Create Chargebacks

What is Chargeback Manager?

Chargeback Manager allows PyraCloud users to take existing cloud consumption and distribute the cost across their organization. Users can pull cloud consumption spend for direct and indirect agreements, define chargeback based on organizational structure and create single or multiple internal chargeback invoice documents.

Chargeback Manager is one of the last steps to achieve full end-to-end Cloud Management. It offers the following benefits:

• Users can create invoices, split invoices by provider and then charge the respective business unit or department for the cloud services they are using.
• Users have the ability to view, manage and send internal invoices.
• Users no longer need to manage this process manually in a spreadsheet.

Setup Requirements

Chargeback Manager depends on the Consumption Module and Custom Group Manager Module in PyraCloud. Only the Consumption Module is mandatory. It is possible to generate a summary document and split by Tenants & Subscriptions without further configuration. Custom distribution of costs across separate documents requires “Custom Group” being configured and resources properly assigned.

Navigating to Chargeback Manager

Accessing Chargeback Manager in PyraCloud is done by clicking on the “Manage” drop down menu and then select “Chargeback Manager”.

Figure 1 – Navigating to Chargeback Manager

Figure 2 – Chargeback module main page

By clicking on Chargeback Manager, users will be taken to a page with two tabs “Chargebacks” and “Settings”. The top section has Scheduled Reports count and navigation buttons to the Setup page (Add New Chargebacks) and Reporting (Add New Schedule).

Access Levels

Chargeback Manager has two access levels:

• User Level: Users with this access level will only be able to see the Chargebacks tab. The Add New Chargebacks page will not be available to users who have “User Level Access”. User Level Access is for users who need to view chargebacks but do not have permission to create chargebacks. These users can then access the document details in order to analyze the charges using PyraCloud’s Consumption module. This will give users the detailed information of the relevant chargeback
• Admin Level: Users with this access level will be able to see both the Chargeback tab as well as the Add New Chargebacks tab. Admins can view, create, modify and delete chargebacks.

Document Management

Issuing Documents in Recurring Manner

1. (Optional) Configure Custom Groups or Tenants & Subscriptions (Consumption module documentation).
2. Set bill-to details on Settings page (Settings section).
3. Configure scheduled report (Reporting/Original Document section).
4. Adjust generated document in Chargeback Manager (Chargebacks section).
5. Send documents to recipient.
6. Generate summary report of issued documents (Reporting/Overview report).

Issue One-Time Document

1. (Optional) Configure Custom Groups or Tenants & Subscriptions (Consumption module documentation).
2. Generate document by hand using Setup page (Setup section).
3. Adjust generated documents (Chargebacks section).
4. Send documents to recipient.

Document Corrections

1. Open generated document in Chargeback Manager (Chargabacks section).
2. Apply additional charges/discounts, change currency, bill-to and other properties. If document has been sent then new version will be created.
3. Send corrected document to recipient.

Chargebacks

Chargeback Tab

In the Chargeback tab, users can see all chargeback invoices including specific details about that invoice as outlined below:

Figure 3 – List of Chargeback invoices that have been created

Invoice Details

Users can click on any row to open a detailed view of the respective chargeback invoice. The page shows all information related to the document and gives user the ability to edit.

Document view – consists of header, body and footer. On the right side “Actions”, “Activity” and “Versions” panels are available.

Header – consists of name and date the document was generated. Bill-to address, company logo, customer number, consumption/billing period date range and field to store custom notes.

Body – lists the line items. Each line item is described with appropriate providers, total resources count and amount. Line items are further divided into sub lines, which display top Resource Types.

Resource Type – defines provider and type of resource. If the resource type is virtual machines or storage, user will also see SaaS connected resource types like “User” or “License”. Please consult Consumption Module for more details.

Footer – displays contacts, company information and exchange rates applied during currency conversion. Additionally system-wide unique Chargeback Number is visible and should be used during contact with Support in case of issues with document.

Figure 4 – Detailed view of an invoice selected

Figure 5 – Additional details 

Software-as-a-Service Licenses

Office 365 and Adobe licenses are classified by theirs assignment status. On chargeback document, assigned licenses are visible as “User” subline with resource count matching active users. On the other hand, unassigned license are gathered under “License” subline with resource count matching number of license type (like Office365 E3 or E5).

Figure 6 – SaaS sublines

Additional Charges

Additional charges represents new line items added by hand to generated document. Costs associated with such line may represent various invoice corrections or items not associated with consumption data. Support fee, discounts, credits are typical examples for such charge.

Functionality is available through “Add Charge or Credit” button visible on bottom of line item list.

Figure 7 – Line items with Add Charge or Credit button

Additional charges may be fixed or percentage based. Percentage amount is calculated based on consumption data only, therefore other lines (e.g. markup) are not taken into consideration. Negative values are calculated as discounts. Additional charges can be removed with Delete button.

