Callshop management solution

If your customers are call shops, then you can offer them the free call shop booth management system.  The system is self-configuring and is hosted on our servers.

Call shop software

The site is designed to be used by a call shop administrator in a public area.  It does not show our brand name on it, and shows the name of the shop at the top of each page.  There are two levels of access using different passwords.  You can configure and set the rates using an Administrator password.  Your staff will use an Operator password which restricts them to routing billing functions.

Using the callshop solution

When you click on a booth's link, you will reach a booth page.  An example of such a page is shown below:

Calls in progress The following calls are in progress from this booth: Start Dialled number Destination Duration 18:06:21 +1 7816006000 USA 00:15:38 Calls completed The following calls (max. 100) have been completed and not yet marked as paid: Time Dialled number Destination Duration Cost 17:54:41 +1 4075551212 USA 00:11:00 £ 0.220 17:47:18 +1 5147654321 Canada 00:04:00 £ 0.080 17:38:47 +56 57456789 Chile 00:07:00 £ 0.700 17:31:12 +44 781987654 UK - Mobile (Orange) 00:05:00 £ 1.250 17:26:20 +44 7966654321 UK - Mobile (Orange) 00:02:00 £ 0.500 17:20:47 +44 1234567890 UK 00:03:00 £ 0.060 Total cost of completed calls:  £ 2.810

The page has two main sections:

• The top section shows the call that is currently in progress.  In this example, a call to U.S.A. has been in progress for nearly 16 minutes.
• The bottom section shows the calls that have been completed from the booth.  The final column shows the charges to your customer for the completed calls.  These charges are calculated according to the configuration settings described later.  The total charge for the unpaid calls (not including the call in progress) is shown in the green box.  In this example, the amount due so far from the customer is £2.81, but this will increase when the U.S.A. call has been completed.  Once the customer has paid, you can press the large button at the bottom of the page.  This clears the list of calls, and resets the balance due to zero.
• Optionally, you can also operate the biller in prepayment mode.  In this mode, you may take a deposit from a customer before they start calling, and they are allowed to call up to the value of their deposit.  Once they have finished calling, the page will show you the total balance that should be returned to the customer.

Advanced Billing

Optionally, you can operate the system in prepay mode, in which a deposit is taken from a customer before the calling begins.  This is recorded against the booth, and calling only up to that prepaid limit is permitted.

Configuring the call shop software

The call shop management software is self configuring.   The system should automatically detect the booths in your call shop without any configuration on your part or yours.  Optionally, there are two areas you can configure:

Currency and rating options

Click on the Configuration link at the top of the page.  You should see the following form on the page.

Display charges Tick this box if you would like the booth pages to display call charges. Currency Enter the currency symbol to be used for displaying customer charges. Rating factor Add Subtract  % Select the factor that should be applied to call costs after they have been rated.  This should also take your chosen currency into account.   You can override these rates by setting special rates in the Rates page. Rating steps 60/60 60/30 60/12 60/6 60/1 30/30 30/12 30/6 30/1 12/12 12/6 12/1 6/6 6/1 1/1 Enter the steps that should be applied to your customer call charges.   For example, 60/30 means that the minimum billed time is 60 seconds, and thereafter, your customer's calls are rated in 30 second increments.

• Display charges
  By default, call charges are not shown on the pages representing the booths.  If you would like rates to be calculated and displayed, put a tick in this box.

• Currency
  If you display rates, then the default currency that is displayed is US Dollars.   However, you can change the currency that is shown by entering a different symbol into this box.

• Rating factor
  When you first use the system, it will display the charge that you pay for each call.  You may wish to markup these calls before making a charge to your customers.   The example shown in the form above will result in 25% being added to the call charges before they are displayed on the booth pages.  These are the charges that your administrators and customers will see.

• Rating steps
  Use this box to select the billing steps that you would like to use when calculating customer call charges.  In the example shown (60/60), your customers call durations will be rounded up the the next full minute.

Special rates

If you prefer, you can specify rates to particular destinations.   These per minute rates will be used to calculate your customers' call charges, and these rates will override the Rating factor in the previous section.  To define special calling rates, click on the Rates link at the top of the page and follow the on screen instructions.