Ok, folks, if you have all annual accounts, this won’t affect you – your billing will stay the same. If you are semi-annual, quarterly, or most especially monthly, listen up, as we’re making some changes that hopefully will shine clarity on your billing.

We started using our billing software way back in 2002 – I think we were like the 11th paying customer they had if our billing account number is to be believed. We love Ubersmith, and they keep making it better and adding things we would have loved to see in 2002, and we would love to use now. Problem being that much of their settings work independently and there is no real way to make a mass-global change, so some things that they added that were awesome we just have no feasible way to implement other than manually – and in some cases its not worth the manual effort to retroactively apply it, and its not fair to have some folks have access and not others.

We have realized that billing can be confusing. The grace period system is great – except that it picks up everything renewing during that time period and picking 31 days will leave some double charged on some months and not charged on others. The standard due date is great, except it leaves some people being invoiced after they already have a balance because again, there’s that pesky “days have different numbers of months” thing. Back when we started with Ubersmith, there was no ability to prorate service. The day we installed you was your start date – and that could be any day of the month. That made it a lot more complicated to figure out a system where:

1. The due date was clear, universal, and before your service can get suspended.
2. The invoice was far enough in advance that those who have to go through committee, accounts payable, or who just needed time to budget because they ran into a pinch had enough time to do it.
3. You could clearly understand what date your service with us was in serious trouble.

An invoice date on the 10th, due on the 20th, with 31 days in advance meant that if we billed like that in January, it would renew and invoice packages up to Friday, February 20, 2009. Same billing run in February? It’ll renew up to Monday, March 23, 2009 – which leave a play of 3-4 days in the middle of the month where someone monthly could wind up having a skipped charge, and then a double charge the following month, because if your package was on the 21st, it was not in the January time frame, but was in the February time frame. And, oh, so was March, too.

While not technically a double charge because you’re not paying for the same time twice, it was nonetheless patently annoying both to us, and to people that got caught in the grace no man’s land.

Unfortunately, Ubersmith does not have a built in system to go by calendar dates. The Prior Billing is always a static number of days, presenting the same problem. A grace would be the same regardless of how many days are in the month. It just couldn’t do what we wanted it to do through its interface.

So, we done hacked it.

The first thing that’s changed is ALL of the monthly packages are renewing on the first. Since we can’t prorate you folks after your package starts, your packages have been manually edited and your next renewal date is on February 1st regardless of when you were supposed to renew. Since we “pushed” the vast majority of you out instead of pulling you back, that means you all got a few weeks free (if you had to be pulled back, you got a credit). You’re welcome.

All monthly accounts, without fail, will be installed to have a package renewal on the first of the month, which means whenever you order a package you will pay the prorated fee for the month you’re installed, and the next full month. Then you’ll be billed every month thereafter. We will be doing the same with quarterly and semi-annual accounts in the future, but we will not go back and change the older ones – since you’re not in danger of double billing, there’s no particular need.

All invoices for monthly, quarterly and semi-annual accounts will be on the 1st of the month. Your due date every month will be the last of the month whatever date that happens to be – for you monthly folks, the “how late can I get away with paying before being suspended?” just got a whole lot easier to understand. You’re all on the first, and you will have a full calendar month to get that payment in. If you don’t by the due date, it is now a real and not “symbolic” due date and if you don’t pay by the due date, you can assume with great confidence the following day your suspension may take place. The due date is now an absolute, real, and final due date if you are monthly.

You quarterly and semi-annual folks have a little more detective work, at least those installed up to now. Your due date may be before your package actually renews – you can assume that if your package renewal date comes and there’s no payment, you may have an issue. If you would like to be moved to a 1st renewal so that you too can have the serious, immutable, this is the DUE DATE due date, send a ticket in and we’ll be happy to do it for you.

I know, I know, everyone’s going “The first? I hate the first! EVERYTHING is due on the first!” and we totally understand your issue. We cannot change your invoicing date because of the method we are using to change the dates based on the calendar months of billing. What we can do for you, though, is let you pick the day you want your card to be charged. Since you now have a full calendar month to get the payment in, you have a full month up to the 28th of any date to choose from. Just contact us and let us know what date you want the card to be charged, and we’ll be happy to program it in. This was simply the easiest, most universal, and clearly understood way we could set it up.

We’ll be editing the FAQs and TOS and so on in the coming days.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 5th, 2010 at 3:15 pm and is filed under DrakNet News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.