Preface
This document provides a general overview of the PortaBilling100 Customer Self-Care web interface.
NOTE: To view downloaded CDR files in Windows please do the following: My Computer -> Control Panel -> Regional Settings -> Number -> List Separator type “,” to match PortaBilling default list separator.
- Introduction
The front-end design and functionality of PortaBilling are simple and intuitive. The pure web interface of the PortaBilling Customer Self-Care home page is the main door to all the objects and tools of this part of the system. Divided into four functional blocks, the links load pages containing tools for managing the system, helping customers, and generating statistics. Each second level page contains a link back to the home page.
The four functional areas are:
|
Management |
Normal system maintenance tasks, such as the addition of administrative users, registering new nodes (network endpoints) into the system, maintenance of currencies and exchange rates, and maintenance of the destinations database. |
|
Payments |
Tasks related to billing, such as customer, vendor and account management, and rate plan definition. |
|
Customer Care
|
Tasks available to members of the Customer Care to help troubleshoot problems which clients may inquire about. NOTE: Customer Care functionality is only available for wholesale customers. |
|
Statistics |
A variety of statistics and reports available, which reflect on the status of the system or information provided about call records, costing, and revenue. |
Common Features
All of the functions available from the home page are also available from the drop down menus:
The right top side of the interface provides user with following information:
- 1. Time Zone where the current user
operates
- 2. Login name of the currently logged in
user
- 3. Context help for the current screen.
Clicking this link will pop-up help window
- 4. Logout button. Used to finish current
session or when necessary to re-login as another user
- 5. View Log. This link is only present for
users with corresponding access rights. Clicking it will pop up a
window with all logged activities ever performed on the current
screen
Also on the toolbar is often a list of available actions to take relevant to the current page:
This toolbar acts as the equivalent of the “File” menu of the application as it is the usual location for “Save”, “Close”, and “Add New” operations.
Sorting Tables
This feature is available for all CDR browsers where it is necessary to sort viewed information by different criteria. Table header cell with orange triangle shows the sorted row. Triangle down represents descending order, and triangle directed up means ascending.
The sorting is available for all columns with bi-directional white arrow in the top left corner of the header cell. To sort a column, simply click on the header. Click the same column again for the opposite sorting order.
Another cool feature of sorting tables is that table header is always visible.
Graphs
The default time frame for all graphs is 30 hours. The dates above the graph are the boundary time frame for the current graph. If a graph is presented in more then one color, the legend for the color usage will be displayed under the graph. If there are two graphs, captions on the left side will be provided. Usage of the navigation is explained in the table below.
|
Icon |
Description |
|
|
Zoom Out. Click the icon or the top part of the Graph to see 50% longer time interval |
|
|
Zoom In. Click the icon or the bottom part of the Graph to see 50% shorter time interval, and more detailed graph |
|
|
Back in time. Click the icon or the left part of the Graph to move back in time for 50% of the current time frame |
|
|
Forward in time. Click the icon or the right part of the Graph to move forward in time for 50% of the current time frame |
Reports
The middle portion of report screens is a one-year calendar. PortaBilling keeps reports for one year, and after that the reports are removed from the system. The current month is displayed in the bottom-right hand corner of the calendar.
Consider the following legend for the calendar:
- 1. If present, this arrow notifies the user
that the report for this month is available for download by clicking
the month link
- 2. Three-letter abbreviation of the month,
followed by the year.
- 3. If present, this arrow notifies the user
that two half-monthly reports are available and may be downloaded by
clicking the links on the right.
- 4. Click this icon to download statistics
for the first half of the month
- 5. Click this icon to download statistics
for the second half of the month
- 6. Number of the week in the current year.
No report was generated for this week, so there's no link.
- 7. Same as 6, but the report was generated
and can be downloaded by clicking the link.
- 8. Day of the month. No report was
generated. Link is inactive.
- 9. Day with linked reports are set off in
bold and underscored. Click to download the report.
The right hand portion of the screen may contain links to Quarterly and semi-annual reports. If a report is available, the corresponding link is set off in bold and underscored.
Note: the links are not displayed if the reports are not configured.
