Creating Plans - m3ter Documentation

Creating and Managing Plans

This topic explains how to create and manage Plans.

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

To create a Plan:

1. Select Pricing>Plans. The Plans page opens.
2. In the Product drop-down, select the Product for which you want to create the new Plan.
3. Select Create plan. The Create page opens and under Plan details the Product field shows the selected Product.
4. Use the Plan template drop-down to select a template. Note that:

• No Plan templates. If the selected Product doesn’t have any Plan templates created for it, then you must first create a Template before you can create a Plan for the Product. The Create form settings will be grayed out and disabled and you’ll see a warning with a Create new plan template hotlink text. Select this link 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 Plans>Create page to proceed.
  • Existing Plan templates. If the selected Product does have Plan templates created for it, you can proceed and select the Plan template you want to base the Plan on.

5. Enter the Plan details:

• Name. Descriptive name for Plan.

  • Code. Unique identifier for Plan.

• Note that when you’ve entered a name for the Plan and clicked in the Code field, a Code is automatically entered based on that name. You can then edit the auto-generated Code value as required.

• If you want to change any of the settings the Plan inherits from the Plan Template, use the Standing charge and Minimum spend cards.

6. Enter the Standing charge settings for your Plan:

• Standing charge. You can override the value inherited from the Plan template. If you do override the Plan template, the Value from template is struck through.

  • Standing charge billing. Allows you to control whether any standing charges due are billed in advance or in arrears:

• Use configuration from plan template. Default selection. If enabled, the setting selected for Standing charge billing on the Plan template will be used - it will be shown in brackets. If you select either of the other two options, the Plan template setting will be overridden.

  • Bill in arrears (end of each billing period)
  • Bill in advance (start of each billing period)
  • 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 will be used.

  • Standing charge description. You can enter a custom description for any Standing charge amounts, which overrides any description entered for the Plan template and 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 is shown for Bill line items- see Bill Line Items - Default Descriptions for details.

7. Enter the Minimum spend settings for your Plan:

• Product minimum spend. You can override the value inherited from the Plan template. If you do override the Plan Template, the Value from template is struck through. For example, enter 150:

• At billing, this value imposes a minimum for Product charges against any Account that has the priced Plan 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.
  • 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 configuration from plan template. Default selection. If enabled, the setting selected for Minimum spend billing on the Plan template will be used - it will be shown in brackets. If you select either of the other two options, the Plan template setting will be overridden.

  • Bill in arrears (end of each billing period)
  • Bill in advance (start of each billing period)
  • 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, which overrides any description entered for the Plan template and 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.

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

• Note that the Plan template on which the Plan is based and the Product which the Plan belongs to are shown. You can open the Plan template details page or Product details page using the text hotlinks.
• For more details on working in Plan details to review pricing and billing setup, manage your Plans, review Plan metadata, or duplicate Plans, see Working in Plan Template and Plan Details.

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