Flexible Billing (Partner Business Hub)

 

Partners using Partner Business Hub  now have an additional way to pay for Avast Business products — Flexible Billing. This postpaid payment method, also called Pay As You Go (PAYG), charges for the services used by a customer on a prorated basis for each day of the month. Instead of paying in advance for seats which may go unused, those using Flexible Billing will only have to pay for the devices actively using Avast Business products and will not have to worry about up-front financial commitments.

Note that Flexible Billing is not automatically available in the Business Hub. To enable this billing method, contact your account manager.

Prorating

Flexible Billing is based on daily usage: cost per day per service. If a service is installed and activated on a device, the partner will be charged for it. However, if a service is disabled on a device for a full day (or longer), they will not be charged for it. This will be broken down clearly in each invoice.

Example: You install Essential Business Security on 50 devices on day 1 and uninstall it from all of them on day 15. You only pay the daily rate for 50 devices for days 1–15. On day 16, your billed amount is zero again.

 

Flexible Billing can be applied to the following Avast Business products/services:

• Small Business Solutions (Essential/Premium/Ultimate Business Security)
• Patch Management
• Could Backup
• Premium Remote Control (both single and unlimited concurrent sessions)

Payment Methods

There are two payment methods available for Flexible Billing: Invoice (line of credit, LOC) and autobilling (credit card).

Invoices are sent automatically at the beginning of the following month (e.g. May invoice is sent at the beginning of June) and can be paid via bank transfer, same as other OMS (Order Management System) invoices.

Autobilling is a new payment method in OMS, used for Flexible Billing only. To use it, a partner must enter credit card information before the end-of-month consolidation. Once the credit card details are provided, the payments will occur automatically every month, with no further action needed from the partner. If there are no sufficient funds or for some reason the transaction is declined, a standard invoice will be generated. This is why Flexible Billing is provided only to partners with an approved credit line, even if autobilling is set up.

To access your invoices, you will need to go to OMS, to which you can log in directly from the Business Hub via the Invoices button in the top right corner of the Subscriptions page (customer or partner level).

Activating Flexible Billing for Small Business Solutions

In case of an existing customer with a valid prepaid subscription, the Flexible Billing model starts applying (counting usage) when there are more devices installed than already licensed. This can happen either when an existing prepaid subscription expires or when the customer adds more devices than their existing subscription allows for. For more information, contact your account manager.

 

Once your account manager has enabled Flexible Billing for your account, you can easily activate it via the Subscriptions page of the console. Simply click Activate Flexible Billing under Avast Business Solutions, then choose the subscription tier (Essential, Premium, or Ultimate Business Security) to which you want to apply this billing model.

A new dialog will then pop up, offering some useful information and the option to enable and specify a usage limit (maximum number of devices using the subscription). Setting a usage limit is an optional feature to help avoid any unexpected charges. You can modify this limit at anytime (see Managing Usage Limits).

Once you have read the provided information and decided whether to set a usage limit, click Confirm to complete the activation.

Changing Your Current Subscription Tier

You can also easily change the Flexible Billing subscription type by clicking the Switch product button next to your currently used subscription, then selecting Switch under the desired tier and confirming your choice.

Activating Flexible Billing for Add-On Services

You can also take advantage of the Flexible Billing option when purchasing additional services (e.g. Cloud Backup).

To apply the Flexible Billing model to an add-on service:

1. Open the Subscriptions page
2. Click Buy next to the desired service
3. Under Flexible in the pop-up dialog, select Continue

For the Cloud Backup and Patch Management services, the previously mentioned dialog offering the option to enable and specify a usage limit will pop up here as well. For Premium Remote Control, you will need to choose between a single session at a time and unlimited concurrent sessions. Make your choice, then click Confirm to complete the activation.

Managing Usage Limits

As stated above, during the Flexible Billing activation process for Avast Small Business Solutions, you will be presented with a dialog showing details regarding the flexible subscription and giving you the option to set a usage limit, i.e. the maximum number of devices that can be licensed, and hence the maximum device count you can be billed for.

You can review this limit by going to the Flexible Billing-enabled subscription on the Subscriptions page. If the limit is enabled, the subscription will contain a link showing the maximum number of allowed devices.

Clicking this link will enable you to remove or modify the set limit.

Cloud Backup provides similar information and options for the backup usage. Clicking the link or Edit usage limit here will enable you to remove or modify the data limit for the customer. You will also be notified here if the limit has been reached. If that happens, the devices exceeding the usage limit will have their services deactivated until the limit is raised.

Monitoring Credit Limit and Usage

You will be able to keep track of your current credit limit (previously specified in OMS) and usage in several areas of the console: at the top of the partner Dashboard and Subscriptions pages and within customer subscriptions.

Also, you will see the credit limit and usage info each time you install/activate services on devices.

Canceling Flexible Billing

From Subscriptions, you can cancel your flexible subscription by clicking the actions menu (three dots) next to the subscription, then selecting Cancel flexible subscription and confirming your choice.

This action will not remove the installation of the local client from the devices using the subscription – it will only remove the subscription itself.