When an MSP or technology reseller first starts selling VoIP, billing can quickly become one of the more complicated parts of the service.
At first, it may seem straightforward. You have a few customers, you know the services they offer, and you can keep track of their monthly charges relatively easily. But as your customer base grows, so does the complexity.
For example, customers may have different numbers of extensions, telephone numbers, call bundles, one-off services, and port numbers. Not to mention the varying costs depending on call usage and different customers buying different combinations of these services. This then raises an important question:
What should the VoIP reseller billing process look like?
Once you begin selling communications to customers under your own brand, billing is no longer just an accounts job. It becomes a large part of how you manage customer relationships. Think about if a reseller came back to you and asked for an explanation behind a bill, you need to be able to accurately explain billing information.
Why accurate billing matters for VoIP resellers
Billing communications services come with responsibilities around accuracy and transparency. Ofcom’s General Conditions include requirements relating to billing and the information customers receive, while other requirements can apply around contracts, charges, and certain changes to contractual terms.
Exact requirements can vary depending on the service and type and size of the business customer, so this article is no intended to provide legal advice. However, the principle remains simple:
If you’re selling and billing communications services to customers, you must know what you’re charging them for and be able to support those charges. This starts with having reliable information behind every invoice.
1. Start with knowing what each customer has
Before you can invoice a customer accurately, you need a reliable record of the services attached to them. This may include services such as:
- user extensions
- telephone numbers
- call recording
- call bundles
- call usage
- wallboards
- IVRs
- connectivity and associated services
- one-off services such as number ports or hardware
The important thing isn’t how long the list is, it’s whether your billing process can consistently connect those services back to the correct customer. Once your customer base grows, manually remembering who has what is no longer practical.
1. Make sure what you’re billing matches what is sold
This is where billing problems often begin. When this happens:
- A service gets added
- Another service gets removed
- A customer adds users
- a number ports in
- A bundle changes
- Someone agrees to do something different commercially
Does the technical side update? And does the billing information change accordingly?
If your customer records, provisioning and billing processes aren’t aligned, it becomes very easy for what was sold, what was supplied, and what was billed to become three different things.
Ask yourself: When something changes technically, what makes sure the customer’s billing information changes too?
Is the answer that someone remembers? If so, that becomes increasingly difficult to manage as you grow.
2. Separate recurring services from usage
VoIP billing generally involves two different types of information. The first is the services customers have every month, the second is their actual usage.
For voice searches, Call Detailed Records (CDRs) provide information about individual calls. Depending on the information available, a CDR can include details such as:
- Date and time
- Originating number
- Destination
- Call duration
- Charging band
- Associated call value
The information can then be used by a billing platform, accounting system, or a reseller’s own processes.
This matters because a monthly total alone doesn’t tell you much when somebody asks: “Why is my invoice different this month?”. However, the underlying call information does.
3. Make calls traceable
One of the simplest ways to assess your billing process is to pick an individual charge and see how far you can trace it back.
- For a recurring service, can you see where the service is and which customer it belongs to?
- For usage, can you explain where it came from?
- If a service has changed, can you identify what changed?
- If a customer questions a call charge, can you investigate it without asking your wholesale provider to manually dig through the data for you?
When you can answer these questions, billing becomes less complicated and more explainable.
4. Get visibility at customer-level
An overall monthly invoice from your wholesale provider is useful, but if you’re reselling services, you need to get underneath that total.
Our reseller portal allows partners to view the overall monthly services across their account and then break the information down by individual consumer. That customer-level information can include the services associated with the customer alongside the relevant billing values.
Resellers can also access incoming and outgoing call information for individual customers. This means you’re not faced with one large account total and then left to work out manually which part belongs to which customer.
5. Use usage trends
Billing information is not only useful when you’re creating an invoice. Usage data can help you understand what is happening inside a customer’s phone system.
For example, our resellers can access a Call Minutes Report showing outbound usage by customer or server. This can help identify changes in call patterns and gives resellers another way to understand how a customer’s service is being used from month to month.
It can also make conversations about unexpected usage much easier because you have something concrete to refer back to.
6. Don’t overlook the data behind the invoice
CDRs can contain information relating to identifiable individuals and communications activity. This means they shouldn’t simply be treated as an ordinary spreadsheet that everyone in the business can access indefinitely, they must be handled appropriately. Think:
- Who actually needs access to detailed call information?
- Where is that information stored?
- How is it shared?
- And how long do you need to keep it?
A billing process isn’t about getting the numbers right; it’s also about handling the information behind those numbers appropriately.
