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yfi_explain_accounts

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Accounting system

Hotspot Manager has an advanced account system.
The accounting part includes the following features

  • Billing plans - Each invoice issued is tied to a billing plan.
  • Promotions - Each billing plan has the functionality included to issue free data or time or a percentage of the usage. This makes the incorporation of promotions a snap.
  • Charge Extra CAPs at a different rate. Each billing plan allows you to charge a different rate for extra caps.
  • Each user can be charged for extra services. This will be included in the invoice that gets issued.
  • Batch PDF, e-Mail, and Invoice generation.
  • At a glance indication to see the payment status of each user.

Accountant rights

The granular management of Access Provider's right allows you to isolate the accounting part to a dedicated person.
This person does not need to be the same person who manages the Vouchers or Permanent Users.
This allows you to have a person in the accounting department dedicated to the management of accounts when you have a large deployment.
The following table indicates the rights that needs to be removed to a Access Provider who are only allowed to manage accounts.

Rights Grouping
Name
Allow/Deny

Vouchers
vouchers/json_index
Deny

Permanent Users
permanent_users/json_index
Deny

Profiles
profiles/json_index
Deny

NAS Devices
nas/json_index
Deny

Activity
radaccts/json_show_active
Deny

Permanent Users
permanent_users/only_view_own
Deny

The last right in the list is very important to remove, else the accountant will only see permanent users created by them!
The default SQL database that comes with YFi Hotspot Manager includes an accountant Access Provider with limited rights.
You can test it by logging in with the following credentials
Username: accounts
Password: accounts
This user has rights that only allows account management.

Billing Plans

Each invoice generated will be tied to a billing plan.
To create a billing plan go to Accounting -> Billing Plans. Select the plus icon in the action area to open a dialog box where you can specify the basic detail of the billing plan.
Once a billing plan is created, you can edit it to add optional information.
The following table will list the components of a billing plan followed by a terse explanation and example.

Component
Description
Example

Name
A name to identify the billing plan by. The naming convention should give a hint of the type of plan.
Basic500M

Currency
The currency in which the invoice will be issued
Dollar

Subscription
An amount that gets charged regardless of the usage.
100.00

Rate/Second
The amount charged per second as a decimal of the currency
0.0000045

Rate/Byte
The amount charged per byte as a decimal of the currenct
0.0000045

%Tax
The amount of tax payable in your country
40%

Availability
The Realms which can make use of this billing plan
Residence Inn

Promotions - Free Data
A specified amount of data to be deducted from the user's data cap usage. Extra CAP's are excluded, and the value can not be smaller than zero
100 Mb

Promotions - Free Time
A specified amount of time to be deducted from the user's time cap usage. Extra CAP's are excluded, and the value can not be smaller than zero
20 Hours

Promotions - % Discount
User will be discounted on amount charged for data and time usage. This includes extra CAPs.
2%

Extra CAPs Data Rate
Charge the extra caps at a higher rate than the data cap of the profile
1.5

Extra CAPs Time Rate
Charge the extra caps at a higher rate than the time cap of the profile
1.2

After billing plans are created, you can start to issue invoices to Permanent Users.

Accounts

The data displayed when you click on the Account Management link will show the latest invoices which was issued to a user.
If there has not been any invoices issued yet, it will be indicated by 'NA'.

  • To generate a set of invoices, select the users inside the grid and click on the green plus in the action area.

  • Specify a start and end date as well as a billing plan to use on selected users.

  • After this is done, click Save. The grid should refresh indicating the new latest set of invoices.

  • Should you the wish to e-Mail the invoices (as a PDF attachment) to the selected users, simply click on the mail icon in the action area.

  • You will be greeted by a dialog box where you can compose the e-mail message.

  • You also have the opportunity to include the pdf file attachment.

  • Incoming payments can be taken care of by clicking on the coins icon in the action area. This pop-up dialog allows you to specify wether the account is paid in full or a certain amount.

  • The account will then be credited by that amount.

  • You can also filter on realm or username to only show a certain realm's users, or a single user.

  • If you need more detail on the user's account, click on the red pen in the action area. This will open another tab with the users' account history.

User's own page

  • YFi Hotspot Manager offers a permanent user the opportunity to view their own data.

  • When a permanent user logs in with their username and password, a page will be created which also includes the invoices and payments for the specified user.

  • This way you do not really need to e-mail (or snail mail) a user's invoices or receipts.

Related

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