Creating Charges for Accounts
You can create Charges for your end-customer Accounts to serve use cases that require ad-hoc or one-off line items for Account billing. Charges are:
Created for either debit or credit amounts.
Linked to a Product for accounting purposes.
Optionally linked to a Contract.
Given a specific date for billing.
When a bill job has run for the specified Charge bill date, a Charge appears as an Ad-hoc line item on a Bill.
Assigned a service period.
Available in any currency defined for your Organization.
When you set up a Charge for an Account, a new Bill is created for the specified billing date or, if other billing charge types are due on the Account on that date, can be consolidated with those other charge types in a single Bill.
This topic sets out some common use cases where Charges can be used, explains how to create and manage Charges for your end-customer Accounts, and gives some examples of how to view Bills for Charges:
Note: Charges in Preview Release! Please note that the Charges feature is currently available only in Preview release version. Preview features are in the final stages of testing and feedback, and are typically stable. We would expect only minor changes to be made prior to them becoming generally available. However, we recommend they’re not used in business critical processes.
Charges: Common Use Cases
The following use cases illustrate where Charges can enhance your revenue operations, providing your business with greater control over billing workflows without modifying core pricing plans:
One-Time Fees and Ad hoc Adjustments
Scenario
A business wants to add manual, one-time fees to customer invoices outside of standard usage-based billing.
How Charges solve this
Users can create Adhoc Charges that appear as one-time line items on bills. Examples include:
Setup fees for new accounts.
Manual service fees (for example, consulting charges).
Penalty fees for late payments.
Example
A SaaS company charges a one-time custom onboarding fee of $500 when a new customer signs up. Instead of modifying the contract, they create an Adhoc Charge linked to the Onboarding Service product and assign it to the customer’s next bill.
Discounts, Refunds, and Service Credits
Scenario
A business wants to issue discounts, refunds, or credits directly to customer bills without altering contracts or subscription plans.
How Charges solve this
Negative Charges (credits) can be applied to offset fees.
Discounts can be linked to specific products or contracts for accounting accuracy.
Service credits can be applied to future bills using a scheduled charge.
Example
A telecom provider issues a $50 refund to a customer due to a service outage. Instead of modifying the plan, they create a credit charge for -$50 and link it to the next billing cycle.
Contract-Specific Custom Charges
Scenario
Businesses need to apply charges tied to specific contracts rather than general billing rules.
How Charges solve this
Charges can be linked to contracts for tracking and auditing.
Ensures alignment with contractual obligations, service levels, or penalties.
Example
A managed services provider includes a clause in a contract for custom engineering support fees at an hourly rate. When support is provided, an Adhoc Charge is created under the contract’s ID and added to the next bill.
Creating and Managing Account Charges
You can create ad-hoc Charges for your end-customer Accounts in m3ter directly from the Account details page. When you've created Charges for an Account, from the Charges tab you can review Charge details and edit or delete a Charge:
Creating a Charge for an Account
To create a Charge for an Account:
1. Select Accounts. The Accounts page opens.
2. In the Accounts listing, search for and select the Name text of the Account you want to create a Charge for. The Account details page opens with the Overview tab selected.
3. On the Account actions menu:
Select Charges>Create charge:
Alternatively:
Select the Charges tab.
On the Charges panel, select Create charge.
The Create page opens.
4. Complete the Charge details:
Name. Enter a name for the Charge. (Required)
Code. Enter a code for the Charge. (Required)
Currency. Use the drop-down list to select the currency you want to use for the Charge. (Required)
Amount. Enter the Charge amount. (Required)
Service period start date (inclusive) and Service period end date (exclusive). Use the calendar pop-ups to define a service period for the charge. (Required)
Accounting product. For accounting purposes, select a Product to link the Charge Bill line item to. (Optional)
Bill date. Enter the date the Charge will be billed against the Account. (Optional)
You can omit a specific date for billing the Charge in cases where you want to create the Charge against the account but the exact date it will be billed is not yet determined.
Description. Enter a custom description that will appear for the bill line item for the Charge. (Optional)
Note that if you leave this blank, a default description will be used: Ad hoc charge.
In this example a Charge will be created for a one-off onboarding fee of $500 against a new customer:
A service period of two days - March 14th and 15th - is defined to allow for setting up and testing the new service setup.
The Charge will be billed the day after the two-day service period - March 16th.
5. Enter Charge settings:
Contract. If you want to add the Charge to a Contract you've created for the Account, use the drop-down to select it. For more details on Contracts, see Creating Contracts for Accounts. (Optional)
Notes. Use this to enter any notes for the Charge. These will not appear on any Bills, but can be referred to for audit purposes. (Optional)
6. Select Create charge. You are returned to the Charges tab for the Account where the new Charge is listed:
Viewing Charge Details
To view Charge details:
1. Select Accounts. The Accounts page opens.
2. Select the Name text hotlink of the Account with the Charge you want to review. The Account details page opens.
3. Select the Charges tab.
4. On the Charges panel, select the Name text hotlink of the Charge you want to review. The Charge details page opens:
You can check the details for the Charge:
Read-off the Service period and Bill date for the Charge.
