Creating Counters and Pricing Plans - m3ter Documentation

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You can quickly create Counters in your m3ter Organization, which you can then use as pricing metrics to apply unit-based pricing to Product Plans or Plan Templates for recurring subscription charges. This topic explains how to create Counters and how to use them to price your Product Plans or Plan Templates. A seat-based example is used to explain these tasks - how to set up a Counter to use as a pricing metric to price Plans and be able to charge on the basis of how many seats end-customer Accounts subscribe to in a given billing period:

• Creating Counters
• Using Counters to Price Plans

Creating Counters

You can create Counters as:

• Product Counters. These can only be used to price Plans belonging to the same Product.
• Global Counters. These can be used to price Plans belonging to any Product.

To create a Product Counter:

1. Select Metering>Counters. The Counters page opens and lists Counters already created for your Organization.
2. Use the Product drop-down to select the Product you want to create a Counter for. The lists adjust to show any existing Counters belonging to the Product.

Tip: Create Global Counter? If you want to create a Global Counter, clear the Product drop-down.

3. Select Create Counter. The Create page opens.
4. Enter the details of the Counter:

• Product.
  • If you selected a Product on the Counters page, this will be pre-selected.
  • If you want to create the Counter for a different Product, select it.
  • If you want to create a Global Counter, leave this blank.
  • Name and Code of the new Counter. ( Required)
  • Unit. ( Required) This will appear on Bill line items charged against the Counter:
  • In this example, we’ll create a Premium Seats Counter for the Premium Seating Product.

5. Select Create counter. The Counter details page opens:

• We now have a Premium Seats Counter we can use to price Plans belonging to the Premium Seating Product - see the next section.

Using Counters to Price Plans

You can quickly price Plans using Counters. We created the Premium Seats Counter for the current seat-based pricing example in the previous section. We’ve also set up in preparation for pricing using this Counter:

• Premium Seats Plan Template for the Premium Seating Product. This Plan Template is configured for monthly billing frequency in USD currency with no Standing Charge and no Minimum Spend amounts defined.
• Premium Seats Plan 2 based on the Premium Seats Plan Template. This Plan will inherit billing attributes from the template. See Creating and Working with Plan Templates and Plans.

We’ll now use our Premium Seats Counter to set up seat-based pricing for Premium Seats Plan 2.

Notes & Tips:

• Working in the Pricing Editor? Alternatively, you can open the Pricing editor and create a counter-based pricing for a Plan from there. For further guidance on working in the Pricing Editor to price your Product Plans/Plan Templates, see Pricing Plans and Plan Templates.
• Price Plan Templates? For the current example, we’ll apply unit-based pricing using our Counter to the Product Plan. The steps to price a Plan Template using a Counter are similar. Any Plan based on the priced Plan Template will inherit the pricing but you can override this pricing at the individual Plan level.

To use a Counter to price a Plan:

1. Select Pricing the Plans page opens.

2. Use Search plans to find the Plan you want to create a pricing for or select the Product the Plan belongs to and filter the Plans list.

3. Select the Name hotlink text of the Plan you want to price using a Counter - for the current example Premium Seats Plan 2. The Plan details page opens.

4. Scroll down the page and under Pricing select Add counter-based pricing. A Select counters modal appears.

5. Select the Counter you want to use to price the Plan - for the current example Premium Seats Counter - and select Confirm. The modal closes and the selected Counter is added to the Pricing panel:

6. Select the creating new pricing link. You are taken to the Pricing editor>Counter pricing page and at the top of the page details are listed for:

• The Counter you are using and the Unit it uses.
• The Plan you are pricing and the Plan template it is based on.

7. Enter the Counter pricing details:

• Start date (inclusive) and End date (exclusive). ( Required) Define the period you want the pricing to be active for the Plan. For the current example, we’ll enter July 1st, 2025 until July 1st, 2027.

• Accounting product. For accounting purposes, select a Product that will be linked to any Bill recurring charges line items for this Pricing - Counter adjustment credit, Counter adjustment debit, or Counter running total charge. ( Optional) Note that:

  • If you leave this blank, then the Product the Counter belongs to will be used instead.
  • When viewing Bills in the Console that contain line items for these charge types and an Accounting product is defined for the Counter pricing, you’ll be able to group line items by Accounting product. See Viewing Bills - Display Options for more details.

• Description. Enter a custom description that will appear for Bill line item charges for the pricing. ( Optional)

• For the current example, we’ll use: Seating charges.

Tip: Default Description? If you omit a custom description, then a default description is used: see Bill Line Items - Default Descriptions for details.

