What is a Prepaid Billing?
Prepaid Billing is a process of applying charges such that users are charged upfront (in advance) before they use the product or service. In fact, unless the users pay for their services in advance, they are not given any access to the service.
The prepaid system of charging can be applied for both recurring charges and one-time consumption charges. Both prepaid charging models are explained here:
You could pay your monthly recurring charges in a prepaid manner, while paying for usage in a postpaid manner. This is typically true for electricity or power bills. The rental is charged on a monthly basis in a prepaid manner, but the consumption charges are based on your actual utilisation of the electricity or power.
In a truly prepaid billing scenario, the user pays in advance and keeps a balance with the service provider. This balance is tracked and deducted as the service is used. Once the balance reaches zero, the service stops automatically and resumes only after the user recharges the account.
Prepaid Billing in Telecom
When talking about a Prepaid Billing System in the telecom billing context, the focus is on consumption rating and deduction of a prepaid quota. This falls under the "Truly Prepaid Service" category described above.
A typical telecom billing prepaid scenario involves the user topping up their account with the telecom service provider by making an upfront payment. This is done against a plan the user selects from a set of available plans. Choosing one that meets their usage needs and budget.
Once the user has sufficient balance or quota, the telecom service becomes available. The telecom billing system uses the prepaid billing software to track and update the user's quota in real time. If the quota or balance is exhausted, the service is temporarily suspended by the underlying prepaid billing software.
EarnBill is a complete 'Convergent Billing System' , meaning it can cater to a number of different services for the same account, irrespective of whether they are prepaid or postpaid. Still, EarnBill can be configured as a purely Prepaid Billing Software if needed, meeting the client's prepaid billing system needs without losing postpaid support. EarnBill provides an out-of-box prepaid billing solution that allows users to configure the prepaid billing model with ease.
Prepaid Billing Software Features
In order to configure the Prepaid Billing Solution, the following key features need to be set up in the system to map the client's requirements:
- Configuring the Product Catalogue to set up the Prepaid Billing Plans
- Setting up Prepaid Customers in the system with the right configurations and parameters for prepaid charging
- Prepaid Subscriptions , subscribing Prepaid Customers to Prepaid Plans when they sign up and choose their data plan
- Allowing flexible Recharge Options to add balance to the account
- A Private Wallet system to maintain the user's balance
- Configuring an Online Charging System that tracks live usage and deducts quota from the system in real time
- Providing Financial Reports expected out of a Prepaid Billing Solution
Real-World Results with EarnBill's Prepaid Billing
Want to see how our prepaid billing system performs in the real world? Discover how a leading ISP optimized its prepaid mobile data services using EarnBill's scalable platform.
Read the Case StudyInside EarnBill's Prepaid Billing Solution
Prepaid Billing Plans
The prepaid plan offering is typically structured with a range of plans. From a low-cost economy plan with modest usage quota, up to a high-cost, very high usage plan. In mobile services, a typical prepaid plan entails a fixed recharge fee and provides a fixed quota of local calls, national calls, SMS, and mobile data.
For example:
| Plan | Fee | Internet Quota | Voice Quota | SMS Quota |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Small Plan | $25 | 25 GB of Data | 100 Local & National Calls | 100 SMS |
| Medium Plan | $50 | 60 GB of Data | 250 Local & National Calls | 250 SMS |
| Large Plan | $75 | 100 GB of Data | 500 Local & National Calls | 500 SMS |
Each prepaid plan has an expiry period. This ensures users finish using their available quota before the validity date, typically 30 days (1 month).
With EarnBill's comprehensive Product Catalogue, it is possible to create very innovative offerings. For example, you could target an entirely different customer base with an 'Extra Small Plan' providing 10 GB of data for $10, with automatic data boosts of 1 GB for an extra $3 per GB. Similarly, you could offer an 'Extra Large Plan' with more included services for a slight price increase.
Prepaid Customers
Setting up prepaid customers in EarnBill is straightforward. You can configure different account types to cover the different customer segments your organisation serves. For example, a retail telecom service provider can set up account types as individuals, corporate, students, social organisations, governmental agencies, etc.
Under each account type, it is possible to set up the billing cycles, invoice template design, contact information fields, and payment methods.
Prepaid Subscriptions
A prepaid subscription is set up when the user subscribes to a service. It is enabled when the user subscribes to a prepaid plan by doing a top-up or a recharge transaction. When a subscription is created in EarnBill, it essentially defines the rules of how that particular prepaid plan works for the user.
It sets up the quota tracking records for the user and sends a message to the provisioning service to enable the particular service and the associated asset identifier/number (mobile/fixed line or any other associated service) on the network.
Recharge Options
A prepaid billing software needs to offer flexible recharge options. EarnBill comes with an out-of-box recharge feature that gives a good deal of flexibility to telecom service providers and ISPs alike. EarnBill's recharge option is designed to cater to front desk personnel. Allowing them to swiftly add recharge amounts based on customer requests.
There is also flexibility to extend the front desk recharge option to reseller outlets, with coverage for role-based security and allowing resellers to be created as agencies or outlets in the system. The recharge option on the EarnBill User Interface includes an out-of-box function to print payment receipts.
It is very easy to extend the Recharge function in EarnBill to support multiple payment methods used in your region or country. Extensions such as scanning QR codes or using credit cards can be easily tied up. All recharge options. Including cash, credit cards, and bank accounts, can be configured and enabled using EarnBill's flexible API interface.
Private Wallet
EarnBill provides an out-of-box private wallet feature that allows the telecom service provider to let multiple services consume and share the same account-level wallet. When a recharge is made by the user, the private wallet is credited and its balance increases. If there is a service for which the recharge is made, the balance is moved to that service and the wallet balance is reduced accordingly.
Online Charging System
As a complete prepaid billing solution, EarnBill provides a flexible, scalable, and powerful Online Charging System or OCS as it is abbreviated. EarnBill's prepaid billing solution uses OCS to accept usage traffic sent over RADIUS or Diameter protocols and can perform the function of a triple-A based (AAA) accounting and charging system. Triple-A stands for Authentication, Authorisation, and Accounting.
EarnBill's OCS is a scalable system that can handle huge traffic loads without any charging-related issues. The OCS system is designed with a modern technology stack that delivers high availability and also has DR (Disaster Recovery) capabilities.
The function of the OCS system is to track and update the quotas maintained on the user's subscriptions based on real-time usage. If the balance or quota is not sufficient to continue usage, then the RADIUS or Diameter traffic is responded with an insufficient quota/balance response. Stopping the service from the network level. Once a recharge is made, the quota is replenished and the service resumes.
Prepaid Billing Reports
The financial reports are a crucial part of any prepaid billing software. Since prepaid billing transactions. Recharges, usage deductions, and balance adjustments, flow through the software, records are maintained in the transaction log and provide detailed information about every such transaction.
There are various revenue reports available out of the box: detailed recharge reports, payment method summary, region/state/governorate-wise summary, users not recharged in the last 3 or 6 months, users with over payments, least used plans, and more.
Ready to Build Your Prepaid Billing System?
EarnBill handles prepaid, postpaid, and hybrid models on a single platform. With real-time OCS, flexible recharge options, and reporting built in from day one.