Create a Rate Table

Rate tables are a part of price components. You create rate tables to contain the rating formulas for a price component. Rating formulas consist of a decision table and one or more rating formulas. This procedure covers the general steps for creating a rate table. Refer to the help procedure for creating each type of price component for instructions on creating a rate table that applies to that price component.

Before you begin

Create the price component that will contain the rate table and the decision table the rate table will use. Add any parameters to the price component that you want to use in rating formulas instead of fixed values. If you plan to use rate tags in the rate table of charges, create the rate tags you want to associate with charges. See the related topics for more information about how to perform these tasks.

Procedure

In Price Components, click the tab of the type of price component (Charges, Discounts, Grants, Refunds, or Forfeitures) that will contain the rate table you want to create.
Open the edit screen of the price component that will contain the rate table.
In the Rate Tables pane, click New Rate Table.
In Name, enter a unique name.
(Optional) In Description, enter descriptive information about its purpose.
(Optional) In External ID, enter any alphanumeric character to serve as a unique ID on this pricing object. The external ID can be used for any reason that is meaningful to your implementation of MATRIXX Engine. External IDs are saved to the pricing configuration file and loaded into the Pricing database.
Click Create.
In Quantity Definition, select what is being measured to determine the charge amount.
- None — Defines a rating formula as a constant amount, on a per-event basis, rather than as a scaled amount. Use None to define a constant amount for charges, discounts, grants, and meters. This option can apply to usage events, such as SMS messages, and non-usage events. This is the default.
- Usage Quantity — Bases the scaled part a rating formula on the event duration or volume, such as the number of minutes used or number of megabytes downloaded. Charges, discounts, grants, and meters can be based on usage quantity. This option applies only to usage events, such as voice sessions and data sessions. For usage price components only.
- Purchase Amount — Bases the amount on the initial purchase amount. For a refund price component, the refunded amount is the purchase amount. For a forfeiture price component, the forfeited amount is the purchase amount.
- Balance Value — Bases the scaled part of the rating formula on the quantity in a specified balance, balance tag, balance class, or meter. If a balance class is selected, the combined value of all valid balance instances of that balance class is used (all balance amounts are summed). If a balance, balance tag, or a meter is selected, only its value is examined during rating. This balance, balance tag, or meter can be different than the balance, balance tag, or meter that is impacted by the rates in the rate table.
  If you select Balance Value, click Select Balance and select a balance class, balance template, meter template, or balance tag from the list. Note the following additional configurations:
  - If the balance or meter has any associated units, select a unit from the Units list to set the unit being measured. This unit can be different than the unit defined for the balance or meter. For example, the basis of the scale quantity can be megabytes and the quantity definition unit in the template can be bytes. During rating, the number of megabytes in the balance or meter are converted to bytes to determine how to apply the rates.
  - If you select a periodic balance, select which balance entry to use: 0 (current), 1 (previous), 2 (two previous entries), and so forth. This number must be the size of the window minus the high-water mark minus one. For example, if window size is 5 and the high-water mark is 2, the number cannot be greater than 2 (5 – 2 – 1 = 2).
  The contents of the balance option drop-down menu changes according to if you select to use a balance or a balance tag. If no balances or balance tags are available for selection, the drop-down menu is disabled.
- Field — Bases the scaled part of the rating formula on the quantity in a specified MDC field. The field can be in the network message or in the subscription, group, or device object. For example, you can charge a group monthly fees based on the number of subscriptions in the group by using the Group MDC's SubscriberCount field.
  If you select Field, click Select Field. Choose the field in the Scale Field list and click Select. To filter the list, enter a criteria in Search. The list filters automatically as you type.
  Note: For first-use and recurring price components, the field cannot be in the network message.
(Optional) To edit a rating formula:
1. Click Edit Formula.
2. Specify a default rating formula for the rate table. This formula is predefined for each row added to the rate table and can be overridden manually.
3. For the following pairs, define one or the other. Define parameters by selecting one from the drop-down menu or creating one by clicking New.
  - Fixed Rate (default is 0) or Constant Parameter.
  - Variable Rate (default is 0) or Slope Parameter.
  - Unit Multiplier (default is 0) or Unit Multiplier Parameter. If a unit multiplier is defined, select the units for it. The default is minutes.
  Once one item of the pair is defined, the other property is cleared. For more information about defining a rating formula and how these items are used in the formula, see the discussion about rating formula options. For more information about parameters, see the discussion about creating a rate table parameter.
4. Click Save.
(Charge components only) If you are using rate tags, and you want to specify a default rate tag for the charge rate table, click Select Rate Tag and choose the rate tag to be set on all formulas in the rate table during price plan compilation.
Click Select.

Note: A warning displays if a rate tag is not selected when you click Select.
(Charge components only) If you are using rate tags, and you want to attach a rate tag to a rating formula in any row of a charge rate table, check the Override Rate Tag per Row checkbox and click Save. In the decision table, set the rate tags you need on any row of the rate table.
(Charge price components only) To allow a prepaid balance to exceed the credit limit (0) and a postpaid balance to exceed its current credit limit, select Allow Charges to Exceed Credit Limit.
If you select Allow Charges to Exceed Credit Limit, you must select a balance class and a balance in Balance Impact and the balance cannot be an on-demand balance.
For more information about how MATRIXX Engine determines whether charges are allowed to exceed the credit limit, see the discussion about exceeding credit limits in MATRIXX Pricing and Rating.

