Supply Files

You can send CDRs and other billing files to the platform in several ways. Some suppliers make their CDRs available by FTP, so the platform can collect these automatically. Some providers send CDRs by email. You can forward these on to the platform, or your provider can send them directly. Some providers only make their billing files available through an online portal. Download these, then send them to the platform by email or upload them through your web browser.

FTP Collection

If your supplier makes their billing files available through an FTP site, collection can be automated. Your platform administrator sets this up for each carrier, so it is not a self-service screen. Send them (or support) the connection details and they will configure it. They need:

• The hostname or IP address, and the username and password (or private key).
• How daily and monthly files are told apart, such as being in different directories or having distinct file names.

Your supplier may also need to whitelist the platform’s IP address. The platform supports collection by FTP, FTPS and SFTP, optionally using a private key. Both daily and monthly CDRs can be collected this way.

Email Delivery

CDR files can be sent by email, either directly from your supplier or from you. In most cases, send them to the general address cdrs@my-platform.example.com, where the part before the @ is cdrs and the domain is your platform’s mail domain. The platform works out the carrier, file type and billing period from the files themselves. This is the simplest option, so use it unless you have a reason not to.

Use a more specific address only when autodetection cannot identify the files, or when you want to set these details yourself. Here, the part before the @ names the carrier, and you can add keywords to tell the platform more:

• daily or monthly - which billing period the file covers.
• inbound, outbound or fixed - the kind of file, when one carrier sends more than one type.

For example, bt-daily@my-platform.example.com marks a daily file from BT. Your platform administrator sets up these carrier-specific addresses, so ask your administrator (or support) for the exact address to give a supplier. The examples above are illustrative only.

Uploading a CDR File

To upload a CDR file directly, go to the Billing Run menu and use the Upload New CDR link. You will need to specify the carrier and file type, as these are not automatically determined when manually uploading a file.

Uploading a CDR Bundle

Some providers limit the size of email attachments. When a month’s call data is large, this can block the usual email-in route. A CDR bundle lets you send many files at once inside a single archive.

What you need:

• A single archive file holding your CDR files. The platform accepts zip, rar, 7z and gz (and .Z) archives.
• Files can sit in folders, or even in archives within the archive. The platform works through them all.
• Up to 100 MB per upload.

Steps:

1. Go to the Billing Run menu and use the Upload CDR Bundle link.
2. Choose your archive in the “Bundle” field.
3. Set a carrier to apply it to every file in the bundle, or leave it blank to let the platform identify each file the normal way.
4. Click to upload. The platform scans the file for viruses as it arrives.

The platform then unpacks the bundle in the background. It creates a separate CDR entry for each file inside. Those entries process exactly like emailed or individually uploaded CDRs. The bundle itself shows an Extracted status with the number of files it produced, and a tab listing them. Junk files, such as Mac system files and email signature images, are skipped automatically.

If two files in a bundle share a filename, the platform follows the carrier’s processing rule for duplicate filenames. By default the later file is held as a Potential Duplicate for you to review. Some carriers always reuse the same filename, so filename duplicate checks can be turned off in their processing rules, letting each file load as normal. If the bundle holds no usable CDR files, it is marked as failed with a message explaining why.

Use the Checking CDRs steps below to track how the extracted files are getting on.

Checking CDRs

You can check which CDRs have been received and/or processed at any time. Go to the Billing Run menu and use the View CDRs link. You can filter the list by carrier, file type, status and billing period. Files held as Potential Duplicates appear here too and can be reviewed before deciding whether to release or discard them.

Potential Duplicate Files

When the platform receives a CDR file, it takes a fingerprint of the file’s contents. If a previous file with the same fingerprint has already been received, the new file is flagged as a Potential Duplicate and held without processing. This stops the same usage being billed twice, which would otherwise happen silently.

Common causes:

• Resending a previous month’s file. It is easy to forward last month’s CDR email by mistake, or to re-upload an old file when checking what was sent. The platform recognises the file as one it has already processed and holds it.
• Email signature images. Some email clients attach signature graphics, such as logos or social icons, as files. Every email from that sender carries the same images, so each new email looks like it contains a duplicate of those “files”. These can be safely ignored.
• Carrier resending unchanged files. Some carriers re-send the same daily or monthly file across multiple emails. Only the first copy is processed.

Held files appear in the View CDRs list with a Potential Duplicate status. Open the file to see a Potential Duplicates tab listing the other files it might be a repeat of, so you can compare before deciding what to do. If the file is genuinely new and should be processed, you can release it from the file’s detail page.

The platform can also flag files that share a name with an earlier file, even when the contents differ. This is optional and is controlled in the carrier’s processing rules.

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Fixed Fee Billing Files

The same delivery methods (FTP, email and upload) also apply to fixed fee billing files from your carriers. These are sometimes called SDR (Service Detail Record) files. They contain non-call charges such as line rentals, installation fees and equipment costs.

Some carriers recommend using their fixed fee billing files for billing purposes; others provide them for information only and advise that you maintain your own charge records. Check with your carrier whether their files are suitable for billing.

When the platform receives a fixed fee file, it:

1. Parses the file and creates a carrier transaction for each charge
2. Matches each carrier transaction to a customer, number or feature using the references in the file
3. During the billing run, converts matched carrier transactions into billing transactions on the customer’s invoice

The retail price for each charge is calculated using a fixed fee tariff. If a wholesale tariff is also configured, the platform records the carrier cost separately for margin tracking.

Fixed fee billing files are set up in the same way as CDR files. If your carrier sends call records and fixed fee data in separate files, they can be collected from different directories or identified by different file names.

See Non-Usage Charges for an overview of how carrier-generated charges fit into the broader billing picture.