Creating Plan Templates - m3ter Documentation

Creating and Managing Plan Templates

This topic explains how to create and manage Plan templates.

Important! We strongly recommend that you review the options available for configuring Plan templates before you attempt to create them. See Reviewing Options for Plans and Plan Templates.

To create a Plan template:

1. Select Pricing > Plan templates. The Plan templates page opens.
2. In the Product drop-down, select the Product for which you want to create the new Plan template.
3. Select Create plan template. The Plan templates > Create page opens.

Warning: You must create at least one Currency for your Organization before you can create a Plan template! If you haven’t, the Create page will not open and you’ll see a warning:

• Select the Manage currencies hotlink text provided. This takes you directly to the Create page to create the Currency you want to use for the Plan Template. See Creating and Managing Currencies.
• When you create the new Currency, you are taken directly back to the Plan Template Create page and the Currency is selected.

4. Enter the Plan template details:

• Name. A descriptive name.
  • Code. Unique identifier for the Plan template. (Optional)
    • Note that when you’ve entered a Name for the Plan template, if you click in the Code field, a Code is automatically entered based on the Name you’ve used. You can then edit the auto-generated Code value or remove it as required.
  • Currency. Use the drop-down list to select the Currency. For example, select US Dollar.
  • Bill frequency. For example, select Monthly.
  • Bill Interval. For example, select 1 for a bill each month:

5. Enter your Standing charge settings:

• Standing charge. For example, enter 25.
  • Standing charge billing. Allows you to control whether any standing charges due are billed in advance or in arrears:
    • Use organization-wide configuration. Default selection. If enabled, the setting selected at Organization level for Standing charge billing will be used - it will be shown in brackets. If you select either of the other two options, the Organization level setting will be overridden. See Viewing and Editing Organization Configuration.
    • Bill in arrears (end of each billing period)
    • Bill in advance (start of each billing period)
  • Standing charge interval. For example, enter 1 for the Standing charge to be applied to each Bill.
  • Standing charge offset. For example, enter 0 to make the Standing charge be applied from the first Bill.
  • Standing charge description. Enter a custom description, which will appear in the bill line item:

Tip: Default Standing Charge Description? If you omit a custom description, then a default Standing Charge description will be shown for Bill line items- see Bill Line Items - Default Descriptions for details.

6. Enter your Minimum Spend settings:

• Product minimum spend. For example, enter 150:
  • At billing, this value imposes a minimum for Product charges against any Account that has a priced Plan based on the Template attached to it. For example, if the total charges for Product usage is 140, then an additional line item for a Product Minimum Spend charge of 10 will be added to the Bill to bring the spend up to the minimum.
  • The check for Product minimum spend does not include any Standing Charge amounts due.
  • When you create a Plan based on the Plan template, you can override the Product minimum spend.
  • Note that when you price a Plan, you can also define a Minimum Spend for that pricing, which then applies to charges due on an Account at billing under that specific pricing. For example, if you’ve configured a pricing for a Plan attached to an Account and set a Minimum Spend for that pricing of 140, but the charges due at billing amount only to 120, then a Minimum Spend Adjustment line item will be added to the Bill in the amount of 20. This is independent of any Product Minimum Spend defined for the Plan itself - if, as exampled above, that is set at 150, then a line item for Product Minimum Spend will also appear in the amount of 10 to bring the spend for Product up to the minimum after the minimum for the pricing has been adjusted. See Understanding Billing Options for Plan Templates/Plans for more details.
  • Minimum spend billing. Allows you to control whether minimum spends are applied to Bills in advance or in arrears:
    • Use organization-wide configuration. Default selection. If enabled, the setting selected at Organization level for Minimum spend billing will be used - it will be shown in brackets. If you select either of the other two options, the Organization level setting will be overridden. See Viewing and Editing Organization Configuration.
    • Bill in arrears (end of each billing period)
    • Bill in advance (start of each billing period)
  • Minimum spend description. Enter a description, which will appear in the bill line item:

Tip: Default Minimum Spend Description? If you omit a custom description, then a default Minimum Spend description will be shown for Bill line items- see Bill Line Items - Default Descriptions for details.

7. Add any required Custom Fields to the Plan template. For more on Custom Fields, see Adding and Editing Custom Fields.
8. Select Create plan template. The Plan template details page opens:

• Note that the Product the Plan template belongs to is shown and you can select the text hotlink to open the Product Details page.
  • For more details on working in Plan template details to review pricing and billing setup, manage your Plan templates, review Plan template metadata, or duplicate Plan Templates, see Working in Plan Template and Plan Details.

New Plan template details? The new version of the Plan template details page opens. If you prefer to work in the old version of the page, select Use the old version.