Business Issue/Requirement:

Managing conferencing costs is always an important business consideration. Conferences must only be initiated by authorized personnel listed on the organization’s conferencing account. Management of this list should be online and instantaneously effective, without requiring a telephone call or E-mail to the service provider. Calls should be authorized by an easily recognized identifier and not just a list of codes.

All conference usage must be tracked. Tools for billing back by department or project are required. It may be appropriate to put limits on conference usage (by length of time, number of participants, or aggregate charges). Monthly bills are expected, but online access to billing details, both mid-month and historical, should be provided. Conference organizers themselves should also be able to view conferencing charges.

ZipDX Feature:

ZipDX has a powerful accounting module the account administrator can access by logging in at ZipDX.com. It provides the following functionality:

• Addition and removal of authorized users on the account:Only authorized and registered users are able to host ZipDX conferences. Modifications made online to the authorized users list become effective immediately. When an unregistered user is given account authorization, ZipDX automatically generates an E-mail to them with credentials and instructions for registering to receive authorization.

To add an authorized user, log in to your account at ZipDX.com and click on the Accounts tab. Usually there is only one account listed, but there could be multiple. Click on the relevant account name. In the second section, under Users & Administrators, enter the email address of any one you’d like to authorize for the account and click add. If that person is not already registered with ZipDX, the system will automatically generate an invitation email. If that person is already registered, they will not receive an email; they will simply be added as an authorized user. Once you add an email address, you’ll see it immediately below and can change their level of authorization. You can also remove the authorization at any time. Remember to click Save when you are done.

• Addition and removal of administrators on the account:In addition to having hosting privileges, account administrators can access the accounting module. Administrators can be set as “view only” or be granted change privileges. Administrators can also register to receive full or abbreviated monthly reports and other notifications via E-mail.

As above, you can add the email address of someone you want to designate as an authorized user. When you select their level of authorization, you can also select the report level this person will receive. Remember to click Save when you are done.

• Creation of sub-accounts: Company sub-accounts can be nested in a tree structure and allow segregation of conferencing authorizations and charges by location, department, project or even individual. Any number of sub-accounts can be created to a depth of three levels. A corporate account could have a “Marketing Department” subaccount, which then has several individual project accounts. An individual listed as an administrator on any given (sub) account has administrative privileges on all “children” of that account. If a user is authorized on more than one sub-account, they will be able to designate which account to use for any given conference (or conference template).

To add a sub-account, log in at ZipDX.com and click on the Accounts tab. Click on the relevant account name. In the second row bar at top, click on Add a new Subaccount. Give that account a name or title, fill in the email addresses of any and all users and authorized administrators. Remember to click Save.

If at any time you want to delete or suspend this account, just go back to this same place and click in the small box to the right of Admin Suspend.

• Per-account limits:The administrator can set limits on the total monthly accumulated call charges, the number of people in any single conference, and the duration of any single conference for all accounts and sub-accounts. These limits can be useful in avoiding accidental or careless generation of charges. Limits imposed on a particular account level cannot be exceeded in any children of that account.

Log in at ZipDX.com and click on the Accounts tab. Click on the relevant account name or drill down to the subaccount. At the bottom of the page, under Settings, you’ll see where you can set limits for account balance, maximum call rate, maximum number of users per call and maximum duration per call (leave empty to have no limit for this field). Note that if you set the balance limits in a main account, it will impact all the sub-accounts. Or, you can change the settings for each subaccount. Click Save when you are done.

•  Usage history: Administrators can interactively review all conferencing history and charges by logging into the account profile at ZipDX.com. A summary view on the main Accounts page shows accumulated monthly charges-to-date by sub-account. Clicking on the amount shows the individual conferences by date and includes the name of the organizer, the duration, number of participants and charges. You can view the participants with the associated call detail by clicking on a conference list. Previous billing cycles can also be selected and all of the same detail is available.

In addition to all of the online tools, ZipDX also sends E-mail reports under the following circumstances:

• At the end of every call, the host receives a summary report.
• At the end of every month, the administrators receive a billing report. This can be in summary or detailed form; it can even be disabled, per your preferences.
• If an account “suspends” (meaning it becomes disabled because its spending limit has been reached), the administrators receive a notification. This can apply to the primary account only; it can also be set to include all sub-accounts, or it can be disabled completely.

Use this Feature:

Log in at ZipDX.com and click on the Accounts tab at the top; all of the accounts for which you are an administrator will be listed. Click on a dollar amount to see details of the charges; “drill down” by clicking on the highlighted fields. Note the navigation links in the bar at the top.

From here, you can create a sub-account. Note the fields that are available to customize the account properties, and the limits that are applied based on the “parent” account. You can assign a balance limit on a subaccount, and authorize yourself and any others as users of that account.

If you are listed as an authorized user or administrator on more than one account, when you create a new conference (or create or view a conference template), you’ll see that you now have a choice of accounts. The account you select will be billed for the conference.