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Concept

Connected seats are an improvement upon the existing seat product — instead of manually inputting the number of units when initiating the subscription, this data will be fetched instead directly from your database. This is especially useful if:

  • You want your billing system to reflect any chances made to your product (e.g. a user added a new license)
  • You want to be able to keep track of which seat was added or removed, and when
  • You want to be able to bill prorated amounts (e.g. a customer started with 5 licenses, but added another one mid-year)

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Practical Application

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How to create an automated seat-based product?

1

Create a seat-based product

Navigate to the Products Section for this.

2

Activate Metering configuration

Ensure to choose the event you wish to count, as connected seats products are centered around an entity called an aggregator.

The aggregator plays a crucial role in gathering data received by Hyperline.

It determines whether the incoming data should be factored into the billing calculations, providing a more streamlined and accurate billing process.

3

Click on Create Product

That’s it! Your seat-based product should now be marked as “Connected seat”.

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How to configure connected seats product in subscriptions?

There are two main parameter groups: Refresh and Invoicing.

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Refresh schedule

  • Realtime: The count updates immediately when a change is detected, instantly if you’re using the API, or based on the dataloader interval if you’re using loaders.
  • Periodic: The count refreshes based on the interval entered by the user in the Refresh interval field. It’s independent of the subscription billing interval but can be matched to it.
  • Manual: Users must trigger the refresh using the endpoint for a more customized experience.

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Invoicing schedule

  • Immediately: Hyperline charges (or refunds) the update as soon as it detects it, even in the middle of the period. If selected alongside the “periodic” option, it will simply invoice the customer at every “end” of period.
  • With next invoice: Hyperline adds the update amounts to the next invoice as additional lines (so if the update is realtime but invoicing is at the end of the month, we’ll update the subscription count in realtime but will then add the charge to the next invoice).
  • Custom: Allows the user to set an invoicing period, for instance, if they have an annual subscription they want to update in realtime but want to charge the update every month.

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Other parameters

  • Charging method: If prorata is selected, we’ll charge the units at the pro-rated rate given the product payment interval. Full amount means we’ll charge the entire price regardless of when the change is detected.
  • Charge the highest detected value for the period: Instructs Hyperline to use the highest value it has counted regardless of the current one. Useful to always commit the maximum number of seats.
  • Refund when a decrease in unit count is detected: Instructs Hyperline to count negative updates as refunds if they’ve already been paid.

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Explore consumption

In the context of connected seats, consumption refers to the usage of the seat-based product.

You can review this consumption in the dedicated section within the Hyperline platform.

This view provides a comprehensive look at the usage of each seat-based product, allowing for better understanding and management of your billing process.

You can as well review the consumption of a subscription in the subscription timeline.

More detailed information can be found in the Explore usage consumption section.