Managing the credit balance

Customer's credit balance

By adding credits to a customer's balance, you set the total amount of all credits that a customer can use to pay for services requested by the customer's end users. 

The credit balance can be positive—the credit balance value is more than zero,  and negative—the credit balance value is less than zero.

The following example shows a customer's credit balance:

The customer's balance is 100 credits.

• If end users request Service 1 and Service 2, the customer's balance becomes 60 credits.
• When an end user requests Service 3, the credit balance of this customer becomes zero.
• When an end user requests Service 4, the credit balance of this customer becomes  -15 credits.

Customer administrator experience

The credit balance is displayed in the Dashboard and on the top-menu panel.

The customer administrators receive in-app notifications and email notifications when the credit balance falls below zero. If the Alerts feature is enabled for a customer, the customer administrators also receive in-app notifications and email notifications when the credit balance falls below the defined limit. 

End user experience

When an end user requests a credit-based service, the amount of credits equal to the service price is debited from the customer credit balance.

If a credit-based service request is cancelled, failed or rejected, the amount of credits equal to the service price is automatically returned to the customer's credit balance.

Before you begin

• Enable the credit-based price system as described in Enabling-credit-management.
• Create a customer as described in Managing-customers.

To manage the credit balance for a customer

1. Log in to the Catalog console as a catalog administrator.
2. Go to Catalog > Customers.
3. Select a customer and open its details.
4. On the Customer Options panel, select Credit Management.

5. Perform one or more of the following steps:

   Task	Steps
   To grant credits to the customer's balance	In the Balance section, click Add.  In the credits field, enter the number of credits you want to grant to the customer.
   To withdraw credits from the customer's balance	In the Balance section, click Remove.  In the credits field, enter the number of credits you want to withdraw.
   To set up threshold limits for triggering alerts	Select the Alert when credits fall below check box. Enter the credits value in the edit field. For information about these alerts, see Configuring-status-updates-and-notifications.

Where to go from here

When you have set up the credit balance for a customer, you must set a credit-based price for all chargeable services. For details about how to do this, see Adjusting-service-cost-and-quantity.