Call Plans
How to manage and view call plan information
How to add a call plan to a customer account
How to remove a call plan from a customer account
How are call plans billed to the customer?
How are call plans billed to the reseller and channel?
Call Plan Report - CSV download
What will appear on customer invoices?
How to create a call plan.
Call plans are created at the Channel level in Metis.
If you are a reseller, first log in to Metis and select 'Show channels' from the left menu. Then, you can choose one of the channels listed under your account. Again, from the left menu, choose Call Plans. Then, select the 'Create' tab.
If you are a channel, choose Call Plans from the left menu.
If you are a reseller, you must create call plans at each channel level within your account so that customers under that channel can add them to their customer accounts.
Give your call plan a name.
You can select the destinations to include in your call plan. You can multi-select destinations and use the green arrow to associate with the plan.
Next, enter the total inclusive minutes to be included in the call plan.
Next, enter the monthly cost your customers will pay for the call plan & submit.
Once created, you'll see a success message and information about the plan.
To make the call plan visible to customers, toggle the Visible to Customers option.
How to manage and view call plan information
If you are a reseller, first log in to Metis and select 'Show channels' from the left menu. Then, you can choose one of the channels listed under your account. Again, from the left menu, select Call Plans.
If you are a channel, choose Call Plans from the left menu.
The call plans manage tab shows an overview of all call plans associated with your account.
The following information is displayed on the manage report screen.
| Column Name | Description |
|---|---|
| ID | The unique ID associated with the call plan |
| Name | The unique name given to the call plan |
| Price | The price related to the call plan |
| Minutes | The total inclusive minutes within the call plan |
| Start Date | The call plan creation date. |
| Visible to customers | Toggle this flag to make the call plan visible to customer accounts associated with the channel. |
| Customer count | The number of customers using this plan |
| Action - Deactivate | Ceases the call plan. This option can only be selected if the call plan is not associated with any customer. |
| Action - View Details | This option shows information about the call plan. |
View Details
See below for a complete list of data.
The call plan name.
The call plan price.
The call plan creation date.
Customers that have added the call plan to their account.
Customers that have removed the call plan from their account.
Destinations associated with the call plan.
How to deactivate a call plan.
This option can only be selected if the call plan is not associated with any customer.
Deactivating a call plan means it cannot be allocated to a customer account. To deactivate a call plan, it must first be removed from all customer accounts.
To check if a call plan is associated with any customer, check the call plan information option.
At the channel level, select call plans.
From the action dropdown, select deactivate.
You'll see this error if the call plan has an associated customer account.
From the View Details option in the actions dropdown, we can see that the plan is associated with a customer account.
You'll see this success message once you remove the plan from the associated customer accounts and deactivate it.
How to add a call plan to a customer account?
Call plans are added to a customer account at the customer level.
Select the Call plan option from the left menu after entering the customer profile.
From the action menu dropdown, select the Add option.
Once added, a successful message will be shown to the user. The message is shown below.
How to remove a call plan from a customer account.
To remove a call plan from a customer account, select the call plan option from the left menu, then select the Manage tab.
From the actions dropdown, select 'Remove'.
Once the plan is removed, you will see the following success message.
All call plans that have been removed can be viewed in the Inactive tab.
When a call plan is removed from a customer account, the inclusive minutes will continue for the current month or until they have fully been used, whichever happens soonest. The call plan will be billed on the following month's monthly invoice.
How are call plans billed to the customer?
Once your call plan is created and assigned to your customer, it is billed as a monthly recurring service.
- The call plan will appear on the customer's monthly invoice, showing the name of the call plan, its billing period and the monthly cost to the customer.
- Call plans are billed monthly in arrears.
- Any call plans linked to customer accounts in the current month will be billed on the first day of the following month.
- Any call plans removed from a customer account in the current month will be billed on the first day of the following month.
- For example, if you assign a call plan to a customer on August 15th, the cost will be billed to your customer on September 1st. The call plan will be active from August 15th, and calls made to locations included within the call plan will be billed via the call plan. Calls outside the call plan will be billed at the standard per-minute rate for the destination (See Call Rates).
- Call plans have a monthly minute limit.
- If the customer uses more minutes than the amount in the call plan, those calls will be billed at the standard per-minute rate for the destination (See Call Rates).
- Minutes not used within the billing month are not carried over to the following month.
- The deactivate option can remove the call plan from the customer account.
Once a call plan has been linked to a customer account, we cannot reverse this and change any used calls back to the standard PAYG model.
How are calls made within a call plan billed to the associated Reseller or Channel account?
All calls made via a customer account associated with a reseller or channel are billed at the standard per-minute rate for the destination, as seen in the reseller or channel call rates in their Metis account.
Please take a look at this for more information.
Where can I view my call rates?
Call Plan Report - CSV download
For resellers and channel partners that do not use the Metis billing platform, this report will provide a method to identify call plans associated with customer accounts in a given period. The data file will include the following information.
| Column Name | Description |
|---|---|
| Plan ID | The unique ID associated with the call plan at the point of creation |
| Customer ID | Metis customer account number. |
| Customer | Company Name of the customer |
| Plan | The call plan name |
| Price | The cost price of the call plan |
| Minutes | The total inclusive minutes within the call plan |
| Start Date | The date and time the customer added the call plan to their account: (YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS) |
| End Date | The date and time the customer removed the call plan from their account: (YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS) |
The report will be displayed as follows.
| Column Name | Description |
|---|---|
| Month | The billing month |
| Year | The billing year |
| Download CSV | Click on the icon to download the file. The file will be named in the format <month>.csv |
The search box can be used to search by data in the month or year columns.
What will appear on customer invoices?
Call plans will appear as a billed line item on the customer's monthly invoice generated on the 1st of each month.
In addition, all calls made by the customer within the month will appear on the invoice. The charges associated to the calls will be relative to the call rate for the dialled destination.