SuiteBilling Terminology
The following terms are used when referring to SuiteBilling:
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Billing Account: Shows all billing-related information for a customer or subcustomer, including the billing schedule, bill-to address, ship-to address, and currency.
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Billing Operation: Automates the process of rating and invoicing charges.
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Change Order: Changes the status of a subscription or subscription line items. For example, a change order might change a subscription from Pending Activation to Active status.
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Charge-Based Billing: Create charges to bill customers by using the Charge-Based Billing feature. Examples include project milestones, travel expenses, and time entered.
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Price Plan: Sets the price for items. You enter amounts in price plans. You also select volume or tiered pricing. Price plans are defined in price books.
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Price Book: Defines the pricing for a collection of items or services that are sold as part of a subscription plan. A subscription plan can have multiple price books. Price plans are defined in a price book.
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Ratable Event: Certain tasks you perform on a subscription line item that affect NetSuite charge calculations. Examples of actions that cause ratable events include:
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Activating, suspending, terminating, renewing and reactivating a line item
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Modifying quantities, pricing, and rates on a line item
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Saving a change order
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Rating: The process of creating charges for subscription line items. NetSuite calculates charges for a subscription using the information about its line items, such as the quantities, and pricing shown in the price plan and price book, the usage and effective date of the subscription, and the status of the subscription and its line items. You use a change order to set and change the status of subscription line items. For details, see Managing Rating Runs.
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Subscription: Includes the items being sold and the price and quantity for each item. A subscription is specific to one customer.
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Subscription Plan: Includes all of the items that can be sold as part of a subscription. The subscription plan includes price book information and renewal information. A subscription plan is a template or possible bundle a company offers to its customers.
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Usage: Defines the charge for a subscription line item that can be consumed, such as money, time, software licenses, or internet data. For example, if you sell mobile phone service plans, your subscription may have a line item for a monthly fee. The monthly fee includes a specific amount of minutes or data in your customer’s plan. When this included amount is exceeded, additional charges may apply. Using commit plus overage line types, you can charge in advance for a committed usage quantity and charge for overage if more than the committed quantity is used. In NetSuite, you account for the usage amount included in a subscription when creating the subscription plan.