Balance Adjustments

The Balance Adjustment wizard allows you to correct a customer’s balance.

To adjust a customer’s balance, follow these steps.

1. Choose a desired transaction from the list:

   • Manual charge – Use this transaction to manually charge the customer for a specific service they used (increases the customer's balance).

   • Manual credit – Use this transaction to give a customer a certain amount of money to be used for a service (e.g. $5 as a promotion, compliment or compensation related to a specific service). This changes a customer’s balance as follows:

     • decreases the amount of money a postpaid customer owes you
     • increases the amount of money a prepaid customer has for the service usage.

   • Manual payment – Use this transaction when receiving a payment (e.g. cash or cheque) directly from the customer. Increases the customer's balance.

   • Promotional credit – Use this transaction to give the customer credit, for example, as a sales promotion. The difference between this and Manual Credit is that this transaction applies to a special “Credits / Promotions” service, and not to any actual service. Increases the customer's balance.

   • Refund – Use this transaction to return money to your customers. For instance, a customer has paid you in advance and those funds have not yet been used to cover a customer’s invoices. The prepaid amount is then stored in customer’s unallocated payments. The refunded amount is subtracted from the customer’s unallocated payments. At the same time, it changes a customer’s balance as follows:

     • increases the amount of money a postpaid customer owes you
     • decreases the amount of money a prepaid customer has for the service usage.

   • E-Commerce Payment – Use this transaction to charge the customer's credit card and apply the amount to the customer's balance as payment (increases the customer's balance).

   • E-Commerce Refund – This option is only available if an E-Commerce Payment transaction has been made and the charged amount has not been used to pay an invoice. Use this transaction to reverse a previous E-Commerce It withdraws funds from your company’s merchant account and applies them as credit to the customer's credit card. The amount is taken off the customer's balance.

   • Authorization Only – Verifies that the customer's credit card is valid and reserves a given amount. Returns a transaction ID to be used in a Capture Payment Does not affect the customer's balance in PortaBilling® or his credit card balance.

   • Capture Payment – This option is only available if an Authorization Only transaction has been made and is not yet expired. Charges the customer's credit card and applies the amount to his balance as payment (increases the customer's balance). Requires a transaction ID from the Authorization Only The amount must be less than or equal to the amount of the corresponding Authorization Only transaction.

   • Void – This option is only available if an Authorization Only transaction has been made and is not yet expired. Use this transaction to cancel an existing Authorization Only transaction that has not been settled yet. Requires a transaction ID from the Authorization Only Does not affect the customer's balance in PortaBilling® or his credit card balance.

2. Click Next.

3. Fill in the transaction information fields:

   • Action – Concise description of the selected action.

   • Amount – Amount to charge / refund.

   • Service – A service for which the manual charge / credit is made. The charged / credited amount will be included in the selected service section on the next invoice.

      

     This field is only available for Manual charge and Manual credit transactions.

   • Tax Transaction Code – An internal code by which taxes are calculated for this transaction. This code is mapped to the taxation codes of EZTax®, Avalara, GST or SureTax taxation plug-ins as defined in PortaBilling®.

      

     The Service and Tax Transaction Code fields are only available for Manual charge and Manual credit transactions.

   • Date – A date associated with a manual charge / credit.

      

     This field is only available for Manual charge and Manual credit transactions.

   • Include into Out-of-Turn Invoice – This allows you to include transactions in an out-of-turn invoice that will be issued on demand. You must then generate an Out-of-Turn Invoice that lists the requisite transactions..

      

     For example, when an end user visits your office to buy a new IP phone, your clerk issues an invoice to covere the cost of the phone, takes the money for the phone, and gives the phone and the invoice to the end user.

      

     Transactions included in an out-of-turn invoice generated on the Out-of-Turn Invoice page won’t be reflected on the regular invoice issued at the end of the billing period.

      

     This field is only available for Manual charge and Manual Credit transactions.

   • Visible Comment – A comment on this transaction is visible to the end user and is in the xDR browser.

   • Internal Comment – An internal comment on this transaction is not visible in the xDR browser and is only accessible from the database.

   • Transaction ID – TThe transaction ID obtained via the Authorization Only or E-Commerce Payment. This is required for using the earlier reserved amount for a current transaction or for reversing a previously made payment.

      

     This field is only available for E-Commerce Refund, Capture Payment and Void transactions.

   • CVV – This is a three- or four-digit number printed on the front or back of the credit card.

      

     This field is only available for E-Commerce Refund and Capture Payment transactions.

4. If the wizard is completed, click Done. Otherwise, proceed to the step 5.

5. Choose whether to use the saved for this customer payment method or set a new payment method (refer to the Customer - Payment Method page for more details). Then follow the wizard's instructions.

6. When finished, click Done to close the wizard.

Taxes applied at the moment of payment

If the Apply taxes at the moment of payment feature is enabled for the customer, the wizard shows an additional page with information about applicable taxes, amounts before and after taxation. 

For how to enable the Apply taxes at the moment of payment feature, please see Customer Classes - Taxation and Customer - Invoices & Taxation.

Note that the wizard provides this information only if the following conditions are met:

• Balance adjustment is made for a debit account of a prepaid customer.

• Custom taxation and Fixed VAT Rate taxation plug-in are used.

• One of the following transaction is chosen:

  • E-Commerce Payment:

  • Authorization Only

  • Capture Payment

  • E-Commerce Refund

  • Manual Payment

  • Refund

For the first four transactions (E-Commerce Payment, Authorization Only, Capture Payment, E-Commerce Refund) taxes are added above the entered amount:

The amount applied to the balance = Entered amount

The amount charged (or refunded) to a credit card = Entered amount + Tax

For Manual Payments and Refunds, taxes are back calculated and deducted from the entered amount:

The amount applied to the balance = Entered amount – Tax

E-Commerce Payment, Authorization Only and Capture Payment

E-Commerce Refund

Manual Payment

Refund