then the Account Plan ceases to be active for the Account at midnight on May 31st 2022, and any billing is calculated up to that point in time, NOT up to midnight on June 1st. If you want to include end customer Account usage occurring on June 1st for billing, you must set the End date to June 2nd.

Warning: Overlapping Attached Plans!

• Default setting. The default Organization setting imposes the contraint that an Account can only have one active Account Plan per Product – if you enter a Start date which would mean the new Account Plan overlaps with an Account Plan that is already active for the Account, then a warning will show and you’ll be given the option to end the existing Account Plan on the Start date of the new Account Plan.
• Allow overlapping attached plans. If your billing use case requires you to attach more than one Plan to an Account for the same Product at the same time, then you must first enable the Allow overlapping attached plans Organization setting.

2. If you want to set the date the first and subsequent Bills are due for the selected Account using the Account Plan, use the Billing cycle date option. For example, if the Plan is configured for monthly billing frequency and you set Billing cycle date as February 14th, then m3ter will create a first bill for the Account on that date and every month from that date - March 14th, April 14th, and so on. If left blank, then start of billing defaults to the billing cycle date configured for the Account. (Optional)
3. If you want to add the Account Plan to a Contract you’ve created for the Account, use the Contract drop down to select it. (Optional)

Notes:

• Once you’ve attached a Plan to an Account, you can quickly add it to a Contract from Plan attachment details.
• For more details on Contracts, see Creating Contracts for Accounts.

4. If the Account is either a Parent or a Child Account, you can select for Account hierarchy billing mode, which determines how billing will be handled and shown on bills for charges due for the Parent Account and charges due for Child Accounts:

• Bill parent account - bill line item per account. Default setting.
• Bill parent account - single bill line item for all accounts.
• Bill child account.

Notes:

• The billing mode options are only operative if the Account is a Parent or Child Account. For a full explanation of what each means when attaching Plans to create Account Plans for Parent or Child Accounts, see Billing Hierarchy Modes for Parent/Child Accounts.
• If you Price the Custom Plan using a Counter for unit-based pricing, then Parent/Account billing is not available for the charges or credits due under the pricing.

5. Select Create plan and attach to complete Stage 2:

• The custom Plan is created for the Account - it’s created as an Account specific Plan, which means you can only attach it to this Account.
• The custom Plan is attached to the Account and an Account Plan is created.
• The Plan attachment details page opens:

For the Account Plan created when you attached the custom Plan to the Account, under Plan attachment details you can:

• Check the dates for the period the Account Plan will be active for the Account.
• Read-off the Account Plan ID with the option to Copy this directly to your clipboard.
• Manage linking of the Account Plan to a Contract:
  • If not previously added to a Contract, select Add to contract.
  • If previously added to a Contract, select Remove from contract.
• Select Edit if you need to make any changes to the Account Plan, such as update the start and end dates.

6. If you scroll down the page, you can review Plan attachment metadata metadata:

Custom Fields. Any fields created for the Account Plan entity are listed.

• If any Custom Fields have been created at the Organizational level, these are shown and you can Copy the number or string value to your clipboard:

External mappings. You can commence a workflow to Create external mapping for the Account Plan directly - see Creating and Managing External Mappings for Accounts for an example of how to do this:

• The External system and External table mapped to are shown - such as Netsuite - Item in the above example. The External entity ID mapped to is also shown.
• If a listed External mapping is linked to an Integration, under Linked integration a hotlink text will be shown which you can use to open the Integration.
• Under Actions, you can edit or delete the External mapping.
• If the Account Plan has multiple External mappings created for it, you can use Search external mappings to search by External table and External entity ID and filter the list.

Integration runs. If you go on to set up an integration that synchronizes the Account Plan data with an external system, the date/time and status of the Latest integration run will be shown. You can use a text hotlink to open details of this latest run or View all runs. See Reviewing Integration Run Details.

7. If you scroll further down the page, you can review details of the custom Plan that was attached to the Account to create the Account Plan. This saves you having to navigate away or open the Plan details page in a separate tab:

• Plan details:

• Check the details of the Plan.

  • Use hotlink text links to open the Plan details page and details pages for associated entities - Plan template and Product.
  • Read-off the Plan ID and Copy it to your clipboard.
  • Check the audit data for the Plan for who Created and Last modified the Plan and when.

• Plan Standing charge:

• Plan Pricing:

• For the new Custom Plan Add usage-based pricing or Add counter-based pricing directly. For example, select an Aggregation and add usage-based pricing for the Plan - see the following section:

• Plan Adjustments:

• Plan metadata:

• Custom fields

  • External mappings
  • Integration runs

Plan metadata! The Plan’s metadata shown at the bottom of the page should not be confused with the Account Plan’s metadata, which is also shown immediately below the Plan attachment details card.