Use a text hotlink to open the Bill for the Charge.
Use a text hotlink to open the Accounting product for the Charge.
Copy the ID of the Charge directly to your clipboard.
Editing and Deleting Charges
To edit or delete a Charge on an Account:
1. Select Accounts. The Accounts page opens.
2. Select the Name text hotlink of the Account with the Charge you want to review. The Account details page opens.
3. Select the Charges tab.
4. If you want to edit a Charge, on the Charges panel select the edit icon for the Charge:
The Edit page opens.
4. Make the required editing changes and select Update charge. Your updates are saved and you are returned to the Charges tab.
5. If you want to delete a Charge, select the Delete icon:
A confirmation popup appears
6. Select Yes to confirm and complete the deletion.
Viewing Bills for Charges
You can run billing for an Account with an ad-hoc Charge on it and check the billed amount and date. How Bills are generated for Accounts with ad-hoc Charges created for them depends on whether or not you have selected to consolidate Bills for your Organization:
Separate Bills for Charges. If you haven't selected to consolidate Bills for your Organization, you can run billing for an Account for the ad-hoc Charge bill date and generate a separate Bill for the Charge.
Note that in this case, even if the Charge bill date coincides with a regular billing date set up for the Account - such as the first of a month for an Account on a monthly billing frequency with billing dates of the first day of month - the Charge will not appear on the regular monthly Bill covering other charge types due against the Account, such as usage charges, and a separate Bill is generated.
Consolidated Bills for Charges. If you have selected to consolidate Bills for your Organization and the ad-hoc Charge bill date coincides with a regular bill date set up for the Account, then the Charge will appear on the regular monthly Bill covering other charge types due against the Account, such as usage charges.
Note that in this case, if the Charge bill date doesn't coincide with one of the Account's regular billing dates, you can generate a separate bill for the Charge by running billing for the specific Charge bill date.
This topic gives some examples to show how to generate Bills for Account with ad-hoc Charges:
Viewing Separate Bills for Ad- Hoc Charges
To view separate Bills for ad-hoc Charges:
1. Select Accounts. The Accounts page opens.
2. Select the Name text hotlink of the Account with the ad-hoc Charge for which you want to view Bill. The Account details page opens.
3. Select the Bills tab.
4. On the Bills panel, select Run billing. The Run billing modal opens.
5. On the Run billing modal:
For Invoice date, select the Bill date defined for the ad-hoc Charge.
For Bill frequency, select Ad hoc.
For Target currency, select the Currency configured for the ad-hoc charge:
6. Select Run billing. The Bill for the ad-hoc Charge is generated and is listed on the Bills panel:
7. Select the Reference text hotlink for the Bill. The Bill opens in Bill management:
In this example, we've run billing for the ad-hoc Charge example created for an Account in the previous section in the amount of $500, which had a Bill date of March 16th 2025. When the Bill is opened:
The line item TYPE is shown as Ad-hoc.
A text hotlink allows you to open the Charge details page directly from the Bill.
Suppose now that other ad-hoc Charges had been created for the same Account with the same Bill date. For example, the new customer was eligible for a discount against the normal onboarding fee for taking early sign-on. A negative ad-hoc Charge could be created for the Account and for the same Accounting product to cover this kind of case:
If we now go back to the Bills tab and re-run billing for Ad-hoc Charges on the same Account for March 16th Invoice date and open the recalculated Bill, then the new ad-hoc negative discount Charge is shown:
Viewing Consolidated Bills for Ad-Hoc Charges
In the following example, we have an Account set up for monthly billing frequency and the billing cycle date for the first and subsequent billing as March 1st 2025. The Account was onboarded mid-February 2025 and an ad-hoc onboarding charge was created with a Bill date of March 1st 2025:
Important: Switch on Consolidated Bills for Organization! If you want to show ad-hoc Charges line items on the same Bills as other line item types - such as usage charges set up to be billed at monthly frequencies - you must switch on the Consolidate bills setting on in your Organization configuration. This will ensure different billing frequencies are consolidated into the same Bill. See Viewing and Editing Organization Configuration for more details.
To view consolidated Bills for ad-hoc Charges:
1. Select Accounts. The Accounts page opens.
2. Select the Name text hotlink of the Account with the ad-hoc Charge for which you want to view a consolidated Bill. The Account details page opens.
3. Select the Bills tab.
4. On the Bills panel, select Run billing. The Run billing modal opens.
5. On the Run billing modal:
For Invoice date, select the regular billing date which the ad-hoc Charge bill date coincides with - for the current example, March 1st 2025.
For Target currency, select the Currency configured for the ad-hoc charge:
Note that because Consolidating bills is enabled, charges for all billing frequencies will be shown on the generated Bill and there is no option to select a Bill frequency on the Run billing modal.
6. Select Run billing. The Bill for the selected date is generated and listed on the Bills panel:
7. Select the Reference text hotlink for the Bill. The Bill opens in Bill Management:
In this example of a consolidated Bill:
The ad-hoc Charge line item is shown under the Onboarding Service Product.
Usage charges that have accrued since the new end-customer Account was onboarded mid-month are shown under the Premium Data Store product.
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