Skip to main content
Billing

Billing Overview

Understand the billing cycle in BlueRockTEL — from CDR collection and consumption rating through pre-production preview to final invoice production and delivery.

The Billing Cycle

BlueRockTEL processes billing in a structured cycle. Understanding each step helps you know where you are at any point and what to check before moving forward.

  1. CDR collection — usage records are ingested from your switch, SIP server, or carrier
  2. Consumption rating (valorization) — each CDR is matched against rate plans and assigned a cost
  3. Pre-production — a preview of all invoices for validation before they become final
  4. Production — final invoice generation with sequential numbering
  5. Delivery — invoices are sent to clients by email and deposited in the client portal
  6. Collection — payment via SEPA direct debit, bank transfer, or other methods

Each step builds on the previous one. The key checkpoint is pre-production: this is your opportunity to review everything before invoices become official.

Pre-Production

Pre-production generates a complete set of preview invoices without committing them. Think of it as a dry run.

Launching a pre-production

  1. Navigate to Main menu → Events
  2. Choose the appropriate pre-production formula from the dropdown
  3. Click "Schedule"

Processing time depends on your billing volume — a few hundred folders may take a couple of minutes, while several thousand may take longer. Refresh the page periodically to check progress.

Tip: When the pre-production completes, you receive an email with a .csv file attached. Open this file in a spreadsheet application for a quick sanity check — you can sort by amount, scan for zeros, or filter by client to catch obvious issues before reviewing individual invoices.

Valorization options

When scheduling pre-production, you will see a valorization option:

  • Select "With valorization" for the first pre-production of the billing cycle. This triggers the CDR rating engine to calculate consumption charges.
  • For subsequent pre-production runs within the same cycle (e.g. after correcting a folder), you can reuse the existing valorization to save time.

Reviewing pre-production invoices

  1. Navigate to Main menu → Documents → Pre-production
  2. Use the sortable columns and search field to find specific clients, invoice numbers, or sales representatives
  3. Click an invoice number to open a full preview in a new window

Review the preview carefully. If anything needs correction, go back to the relevant folder, make the change, and re-run pre-production.

Production

Once you are satisfied with the pre-production results, you are ready to produce final invoices.

Production works the same way as pre-production — schedule it from Main menu → Events — but the invoices generated are final: they receive official sequential numbers and cannot be modified after the fact.

By default, production triggers a notification email to each client. Invoices are also deposited in the client portal where clients can download them at any time.

Batch-Based Billing

If you have configured billing batches (see Folders & Configuration), you can run pre-production and production for each batch independently.

This is useful when:

  • Different service types are billed at different times of the month
  • One batch needs a longer validation cycle than another
  • You want to stagger invoice delivery to spread out support inquiries

Select the target batch when scheduling a pre-production or production run from the Events page.

Term Billing

BlueRockTEL supports both billing in advance (terme echoir) and billing in arrears (terme echu):

  • Terme echoir — bill at the beginning of the service period (e.g. bill in January for January)
  • Terme echu — bill at the end of the service period (e.g. bill in February for January)

Choose the appropriate option in the Events dropdown when scheduling a production run. No additional configuration is needed in the folders themselves.

Billing Frequency

Each folder can have its own billing frequency:

  • Monthly — most common for telecom and subscription services
  • Quarterly — billed every three months
  • Annual — billed once per year

Configure the frequency in the folder's edit page. Different folders for the same client can use different frequencies.

Important: Do not mix different billing frequencies within a single folder. If a client has both monthly telecom services and a quarterly IT support contract, create separate folders for each. This prevents prorata calculation errors and keeps invoices clean.

Next Steps

Next Working with Invoices