1 Account Balance Management

 Key points

Introduction

Definition of balance rules

The balance change

1.1 Overview

1.1.1 Introduction

Account Balance is a customer's 'wallet' to pay for his/her consumption. It can be either
the monetary balance or the non-monetary service usage (such as the amount of free
SMSs). It can be recharged or purchased by the customer or offered as
presents/benefits by the operator.

Account Balance Management includes the following functionalities: Balance Rule

management, Balance Change Management and Balance Assumption.

Fig 1.1-1 Account balance management

1. Balance Rule Management: it can define the balance type and the balance
consumption rules, such as: (1)Dedicated consumption, that is, the balance
can only be used to pay for specified services;(2)Balance share among
different subscribers;(3)Consumption limit on the cycle, such as daily
ceiling (maximum) consumption and monthly ceiling (maximum)
consumption.
2. Balance Change Management: The balance and balance valid period can be
changed when certain activities happen, such as recharge and balance
expiration. Balance Change Management includes the functionalities of
generating, cancelling or invalidating account balance. It also provides
interfaces to change the account balance, such as balance debit and balance
transfer.
3. Balance Consumption: it includes the functionalities to complete charging
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such as balance reservation, balance release and balance deduction.

1.2 Important concepts and key entities

Fig 1.2-1 Key concepts and entities

1.2.1 Account balance

Account Balance is an entity for payment under an account. Account balance may
contain the following information: account balance ID, account ID, balance amount,
effective time, expiry time, daily ceiling, daily floor, cycle floor, cycle ceiling, deposit
amount, consumption amount and reservation amount. The deposit amount is the sum
of payment during the current cycle. The consumption amount is the sum of the rated
usage during the current cycle. For post-paid customers, by calculating the sum of
deposit amount and consumption amount in the basic account balance, the system can
determine whether unsettled account items exist (the positive means there is an arrear
for the account and if it is negative, there is a deposit in the account). Reservation
amount is the sum of the amount which the real-time services request to occupy
temporarily.

An account balance can only belong to one account. It can be used to pay for fees of
one or more account item types.

1.2.2 Balance category

Balance Category is to define basic balance type in ZSmart, including the following

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categories: Basic Balance, Limited Balance (which has restrictions on valid time,
amount and condition), Given Balance, Bonus Balance and Non-currency Balance (e.g.,
call duration, number of SMS and network traffic).

1.2.3 Balance type

There can further be more detailed types under a balance category. Balance Type is the
subdivision of Balance Category. Balance type can be associated to certain account
item types to pay for related fee. Parent-child relationship can exist between balance
types to form a tree structure.

Each account balance instance must belong to a balance type. Under the basic balance
category, there is a unique basic balance type. Each account must have a unique
account balance of basic balance type.

1.2.4 GL ID

Sub Balance Type is the subdivision of Balance Type. Sub Balance Type is to set the
consuming rules in more instantiating level than balance type. To create an account
balance of non-basic balance type, the consuming rules must be set through sub
balance type. Sub Balance Type defines the attributes of the account balance, such as
priority, ceiling limit amount of daily consumption, ceiling limit amount of cycle
consumption. Sub balance type can have its own deductible account items, daily quota
and cycle quota.

Fig. 1.2-2 Key concepts and entities

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1.2.5 Balance share

Balance Sharing is to set balance shared by subscribers. The operator can set up the
cycle usage ceiling, daily usage ceiling that every subscriber can use in a shared
account balance. The operator can also specify which type of subscriber fee can be
deducted from the shared account balance.

1.2.6 Balance overdraft

In some specific situations the operator can allow customers to overdraw the basic
account balance and increase consuming quota. And the balance overdraft part will be
written off first when the customer pays for his account. Limits can be set on the
amount of the overdraft.

1.2.7 Balance transfer

In some cases, the system allows balance transfer between the account balances of the
same type. And the transferred amount is limited.

1.3 Function description

1.3.1 Account balance cancellation

Under certain situations, such as account expiry and account termination, system can
revoke an account balance and set its balance amount to zero.

1.3.2 Balance rule management

Balance Rule Management is to set the balance types, consuming rules, sharing rules
and dedicated balance rules. ZSmart can reserve or deduct fee from an account based
on the defined consuming rules of an account balance.

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1.3.3 Balance category and type

Fig 1.3-1 Balance category and type

Balance categories and types are set to classify account balances. An account balance is
created to record the balance of a certain type. A user can have multiple account
balances. The related service fee of the user will be deducted from those account
balances according to configured rules.

The following five kinds of Account Balance Category can be set in ZSmart.

