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 Parsing config table defines the parsing options for a partner. Batch config options are not the same as Parsing config options. When a batch is created in the Parsing log table, 5gVision copies the parsing configuration for a partner into the batch (if a partner is not found, the default values are taken). All adjustment to the batch options will not affect the parsing config, unless you explicitly choose to save them using the Save config for Partner button in the Match columns window.

In order the System to detect a certain partner config, you can use a group of contain parameters: email from, email subj, file name, sheet name. A parsing config will be chosen only if the received email corresponds to all the filled contain options.

The ColAction-global, ColAction-batch and ColAction-partner tables let you configure rules to automatically replace and modify rate values during the import. All they have the similar set of columns. The ColAction-global actions are applied globally for all imported files. The ColAction-partner table contains rules associated with partners from the Parsing config table. When 5gVision receives an email from a partner or you assign a partner to a manually imported rate file, the System copies these rules from the partner config to the ColActions-batch table, where they are assigned to a specific batch. Once copied, these rules become valid for this batch only and changes in the batch rules do not affect the partner rules and vice versa. The only way to copy them back to ColActions-partner is to use the Save config for Partner button in the Match columns window.

A rule basically consists of two parts: a condition and an action. In the condition part, you may define the inspected column (Action column), the condition proper (Action condition) and the condition value (Condition value). The action part lets you specify what to do when the condition is satisfied. You may find and replace the value in the Action column (Replace find and Replace with), update the Processing policy 5g column (Update policy 5g) or any other column for that matter (Update column N and Update value N). If it is required, you can set Case sensitive. It applies to both the Condition value and the Replace find value.

Suppose you need to set up two rules:

• Rule 1 - correct the spelling error in the name "New Zealand" when it is written as "Newzealand".
• Rule 2 - mark rates as "blocked" when the Changed column in rate file contains "Deleted".

For the first rule you need the following parameters:

• Action columns = Area name in file.
• Action condition = if contains.
• Condition value = Newzealand.
• Replace find = Newzealand.
• Replace with = New Zealand.

This will look for the word "Newzealand" in Area name in file and replace it with "New Zealand".

For the second rule you need the following parameters:

• Action columns = Changed.
• Action condition = if contains.
• Condition value = Deleted.
• Update policy 5g = Block.
• Update column 1 = Processing policy ext.
• Update value 1 = block.

This will look for the word "Deleted" in the Changed column, mark such rate as blocked for 5gVision and add a comment "block" in the Processing policy ext column. The latter may be useful if you plan to export the file into CSV and load it into your billing system. In this way, you can tell your billing system to block this rate.

To view the text of the email message which contained the processed rate files, click the View email body button in the Inbox and Parsing log modules. Naturally, this option is available only if the rate files were received via email and not imported manually.

The File top+bottom rows window, called by means of the corresponding button in the Parsing log module, is used to find out whether the System processed the file completely. It contains the information located before the rate table, the rate table header, several rows from the table top, several rows from the table bottom and the information located after the table.

Normally, 5gVision detects the top and bottom of the rate table on its own; but if you are not satisfied, you can click the Change rows to parse button and hint the System. The following parameters may be adjusted:

• First row of a rate table header - the number of the row where the first table header is located.
• Second row of a rate table header - the number of the row where the second table header is located. Leave blank if the rate table has no second header.
• Top row of a rate table - the number of the row where the rates start.
• Bottom row of a rate table - the number of the last row in the rates table.
• Exclude rows of a rate table - list a range of rows to ignore.
• Show X top rows of a rate table - show more top rows of the rate table if you need it for debug.
• Show X bottom rows of a rate table - show more bottom rows of the rate table if you need it for debug.

If you change the row settings, you can immediately re-parse the file for the settings to apply by clicking Re-parse file. If re-parsing was successful and there were no errors, you can save this configuration in the partner Parsing config using the Save config for Partner button.

Here you find the full list of errors that may occur during the rates parsing process:

