Usage

What is Usage?

The Usage object contains customer usage information for products or services that are charged at variable rates. You can create usage records and associate them with contract line items. You can then bill customers for their consumption of a product or service based on the usage records.

In order to bill based on usage, you must configure a contract line item's first bill date to fall after the end of the first billing period. This is so that billing is in arrears which allows for usage data that is dated on the last day of a billing period to be supplied before the period is billed. For examples of how to configure billing dates for billing in arrears, see Billing for Usage.

If usage data for a billing period is supplied after the period has been billed, that usage data is ignored. It is not carried over to the next billing period, and the customer is not charged for it.

Note:

The Bill in Arrears checkbox on a contract line item is for reporting purposes only. Selecting this checkbox does not cause the contract line item to be billed in arrears.