Overview
For various Service Features that augment the details of an individual Service, tracking these features can prove a challenge for many organizations. PCR does not recommend tracking these features as Services themselves within PCR-360 because this potentially complicates the appearance of the Services when on a Bill, and it is not intuitive to associate two different Services together. Due to the flexibility of PCR-360, your organization has a variety of possible options. Which option is selected will be dependent on Organizational needs.
For information on tracking other types of non-traditional Services, please review our article on Tracking non-traditional Services.
Here are some items to consider:
- Will the Service Features be Billable?
- Will the Service Features appear on the Bill?
Depending on Organizational needs, there are three recommended practices for tracking Service Features within PCR-360.
| Recommended Method | Billing | Easy Tracking | Visibility on the Bill |
|---|---|---|---|
| Using Charges |  |  | |
| Using UDFs | | | |
| Hybrid Charges-UDFs | | | |
To help illustrate the usage of tracking these Service Features, we will be using the example of Voicemail.
Understanding the available tools
UDFs
Through the use of User-Defined Fields, your Organization can set up any number of fields desired for the Service Features.
Example Service Features:
- Automatic Callback
- Automatic Redial
- Call Forwarding
- Caller ID
- Call Waiting
- Three-Way Calling
- Voicemail
When creating these UDFs to represent a feature, PCR recommends using the Checkbox field type to indicate if the feature is present on the Service. These UDFs can be associated with one or more different Services Catalogs so Users do not need to create separate UDFs for Voicemail for a Business Line and for a Cellular Phone.
Charges
No matter what method your Organization does for tracking Service Features if there are plans to Bill, some form of Charge Catalogs will be needed to manage the Charges.
It is strongly encouraged to create new Charge Catalogs to represent the Service Feature fees so that they can be changed and updated independently from other Services to ensure clean billing.
Note: To show on a Bill, an item must be Active and Assigned to an Owner. Services will not appear on a Bill until they have been activated and assigned an Owner, and as such, any Service Features on the Service will also no appear.