8. If you return to the Accounts page and select the Attached plans tab, you’ll see that an Account Plan has been created for the Account using the new custom Plan to charge for the Product, and which is listed on the Active and pending attached plans panel:

Pricing Custom Plans

When you have completed Stage 2: Attach plan, you can complete Stage 3: Price plan - price custom Plans you’ve created for an Account from the Plan attachment page under Associated pricing. This section explains how to add usage-based pricing to an Account’s custom plan from the Plan attachment page:

• You can follow similar steps to add usage-based pricing from the Plan details page of the custom Plan.
• Alternatively, you can add counter-based pricing from either the Plan attachment page or the custom Plan details page

Warning: Custom Plans cannot be priced directly in the Pricing Editor! If you open the Pricing Editor and select the Product the custom Plan belongs to and then select to Add plans, only non-custom Plans created for the Product will be available for selection. You must price custom Plans from the Plan Attachment page or from the Plan details page.

To price a Custom plan for an Account:

1. From the Account’s Attached plans tab on the Active and pending attached plans panel, select the Account Plan name text hotlink. The Plan attachment page opens.
2. Under Pricing on the Plan details panel, select add usage-based pricing:

• A panel is shown with Aggregation pre-selected as the Aggregation type:

• Select Compound aggregation if you want to use this Aggregation type for the Plan pricing.

3. Select Next. The panel adjusts.
4. Use the Aggregation drop-down to select the Aggregation you want to use to price the Plan:

• The details of the Aggregation are shown.

5. Select Add aggregation. The panel adjusts:

6. Select create new pricing. The Pricing Editor>Create page opens and you can create a pricing in the usual way - as if you had reached this page from the Pricing Editor when pricing a non-custom Plan.

Tip: More details on pricing Plans?

• If you’re pricing the Plan using Aggregations, see the Creating a Pricing for a Plan.
• If you’re pricing the Plan using Counters, see Creating Counters and Pricing Plans.

7. When you’ve completed the pricing configuration you want to apply to the custom Plan, select Create pricing. The Pricing>Create page closes and you are returned to the Plan attachment page where the custom Plan’s new usage-based pricing now shows under Pricing:

• In this example, we’ve set up the custom Plan for tiered pricing with two pricing bands.

Editing Account Plan Details

When you have completed Stage 3: Price plan, you can complete Stage 4: Edit plan details. To edit Account plan details:

1. From the Account’s Attached plans tab on the Active and pending attached plans panel, select the Account Plan name text hotlink to open the Plan attachment page.
2. Select Edit. The Edit page opens and you can edit the Account Plan and define settings.
3. Edit Start date and End date, as required.
4. If you want to set the date the first Bill is due for the selected Account using the Account Plan, you can use the Billing cycle date option. Subsequent billing will be determined from the first date you define. For example, if the Plan is configured for monthly billing frequency and you set Billing cycle date as February 14th 2022, then m3ter will create a first bill for the Account on that date and every month from that date. If left blank, then start of billing defaults to the billing cycle date configured for the Account. (Optional)
5. If you want to add the Account Plan to a Contract you’ve created for the Account, use the Contract drop down to select it. For more details on Contracts, see Creating Contracts for Accounts. (Optional)
6. If the Account is either a Parent or a Child Account, you can select for Account hierarchy billing mode, which determines how billing will be handled and shown on bills for charges due for the Parent Account and charges due for Child Accounts:

Notes:

• The billing mode options are only operative if the Account is a Parent or Child Account. For a full explanation of what each means when attaching Plans to create Account Plans for Parent or Child Accounts, see Billing Hierarchy Modes for Parent/Child Accounts.
• If you Price a Custom Plan using a Counter for unit-based pricing, then Parent/Account billing is not available for the charges or credits due under the pricing.

7. Add any required Custom fields to the Account Plan. For more on Custom Fields, see Adding and Editing Custom Fields.
8. Select Update plan attachment to complete the final stage of your custom Plan set up for the Account.

You now have a fully configured Account Plan on the Account - Bills will be calculated for the Account in accordance with the Account Plans on the Account for each of your Products the Account consumes.

Tip: Adding Custom Fields when attaching a Plan? You can define Custom Fields for the Account Plan created when you attached a custom Plan to an Account. Note that:

• These Custom Fields will be specific to the Account Plan - they are separate from any Custom Fields you might have already added either to the Account itself or to the custom Plan that you’re attaching and that was used to create the Account Plan.
• Secondly, any Custom Fields you create for an individual Account Plan override those you’ve created for Account Plans at the Organizational level. See Working with Custom Fields.

Deleting an Account Plan

To delete an Account Plan:

1. On the Active and pending attached plans panel, select Delete:

A confirmation popup appears.

2. Select Yes to confirm the Account Plan deletion.
3. Alternatively, on the Active and pending attached plans panel, select the Name hotlink text of the Account Plan you want to delete. The Plan attachment page opens.
4. Select Delete:

A confirmation popup appears.

5. Select Yes to confirm the Account Plan deletion. You are taken back to the Attached plans tab.

Important! Deleting the Account Plan does not mean the Plan is deleted - the Account Plan is created only when you attach a Plan to an Account. The Account Plan and Plan are therefore separate entities. If you want to delete a Plan, you must go to Pricing>Plans, select the Product you created the Plan for, and then delete it from there.