Table 1.3-1 Account balance category

Balance Category Description

When a new account is opened, the Basic

Balance is generated automatically and each
Basic Balance account only includes one Basic Balance. The
user can use the Basic Balance without any
restriction.

Usually users use the Limited Balance

with some restrictions,
Limited Balance
Such as time (only used in stated time), payment
(only for the SMS, long-distance, or others), and
credit limit.

Given Balance
Usually Given Balance is generated by
the consumption. Such as opening an

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Balance Category Description

account and using services, or the

monetary transfer from other balance.

Non-currency Balance refers to the nonmonetary

Non-currency Balance
benefits, such as the bytes and minutes etc.

Bonus Balance Bonus Balance is the balance of bonus points.

1) The balance category is defined by system and each balance type should belong to
only one balance category.

2) The balance type can be divided into other balance types and organized as a tree
structure.

3) A balance type can pay for multiple account items, which is a one-to-many
relationship.

4) In the tree structure of balance type, the parent balance type can pay for the
account items of its sub balance types.

5) The basic balance category can only have one basic balance type. Each account
should have a unique account balance of basic account balance type.

6) A default General Ledger ID can be set for account balance type to specify the
default account item.

7) In ZSmart, the balance in a currency Account Balance can be calculated and

settled in different currencies. For this reason, ZSmart can configure multiple
exchange rules for an Account Balance type. Each exchange rule includes the
object Account Balance type in a different currency, the exchange rate, and the
valid period of the rule. For the exchange rule, the attributes of effective date,
expiry date and exchange rate between original and target currencies can be set.

1.3.4 Balance priority

A service fee can be paid by multiple account balances according to their priorities.
The account balance with the higher priority is used for payment first. The lower
account balance is used only when all the account balances with higher priority cannot
afford the payment.

The account balance priority can be set in ZSmart.

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1.3.5 Balance limit

ZSmart can set the upper limit and lower limit on the account balance.

Fig 1.3-2 Balance limit

1.3.5.1 Upper limit

Upper limit specifies the max value of an account balance.

1.3.5.2 Lower limit

Lower Limit specifies the minimum amount of balance that must be kept in an account
balance of the balance type.

When a negative value (-A) is set as the lower limit of the account balance, that means
the account balance can be overdrawn the amount of A.

1.3.6 Balance valid period

Account balance is assigned with a valid period. The valid period of some account
balance may not be extended, such as the presented account balance which must be
consumed within certain period of time. For other cases, there are two ways to extend
valid time of account balance:

1) Extending valid period via recharge

2) Exchanging valid period with balance

1.3.6.1 Extending valid period by recharge

The valid period of account balance can be extended by recharge.

The following options can be specified to extend the validity period of an account of
the balance type through recharge.

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1) Keep Uniquely: the system assures that the user can have only one account
balance of the same balance type at any time after recharge.

2) Cannot recharge and cumulate: the system cannot extend the validity of the user's
original account balance through recharge. Instead, it will generate a new account
balance of the same type for this purpose.

3) Keep Uniquely in One Effective Period: The system assures that any two account
balances do not have the same effective time period after recharge.

4) Keep Uniquely Any Time: The system assures that there is only one effective
account balance at any time after recharge.
1.3.6.2 Exchanging valid period with balance

When the valid period is going to expire, the user can extend the valid period by paying
money. For example, the account balance of the user is 100 dollars and the remaining
valid period is 1 day. If the user does not want to recharge the account, he can extend
the valid period by paying money. If the user pays 4 dollars, he can obtain the valid
period of 2 days according to 2 dollars/day. Then, the account balance is 94 dollar, and
the remaining valid period is 3 days.

1.3.7 Forcible payment

ZSmart pays for the price of an event according to the priorities of account balances.
The system first uses account balances with higher priorities to pay for the usage. If
account balances with the higher priority cannot afford the payment, then account
balances with lower priorities will be used.

However, if an account balance A is specified as a Forcible Payment, then the related

price must be paid by A and other accounts with higher priorities, provided that all
those higher priority Account Balances are non-forcible payment accounts. The system
will never use any Account Balances with a lower priority for the payment.

1.3.8 Balance share

ZSmart supports to set an account balance instance to be shared by other subscribers

who are not directly connected to the shared account. For example, in a family, the
father's account can pay for the service fee for his wife, his son and his daughter; all
VPN members can share one account balance which counts the number of free SMS.
Also one account balance can be shared among different services, that is, the account

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balance can pay for multiple services.