8. Define the Counter pricing settings:

• Running total billing. Select for either Bill in arrears - at the end of each billing period - or Bill in advance - at the beginning of each billing period.

• For the current example, we can leave this as default: Bill in arrears.

• Pro-rate running total. Use this setting to control how Counter running total charges are calculated at billing for cases where the pricing applied to an Account starts or finishes somewhere within the first or final billing period:

• For example, suppose you are pricing a Plan set up for monthly billing frequency. The service period agreed with an end-customer Account on the Plan runs from June 1st 2023 until June 15th 2024. The running total at the start of the June 2024 - the final billing period - is 10. The pricing applied to the Account ends June 15th 2024 - this could be because the pricing is set to end for the Account Plan on that date or because the Plan ceases to be active for the Account on that date:

  • If you enable Pro-rate running total for the pricing and the pricing configured is $2 per unit, then the final Bill of July 1st 2024 will calculate the Counter running total charge for 15 days of the 30 day month of June, that is: 10 x $2 x 1/2 = $10.
  • If you disable Pro-rate running total, then the final Bill of July 1st 2024 will calculate a Counter running total charge for the full month, that is: 10 x $2 = $20.
  • Default is enabled. For the current example, we’ll switch this to disabled.

• Pro-rate adjustment credit. Use this setting to control how a Counter Adjustment credit for an Account on the Plan made during the arrears billing period is rated with respect to credit amounts due on the Account:

• As if the units were unsubscribed to (not used) for the entire billing period. (Prorating is disabled)

  • As if the units were unsubscribed to (not used) for the number of days from the date the Counter Adjustment was made to the arrears billing period end. (Prorating is enabled)
  • For example, suppose the Plan is set up for monthly billing frequency and the Counter pricing you’ve configured is for a flat charge rate of $2 per seat. A Counter Adjustment is made on the Account on June 1st 2024 for 15 seats and a second Counter Adjustment is made on June 16th for 10 seats:
    • If disabled, the July 1st 2024 Bill will be calculated as if the credit due for the reduction in Counter number of 5 seats covered the entire month: 5 x -$2 = -$10.
    • If enabled, the July 1st 2024 Bill will be calculated as if the credit due for the reduction in Counter number of 5 seats covered only the remaining 15 days of the 30-day month of June: 5 x -$2 x 1/2 = -$5.
  • Default is enabled. For the current example, we’ll switch this to disabled.

• Pro-rate adjustment debit. Use this setting to control how a Counter Adjustment debit for an Account on the Plan made during the arrears billing period is rated with respect to debit amounts due on the Account:

• As if the units were subscribed to (used) for the entire billing period. (Prorating is disabled)

  • As if the units were subscribed to (used) only for the number of days from the date the Counter Adjustment was made to the arrears billing period end. (Prorating is enabled)
  • For example, suppose the Plan is set up for monthly billing frequency and the Counter pricing you’ve configured is for a flat charge rate of $2 per seat. A single Counter Adjustment is made for the June billing period on June 16th 2024 for 15 seats:
    • If disabled, the July 1st 2024 Bill will charge for the full amount: 15 x $2 = $30.
    • If enabled, the July 1st 2024 Bill will only charge a pro-rated amount for the 15 days remaining in the 30-day month of June: 15 x $2 x 1/2 = $15.
  • Default is enabled. For the current example, we’ll switch this to disabled.

Tip: More on Prorating of Charges using Counter Pricing for Plans? Generating Bills for the current example for seat-based pricing with prorating enabled is illustrated in the following Recurring Charges Billing: Seat-Based Pricing topic.

• Pricing type. Select the pricing type you want to use for the Counter pricing applied to the Plan:

• For the current example, we can leave this as the default of Tiered.

Tip: More on Pricing Types? See Reviewing Pricing Options for Pricing Plans and Plan Templates.

• Pricing bands. Create the pricing bands for the pricing type:

• For the current example, we’ll set up two Tiered pricing bands for the Counter pricing:

• Note that the Start (>) value for a pricing band is treated exclusively and the End (<=) value is treated inclusively. In this example, the bottom tier band means any unit measures greater than 0 up to and including 20 are priced at $2 per unit; the second tier band means any unit measures greater than 20 are priced at $3 per unit.

9. Select Create counter pricing. You are returned to the Plan details page where under Pricing the ACTIVE Tiered pricing is now shown:

• We’ve now set up an example for seat-based recurring charges to be applied to the Premium Seating Product. In the next topic, we’ll attach Premium Seats Plan 2, which is priced using the Premium Seats Counter, to an Account and then create some Counter Adjustments on the Account.