Next Generation Telephony Systems and Services

This Howto describes principles of setting up Reseller and Agent accounts in Data Tech Labs Arrow Billing.

• Basic Principles
• Creating Agent or Reseller
  • Creating Reseller
  • Creating Agent
  • Membership to Reseller or Agent
• Common Issues and FAQ
  • The account balance of my agent is not reduced when his VoIP Accounts make calls. What is wrong?
  • Sum of Amounts of the Accounts belonging to Reseller X is greater than the Amount of Sum of Calls in Reseller X Company Report. Is Reseller X cheating me?

Resellers and Agents are separate entities who distribute services provided by Service Provider (you). It is possible to have multi-level hierarchy:

• Service Provider > Enduser
• Service Provider > Reseller > Enduser
• Service Provider > Agent > Enduser
• Service Provider > Reseller > Agent > Enduser

Difference between Reseller and Agent is:

• Resellers can have their own rate tables.
• Agents cannot have their own rate tables. Instead they work on commision received from payments made by their Accounts.

Here are cases when it is advised to use Resellers and/or Agents:

• Calling Cards distributed by third party
• Callshops Managed by third party operators
• Other retail sale processes working with comissions

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You can create a reseller by following these steps:

1. Login to Arrow Billing with your username and password.
2. Go to Companies (main menu item).
3. Click on Add Company (submenu item of Companies)
4. In the new page fill in at least the Company name (any text you like, you wil be able to change it later) and other optional information.
5. Hit the button Add Company.
6. You will then be directed to the modification page of the newly added company in which you will see a link Reseller Accounts - Add New. Click on the link.
7. Make Account Status enabled or disabled (if disabled, the customers of the reseller will not be able to make calls)
8. Select rate table - this is the rate table for this reseller (rate at which we sell calls to the reseller)
9. Select the currency of the reseller.
10. Press the button Add new Reseller Account.
11. Now you will see a new section Reseller sell rates below the button. This shows the rate tables (with option to delete) this reseller can give to corresponding accounts. Click on the link Add New.
12. select a rate table and press Add New.
13. When you are done with creating reseller account, click on Return to Company Details.
14. Now you are back to company editing page. Here you need to give the reseller some credit. There are 2 possibilities:
    1. The reseller has paid you some money:
       1. Click on the submenu item Payments.
       2. Enter amount, select currency and click on Add Payment.
       3. After payment is done, click on Edit Company to get back to company modification page.
    2. The reseller did not pay, but you want to give some credit:
       1. In the box Credit limit, enter amount and hit the button Edit Company. In this case NEVER check the box Prepaid.
15. At this point you need to give the reseller access to the Billing System.
16. Go down the page and find Web Accounts - Add New. Click on this link.
17. In the new page please assign some username and password which the reseller will use to access the Billing System.
18. Fill login name and password (twice to confirm password).
19. In the section Privileges check these boxes: Accounts- view, edit, add, delete; Companies - view, edit, add, delete; Call Reports - view; Billing Reports - view; Payments - view, add; Account PINs - add (if you need to allow generation of PINs by the reseller)
20. click on the link Add User.

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The procedure to create an Agent is similar to that of a Reseller. Only the following modifications are necessary for an Agent account:

• In step 6, click on the link Agent Accounts - Add New.
• After selecting Account Status and Currency, Press the button Add new Agent Account. Please note that there is no rate table for the agent.
• Now you will see a new section Agent Available Rates and Comissions below the button. This shows the comission rate, type and value (with option to delete) this agent can receive from corresponding accounts. Click on the link Add New.

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It is very important to set Memebership properties of Agent or Reseller correctly. Membership specifies whether the Company you are creating belongs to a particular Agent or Reseller. So if you are creating Reseller, do not specify any "Reseller" setting in "Membership" area as a Reseller cannot belong to another Reseller and/or Agent. The following example shows proper Reseller membership:

Note that Reseller and Agent values are set to "NONE".

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Nothing is wrong in this case. That is a correct behaviour. The balance of your Agent should not decline when his VoIP Accounts make calls. Agent receives commision based on percentage from payments done by his VoIP Accounts. He is credited at the time VoIP Account makes payment.

No. Reseller can sell his calls to his VoIP Accounts at any rate he wants. Therefore sum of amounts consumed by his VoIP Accounts can be greater than the Amount consumed by Reseller himself. It may even be greater than the amount Reseller has paid to You.

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