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Knowledge Index

Use this index listing to quickly find information about specific m3ter entities or areas of functionality.

Accounts

Represents one of your end-customer accounts:

• attaching Plans to

• attaching Plan Groups to

• best practices for managing

• billing for Parent/Child accounts

• creating and managing

  • creating Balances for

  • creating Child Accounts for

  • creating Contracts for

  • creating Custom Plans for

  • creating Custom Plan Groups for

  • creating Prepayments for

  • creating External Mappings for

  • defining day before bills due for

  • end dating Account billing entities

• reviewing Bills for

• submitting usage data for

Account Plans

Plans are attached to Accounts to create Account Plans, which then determine the charges incurred by your end customer.

• creating by attaching Plan to Account

• defining active period for Account

Account Plan Groups

Plan Groups are attached to Accounts to create Account Plan Groups, which then determine the charges incurred by your end customer.

• creating by attaching Plan Group to Account

• defining active period for Account

Aggregations

Aggregations define how to convert into a single number individual usage data measurements collected by Meter fields. They are used to configure pricing for Product Plans.

• creating Compound Aggregations

• creating Global Aggregations

• creating Product Aggregations

• creating Segmented Aggregations

• defining aggregation method for:

  • use Sum of values

  • use Min or Max values

  • use Count of number of values

  • use Mean of Values

  • use Latest value

  • use Count of Unique values

• pricing Plans with

• reviewing options for

APIs

The m3ter platform supports two HTTP-based REST APIs returning JSON encoded responses:

• The Config API, which you can use for configuration requests and management.

• The Ingest API, which you can use for submitting raw data measurements.

We impose limits on the calls you make to both of our APIs to maintain optimum performance and high availability for all customers.

• call for submitting usage data

• getting started with

• http error codes returned

• limits for Config API

• limits for Data Explorer

• limits for Ingest API

• optimizing Ingest submissions

• API reference docs

• supported APIs

Authentication

The m3ter platform supports several authentication methods:

• service authentication for API calls

• single sign-on for federated identities

• user/password for login to console

Balances

Balances are created for end customer Accounts. You use Transactions to add and flexibly manage Balance amounts on Accounts. End-customers can then draw-down against their Balance amounts for any charges due throughout the period the Balance is active for the Account and a Transactions ledger is maintained for the Balance:

• adding transactions to

• creating for accounts

• draw-down order against prepayments/commitments

• overage pricing for

• overage surcharge percentage for

• selecting charge types for

• selecting products for

• understanding charges draw-down against for billing

• working with balance transactions ledger

Bills & Billing

Bills are generated for an Account based on the usage-based pricing Plan that has been attached to the Account for charging the Account for consuming a Product. Plan Templates/Plans offer settings to control billing on Accounts that Product Plans are attached to for charging the Accounts.

• adding debit line items to bills

• adding credit line items to bills

• approving

• auto-approval for

• bill line item types explained

• bills for accounts:

  • reviewing

  • recalculating

• billing for parent/child accounts

• currency conversion rates for

• dates for billing

• downloading

• filtering

• global lock date for

• lifecycle for

• locking

• managing

• pro-rated charges

• reviewing bills for an account

• running

• running billing manually using modal

• scheduling

• settings for billing at organization level:

  • billing reference settings

    • bill prefix

    • bill sequence start

  • consolidate bills across billing frequencies

  • external invoice date for

  • days before due

  • scheduled bill interval

  • suppress generation of empty bills

• settings for billing using Plan Templates/Plans:

  • bill currency

  • bill frequency

  • bill interval

  • standing charge

    • standing charge interval

    • standing charge offset

  • product minimum spend

• statements for

• troubleshooting

• viewing details

• viewing history

Child Accounts

A Child Account is an Account that has a Parent Account defined. End customers with multiple Accounts can be issued with a single Bill for a Parent Account.

• creating

• reviewing Parent/Child

• billing for Parent/Child

Compound Aggregations

A Compound Aggregation allows you to to derive numerical measures from usage data by applying a calculation to one or more simple Aggregations. The calculation can also reference Custom Fields. You can then use these calculated measures as pricing metrics to set up usage-based pricing Plans for your Products.

• creating

• bill period variables for calculations

• referencing segmented aggregations in calculations

• referencing values and fields in calculations

• syntax for calculations

• worked example for

Contracts

Contracts are created for Accounts. For end customers who consume several different service or product packages, the total Contract value can be reported for accounting purposes.

• adding attached Plans/Plan Groups to

• adding Prepayments to

• creating

• end dating Contract and Account billing entities

Counters

Counters are used to create unit-based pricing for Plans and apply recurring subscription charge rates for your Products.