Figure 8 – Additional charges 

Subgroups Structure

Documents based on Custom Groups can display nested groups sublines. Whole purpose of sublines is to add more transparency to the cost of the line item. It is an alternative to displaying top Resource Types.

Figure 9 – Group structure mapping 

Subgroups are organized in tree structure. Visibility and depth of presented sublines can be selected in the Customize menu. Please note that the cost of subline is not calculated into the total cost of the document. In other words, it provides justification for line costs.

Figure 10 – Line structure options

Name of given subgroup (and therefore line name) can be properly adjusted on Settings page.

Volume

Volume is a non-monetary value characterizing the cost of a given line. It consists of metrics and number values. Metric is the quantitative description of consumption usage (transfer, operation, storage) with distinctive name and unit. Typical examples are “Delete Operations X” or “Hot LRS Data Stored Y GB”. The Volume column is hidden by default and can be enabled in the Customize menu.

Figure 11 – Volume column 

Notes

Generated documents often miss crucial information needed to justify the amount associated with line items. Moreover, documents often require appending internal tracking numbers. Notes address both of these needs and has the capability to store text and append it to generated PDF. The field is accessible near the top of the document.

Figure 12 – Notes

Versions

Chargeback documents are “read only” after being sent. Further edits of sent documents are treated as separate versions. New versions are marked with the date and person making the edits. All changes are collated as long as the new version is not sent to the recipient again.

Previous versions are accessible through the panel on the right hand side of the document. Previous versions cannot be changed or deleted.

Figure 13 – Versions panel

Invoice Actions

The Chargeback Manager invoice page has an “Actions” panel on the right hand side, which will allow users to perform actions with selected invoice as outlined below:

• Export document to PDF and save it on local disk.
• Analyze detailed consumption report.
• Delete document. Document is permanently removed from the system.
• Send document to the recipient. After sending document, status is being changed to “Sent”.

Figure 14 – Actions panel

Figure 15 – Document status

Document Delivery

Sent documents are delivered to the recipient by email. Recipients receive a PDF with the chargeback document along with a link to the detailed report (CSV file).

The detailed file describes every line of document with Meter Name, Volume and Resource Name. Data provided in CSV files are input to calculations performed to generate the chargeback document. Attached details can be imported to external systems for reference or further analysis. Diagnosis of miscalculations is also feasible.

The links to the detailed files expire after 5 days from the time the message is received. Regeneration of links is possible by sending documents once again – using the “Send” button in Chargeback Manager.

Setup

The Setup tab is used by Admins to generate invoices. It has an introduction message (which can be hidden) and five sections to proceed with invoice creation, as shown below.

Figure 16 – Add new chargebacks

Providers

First section in Add New Chargebacks is “Providers”. This represents list of all available and supported provider groups.

Figure 17 – Providers list

Admins needs to select all of the providers they want to create chargeback invoice for. By selecting a provider, the system fetches consumption data for every tenant that is enabled under that provider.

Once providers have been selected, click on “Done” to navigate to the next section “Date Range”.

Date Range

The Date Range section allows Admin to narrow down the date range of consumption data. The date range is specified in two modes:

• Usage Dates – described with start/end dates
• Billing Period – list of periods connected to bill cycles

Figure 18 – Date Range for chargeback

Figure 19 – Usage Date Range

Once the date range has been selected, click on “Done” to navigate to the next section “Create”.

Create

Newly selected consumption spend (by selecting providers and date range) may be optionally divided in two ways:

• Using Custom Group structure.
• Using Tenants & Subscriptions hierarchy.

Split by Custom Groups

The Custom Groups section shows group structure as defined in PyraCloud Custom Group Manager. This allows Admins to select departments/groups they would like chargebacks for.

Figure 20 – Custom groups split

Selecting each group allows Admins to split chargeback invoices for selected groups. If none of the groups are selected, one global chargeback invoice is created for complete consumption of selected providers.

Costs displayed against each group is the estimated consumption by that group. Consumption for all ungrouped resources is reflected as “Untracked” in this section.

Click on “Done” to navigate to the next section “Review Chargeback”

Figure 21 – Document generation

Split by Tenants & Subscriptions

Tenants & Subscriptions are foundation of Consumption module. Chargeback Manager uses existing structure and creates documents based on this structure. No further configuration is required. Convention based approach is applied: every Tenant is documented with lines derived from its Subscriptions.

Figure 22 – Tenants & Subscriptions hierarchy

Markup

Markup section allows users to add additional markup or discount to every generated document.

Figure 23 – Markup section

Markup can be specified with fixed or percentage ratio. Fixed ratio represent new line appended to the document with constant amount. Percentage value takes into consideration consumption data. Percentage based markup can be hidden and in such case every line will be altered.

Positive value represents additional charge, negative value represents discount.