- System
Management
PortaBilling Security
PortaBilling100 is compliant to Visa Security Standards.
User Interface
- o
Inactivity logout
- o Unconditional logout
User Passwords:
- o A minimum
password length of six (6) characters.
- o Passwords include both alphabetical and
numerical components.
- o Passwords are stored under irreversible
encryption.
- o It’s required that the current password
be used before allowing a new password to become effective.
- o User’s last four (4) passwords can’t be
re-used.
- o It’s prohibited changing a password
within one (1) day of a previous change.
- o Initial password must be change on first
login.
- o Passwords to be changed at least once in
30 days.
- o Use dictionary checking to restrict
selection of password
Credit Card information
- o Credit
card information is displayed as 1234xxxxxxx567
- o Credit card information is stored using
same encryption as merchant account password.
Company Info
The Company Info screens allow the administrator to maintain the corporate information relating to your firm. This data will be included on reports such as Invoices.
Address Info
The Company Info screens allow maintaining the corporate information relating to your firm. This data will be included on reports such as Receipts, Invoices, etc.
|
Field |
Description |
|
Company Name |
The conventional form of your firm’s name. |
|
Address |
Street address of the firm. |
|
Country |
The country may be selected from a drop-down list. |
|
Phone |
Primary telephone number for the firm. |
|
Fax |
Primary fax telephone number. |
|
|
Primary email contact for the firm. (For example, “ info@easycall.com ”.) |
|
Summary Only |
When checked, the customer will only receive brief summary emails, rather than lengthy detailed reports as part of their regular service mails. |
Additional Info
The Additional Information tab only allows you to enter information about your time zone.
|
Field |
Description |
|
Time Zone |
The time zone in which the customer resides. |
Payment Info
Data contained within the Payment Info tab is used to store information about the Customer’s Credit Card that will be used for payments
Change Password
The Change Password screen allows the users to change the password required to access this interface. To change the password, the old one is required.
- Payments
Make Payment
Make Payment screen allows Customer to see the current balance and top it up with a credit card. When the screen is loaded, the Amount field contains the amount necessary to equalize the balance. The credit card set up in the Company Info screen is used by default.
Change the Amount if needed and
click Pay now button to proceed with the payment. An alternative card
can be used by clicking the Use
Other Card link.
User can return from that screen using Use Stored Card link.
NOTE: If the card information has not been stored only Alternative Payment screen will be displayed
Periodical Payment
Listed are all the registered payments for the Customer. The Effective drop-down allows you to declare whether only current payments ("Now"), or all payments ever processed ("->Now") will be shown.
Choose ("Now->") to see the "future" payments, or "All" to list all the payments. ("Now") is the default value for this filter.
In the payments listing, the information in the chart below is provided. To add a new payment, click Add New button.
|
Field |
Description |
|
Accepted |
Date when the payment was created |
|
Amount |
Specify fixed amount to be paid |
|
Frequency |
Could be either Weekly, Monthly or Balance Driven |
|
Balance Threshold |
Only applicable when Balance Driven. Payment will be processed automatically as soon as the balance reaches the threshold level |
|
From, To |
Time frame when the current payment is active
|
|
Number of Transfers |
Only applicable when the Payment Frequency is not Balance Driven. Indicates total number of transfers |
|
Discontinued |
This icon will appear if the payment has been discontinued |
|
Delete |
The delete icon allows removal of the current payment. This icon is only present for the "future" payments |
Edit Periodical Payment
To edit existing payment click the Edit button as shown on the screenshot below. This will copy the row in the form, where it can be edited.
|
Field |
Description |
|
Amount |
Specify fixed amount to be
paid, or click |
|
Frequency |
Balance driven, weekly, or monthly |
|
Balance Driven |
Only available when the frequency is balance driven |
|
From, To Dates |
Dates when the payment will
remain active. Click the |
|
Discontinued |
Check the box to discontinue the edited payment |
To save changes select Save or Save&Close button.
- Customer
Care
Customer Care Staff
The CC Staff screen shows existing Customer Care users registered for the current customer. It also allows the CC Staff member to edit current user information, and the ability to add and delete users. To add a new user, click the Add New button.