• creating

• creating counter adjustments on accounts

• pricing plans with

• using for hybrid pricing

• using for seat-based pricing

Credits

You can create and define Credit Reasons for your Organization. For Bill adjustments, Credit Reasons can then be used to add a Credit for an existing bill line item or apply a product Credit manually to a Bill.

• adding credit line items to bills

• creating credit reasons

Currency

Currency for billing can be set at Organization level or individual Account level. You can also define a different pricing currency for your Plans at the Plan Template level. If you do this, the Organization or Account setting is used for billing and you must configure currency conversion rates to determine how charge amounts in the Plan pricing currency are converted into billing currency amounts. If any required currency conversion rates from pricing into billing currency are omitted, billing will fail.

• adding conversion rates for

• archiving

• creating and managing

• setting for Organization

• setting for Plan Templates

Custom Fields

Custom Fields allow you to attach custom data to your Organization and some other individual m3ter entities.

• adding

• referencing in meter derived field calculations

• referencing in compound aggregation calculations

• understanding and working with

Data Explorer

Data Explorers allows you to query data collected for your Organization in the m3ter platform for Usage, Billing, and Prepayments/Commitments.

• exporting query results

• querying & reviewing Billing data

• querying & reviewing Prepayments data

• querying & reviewing Usage data

• saving, updating, reusing queries

Data Exports

The Data Export service allows you to export usage data and operational data from your m3ter Organization directly into your AWS S3 buckets. Currently available in preview release.

• data entity export schema

• creating destinations for

• creating operational data export schedules

• creating usage data export schedules

• reviewing export jobs

• running ad-hoc operational data exports

• running ad-hoc usage data exports

Data Fields

Data Fields are added to Meters and define a raw usage data collection fields.

• adding to meter

• types of data collected

Dates

• for billing

• for pricing

• for usage data submission

• quick reference on

• setting organization epoch dates

• setting organization timezone

Debits

You can create and define Debit Reasons for your Organization. For Bill adjustments, Debit Reasons can then be used to add a Debit for an existing bill line item or apply a product Debit manually to a Bill.

• adding debit line items to bills

• creating debit reasons

Derived Fields

Derived Fields are configured for Meters and use calculations on other fields to define usage data collection fields. Calculations can reference Meter Data Fields, Custom Fields, and system timestamp fields.

• adding to meter

• examples of

• calculations for

• referencing values and fields for

• syntax for

Entity Metadata

On the Details page for an entity, you can review the entity's metadata:

• reviewing

Error Codes

• HTTP error codes

Events and Notifications

You can use Events generated in m3ter as the basis for setting up and sending Notifications into your external systems when those Events occur and the specific conditions you've defined for triggering a Notification are satisfied.

• understanding events and notifications framework

• utilizing events for notifications

Events

• creating scheduled events

• event types

• ingest validation failure events

• integration error events

Notifications

• creating calculations for

• creating and managing

  • creating notification rules

  • linking notification rules to destinations

  • reviewing events for notifications

External Mappings

External Mappings are mapping reference lookups, which store unique ids for matched objects across two or more systems.

• creating and managing for accounts

• creating and managing for integrations

• creating bulk mappings

• creating linked external mappings

Global Meters

Global Meters do not belong to a specific Product, and are used to set up usage-based pricing across different Products.

• creating

Integrations

Integrations exploit m3ter's open-API framework allowing you to quickly map and synchronize data held in any 3rd-party systems you use for core business operations.

• creating configurations for

• creating credentials for

  • Chargebee integration credentials

  • NetSuite integration credentials

  • Paddle integration credentials

  • QuickBooks integration credentials

  • Stripe integration credentials

  • Xero integration credentials

  • Salesforce integration credentials

• creating destinations for

• creating linked external mappings for

• custom integrations

  • with Chargebee

  • with NetSuite

  • with Paddle

  • with QuickBooks

  • with Stripe

  • with Xero

• external mappings for

• managing configurations for

• managing credentials for

• managing multiple third party destinations for

• native integrations in console

  • Chargebee

  • NetSuite

  • Paddle

  • QuickBooks

  • Stripe

  • Xero

  • Salesforce

• reviewing and resolving error Events for

• reviewing integration runs

• salesforce - m3ter Connector for

Meters

Meters define the Data Fields that your system will submit to the m3ter service as usage data. They can be created as Product-specific Meters or as Global Meters.

• creating for product

• creating global

• custom fields for

• data fields for

• derived fields for

• options for

Notifications

You can set up Notifications to be triggered and sent into external systems on the basis of m3ter-generated Events. This includes the capability to create rule sets to define the precise conditions under which a Notification will be triggered and sent out when a specific Event occurs:

• example

• configuring

• destination and credentials for

• understanding

Note: Also see index entries above for Events and Notifications.

Organizations

An Organization represents your company as a direct customer of the m3ter service.

