Volume Discount Pricing Rules With Usage Pooling and Accumulation
Overview
You can specify the Volume Discount Pricing Rule when using Usage Pooling and/or Usage Accumulation to price usage. This not only allows accounts to push usage units into higher tiers with lower pricing via Pooling and/or Accumulation, but also to pay the same rate for all usage units based on the rate schedule tier the usage units total falls into.
Prerequisites
- The Volume Discount Pricing Rule only works with Usage Pooling or Accumulation when Aria rates usage at invoice time via the client parameter "Configuration > Billing > Invoice Settings > Automatically Rate Un-rated Usage Records at Load Time".
- For Volume Discounts to work with Usage Accumulation, you must also enable Usage Pooling. If you already use Usage Pooling, you can use this new feature immediately.
Example
Rate Schedule for Usage Services
| Incoming Faxes (Standard Pricing) | Outgoing Faxes (Volume Discount Pricing) | Outgoing Faxes 2X (Volume Discount Pricing) | Incoming Faxes 5X (Standard Pricing) | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Units | Rates | Units | Rates | Units | Rates | Units | Rates |
| 0-100 | 0 | 0-600 | 0 | 0-100 | 0 | 0-2000 | 0 |
| 101-300 | 1 | 601-2000 | 1 | 101-300 | 1 | 2001-3000 | 1 |
| 301-500 | 2 | 2001-∞ | 2 | 301-∞ | 2 | 3001-4500 | 2 |
| 501-∞ | 3 | 4501-∞ | 3 | ||||
Real-time Rating Based on Above Rate Schedule
| Usage Date | Usage Record No | Service Name | Billable Units | Pooled Usage Units | Usage Charge | Calculation Explanation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 01-Apr-24 | 1 | Incoming Faxes | 120 | 120 | $20 | First 100 units are $0. The remaining 20 units fall into tier 2. (20 * 1) = 20 |
| 02-Apr-24 | 2 | Incoming Faxes | 60 | 180 | $60 | Previous pooled unit 120, So start with tier 2. All 60 units falls into tier 2. (60*1) = 60 |
| 03-Apr-24 | 5 | Outgoing Faxes | 200 | 380 | Current pooled unit 380. But we do not know the total pooled unit yet when the last usage for this service was loaded. So, remember the billable unit and hold billing. | |
| 03-Apr-24 | 6 | Incoming Faxes | 170 | 550 | $390 | Previous pooled unit 380, So start with tier 3. First 120 units falls into tier 3. (120*2) = 240 Balance 50 units fall into tier 4. (50*3) = 150 Total = 240+150 = 390 |
| 03-Apr-24 | 7 | Outgoing Faxes | 100 | 650 | Still, we do not know the total pooled unit when the last usage for this service was loaded. So, remember the billable unit and hold billing. | |
| 03-Apr-24 | 8 | Outgoing Faxes | 400 | 1050 | ||
| 03-Apr-24 | 9 | Outgoing Faxes 2X | 100 | 1150 | Current pooled unit 1150. But we do not know the total pooled unit yet when the last usage for this service was loaded. So, remember the billable unit and hold billing. | |
| 08-Apr-24 | 3 | Outgoing Faxes | 300 | 1450 | Still, we do not know the pooled unit when the last usage for this service was loaded. So, remember the billable unit and hold billing. | |
| 09-Apr-24 | 4 | Outgoing Faxes 2X | 150 | 1600 | Still, we do not know the pooled unit when the last usage for this service was loaded. So, remember the billable unit and hold billing. | |
| 09-Apr-24 | 10 | Outgoing Faxes | 400 | 2000 | $1,400 | System finds this is the last usage record for this service. For Outgoing Faxes, we have 5 usage record (200, 100, 400, 300 and 400) and total units are 1400. Pooled unit = 2000 and hence, tier 2 is chosen. (1400*1) = 1400 Total = 1400 |
| 09-Apr-24 | 11 | Outgoing Faxes 2X | 200 | 2200 | Still, we do not know the pooled unit when the last usage for this service was loaded. So, remember the billable unit and hold billing. | |
| 09-Apr-24 | 12 | Outgoing Faxes 2X | 300 | 2500 | Still, we do not know the pooled unit when the last usage for this service was loaded. So, remember the billable unit and hold billing. | |
| 13-Apr-24 | 13 | Incoming Faxes 5X | 650 | 3150 | $800 | Previous pooled unit 2500. First 500 units falls into tier 2. (500*1) = 500 Remaining 150 falls into tier 3 (150*2) = 300 Total = 500+300 = 800 |
| 14-Apr-24 | 14 | Outgoing Faxes 2X | 180 | 3330 | Still, we do not know the pooled unit when the last usage for this service was loaded. So, remember the billable unit and hold billing. | |
| 16-Apr-24 | 15 | Outgoing Faxes 2X | 220 | 3550 | $2,300 | System finds this is the last usage record for this service. For Outgoing Faxes 2X, we have 6 usage record (100, 150, 200, 300, 180 and 220) and total units are 1150. Current pooled unit = 3550 and all 1150 units falls into tier 3. (1150*2) = 2300 Total = 2300 |
| 16-Apr-24 | 16 | Incoming Faxes 5X | 400 | 3950 | $800 | Previous pooled unit 3550.All 400 units falls into tier 3. (400*2) = 800 Total = 800 |
| 16-Apr-24 | 17 | Incoming Faxes 5X | 600 | 4550 | $1,250 | Previous pooled unit 3950. First 550 units falls into tier 3. (550*2) = 1100 Remaining 50 falls into tier 4 (50*3) = 150 Total = 1100+150 = 1250 |
| Total | $7,020 | |||||