Rate management manual

THE MANUAL ON THE RATE MANAGEMENT IS CURRENTLY BEING WRITTEN AND MAY NOT BE COMPLETE OR 100% UP TO DATE YET. PLEASE EXCUSE OUR DUST.

The Date template allows you to set a rate Active from dates depending on the rate increase, decrease, etc. Each template consists of several sets of parameters: when the template should be applied, how the date should be changed, what variable should the system take (if the change requires a variable).

There are the following template conditions (represented as table columns) in the system:

• Change if rate up - invoke date change if the rate increased.
• Change if rate down - invoke date change if the rate decreased.
• Change if code add - invoke date change if the rate was added.
• Change if code del - invoke date change if the rate was deleted.
• Change of increm - invoke date change if the billing increment was changed.
• All other records - date change for all other cases.

For each condition, the system may use the following date modification methods (defined as a value for the specific change condition column):

• From file - keep file values, replace empty cells with the current time.
• Current+X days - current date and time plus X days from the next column.
• Today+X days - beginning of today plus X days from the next column.
• Base+X days - manually set Base date plus X days from the next column.
• Future+X days - date and time of the latest rate/code in future plus X days from the next column.

When the change method requires a variable, the variable is defined in the column next to the condition column (like +X days rate up). This variable will substitute the X from the change method (like Current+X days).

Block future rate override allows you to block rate changes, if there exist rates for same code/area that will be active in future.

Timezone - choose a timezone from the drop-dwon list for Today (00:00:00) or Base (manually entered) times, UTC if blank.

Configured date templates can be used then:

• in the table module to setup default behaviour with dates of a Rate plan.
• in the Parsing config to be used when importing Vendor rates from a partner.
• to overwrite a RP date template in rates comparison, moving to final check and moving to the main rates table during the Rate importing process (see Import edit, Compare, Final check).
• to overwrite a RP date template in rates verification during Customer rates generation process (see Verify).

The Amendment template defines parameters which are used to format Customer rates amendments sent by the system.

• Amendment template name - enter a name of the amendment template.
• Status - let you easily enable/disable the record.
• Amendment type - choose one of the following types:
• Full A-Z - generates an .xlsx file with a full rate list of a Rate plan.
• Changes only - generates an .xlsx file with rate changes only.
• A-Z+Changes - generates full A-Z and changes in different .xlsx sheets.
• Amendment codes - choose an option how to distribute codes in amendment .xlsx files:
• One code per line - generates an .xlsx file with a full rate list of a Rate plan.
• All area codes per line - generates an .xlsx file with with rate changes only.
• Code deck sheet - generates full A-Z and changes in different .xlsx sheets.
• Include del codes - choose Yes to include deleted codes into amendments.
• Amendment template file - .xlsx file name to as a template for amendments (with .xlsx extension). If empty - the default file is used.
• Timezone - timezone to convert times to from the internal Active from GMT times, UTC if blank.
• Date format - choose a date format for .xlsx amendments from the drop-down menu.
• Include time - choose Yes to include time to the dates in amendments.
• Date format, custom - custom date format for .xlsx amendments, for example: Y.m.d H.i.s.
• Comment - enter a comment.

In the CSV template you can set the format of .csv files generated by the system.

• CSV template name - enter a name of the CSV template.
• Status - let you easily enable/disable the record.
• CSV type - choose one of the following types:
• Full A-Z - generates a .csv file with a full rate list of a Rate plan.
• Changes only - generates a .csv file with rate changes only.
• Amendment template file - .csv file name to as a template for CSV amendments (with .csv extension). If empty - the default file is used.
• Timezone - timezone to convert times to from the internal Active from GMT times, UTC if blank.
• Date format - choose a date format for CSV amendments from the drop-down menu.
• Include time - choose Yes to include time to the dates in amendments.
• Date format, custom - custom date format for CSV amendments, for example: Y.m.d H.i.s.
• Comment - enter a comment.

The Email template allows you to set the format and recipients of various emails sent by the system.

