Use this document to view commonly used terms and definitions across ZoneBilling solutions.
Subscription fields (inherited from parent subscriptions)
- Subscription: primary record representing a customer's ongoing service agreement in Zone Billing.
- Charge Schedule: which defines service periods and billing patterns
- Currency: must match Bill To Customer
Subscription item fields
- Quantity: how many units
- Rate: price per unit
- Per Term: the time period each quantity and rate represent, like Months or Years
- Term Multiplier: calculated based on the Per Term and Charge Schedule.
- For example, a Subscription Item with Per Term of Months and an Annual Charge Schedule would have a Term Multiplier of 12 because there are 12 months in that charge period. If Per Term was changed to Quarters, Term Multiplier would become 4. This multiplier is used in calculating the charge amount.
- Bill In Arrears: whether to bill before or after service delivery
- Charge Schedule: which can override the Subscription-level setting
Charge fields
- Charges: system-generated records that represent specific amounts to be billed for defined service periods.
- Charge status: defines its current stage in the billing process:
- Not Started (usage-based charges not yet rated or not ready according to charge period),
- Partially Rated (charge period not yet over),
- Pending Billing (fully rated and ready to bill),
- Billed (placed on a transaction),
- Other charge statuses: Non-Billable, Excluded - Zero Amount, Excluded - Zero Quantity, or Excluded - Other.
- Charge Type: defines the behavior and calculation approach, automatically set by the system based on Subscription Item configuration.
- Fixed charges apply when billing a fixed amount for a specified period.
- One-Time charges are single non-recurring charges generated for the full Subscription Item term, also used for prepaid scenarios.
- Usage charges are generated from variable usage activity like count or consumption data.
- Unit Adjustment charges (prepaid only) track unit provisioning and depletion.
- Offset charges (prepaid only) are negative charges that offset usage costs while prepaid units remain available.
- Overage charges occur when prepaid included units or amounts are exhausted and additional usage needs billing.
- Ad Hoc charges are placeholder records for ad hoc-based Subscription Items.
- Bill Date: determines when a charge will be invoiced and maps to the Date on NetSuite Sales Transactions.
- Bill Date Frequency: the Charge Schedule's Billing Frequency and Billing Interval fields.
- By default, Bill Dates align with Charge Period Start Dates when billing in advance, or the day after Charge Period End Date when Bill In Arrears is enabled. The Initial Bill Date field on the Charge Schedule can override the first bill date or all projected bill dates up until that specified date, useful for delayed first bills, early billing for the first period, or mid-period add-ons.
- Billing Offset: allows bill dates to generate outside the standard Charge Schedule pattern.
- For example, maintaining service dates of 1/1-1/31 but billing on the 6th of each month.
Terms and Renewals
- Per Term: specifies what time period the Quantity and Rate represent.
- For example, if a customer is quoted in months but billed annually, Per Term should be set to Months with an Annual Charge Schedule. This works in conjunction with the Term Multiplier, which is the number of terms within the Charge Period. If a one-year Subscription Item has Per Term of Months and an Annual Charge Schedule, the Term Multiplier is 12 (12 months per year). If Per Term was changed to Quarters, Term Multiplier would become 4. This multiplier is used in calculating the charge amount.
- Evergreen: contracts where the Subscription and Subscription Item End Dates are automatically extended at a defined cadence prior to the original End Date.
- By default, all Subscription Items on an Evergreen Subscription are extended unless specified otherwise.
- The Evergreen Notice Period in Days (set on ZAB Preferences) determines when the Evergreen process should execute. A scheduled process runs nightly and checks for Subscriptions with End Dates within this notice period, then extends the End Dates by the period specified on the Subscription.
- Subscriptions are marked as Evergreen using two fields on the Renewal tab: Evergreen Period (Frequency) and Evergreen Period (Interval). These work together to define by what period the Subscription End Date should be extended.
- For example, Frequency of 1 and Interval of Months results in the End Date being extended by 1 month each time the Evergreen process runs.
- Note: Individual Subscription Items can be excluded from Evergreen extension by checking the Exclude from Evergreen checkbox on the Subscription Item's Renewal tab, preventing that specific item's End Date from being updated when the Evergreen process runs.