The user list table contains the following information and operations.
|
Field |
Description |
|
Login |
The user name used for logon and user identification. The user name is a link to the edit screen for the particular user. |
|
Description |
A short description associated with the user. |
|
Transaction Allowance |
Maximum refund per one transaction.
|
|
Daily Allowance |
Maximum refund per day.
|
|
|
E-mail contact for the user. For convenience, it is provided as a link, so you may send email to the user directly from this screen. |
|
Status |
- limit exceeded - expired - not active |
|
Delete |
A delete button will appear next to all users. This will permanently delete the user from the system. |
Add/Edit CC Staff
The Add/Edit CC Staff screen allows creation and editing Customer Care users registered for the current customer, as well as allowing editing current user information, and the ability to add and delete users.
If not normal CC Staff member's status will be indicated on the top of the screen by one of the following icons: Limit exceeded; Expired;
Not active.
Default status for new user is limit exceeded.
When CC Staff is editing the user information, the following parameters are available:
|
Field |
Description |
|
Login |
The user name used for logon and user identification. |
|
Password |
An easy to remember password may be automatically generated by pressing the "Auto" button. (It is recommended that you augment this password with a number in order to increase the password security.) |
|
Description |
A short description of the user that will be visible from the main CC Staff screen. |
|
|
E-mail contact for the user. |
|
Time Zone |
The time zone in which this user will be operating. |
|
Activation Date |
Date when the account is activated. |
|
Expiration Date |
Date when this account expires. If this field is left empty the account never expires. |
|
Daily Allowance |
Maximum refund per day.
|
|
Transaction Allowance |
Maximum refund per one transaction.
|
|
Senior |
If checked this user will be able to create new Accounts |
Customer Care Reports
CC Staff Graphs screen provides user with access to CC Staff Graphs.
Click CC Staff member name to see the graphs. If the desired name is not present on the screen, use pager or search functionality. For the search, the wild card symbol "%" can be used.
For each Customer Care Staff member, two graphs are generated. The top graph containing two curves displays refunded amount, and average refund; the bottom graph shows number of refunds during the last week.
- Statistics
CDR Browser
The Call History screens allow the user to view and download CDRs for any desired period of time. Set dates by clicking the icon and press Show CDRs button.
The results page contains a summary displayed on the top of the screen and table listing all calls and charges during the specified time period.
Click Download .csv button to download CDRs in .CSV format
Customer Reports
The Customer Report screen presents the user with access to easy download of all reports that have been set for the Customer.
The left part of the of the screen is a one-year calendar. PortaBilling keeps reports for one year, and after that the reports are removed from the system. The current month is displayed in the bottom-right corner of the calendar.
Consider the following legend for the calendar:
- 1. If present, this arrow notifies the user
that the report for this month is available for download by clicking
the month link
- 2. Three-letter abbreviation of the month,
followed by the year.
- 3. If present, this arrow notifies the user
that two half-monthly reports are available and may be downloaded by
clicking the links on the right.
- 4. Click this icon to download statistics
for the first half of the month
- 5. Click this icon to download statistics
for the second half of the month
- 6. Number of the week in the current year.
No report was generated for this week, so there's no link.
- 7. Same as 6, but the report was generated
and can be downloaded by clicking the link.
- 8. Day of the month. No report was
generated. Link is inactive.
- 9. Day with linked reports are set off in
bold and underscored. Click to download the report.
The right part of the screen contains links to Quarterly and semi-annual reports. If report is available corresponding link is set off in bold and underscored.
Download Options
Default download format is CSV.
Some reports, especially quarterly and semi-annually can get pretty big,
and for fast download it’s recommended to check ZIP
box, to download zipped file.
Note: the links are not displayed if the reports are not set.
Invoices
The Invoices screen allows viewing of all invoices received by the Customer. Desired Invoice can be found by entering its number. Group of invoices can be searched by selecting the invoice number or a date range.
Select Preview icon to preview the invoice in browser window. The Invoice can be also printed selecting Ctrl-P on your keyboard.
©2000-2007 PortaOne, Inc. All rights reserved.