Getting Started with CDR Billing

The following assumes you have a source of CDRs in CSV format and that you know what the data in each field is. Some of the early steps

  1. Create a Package or Service Definition for billing the Service portion of the VOIP/Telecommunication plan. Set the FCC classification to the appropriate value.
  2. If passing through USF fees, create the FUSF and SUSF as needed. See Create a Federal Universal Service Fee and Create a State Universal Service Fee.
  3. If using a rate deck, upload the rate deck into BillMax. See BillMax CDR Rate Deck and Upload a CDR Rate Deck.
  4. Create a CDR Billing plan. See CDR Billing Plans and Create a CDR Billing Plan. Set Billing Suspended to Yes.
  5. Add a CDR Billing plan to a Package or Service Definition. See Add a CDR Billing Plan to a Package/Service Definition.
  6. Add a new CDR Source. See Create a CDR Source. If adding a new cdrformat, insert it as a List Item.
  7. If using an existing cdrformat, execute "cp preprocesscdr_cdrsource-dist preprocesscdr_cdrsource". Make sure the new file is owned by the BillMax system user and is executable.
  8. If adding a new cdrformat, using the data from the CSV file, create a script in /usr/local/billmax/local that takes the file as input and outputs a CSV file in a format that BillMax expects. Output the lookup keys in the same format as what is stored in BillMax. See Call Detail Record (CDR) Association, CDR Preprocessing, Create Package/Service Association for a CDR and BillMax CDR Input Format. There are also examples in /usr/local/billmax/local.
  9. Test - the following will be iterative
    1. Upload the CDR file. See Upload CDR File.
    2. Execute Reports > CDR Keys Not Associated. If there are unassociated keys that need to be associated:
      1. Rework the new script if a new script was created. If so, delete the uploaded CDRs using Reports > CDR Files.
      2. Modify/add data to the VoIP services such that they match the data in the uploaded CDRs and execute Associate CDRs from Reports > CDR Keys Not Associated.
    3. Examine results by executing Reports > Future CDR Billings. Make changes to the CDR Billing plan if needed. From Reports > CDR Listing run ReRate Unbilled from the Context Menu.
    4. DANGER:
      The following will bill all usage for an Account, not just CDR usage. If the Account is billed for more types of Usage than just CDRs, open the VOIP/Telecommunication Service and on the Additional Usage Billing tab, click Bill for the CDR Billing plan.
      Select an Account and execute Other > Bill Usage. The result will be Pending Transactions. Deleting them will revert the CDRs to a not billed state.
    5. View an Invoice or Billing Statement to examine results of billing, CDR display, etc.
  10. Put into production:
    1. Automate CDR uploads. See Insert CDRs in Batch Mode.
    2. Edit CDR Billing Plan setting Billing Suspended to No.