Billing Report
Introduction
The Billing report produces a fully itemised telephone bill for billing back telephone usage to your clients, with the option of adding a percentage markup or a fixed charge to each phone call. You can fully customise the style of the report's output to reflect your own brand, including a company logo, for example.
Running the report
Access the Reports screen, select the Billing Report from the list and click on the button.
A new window will open, allowing you to configure the parameters of your report:
Enter the billing period
For each report, you must specify a time span that covers the calls you want the report to include.
There are several preset reporting periods available for selection, based on the standard Gregorian calendar. The following table describes how the start and end times are defined for each preset period:
| Period | Description |
|---|---|
| Today | The start and end dates are set to the current date. The start time is set to 00:00:00 and the end time to 23:59:59. |
| Yesterday | The start and end dates are set to the current date minus one day. The start time is set to 00:00:00 and the end time to 23:59:59. |
| This week | The start date is set to the first day (normally Monday) of the current week. The end date is set to the current day. The start time is set to 00:00:00 and the end time to the current time. |
| Last week | The start date is set to the date of the last Monday, and the end date is set to the start date plus seven days. The start time is set to 00:00:00 and the end time to 23:59:59. |
| This month | The start date is set to the first day of the current month. The end date is set to the current day. The start time is set to 00:00:00 and the end time to the current time. |
| Last month | The start date for this period is set in three stages: The day is set to the first day of the month. The month is set to the previous month. The year is set to the current year, unless it is currently January, in which case, the previous year is used. The start and end times are set to 00:00:00 and 23:59:59 respectively. |
| This year | The start date is set to the first day of the first month of the current year, whilst the end date is set to today's date. The start and end times are set to 00:00:00 and 23:59:59 respectively. |
| All calls | The start and end dates and times are set to the dates and times of the first and last call in the entire call database, respectively. |
In addition to the presets described above, it is possible to specify a custom reporting period by choosing Custom period from the drop-down list and specifying your own Start and End dates, as shown below:
Choose a site
If your system is set up to log multiple sites, you can select a particular site from the drop-down list. To report on all sites, select the blank line.
Who do you want to bill?
This option allows you to select which type of entity you want to bill.
Extension Group
Select the extension group you would like the bill to cover.
Extension number
Enter the extension number of the user you would like to bill.
Account code
If you want to produce a bill consisting of all chargeable calls made using a particular account code, enter the account code in the box provided.
Adjust how the bill is calculated
| Bill calculation | Description |
|---|---|
| Markup on each call | A percentage markup can be added to each call |
| Surcharge per call | A surcharge is a fixed amount that can be added to the original cost of the call |
 | Both a surcharge and a markup can be applied to the same bill, in which case, the surcharge is added after the markup is calculated, so that the surcharge is not being marked up. |
Billing options
| Billing option | Description |
|---|---|
| Include operator-assisted calls | By default, the bill includes all calls made from an extension, regardless of whether the call was originally dialled by that extension or by an operator on behalf of that extension. To exclude operator-assisted (or transferred outgoing) calls, deselect the check box provided. |
| Include client's own LCR accesses | Tick this option to indicate in the billing platform version that you would still like to bill calls that didn't use your network. |
| Show only calls to this number | To report on calls to a specific number, enter the full or partial dialled number in the field provided. |
How do you want the bill to look?
| Bill's look | Description |
|---|---|
| Detailed (itemised) bill | This option gives you a complete itemised list of calls made by the billing entity you have selected |
| Summary (cost only) bill | This option will give you a summary of calls made by the selected billing entity |
Creating the report
When you have selected a reporting period and have chosen the report's criteria, click on the button, as shown below:
The report's results
Below is an example of this report's output, displayed as an itemised list.
If no custom changes were made to the footer and header, the report will show the billing entity on the top-left corner of the screen and your company logo on the top-right. The header of the report will show the billing period including dates and times, followed by the billing entity. If you have assigned a friendly name to the report, this will show in its header as well.
The body of the report will display a summary of each billing entity or, for an itemised bill, each individual call made by the billing entity.