Component Allocations: Updating Component Quantities

Update Quantity is significantly different than Record Usage in the application.

Please be aware that this help article is related to Advanced Billing's Component Allocations functionality. In order for Advanced Billing to add charges for a subscriber’s components, you must report to Advanced Billing the component’s status/amount. You can learn more about Component Allocations by checking out this help article: Component Allocations Overview.

• When you are updating a quantity, this is specifically for a quantity-based component.
• This is often confused with Record Usage which is only for metered components.
• The true difference is metered components reset to zero at the beginning of each billing period.

Update Quantity and Proration

When the quantity of a quantity-based component is updated (Update Quantity action), the user can choose to charge for proration by selecting the Charge the prorated amount of the difference in quantity option.

In this case, the following formula is applied:

Delta Quantity x Price x % of Period

Where:

• Delta Quantity = (New Quantity - Old Quantity)
• % of Period = (Current Timestamp - Start of Period)/Original Period

On the Invoice,

• Quantity = Delta Quantity x % of Period
• Unit Price = Price 

Consider the following example.

Given:

• The Update Quantity option is applied, from 20 to 25.
• This occurs 49.9% into the period.
• The price per unit is $20.

Result:

The Invoice shows the following:

• Quantity = 2.495 (5 x 49.9%)
• Unit Price = $20 
• Total = $49.90 ($20 x 2.495)

To display the prorated Unit Price instead of the prorated Quantity increase requires an extra step. From Config > Settings > Invoices, under Invoice Customization > Line Item Elements, check the Display of Prorated Price Invoice Lines option.

In this case, the proration percentage is applied to the Unit Price on the Invoice:

• Quantity = Delta Quantity 
• Unit Price = Price x % of Period

Using the same setup as the example above, the resulting Invoice now shows the following:

• Quantity = 5 (25-20)
• Unit Price = $9.98 ($20 x 49.9%) 
• Total = $49.90 (5 x $9.98)

In both, the Total ($49.90) is the same.