7. Understand the difference between wholesale cost and customer price
A white-label reseller isn’t simply passing somebody else’s invoice on to the customer. You’re building your own service proposition. This means you need to understand both sides of the relationship. Ask yourself:
- What does the service cost you?
- What are you charging your customer?
- How many of that service do they have?
- What does that make the total?
Our customer summary information separates wholesale value from suggested customer values so that resellers can work with the information at customer level.
The reseller still controls the relationship and ultimately decides what to charge their customer. This is an important distinction.
8. Your billing system doesn’t need to be the same as everyone else’s
Different resellers work in different ways. Some prefer straight-forward billing tools, others already use specialist telecoms billing platforms. Few prefer exporting data into other applications, while others have developed their own systems or integrations.
Our team at VIP VoIP don’t believe every reseller should be forced into the same billing workflow. What matters most is that you can get the underlying information out in a format you can comfortably use.
Our resellers can access and export information including:
- monthly invoices
- customer summaries
- individual customer service breakdowns
- incoming and outgoing CDRs
- call-minute reports
- full monthly CDR exports
For resellers who want a more automated approach, our APIs can also be used to pull CDR data on a daily basis and feed it into their own billing, reporting or internal systems. We also have our own billing facilities available.
However, if a reseller wants to use a third-party billing platform, build their own process, or integrate directly with systems they already use, the data is there for them to work with.
9. Make sure billing reflects the customer contract
Billing doesn’t exist separately from the customer contract.
Ofcom has requirements around the information certain customers must receive before entering into contracts, including information about charges, contract lengths, and cancellation.
There are also requirements surrounding certain in-contract price changes.
The important point for a reseller isn’t to assume that one rule applies identically to every business customer. It’s to make sure you understand which obligation apply to the customers and services you’re providing, and that what happens in your billing process matches what customers have actually agreed to.
Your billing data can be accurate, but the invoice can still be wrong if the commercial information behind it is wrong.
Billing disputes are a good test of the process
No one wants a customer to question an invoice. But when they do, it quickly tells you how good your processes are.
Imagine one of your customers asks: “Why am I being charged for this?”. Would you be able to quickly see:
- which services they currently have?
- whether anything has been added or removed?
- what usage took place?
- which calls contributed to that usage?
- which customer the service belongs to?
- what information was used to calculate the charge?
A correct invoice can still receive questions. What makes or breaks it is how effectively you can answer those questions.
Why good billing becomes more important as your VoIP business grows
When you have your first few VoIP customers, billing seems more manageable. You know your customers and you likely know the services they have. But this changes as you grow. Ten customers become 30. 30 becomes 60. More extensions are added, services change, users come and go, call usage fluctuates. And before you know it, it becomes impossible to keep up.
That’s why billing needs considering when you build your VoIP reseller model. Not because it needs to be complicated, but because it needs to scale.
Ten questions to ask about your VoIP billing process
If you’re already selling VoIP – or you’re considering adding it to your existing services – ask yourself:
- Can we see exactly what services each customer currently has?
- Does what we’re billing match what the customer has actually been supplied?
- Can we identify when services have been added, changed or ceased?
- Can we access the underlying CDR information when a customer questions their usage?
- Could we trace a usage charge back to the relevant call information?
- Can we separate our wholesale cost from what we choose to charge the customer?
- Can we export or automatically pull billing and usage data if we want to use another system?
- Do we appropriately control access to detailed customer call information?
- Does our billing process reflect the commercial terms we’ve agreed with the customer?
- Could somebody other than the person who originally set the customer up investigate a billing query?
If several questions rely on one particular person remembering what happened, you’ve likely found an area worth improving.
The phone system is only one part of your VoIP reseller operation
When choosing a wholesale VoIP platform, it’s natural to focus on the technical features.
- Can it make calls?
- Does it have the features your customers want?
- Can you put your own branding on it?
- Can your team support it?
All of these things matter, but if you’re going to build a recurring customer base, the information behind the service matters too.
You need to know what each customer has
You need access to the relevant usage information.
You need to understand what you’re being charged.
And you need enough information to support the billing process that works best for your business.
Looking for a VoIP platform built with resellers in mind?
Our wholesale VoIP platform gives resellers access to customer-level service and billing information, CDRs, call-minute reporting and export options, with APIs available for businesses that want to integrate data into their own systems.
Whether you use our billing facilities, an existing third-party platform or your own processes, having access to the underlying data gives you greater flexibility over how you manage your customers.
Find out how our VoIP offering can support your reseller business today.