Fig 1.3-3 Balance share

In ZSmart, the following capabilities are provided for balance share:

1) Balance sharing rule can associate account balances with subscribers to generate a
many-to-many relationship, that is, one account balance can serve multiple
subscribers and one subscriber can use multiple account balances.

2) Other than the default deductible account items of the shared account balance,
ZSmart balance sharing rules can specify other deductible account items for that
shared account balance. For example, there is an account balance instance BAL1,
whose balance type is AR1 and can pay for account items AIT0 and AIT2. By
setting sharing rules, ZSmart can make BAL1 to be shared to pay for account
items AIT1 and AIT2.

3) Daily quota can be set in a sharing rule to limit the daily usage of a particular
subscriber when he/she uses the shared account balance.

4) A forcible payment mark can be set in the sharing rules. If a forcible payment
mark is set for a shared account balance, then the related subscriber can only pay
for the specified service usage using the shared account balance. In a session,
online charging control will prevent the subscriber from using related services if
the shared account balance is insufficient or its daily quota is reached, even if the
subscriber has other account balances with lower priorities.Suppose Mr. Li's
company pays for international call, that is, the company account balance is
shared by its employees to pay for international calls. The company account

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balance is set as forcible payment and its daily ceiling limit for each employee is
50 dollars. If Mr. Li makes an international call, the system will try to deduct the
charge from the company account balance first. During the session, if his ceil limit
of company account balance is reached, he cannot use his own account balance to
continue the call even if his own account balance can afford the call.

1.3.9 Limit balance

By setting limit balance, the operator can specify the type of account items that
the designated account balance can pay for. The type of account items can be
different from the default account items of the balance type. For example, an
account balance can be specified to only pay for the short message service.

Fig 1.3-4 Limit balance

By setting limit balance, the sub balance type can be dedicated to paying for other
account items instead of its original or inherited account items. Daily quota and
cycle quota can also be set for a sub balance type, and by default these quotas are
inherited from its parent balance type.

A good example of limit balance is the given balance. The event of recharging,
charging or subscribing a specific service, often triggers to generate the given
account balance, which has a specific dedicated sub balance type which only
belongs to one balance type. For example, to stimulate consumption, the operator
can present the customer one dollar for every 100 minutes of long distance call.
The presented one dollar can be put into a special dedicated account balance

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which can only be used to pay for long distance call.

1.3.10 Multiple balance management

Co-payment means that service fee of one usage can be paid by multiple account
balances. For example, when a user makes a call, the roaming fee can be paid by
one account balance and the usage fee can be paid by the other account balance.

The other case of co-payment is that the service fee is deducted from different
account balances according to the account balance's priorities. The system first
uses account balance with higher priorities for payment. If the account balance
with the higher priority cannot afford the payment, then other account balances
with lower priorities will be used.For example, the credit limit of the company
account balance is used up, and then the individual account balance pays the fee.

1.3.11 Reservation rule

For online charging, ZSmart can reserve the call duration or traffic volume for the
session in advance so that the system can terminate the session in case that current
balance cannot afford the call or traffic going on. ZSmart can set Reservation Rule
to divide call duration or traffic into small units for reservation in advance. The
reserved units can be specified flexibly according to the carrier’s price policy.

Each reservation rule consists of Reservation Unit, Reservation Amount and

Reservation Limit. Regarding each session, the system first reserves default
amount, defined by Reservation Amount (for example three minutes), from the
balance of an account. After the first three minutes is used up, the system reserves
three more minutes. Whenever the system finds the balance is insufficient for
reserving another three minutes, it will try using the amount, defined by
Reservation Limit (such as one minute), for next reservations.

For example, the system can set the following reservation rule: the default
Reservation Amount is three minutes and the Reservation Limit is one minute.
When a user makes a call, his account balance can afford seven minutes. The
system first reserves three minutes. After the user uses up the three minutes, then
the system reserves the second three minutes. After the second three minutes is
used up, the system finds that only one minute is left in the balance and is
insufficient to reserve three more minutes, and therefore the system uses the
Reservation Limit (one minute) for next reservation. So the last one minute is

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reserved by the system. After it is used up, the balance becomes zero. The call will
be interrupted in real-time when the last one minute is used up.

The operator can set the reservation rules for certain services. The following
attributes are supported for a reservation rule:

Table 1.3-2 Reservation rule

Attribute Description

In a session, the system will reserve corresponding amount according

to a subscriber's account balance. As long as the account balance is
Default
Reservation
sufficient, the system always reserves the amount according to the
Amount Reservation Amount.

For example, the operator can set the default Reservation Amount of call
duration to be 180 (second). The second is specified by Reservation Unit.