• Disabled - row was manually disabled in the rates table.
• DuplCodeSkip - row was skipped according to the "Treat duplicate codes" rule. Only one of duplicate codes is left enabled.
• EmptyCol - empty column.
• BadRate - rate is empty, not numeric, or not within the range.
• BadCode - code has characters other than digits or is longer than 20 digits.
• DuplCode - duplicate codes exist in the rate sheet for the same Area.
• DuplCodeDiffAreas - duplicate codes exist in the rate sheet for different Areas, cant be corrected by the "Treat duplicate codes" rule.
• EmptyArea - no area name.
• BadCountryCode - the processed country prefix does not match the reference one in the Country codes table.
• CountryNotFound - the processed country name is not found in the Country codes table.
• ErrDateParse - Undefined date parsing error occurred.
• NoDateFrom - Active from date is required, but is empty.
• ShortDateFrom - Active from date is too short to be parsed.
• BadDateFrom - Active from date has an incorrect format (e.g. 10 Ju 2014).
• BadTimeFrom - Active from time has an incorrect format.
• ?DateFrom - Uncertain Active from date, eg: 5/6 is "May 6" or "June 5"?.
• NoDateTill - Active till date is required, but is empty.
• ShortDateTill - Active till date is too short to be parsed.
• BadDateTill - Active till date has an incorrect format (e.g. 10 Ju 2014).
• BadTimeTill - Active till time has an incorrect format.
• ?DateTill - Uncertain Active till date, eg: 5/6 is "May 6" or "June 5"?.
• BadIncrem - Increment is not in the format of "digit + separator + digit".
• Empty file - File is empty.
• No prefix column - No prefix column in rate table.
• No rates column - No rates column in rate table.
• Insert error - Cant insert parsed rates to the DB.
• Import in progress - Import of rate file started, but has not ended yet, or ended with an unexpected error.

Each rate is characterized by its activity time. As there can be several rates for the same code in a rate plan at the same time, the System determines the active one as follows: its Active from time is the most recent and it is not expired (Active till is greater than current time). When the active rate expires, the previous active rate takes its place. Thus you can easily set a base rate with no expiration time and the adjust it using short-lived correction rates.

There may be cases when you halt any business with your partner and you need to remove a code from the rate plan completely. If you set an expiration time for it, you will achieve nothing as the System will fall back to the previously active rate. What you need is to mark the rate as blocked in the Processing policy 5g column in the Import edit or Final check table. When 5gVision encounters such mark, it will suppress all rates for this prefix, effectively blocking this destination from rate processing.

To export the resulting rate file once all processing is complete, please click the Build CSV file button. It is possible to select the very columns you wish to see in the final file. To do so, activate/deactivate the checkboxes above the required columns. To replace the values of the whole column in the final CSV file with some predefined value, enter the value in the text box Replace with above the checkbox.

The textbox below the checkbox serves as a regular filter for the column, please don't confuse it with the Replace with fields.

Please note that by default the System does not show all the available CSV columns for you. You can display all of them by clicking the Show all colls button or you can pick individual ones using the standard C button (see Column selection).

You may save the resulting CSV column layout for future use. Once all processing is complete, click Save CSV layout to Partner and select the Partner to be associated with this CSV layout. In the next time you can load the saved configuration using the Apply Partner CSV config button.

The resulting CSV file may be downloaded to your hard drive and/or emailed to a specific address. Click Download / email CSV file and define the following settings in the opened window.

• Download - select the checkbox if you want to download the CSV file. Please note that if you select neither this checkbox nor Send over email, the System will do nothing.
• File name base - enter the CSV file name base.
• Add import file name - select the checkbox if you want to add the import file name to the CSV file name base.
• Add import sheet name - select the checkbox if you want to add the import sheet name to the CSV file name base.
• Add import partner - select the checkbox if you want to add the import partner to the CSV file name base.
• Add import batch - select the checkbox if you want to add the import batch to the CSV file name base.
• Add generation time - select the checkbox if you want to add the generation time to the CSV file name base.
• Separator - choose the separators in the CSV file from comma, semicolon or tab.
• Date format - choose the date format in the CSV file.
• Date format, custom - enter your own custom date and time format in a PHP notation that will overwrite the above settings.
• Add headers - select the checkbox to add headers to the CSV file.
• Send over email - select the checkbox if you want to email the file to a specified address.
• Email From - enter the reply email address.
• Email To - enter the destination email address.
• Email CC - enter the copy email address.
• Email Subject - enter the subject of the email.
• Email Body - enter the body of the email.

When done, click OK to download and/or email the file.

Sometimes there is a need to upload certain Vendor rates from the Main RateVend table to an external billing system. The Upload rates from Main button in the Upload log module is at your convenience. The following options are available:

• Vendor Rate plan - select a Vendor Rate plan to get rates for.
• Records to include into .csv - choose what rate records to include into .csv.
• Rate interval beginning - interval from the current time to find all rates active after the date set by the interval.
• Rate interval beginning, date - date to find all rates active after this date. Available if you chose Specific date in the previous option.
• Rate interval end - interval from the current time to find all rates active before the date set by the interval.
• Rate interval end, date - date to find all rates active before this date. Available if you chose Specific date in the previous option.
• Specific batches - enter specific batches to get al rates for.
• Send emails with .csv to external billing - select if it is necessary to send emails with .csv to your external billing system.
• Upload new Vendor rates to external billing - select if it is necessary to upload new Vendor rates to your billing (if supported).

When you click OK, a new record will be added to the Upload log.