1.6.1 Prepaid and postpaid

There are two methods of billing:

• Postpaid
• Prepaid

Pre-pay or prepaid billing is a mechanism where customer pays in advance and after that starts using a service. Usually, prepaid customers do not receive any invoice and they are charged in real time, the account is debited after each event until the balance is used up. Thereafter any new attempts of using the service are declined. For the service usage events the credit control function calculates the maximum time for the call and does not allow the balance to go below zero.

Post-pay or postpaid billing is where clients buy products and services and use them throughout the month (or any other allowed period), and by end of the month, invoices are generated by the service provider and sent to the clients to make their due payment.

On voipswitch billing the postpaid is in fact a limited credit account.

Client accounts store information on the available balance. Credits are added to the account through payments, which can be made directly from the VSM (by the operator) or from the softphones or VUP through the Online Shop.

All operations either crediting or debiting accounts are shown in the Reports/Payments menu.