• Email template name - enter a name of the email template.
• Status - let you easily enable/disable the record.
• Template type - choose one of the following types:
• Vendor rates receipt - template for emails sent to Vendors as a confirmation of a rates receipt.
• Vendor rates, billing - template for emails sent to an external billing system to load Vendor rates (.csv file).
• Rate amendments, customer - template for emails with amendments sent to Customers (.xlsx file).
• Rate amendments, billing - template for emails sent to an external billing system to load Customer rates (.csv file).
• Default template - if set to Default, this template will be chosen if no template is set in the corresponding configs.
• Email from - optional, if not set - the default email_from from the mail server system config is used.
• Email subject - enter an email subject. Besides plain text, keywords can be used, which the system will replace with corresponding values.
• Email body - enter an email body. Besides plain text, keywords can be used, which the system will replace with corresponding values.
• Add emails to TO - comma-separated email recipients that will always be added to TO field of an email.
• Add emails to CC - comma-separated email recipients that will always be added to CC field of an email.
• Add emails to BCC - comma-separated email recipients that will always be added to BCC field of an email.
• Comment - enter a comment.

Depends on the chosen template type you can use different keywords in the Email subject and Email body fields.

If the template type is Rate amendments, customer or Rate amendments, billing the following keywords are available in the Email subject and Email body (all keywords are in double curly brackets):

• customer - Customer name.
• rate_plan - Rate plan name.
• amend_type - amendment type. The values can be Full A-Z rate sheet, Partial rate sheet with changes only or Full A-Z and partial rate sheet with changes only.
• DATE+N - date as Current time + N days (format Y-m-d H:i:s).
• DATE0+N - date as Current day till midnight + N days (format Y-m-d 00:00:00).

For Rate amendments, customer you can also use changes_table in the Email body - the system will insert a table with rate changes right in the email body. If the template type is Vendor rates receipt you can use the keyword rate_files in the Email subject - a name of the file containing processed rates. In the Email body the following keywords are available:

• rate_files - a name of the processed rates file.
• email_from - contents of the From field of the email with rates received from a Vendor.
• email_subject - contents of the Subject field of the email with rates received from a Vendor.
• rate_processing_date - date/time when the rates file was processed (format Y-m-d H:i:s).

In case of Vendor rates, billing you may use the following keywords:

• vendor - Vendor name.
• rate_plan - Rate plan name.
• DATE+N - date as Current time + N days (format Y-m-d H:i:s).
• DATE0+N - date as Current day till midnight + N days (format Y-m-d 00:00:00).

The system sends email notifications if some events take place during the rate management process. They are configured in the Notification template table Notification types can be the following:

• System alert - notifications for system admin, mostly messages about errors of executed rate management tasks.
• Vendor CSV rate sheet generation - notifications about successful CSV file generation with Vendor rates. It's sent only in case of creating a CSV file without uploading to an external billing.
• Vendor rates upload to ext. billing - notifications about successful uploading of Vendor rates to an external billing.
• Customer CSV rate sheet generation - notifications about successful CSV file generation with Customer rates. It's sent only in case of creating a CSV file without uploading to an external billing.
• Customer rates upload to ext. billing - notifications about successful uploading of Customer rates to an external billing.
• Vendor rate sheet parsing error - notifications with errors during automatic parsing of Vendor rates emails.
• Vendor rate sheet comparison - notifications with results of comparison of a Vendor rate sheet to rates in the Main rates table.

The Add Account manager field allows you to send notifications to an account manager email using TO, CC or BCC fields. It is applicable for all notifications types except System alert. For that you should add an email for a user in Config-Users which is configured as an account manager for a Customer/Vendor in the Carriers table. The Customer/Vendor should have a record in the config connected with a chosen notification type: Customer RP setup, Vendor RP setup, Parsing config.

In the Currency table you can set the currency exchange rates. In order to add a new currency just choose a currency code from the drop-down menu and enter a rate for this currency relative to the system currency.

The Country codes table defines the associations between country codes and country names. To add a new association, click the green plus in the toolbar. A new row will be added, where you can specify the following parameters:

• Code - the country phone number prefix.
• Full Country Name - the full official name of the country.
• Country name to search for, one or two consecutive names - the name of the country to search for in processed rate files during the auto import. Once this name is found, the System will try to match it to the corresponding prefix using this table. The searched words must be unique across the table. If the first word of country name is shared among different countries (like "western"), the parameter should contain two words for the match to be unambiguous (e.g. "western sahara" and "western samoa"). If no match was found or the prefix of the country found in the table does not coincide with the prefix in the rate file, 5gVision will signal an error (see Match columns). The System ignores the prefix and country name if this parameter contains the DONT_TRY_TO_MATCH value.

Here you can define Area parts that mean the same. These settings will be used during auto area matching for Push/target reports. The system replaces found hits with configured synonyms or just ignores them if the Ignore these synonyms flag is activated. You can also setup a certain country for which to apply the rule.