Minimum Billing and Meter Charge Setup

We are currently updating our site; thank you for your patience.

Contract

Minimum billing is an agreed cost between Company and Customer which the company will charge to ensure they can provide for a minimum quality of service and support at all times. Meter charge set up on a contract allows for a specific amount of copies within a set time frame. Monitoring the subsequent meter readings can help keep track of potential over or under usage and adjust the contract accordingly, to better suit the needs of the customer.

Ribbon Select Contract > Contracts

The Contract Listing screen will be displayed.

Upon opening, this screen will default to the Active status, listing all the Active contracts for the selected site.

Note: You can only set up minimum billing and meter charges when the Contract is in the Active state.

Select the Contract

Select the row of the contract that you wish to process.

Click on the Edit button.

The Contract Maintenance screen will be displayed.

Select the Item

Click on the row of the contract item you wish to work with.

Select the Item Meter

Click on the Item Meters tab.

You can now view the Item Meters frame.

View Minimum Billing Fields

Here you can add, edit, and delete minimum billing requirements.

View Meter Charges

Click on the expand button in the row of an item meter.

The Meter Charges frame will open.
Here you can add, edit and delete the required meter charge levels.

Notes on Meter Charge Setup

Aggregate Meter Charge Setup

For Aggregate meter charge setup, refer to Aggregate Billing

Prepaid Meter Charge Setup

If a designated meter usage amount needs to be reached before meter billing begins, refer to Prepaid Contracts.

Minimum Billing Setup

In the example table below, there is a minimum billing set up with 5 meter charge matrix levels. Because BPO calculates the usage charges by first calculating the minimum billing set up, the first line in this matrix is redundant and incorrect.

When setting up the From Quantity in the meter matrix, consider that from quantity 0 to quantity 1 is 1 copy click. Therefore, when setting up a charge level that must bill from (and including) quantity 1001, the From Quantity must be set to 1000.

Note: If you were to set the From Quantity to 1001 this would result in charging from (and including) copy click 1002.

Minimum Billing Setup		Copy Clicks Translated		Notes
Min Qty	Min Billing	From	To
1000	R250.00	0	1000
Meter Charge Matrix Setup		Copy Clicks Translated		Notes
From Qty	Unit Charge (cents)	From & Including	To & Including
0	0	0	1000	Redundant line – this is covered by the min billing
1001	30	1002	2000	Will bill from and including 1002 instead of 1001
2001	35	2002	3000	Will bill from and including 2002 instead of 2001
3001	40	3002	4000	Will bill from and including 3002 instead of 3001
4001	50	4002	onwards	Will bill from and including 4002 instead of 4001

Correct Meter Charge Setup

Below are 3 different examples for meter charge setup, and the usage calculations, which you can review, to ensure that your meter charges are set up correctly.

The first table indicates the meters as set up in BPO, and how this translates to copy clicks.
The second table shows the usage charge calculation, based on an example usage for a month.
The third image is how the above table information will look in BPO2.

Example 1.1: Meter Charge Setup with Minimum Billing

Minimum Billing Setup		Copy Clicks Translated as
Min Qty	Min Billing	From	To
1000	R250.00	0	1000
Meter Charge Matrix Setup		Copy Clicks Translated as
From Qty	Unit Charge (cents)	From & Including	To & Including
0	30	1001	2000
2000	35	2001	3000
3000	40	3001	4000
4000	50	4001	onwards

Example 1.2: Meter Billing Calculation Example, e.g., Usage = 4500

From Copy	To Copy	Unit Charge	Usage	Charge
0	1000	Min Bill	1000	R250.00
1000	2000	R0.30	1000	R300.00
2000	3000	R0.35	1000	R350.00
3000	4000	R0.40	1000	R400.00
4000	4500	R0.50	500	R250.00
Total Charge (excl VAT):				R1550.00

Example 1.3: how the above table information will look in BPO2.

Example 2.1: Meter Charge Setup with Free Minimum Billing

Minimum Billing Setup		Copy Clicks Translated as
Min Qty	Min Billing	From	To
1000	0	0	1000
Meter Charge Matrix Setup		Copy Clicks Translated as
From Qty	Unit Charge (cents)	From & Including	To & Including
0	5	1001	5000
5000	12	5001	onwards

Example 2.2: Meter Billing Calculation Example, e.g., Usage = 5200

From Copy	To Copy	Unit Charge	Usage	Charge
0	1000	Min Bill	1000	R0.00
1000	5000	R0.05	4000	R200.00
5000	5200	R0.12	200	R24.00
Total Charge (excl VAT):				R224.00

Example 2.3: how the above table information will look in BPO2.

Example 3.1: Meter Charge Setup with No Minimum Billing

Minimum Billing Setup		Copy Clicks Translated as
Min Qty	Min Billing	From	To
0	0	0	0
Meter Charge Matrix Setup		Copy Clicks Translated as
From Qty	Unit Charge (cents)	From & Including	To & Including
0	4	1	1000
1000	10	1001	onwards

Example 3.2: Meter Billing Calculation Example, e.g., Usage = 1300

From Copy	To Copy	Unit Charge	Usage	Charge
0	1000	R0.04	1000	R40.00
1000	1300	R0.10	300	R30.00
Total Charge (excl VAT):				R70.00

Example 3.3: how the above table information will look in BPO2.