Ad Hoc Billing, also referred to as Custom Billing, offers Customers an on-demand billing option for services or products that do not follow a known or predictable cadence.
The primary difference between Ad Hoc and Consumption Usage is that Ad Hoc does not expect to find usage every period and therefore does not create placeholder Charges for every future Charge Period, significantly reducing the number of records needed to capture low usage/activity for a Subscription Item term.
When Ad Hoc Billing is in use, Charges are generated only when usage is incurred. Billing for the service may be initiated immediately instead of pushed to the end of the service period, which is typical for other Usage Types.
- E.g. Ad Hoc usage occurs 1/23/21 and can be billed on 1/23/21. If more usage occurs on 1/24, 1/25, etc. in the same period, each may be billed separately.
Ad Hoc may be leveraged for one or more of the following reasons:
- Usage Charges do not follow any particular billing pattern
- Usage occurs only occasionally resulting in a high volume of placeholder Charges
- New Charges should be billed immediately
Ad Hoc vs. other Usage Types
Existing Usage Types (Consumption and Count) are designed for frequent and predictable usage activity. Both Usage types generate one placeholder Charge per Charge Period upon creation, defining the charge period pattern for future incoming usage.
With an Ad Hoc scenario, the Customer cannot determine their user’s behavior; they may use a service once in a year or every other month. Ad Hoc will not generate placeholder Charge periods. This helps reduce the number of records created and updated.
Key Characteristics
- Ad Hoc Billing reduces the number of Charges created (and rated) by eliminating placeholder Charges
- Ad Hoc Billing should be considered if Subscription Item activity is unpredictable and likely to not occur in every period
- ZAB includes an out-of-the-box ZAB Ad Hoc Data record type to capture activity for rating (similar to the ZAB Usage and ZAB Count Data records)
Before you Begin
- The ZAB Ad Hoc Data or any custom record type may be used to represent Ad Hoc data
- Transactions and Transaction Lines may not be used.
- See the Ad Hoc Data Fields section for core fields which must be configured on the Ad Hoc record type
- Ad Hoc is compatible with the following Rate Types:
- Usage (Variable)
- Fixed & Usage (Variable)
- Prepaid Item Quantity
- Prepaid Subscription (Amount) - Ad Hoc Usage can deplete against the Prepaid Amount
- Ad Hoc is compatible with the following Pricing Options:
- Overage/Usage Rate on the Subscription Item
- Rate via Search
- Contract Pricing
- Price Books & Tier Achievement compatible*
- Be aware that pricing calculations are based off of unbilled Ad Hoc usage for the period
- Ad Hoc Data records must be tied to a single Subscription Item
- Similar to other Usage, a Date and Quantity must be represented on the Ad Hoc Data record
- Ad Hoc Subscription Items will automatically generate a single non-billable Charge
- If using a Price Book with Ad Hoc data, be mindful that Price Books will not calculate pricing for any usage that has already been billed in the period
- Charge Schedules are used to define Ad Hoc Service and Billing periods. Defining these periods allows usage to be grouped for pricing calculation, however you can still override the Bill Date by mapping in a value through the Rate Plan Search Map to bill immediately.
- For example a monthly Charge Schedule sets the Bill Date to the last day of the month. A Charge is produced in the period. That Charge can be billed immediately or at the end of the month.