In a session, when the subscriber's account balance cannot afford

reserving the default Reservation Amount, the system uses the
Reservation
Limit Reservation Limit for next reservations.

For example, the operator can set the default Reservation Amount of call
duration to be 60 (second). The second is specified by Reservation Unit.
Reservation Reservation Unit specifies the measurable unit, such as second, byte, and
Unit occurrence.

1.3.12 Balance trigger

Balance Trigger is to activate actions upon the balance reaching a threshold. Such
actions can be giving benefit, sending messages, service blocking and so on. For
example, if the balance decreases to RMB 10, a short message is sent to the user
to remind the user of recharging. For another example, if the balance increases to
RMB 1000 after recharging, RMB 10 is presented.

1) Target Balance Type

It specifies the target balance type for the balance trigger. When the account
balance of this type reaches the threshold, the actions are triggered.

2) Threshold

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It sets the threshold and upon the balance reaching the threshold, the action is
triggered.

More than one threshold can be set for an account balance and each threshold can
trigger different actions. The number of the thresholds is not limited.

3) Action

Three kinds of actions can be triggered:

Trigger Present: upon that the threshold is reached, one or more presents are given
to the user.

Trigger Advice: upon that the threshold is reached, one or more advices are sent to
the user.

Trigger Event: upon that the threshold is reached, one or more events are
generated.

1.4 Balance change management

According to the business rules the Balance Change Management can complete
the operations such as account balance generation, change, cancellation and so on.
1.4.1 Account balance generation

Each account has only an account balance of the basic balance type. This basic
account balance is generated when a new account is created. Expiry time is
defined for the prepaid account balance. For post-paid account balance, no expiry
time is specified.

Some events, such as recharging, charging or subscribing a service, can trigger to

generate new account balances which can be specified with account balance type,
valid time, expiry time, balance limit, and daily quota.
1.4.2 Account balance change

The events, such as recharging, charging or subscribing a service, can also trigger
the changes in account balances. For a special account balance, the changes can be
extending its validity period and increasing the balance limit. The changes only
affect the account balance itself and do not involve any consuming rules.

If the service requires sharing an account balance, then the balance sharing rules

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of an account balance must be instantiated.

1.4.3 Account balance cancellation

When an account is disconnected or terminated, the account balance is cancelled.

During this process, the account balance will be revoked so that its deposit
amount, reservation amount and consumption amount will be set to 0 and the
expiry time will be set to the current system time.
1.4.4 Balance debit management

To encourage consumption and improve customer loyalty, balance debit is

allowed for some special customers so that they can continue using services even
when their account balances are insufficient.

There are restrictions on using balance debit, such as the subscription duration, the
credit limit of the customer and the debit amount limit. The debit amount should
be paid first when the customer recharges or pays the bill.
1.4.5 Balance transfer

The amount can be transferred between the same types of account balances in two
accounts. Some handling charge may be generated at the transferred-out account.
Also account balance changes, such as amount increasing and expiry time
extension, may be triggered on the transferred-in account.
1.4.6 Balance carrying-forward

At the end of a billing cycle after the invoicing is finished, ZSmart will deduct the
invoiced charge from the corresponding consuming amount and deposit amount in
the account balance so that the account balance can remain valid and correct for
next billing cycle.
1.4.7 Balance adjustment

According to the business requirement, the balance of an account might be

adjusted by hand. The balance amount, the effective time and the expiry time can
be changed.

1.5 Balance consumption

The balance is consumed according to the billing results, account balance and the

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account balance consuming rules.

Fig. 1.5-1: Balance consumption

1.5.1 Reservation

For session-based online charging, the rating module will allocate the usage
according to reservation rules, and reserve the usage from account balance
specified by balance consuming rule. The reservation amount will be accumulated
in the field of reservation amount of account balance and at the same the session
also records the reservation amount.
1.5.2 Release

For session-based online charging, the reserved service usage amount will be
released to the corresponding account balance when session ends or extends.
ZSmart will reallocate the new reserved amount for the extended session or
recalculate the actual usage fee for ended session.

If a session is interrupted unusually, the session management module can release

the session and the occupied reservation by the session is also released back to the
original account balance.
1.5.3 Deduction

When the session or service usage event ends, ZSmart will recalculate the actual
usage fee and deduct it from the corresponding account balance.

The occupied reservation amount is released. The charging control module

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calculates the fee according to the real service usage and deducts the charging
results from the corresponding account balance. The total amount of the deducted
balance is stored in the consumption field of the account balance. Also the
reservation amount corresponding to the session will be released early.

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