Globalink Porta Billing Web Interface
(to view graphics, please download
http://iglobalink.net/support/voip/porta/PB-100_Customer_Self-Care_Interface.pdf)


 

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.

Email

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 Pay icon Balance (not available when the frequency is Balance Driven) to pay the current balance with certain periodicity

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 Stop Watch icon to make the payment active immediately. Leave To empty to set the payment active for indefinite period of time

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

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

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.

 

 

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