Note: To limit charges from rate tables that have Allow Charges to Exceed Credit Limit enabled, create an overdraft meter.
If the price component is based on usage quantity, in Default Beat, do one of the following:
- To use beats during rating (the service type must have beats defined for this option), select a default beat for all rates in the price component. Any usage less than the beat amount is rounded up to the beat during rating.
  Note: The beat units are limited to those supported by the price component's Quantity Selector value. For example, if the value is Actual Duration, the beat can be seconds, minutes, hours, days or weeks, but not bytes or megabytes. Discounts based on usage quantity do not have associated beats.
- To turn off beats during rating, select No beat. Beatless rating is used when the usage quantity is a constant, such as with SMS.
To allow one or more rates in the rate table to override the default beat, select Override Beat Per Row.
For Balance Impact, click Select Balance, select the balance class and (optionally) the balance or balance tag that is impacted by this rate table, and click Select. If there are units defined for the balance quantity, select one from the Units list. This determines the quantity unit that updates the balance. This unit can be different than the unit defined for the balance template. For example, the balance unit can be megabytes and the update unit can be bytes.

Note: If the rate table is being used for a recurring or purchase charge and will take advantage of debt balances, then it must reference the balance class or balance tag that includes the debt balances.
Click Select Decision Table, select a decision table from the list, and click Select. Select is greyed out until a decision table is selected. To filter the list, start typing the decision table name in the Search field. If the decision table does not exist, click Cancel, and then click Create New Table to create one.
After a decision table is applied to the component table, its ID and name displays as a hyperlink in the Decision Table pane. To change the applied decision table, you can click the hyperlink to open Edit Decision Table. After making and saving changes, clicking Cancel returns you to the component table.
In each row in the decision table, click inside a cell in the Formula column. In the Edit Formula dialog, define the rating formula.

Note: If you want to use a parameter in the formula and the parameter does not exist already, you can create it directly from the rate table, Edit Formula dialog by clicking New next to the type of parameter you want to create. For more information, see the discussion about creating a rate table parameter.
Click Edit Decision Table Formulas to open Edit Rate Table and edit the decision table formulas, which are listed as a table. Select new values from the drop-down menus or hover your mouse in the appropriate column and click that appears to the right to edit the value.
Alternatively, use the tab and arrow keys to navigate around the grid editor. For manual entry, type in a value and press the Enter key to save it. For drop-down menus, choose a selection by doing the following:
1. Press the space bar or Enter key to display the options.
2. Use the up/down arrow keys to move through the options.
3. Press the Enter key to set the value to the current selection.
Note: When defining the slope or slope parameter, only one of those values is allowed. Once one is defined, the other one is disabled.
(Usage price components only) If you selected Override per Row for the Default Beat, click the Beat cell in the row to override and select a beat or No beat.
To add additional rate tables, from Edit Price Component, click New Rate Table and specify properties for the new rate table as you did previously, selecting another decision table.

Note: During rating, the rate tables in a price component are examined in the order they are listed in the price component. To change the order in which multiple rate tables are listed, click in the ID column and drag a rate table to the new position in the Rate Tables list.
(Optional) To add a system attribute to the rate table:
1. In Edit Rate Table, click the Attributes tab, and click Add Attribute.
2. In Add Attribute, and select the system attribute from the list.
  
  Note: Add is greyed out until you select an attribute.
3. Click Add.
4. Click Save.
Repeat these steps for each system attribute to add to the rate table.

To change the value of an attribute, click the cell in the Value column for the attribute, and select the value from the list (if the attribute has allowed values) or enter the value.

To delete a system attribute, click in the Delete column for the attribute.
(Optional) To add a system attribute to a row in the rate table:
1. In Edit Rate Table, click the Attributes tab.
2. In the Decision Table pane, for the row containing the rate, click inside the cell in the Attributes column.
3. In Attributes, select a system attribute from the list, click Add Attribute, and click Save.
  
  Repeat these steps for each system attribute to add to the rate table.
  
  To change the value of an attribute, click the cell in the Value column for the attribute, and select the value from the list (if the attribute has allowed values) or enter the value.
  
  To delete a system attribute, click in the Delete column for the attribute.
(Optional) To add metadata to the rate table:
1. In Edit Rate Table, click the Data Modify tab.
2. Click Add Metadata.
3. Enter values for the metadata name, type, and default value.
4. Click Add.
Repeat these steps for each piece of metadata to add.

To change the default value for a piece of metadata, click the cell in the Value column for the metadata, and enter the value.

To delete a piece of metadata, click in the Delete column for the metadata.
(Optional) To set the default data modify profile:
1. In Edit Rate Table, click the Data Modify tab.
2. In Default Data Modify Profile, select the profile to use.
On the Data Modify tab, if you added metadata or a default data modify profile to the rate table, click Save.
A column for each piece of metadata and a column for the profile is added to the decision table.
(Percentage discount components only) To add a filter to the rate table:
1. Click the Filters tab,
2. Click Add Filter.
3. Select the filter from the list.
  You must select a filter to click Add.
4. Click Add.
  Repeat these steps for each filter to add to the rate table for the discount price component.
5. To delete a filter, click .

What to do next

You might decide to use a rate table in a different price component than the one in which the rate table was originally created. You can move a rate table between compatible price components. The option to add refund pricing components is only available for one-time product offers. For more information, see the discussion about creating a new revision of a one-time product offer.