Endpoints that manage Commitments (also known as Prepayments) in the context of usage-based pricing and billing. A Commitment represents an agreement where the end-customer has agreed to pay a fixed minimum amount throughout the contract period. The commitment amount is payable regardless of the actual usage by the customer of your service or product.These endpoints enable the creation, updating, retrieval, and deletion of Commitments. Use them to manage your customer’s Commitments and ensure optimal revenue recognition:
Specify which type of charges can draw-down against a Commitment amount on an Account at billing: usage, minimum spend, standing charges, or recurring charges.
Define overage surcharge percentages, which are applied when the usage charges exceed the agreed Commitment amount within the contract duration.
What is the difference between Balances and Commitments/Prepayments?
To manage credit amounts for your end-customer Accounts, you can use Balances or Commitments/Prepayments. However, these two kinds of credits for Accounts serve different purposes.Commitments/Prepayments are used for amounts end-customers have agreed to pay for consuming your product or services across a full contract term. A customer might pay the entire or only part of the agreed amount upfront, but the prepayment amount is payable regardless of the actual usage by the customer of your service or product.In contrast, a Balance - often referred to as a Top-Up or Prepaid draw-down - is used when a customer wants to add a credit amount to their Account at any time during the service period or when you as service provider want to add a credit to a customer Account. This Balance credit can then be drawn-down against for billing the Account for usage, minimum spend, standing charges, or recurring charges due. Balances therefore serve payment use cases in a more flexible way, for example to be used for a “Free Credit” sign-up scheme you offer to encourage sales or to enhance customer satisfaction by adding credit to an Account to compensate for service delivery issues.You can use Prepayments/Commitments and Balances together on Account, and define at Organization or individual Account level the order in which any Balance/Prepayment credit on an Account is drawn-down - Balance amounts first or Prepayment amounts first.
If not all of an agreed Commitment amount is paid at the start of an end-customer contract period, you can choose one of two options for billing the outstanding fees due on the customer Account:
