Billing Data Export

The Evatel system generates billing data detailing the use of different services and options by each user, every month. The billing data includes information about active users, the service packages to which they subscribed, their phone sessions, the telephone calls they received and made including long distance calls (CDRs), the company they belong to, their customer account number and billing option, etc. Some of this billing data can be viewed in the System Call Logs page. Go to System Call Logs for more. The billing data is exported every month into .CSV files for processing by your billing system which can be  the Evatel billing module or a third-party one. The Evatel Billing Module can be configured to e-mail invoices and collect credit card payments automatically.

The Evatel system billing cycle is monthly and its period starts the day of the month as specified at system installation (or at a later configuration change) and ends the day preceding next month's billing date. Furthermore, the billing data is exported in the format requested by the billing software used.  Therefore, the data export utility needs to know the billing date and the format of the billing data to export from the Evatel system into CSV files:

1. The billing day of the month:  This is the day of the month that set the starting day for the billing period. A billing data export session will be automatically launched each month to export the data starting at midnight (00:00:00 AM) on this day until the day preceding next month's billing day at 11:59:59 PM. For example, if the billing day is the 3rd of each month, the billing period begins on the 3rd at 00:00:00 and end on the 2nd day of the following month at 11:59:59 PM.

• The field mapping table indicating the fields to export as well as their order. The mapping table is an XML file describing which fields need to be exported and in what order they must exported in each CSV file (users, sessions, calls, etc.). A template of this file is provided for you to customize and adapt to the needs of your billing software.  The content of the CSV files depends on this field mapping table (XML file).

For more information on the billing data exported and the XML file used by the Export Utility, download the document Data Export Utility Guide (PDF).

You must have provided this information (billing day and mapping table) during the installation and configuration of your Evatel system. However if you have not done so, you can still do it from the Evatel Configuration module which can start as follows:

Start > All Programs > Evatel > Settings > Configuration

Download the Evatel System Installation and Configuration Guide to learn more on how to use this tool.

If you have selected to use the Evatel billing module, you are expected to run billing sessions at the end of each month, after the end of each billing period.
To start a billing session using the Evatel Billing module, go to:

Start > All Programs > Evatel > Evatel Billing

The Evatel billing module starts offering to launch a billing session.  This will enable you to import billing data from the saved CSV files to generate invoices, send bills by e-mail and collect credit card payments. Download the Evatel Billing Module Guide (PDF) for more details.

If you've selected to use a third-party billing system, you will only have to use the CSV files containing the CDRs and other billing data for the selected month. You must configure your third-party billing software to import these CDRs and other billing data from the CSV files using the XML template.
For more information on the billing data exported and the XML file used by the Export Utility, download the document Data Export Utility Guide (PDF).

You can change the first day billed each month (billing period) from the Evatel configuration module which can be started as follows:

Start > All Programs > Evatel

Note however that changing the billing period after one or several months of operations may have the following consequences:

• If you choose to start billing earlier in the month, the usage charges between the new billing day and the old one, will be billed twice.
• If you choose to start billing later in the month, the usage charges between the old billing day and the new one, will not be billed.

 Go to Billing Data Export Configuration for more details.