Vodafone User Guide Online Bill Manager Your step by step guide to managing your bills online. Vodafone UK 2010. Vodafone and the Vodafone logos are trademarks of the Vodafone Group. Other product and company names mentioned herein may be the trade marks of their respective owners.
This guide will introduce you to the benefits of Vodafone s Online Bill Manager and illustrate howeasy it is to manage your bills. Contents A Quick Overview The Online Bill Manager provides a whole host of features and benefits when managing monthly invoices. Belowis an overviewof what can be accomplished from the left hand menu options: A Quick Overview 1 Accessing the Online Bill Manager 2 Check Current and Past Invoices 4 Printing Replica Paper Bills 7 Howto Check Costs by Each Device/ User 8 Howto Check Costs by Tyoe of Usage 9 Itemisation:Check and Download for Analysis 10 Alerts 12 Howto Check Current Unbilled Usage 14 Howto Create Customised Cost Allocation Reports 15 Howto Request a Bar 16 Invoice Overview Find all of your invoices received from Vodafone here. Phone Overview An overviewof all handsets on an account includingusage costs, etc. Usage Overview Cost overviewof the usage for each service such as calls, texts, etc. Unbilled Calls Viewwhat you have used so far this month. Manage and Administer Your Online Billing Account 17 Howto Pay an Invoice 19 Important Information Line Rental is charged a month in advance and calls are charged in arrears Getting in Touch Customer Services (Monday Friday 8am 6pm) Email: vpscustomer.services@vodafone.com Telephone: 033330 44550 Account Management Choose who can viewtheir bills, change passwords, update phone user names and manage cost centres from here. Bar A Phone Request to restrict all incoming and outgoingusage on a device. Cost Allocation Report Run Cost AllocationReports and manage associated reportinggroups. 1
Accessing the Online Bill Manager You can access the Online Bill Manager via http:/ /obm.vodafonepartnerservices.co.uk or from the invoice email sent each month to customers. There are numerous types of access to the Online Bill Manager, dependent on whether the person logging-in is the Primary User, someone who can analyse Cost Centres or someone who is merely checking their handset bill. Username and Password Primary Users will be sent their access details in the Welcome Email sent to them at the time of their first invoice. Other types of users will be set up by the Primary User and access rights are managed within the Online Bill Manager (see Manage and Administer your Online Billing Account on pg 17). It happens to the best of us, but should the username or password be forgotten, there are a number of methods to retrieve it: Username This is your Customer Account Number. (See page 3 for details) Forgotten Username Locate the Welcome Email that included login details. Locate a previous paper bill or downloaded paper bill (if applicable). The username is the Customer Account Number in the top right of the page. Contact Customer Services on 033330 44550 or email vpscustomer.services@vodafone.com (between 8am - 6pm, Mon - Fri). Forgotten Password Password This was sent to you via email when your first invoice was ready. The Username is required for instant password retrieval. Insert this into the Username field and click Forgotten Password. The password will then be emailed to the Primary User. Locate the Welcome Email for access details. Contact Customer Services on 033330 44550 or email vpscustomer.services@vodafone.com (between 8am - 6pm, Mon - Fri). 2 3
Check Current and Past Invoices Checking the cost and information for your current and past invoices is extremely simple. From the Welcome page, click on Invoice Overview in the left hand menu: The Invoice Overview page displays all the invoices you have so far received from Vodafone. From this page it s possible to conduct further analysis into each invoice by clicking on the icons to the left of them. Display Invoices Choose which invoice you want to analyse. Invoice Overview This link takes you to all of your Vodafone invoices. Show Invoice Clicking here takes you to a page that shows the basic charges in this invoice, such as total call costs and line rental. (See page 6) Invoice Analysis This page provides a practical breakdown of usage across all of the handsets in this invoice, including details on which handset made the longest call, average cost of all calls and average cost per phone. (See page 6) 4 continued... 5
Show Invoice Page Printing Replica Paper Bills Reducing our impact on the environment, we actively encourage our customers to cancel their cumbersome paper bills in favour of our Online Bill Manager. However, we do recognise that a paper bill is often required for tax reasons or even for itemisation to be handed to staff users. Thankfully, the Online Bill Manager includes the ability to save and print PDF copies of all bills as they would appear through the post. Here s how: 1. Click on Invoice Overview (left hand menu) 2. Click on Show Invoice next to the bill required 3. Click on the Invoice Download button at the bottom of the screen. 4. Open or Save the PDF Replica Paper Bill PDF Download a replica paper bill here. Invoice Analysis Page 6 7
How to Check Costs by Each Device/User Checking which device/user has accrued costs is easy. Click on Phone Overview in the left hand menu and select the bill that requires assessment from the Display Invoice Date drop down menu. The latest bill is automatically selected. How to Check Costs by Type of Usage The Usage Overview page, located in the left hand menu, provides a basic itemisation of the types of usage that have accrued costs, such as landline calls, email etc. Top level information is displayed per device/user, including line rental, usage costs and the percentage towards the final cost of the selected invoice that device/user has contributed. Display Invoice Data Change the billing period to assess handset usage from past and present invoices. Show Invoice Clicking here takes you to a page that shows the basic charges in this invoice, such as total call costs and line rental. Call Details This page provides an itemised list of where the particular handset has accrued costs during the billing period. It includes anything from SMS to BlackBerry usage. Call Details This link takes you to a page where you can view detailed costs for the various types of usage, such as voice calls, SMS and GPRS. Types of Usage Here you can see the types of usage that have accrued costs. They range from calls on the same network (Vodafone-Vodafone) to data use abroad (Data Abroad). For a comprehensive list of the descriptions please read page 2 of the PDF copy of an invoice (see page 7 for details). 8 9