• editing config

• creating credit reasons for

• creating debit reasons for

• creating Service Users for

• currencies for

• granting support access

• managing

• transaction types for

• viewing details

• viewing Permission Policies

• viewing and editing Users

Permission Policies

Permission Policies allow you to control what users who have authenticated with the service are allowed to do in your Organization.

• adding to Service Users

• creating and managing

• viewing and managing

Plans

Plans represent a pricing and billing plan for end customers who consume your products or services. They are derived from Plan Templates.

• creating

• creating custom for Accounts

• editing

• pricing

• reviewing options for:

  • billing currency

  • billing frequency

  • billing interval

  • standing charge

    • standing charge interval

    • standing charge offset

  • product minimum spend

• reviewing pricing options for

• understanding billing options for

• viewing details of

Plan Groups

Plan Groups allow you to group together Plans for different Products and define a minimum spend for the Group.

• adding plans to

• example use case for

• creating

• creating custom for Accounts

• understanding billing options for

• understanding minimum spend for

Plan Templates

Plan Templates allow you to configure default billing and pricing settings for your Plans, avoiding repetition in configuration work when setting up Plans.

• creating

• editing

• pricing

• reviewing options for:

  • billing currency

  • billing frequency

  • billing interval

  • standing charge

    • standing charge interval

    • standing charge offset

  • product minimum spend

• reviewing pricing options for

• understanding billing options for

• viewing details of

Prepayments/Commitments

Prepayments/Commitments allow you to assign an amount to an Account that the end customer has agreed to pay over the duration of their contract with you.

• billing with plan

• billing on schedule

• creating for Account

• draw-down order against Balances for

• duplicating

• example of

• overage pricing for

• overage surcharge for

• reviewing details of

• setting draw-down charge types for

Pricing

A Pricing allows you to use Aggregations as pricing metrics to configure the cost of usage data consumed under Product Plans.

• deleting

• editing priced Plans/Plan Templates

• pricing Plans/Plan Templates:

  • using negative pricing for

• pricing readiness - prerequisites for

• removing Aggregations from

• reviewing options for

• seat-base pricing - derived field for

• viewing historic and future pricing for Plans

• viewing schedule for priced Plans/Plan Templates

• using segmented aggregations for

Products

Products represent in your m3ter Organization the products or service you offer to end customers.

• creating and managing

Recurring Charges

The Recurring Charges feature in m3ter allows you to use Counters to set up unit-based for your products and services.

• creating counters for

• creating counter adjustments on accounts

• creating unit-based pricing for plans

• using for hybrid pricing

• using for seat-based pricing

Segmented Aggregations

Segmented Aggregations allow you to segment the usage data collected by a single Meter and price your Plans by these segment values.

• billing for

• creating

• example use case for

• using to price Plans

• using wildcard values for

• worked example for

Service Users

Service Users represent automated processes that you want to grant direct API access to your Organization.

• adding Permission Policy to

• creating and configuring

• generating secret and access key for

• obtaining bearer token for

Statement Definitions

Statement Definitions allow you to define how the usage data collected by a Meter for a billing period is broken down. You can then use Statement Definitions to generate Bill Statements for specific Bills and append these to your end-customer invoices.

• creating

• using

Transactions

You can create and define Transaction Types for your Organization. Transaction Types can then be used to create specific Transaction amounts for Balances on end-customer Accounts. In this way, you can use Transactions to flexibly manage Balance amounts on end-customer Accounts, with a Transaction ledger being maintained for individual Balances.

• creating transaction amounts for balances

• creating transaction types for organization

• working with balance transaction ledger

Usage Data

You can create and configure Meters in m3ter to collect your end customer usage data. When you have set up Meters, you can define Aggregations of that data to give the pricing metrics to price Plans for your Products.

You can submit test usage data right in the Console and generate test Bills for that usage data. If usage data measurements you submit to the platform fail to ingest properly, an ingest failure Event is generated and a log file is made available to review and troubleshoot the ingest failure:

• aggregating to price by

• file upload by meter

• file upload service API for

• getting usage data into m3ter

• reviewing and resolving ingest failure events for

• setting up Meters to collect

• submitting

• submitting for non-existent accounts

• submitting and checking test usage data

• using timestamp to submit usage data adjustments

Users

Users represent a person you allow to authenticate with and have access to your Organization.

• authentication for

• creating permission policies for

• creating user groups for

• deactivating and reactivating

• editing profile

• inviting to join your organization

• managing and assigning permission policies to

• resending temporary password to

• single sign-on (SSO) for

• tracking user activity in organization

• viewing and editing

Webhooks

You can configure webhooks as the Destinations for your Notification Integrations.

• creating and managing Destinations for

• setting up authentication for connecting to

Next: Authenticating with the Platform

Additional Support