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.