Itemisation: Check and Download for Analysis There s two ways to check and download itemisation of any bill depending on how the data is to be analysed: 1. Itemisation through Replica Paper Bills 2. Itemisation through CSV Format Ideal for exporting into excel or a similar program for customisable analysis of data. To receive a CSV file, follow this method: 1. Click on Invoice Overview (left hand menu) 2. Click on Show Invoice next to the bill required 3. Click on the Calls Download button at the bottom of the screen 4. Input the email address the CSV file is to be sent to. Ideal for saving and/or printing, the PDF is equivalent to a typical paper bill and can be found by the following method: 1. Click on Invoice Overview (left hand menu) 2. Click on Show Invoice next to the bill required 3. Click on the Invoice Download button at the bottom of the screen. 4. Open or Save the PDF CSV Ideal for analysing in Excel. Download Insert the email address you want a CSV report sent to. Replica Paper Bill PDF Download a replica paper bill here. 10 11
Alerts Create Monthly Usage/Monetary Alerts The Online Bill Manager allows you to create email alerts when users/accounts reach either usage limits or monetary limits stipulated by yourself. Usage limits can be set for minutes spent calling/mbs spent using data (apps & web). The limit applies to all usage even that within any bundles. To receive an alert when you re about to exceed your inclusive allowance, set the limit to match the allowance. Frequency and Receiving of Alerts Alerts will be emailed to the Account Administrator and the User, but only to the User should their email address be added in Administer Phone Accounts (see page 17). Each alert will trigger one email once it has been breached. Alerts will be carried over into the next month meaning you don t have to configure them each month. Monetary limits are based on Pounds ( ) spent using a device across chargeable services. Chargeable services include calls and data outside of your inclusive allowance, premium numbers, roaming etc. If you want to receive an alert as soon as you make a chargeable call, for example, simply set the monetary limit at 0.01. Three Types of Alerts 1. Overall Account Limits: Set an overall limit that is shared by an account. 2. For Individuals: Here you simply set a limit for individual users. 3. For All Users: Set the same limit for every user in one go. Multiple Alerts It s also possible to set multiple alerts based on monetary, minutes and MB usage for users/accounts. In these instances, alerts will be triggered when each limit is breached (as opposed to triggering one alert when all limits are reached). Click here to see unbilled call details for individual users. Select the same alert for each user in one go. Set an overall account alert here. NOTE Alerts will NOT stop devices/accounts from exceeding the limit set. They only trigger an email to the Account Administrator/User for awareness. Individual Users are listed here. Tick a User to set an alert for (Money), MB (Data) or Mins (time spent calling). NOTE Although Monetary/Usage data is refreshed daily, it can take 48 hours to be processed and trigger alerts. 12 13
How to Check Current Unbilled Usage Keep track of costs by monitoring how much has been used on calls, text etc prior to the next invoice by clicking on Unbilled Calls. Whilst all the data is refreshed daily, the information can take 48 hours to be processed and appear here. NB: Roaming usage may take longer; Total Business text bolt-ons may appear as charged but will be re-rated at the end of the month. How to Create Customised Cost Allocation Reports Clicking on Cost Allocation Reports in the left hand menu will take you to an area where you can generate cost allocation reports for individual or groups of handsets. To start, simply click Create New Group: On this screen you can name the group you are creating and select the handsets you want in it. You can either scroll down the window to find the phone numbers you wish to add to the group or you can use the search field. Select the numbers by clicking in the box to the left of them. When finished click Save. With your group(s) saved you can run reports on them for any given invoicing period. Just select the Run Report button. From this page you can also edit your groups or even delete them. Unbilled usage details Click here to see an itemisation of unbilled usage by handset. When you run a report you can see a brief overview of the costs for the selected handsets. From here you can run another report or download information on the calls these handsets made. 14 15
Howto Request a Bar Manage and Administer Your Online Billing Account Clicking on Account Management in the left hand menu allows you to: Update your log-in details Create additional log-ins to grant access to specific cost centre and end-user reporting. Administer Company Account Change Primary User information. Administer Cost Centre Accounts Create and administer cost centres. Administer Phone Accounts Add or remove other users. (See page 18) 16 continued... 17
Adding Additional Users To set up additional people to viewtheir bill at handset level, click on Administer Phone Accounts. A list of phone numbers on your account will appear. To provide a user with access to their own usage, you must: Howto Pay an Invoice There are various methods by which to pay an invoice. Click on the Helpoption at the topof the screen and you will be shown an overviewon howto pay as well as key information on understanding your invoice; an example of this is below. 1. Provide a Username for the phone number 2. Insert the person s email address 3. Click on the Status icon in the first column next to their number. This should turn green to indicate an email has been sent to that user with their access details. 4. To stopa users from accessingtheir bill, simply click on the Status icon again and it shall turn red to indicate the change. Status Click status to activate & deactivate users. User Details Add/ Edit details for the user you re creating. 18 19