Review Chargeback

Review Chargeback is the last section that summarizes the selections Admin user has made and provides the following capabilities to Admins:

• Admins can preview the document that will be generated.
• Admins can change the name of the document i.e. chargeback invoice – This allows users to name the invoice appropriately within the organization.

Figure 24 – Review Chargeback section

Selecting “Preview” will open a preview of the invoice so that Admins can see how it will be displayed on chargeback tab.

Selecting “Edit” will allow Admin to edit “Bill-To” details if required. Admins can change the address and contact details for the chargeback.

Figure 25 – Edit bill-to details

Create Chargeback

Once all the selections are made and the preview looks good, Admins can go ahead and create the chargeback document by clicking on “Create <n> New Chargeback” (wherein “n” is number of documents going to be generated) as shown below:

Figure 26 – Create new chargebacks

Admins will be taken to the “Chargeback” page where they can see the invoices being generated. This is shown in the right hand “Status” column as “Generating”.

Figure 27 – Invoices currently generating

Once the invoices are ready, the status will be changed to “Generated”.

Figure 28 – Generated Invoices

Once the invoices are generated, all the actions explained in the Chargeaback section of this document can be performed.

Settings

Invoice documents are issued many times throughout the year. Manually adjusting documents every time is unreasonable. Common information like bill-to details, margin or contact information are typically recurring for given document series. They can be bound to single group or subscription. Settings page persist and allows editing most of information stored in document header.

Settings can be attached to either Custom Group, Tenant or Subscription. All levels stores the same set of settings. Stored settings are used twofold: as default values for manual generation (Setup) and base data during scheduled generation (Reporting).

Settings tab is divided into left pane and right pane.

The Left pane represents the tree structure of either Custom Groups or Tenants & Subscriptions. Clicking on a tree element selects particular entity and form is filled with appropriate data (by default form is empty).

The Right pane holds a set of information used during document generation. Data filled in the form are auto-saved.

Figure 29 – Custom Group Settings

Reporting

Chargeback Manager supports rich reporting capabilities. Reports allow ad-hoc and scheduled export of data. Granularity of report extends from basic overview to resource level details. It is also possible to generate new documents with selected cadence.

Where to Find Reports

Reports are managed under Reporting module, which can be accessed in Document>Reports as shown below:

Figure 30 – Reporting menu

Report Types

Chargeback module supports four report types:

• All Chargeback Overview
• All Chargeback Detailed
• Provider Based
• Original Document

Top three reports gather data about existing Chargeback Documents. Last one – Original Document – creates new documents and sends them to configured email address.

All Chargeback Overview

Report summarize basic information about all documents generated within target date range. Each row represents single document. Apart from header information like document name, bill-to details; total amount and currency are present.

All Chargeback Detailed

Enriched version of overview report with line information. Each row of report stands for single line in document. Line cost, currency, list of providers and resource count is available.

Provider Based

Report focuses on provider’s shares analysis. Line information are split across all contributing providers. Further aggregation of data may answer questions regarding each provider cost across all selected documents, trends in provider’s shares, etc.

Original Document

Report enables scheduled generation of documents – in contrast to analysis of existing documents that previous types focus on. Outcome of running report is set of new documents, which can further be adjusted in Chargeback module (Additional Cost, etc.). Rich configuration options of the report in cooperation with Settings allow achieving functionality similar to manual generation using Setup page.

Figure 31 – Original document configuration

Scheduled Generation

Scheduled reports enable periodic reporting with automatic delivery capabilities. Scheduled report definition represents “future report form” which will be filled with appropriate data. Both data set and time or running the report can be customized to meet business requirements.

Reports are gathered under Chargeback Manager category. For detailed description of report types please inspect section above.

Figure 32 –  Scheduled reports

Report Group and Source

Creation of every scheduled report starts on Scheduled Reports page. In top left corner “Create” button is present. After click, new modal window will appear with group and source selection. Chargeback reports are gathered under “Chargeback Manager” group.

Figure 33 – New scheduled report generation form

Schedule Configuration

After acknowledging group and source of new report new form is presented.

Figure 34 – Report configuration form

Apart from Report Name, additional tabs are available:

1. General – delivery, cadence and format settings.
2. Report Filters – data set specification.
3. Column Layout – column configuration (renaming, hiding and order).

Full description of report configuration is out of scope for this document. Please contact Your Account Manager for further information and help.

Scheduled Report Tile

Number of configured scheduled reports is visible on Charback list page. Tile navigates to Reporting module with list of configured reports.

Figure 35 – Scheduled reports tile

Ad-Hoc Generation

On-demand reports are accessible directly from Chargeback Manager. In top right corner of the page, Exports button can be used to run specific type of report.

Figure 36 – Exports menu

Click on given report in desired format runs the report. After short period (typically few seconds), proper information in form of a toast will appear. Ready report can be downloaded by clicking on provided link.

Figure 37 – Report ready for download