Changing Billing Period Start Date

It is strongly recommended to avoid changing start billing date whenever possible, as it greatly affects customer billing.

If you set the same billing date for many customers, the system may become overloaded on this billing day.

Changing the billing period start day doesn't change the length of the billing period.

To change billing period start date:

1. Find account.
2. Click the Date icon in the Billing column for this user.
3. Enter the date you want this user billing period to start on.
4. Click Submit.

When you shift the start billing date to the past:

1. Current billing period and billing month are interrupted and forced to close.
2. Usage fees (if any) are charged.
3. Refunds (if any) are issued.
4. A new billing period and billing month open.
5. Recurrent fees for an open billing period and billing month are charged.
   Thus, most likely, you will want to credit the extra charged amount back to user's account.
   * The recurrent charges for traffic and summary disk usage are prorated to the period from the date the interrupted billing period should have normally closed to the closure date of an open billing period.

Running into a negative balance upon opening a new billing period may result in suspending or even deleting the account, because by this date, the account is likely to have been in debt for more days than allowed in the managing debtors control. If you don't want the account to be automatically suspended, do either of the following:
(a) prior to moving start billing date back, credit the amount that is going to put the account into a negative balance
(b) set the Outstanding balance date, User's Billing Info, (available by clicking the User name in the Search result page) to the current date.

When you shift the start billing date forward:

1. Current billing period and disk usage/traffic month are interrupted and forced to close.
2. Recurrent fees prepaid at the beginning of the interrupted billing period for billing period resources are refunded.
   * The refunds are prorated to the days remaining to the end of the interrupted billing period and adjusted to the refund percentage.

   Note: Recurrent fees prepaid at the beginning of the interrupted disk usage/traffic month for monthly resources are not refunded.

3. Usage fees for traffic/disk overlimit usage are accrued if any.
   * Usage fees are calculated as follows:
   Disk/traffic usage minus disk space/traffic free units prorated to the days elapsed from the resource month start date multiply by usage price.
4. Traffic and average summary disk usage are reset.
5. A new billing period and disk usage/traffic month open .
6. Absolute recurrent fees for billing period resources are accrued.
7. If a start billing date is set further than the date the interrupted billing period should have normally closed on, the user is accrued absolute recurrent fee for disk usage/traffic. If not, the user is accrued the recurrent fee prorated to the period from the date the interrupted billing period should have normally closed on to the closure date of the open billing period.

Shifting the start billing date forward, you create a gap between the billing periods. The system does not charge the customer recurrent fees for the time gap. Traffic and disk space used during this gap are tracked and taken into consideration when usage is calculated at the end of the billing period. If a user purchases some resources during the gap period, the system will charge the recurrent fee for these resources. However, it will calculate the price from the moment of purchase till the end of the new billing period. Say, you close the current billing period on November 11 and set the new starting date to December 1 (with a one month billing period. This way, the user doesn't pay recurrent fees for the remaining days of November. Still, if a user buys a resource on November 20, he/she will be charged the recurrent fee for the interval of 40 days (November 20 - January 1).