Billable metrics

Introduction

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Prerequisites

You must configure a data source or a usage events before trying to create billable metrics.

Example raw-metric schema

This example-based guide uses a raw metric named telephone usage and the following schema. We are selling call minutes, SMS, and internet data.

{
  "data": {
    "sms": "int",
    "data": "float",
    "call_minutes": "float"
  },
  "timestamp": "timestamp",
  "customer_id": "string"
}

Example raw metric data

The following example events will be used in the guide.

Example customer

The customer ID 8578d067-b019-471c-b28c-5a3f35a3d05a belongs to a fictional customer named John Doe.

Add new billable metric

1. Navigate to Metering > Billable Metrics in the left side panel.
2. On the Billable Metrics page, click on the + ADD NEW BILLABLE METRIC button.

3. On the Add New Billable Metric page, there are two ways to add a new billable metric:
   • Visual Builder: a wizard that helps you build a billable-metric query.
   • SQL Builder: a SQL-based tool that helps you handcraft a billable-metric query.

4. Create the desired billable-metric query using either the visual builder or the SQL builder.
5. Click on the CREATE BILLABLE METRIC button.

Add a billable metric using the visual builder

The wizard-based Visual Builder presents four main steps:

1. Select tables and filters
2. Map customer
3. Set date field
4. Set billable metric over

Step 1: select tables and filters

There are two ways you can let Zenskar access your customers' data:

• data source
• raw metrics

Select data source

• Select the table that contains usage data.
• If the table you selected is related to a data source, the Data Source tag will appear below the Table Name drop-down.

Select raw metrics

• Select the table that contains usage data.
• If the table you selected is related to a raw metric, the Raw Metric tag will appear below the Table Name drop-down.

In this guide, we will use the telephone usage raw metric.

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NOTE

You must add and configure raw metrics (or data sources) like telephone usage. Zenskar will transform all raw metrics (or data sources) into database tables like telephone_usage.

Select filters

The raw-metric schema of telephone usage results in the following columns when Zenskar creates a SQL table:

Filters can be created using any of these columns. The conditions available are dependent on the data type of the column selected. The data type--condition mapping is shown below:

The data type of the column is determined by the schema you defined while creating a raw metric. A sample raw metric with all available data types is shown below:

{
    "customer_id": "String",
    "timestamp": "DateTime64",
    "data": {
        "a_string_field": "String",
        "an_int64_field": "Int64",
        "a_float64_field": "Float64",
        "a_date32_field": "Date32",
        "a_datetime64_field": "DateTime64",
        "a_UUID_field": "UUID",
        "a_bool_field": "Bool",
        "a_decimal_field": "Decimal"
    }
}

A simple filter

For the example data mentioned above, a simple filter based on timestamp can be created:

This filter will yield the following result:

All the raw-metric data that you sent to Zenskar for the customer 8578d067-b019-471c-b28c-5a3f35a3d05a whose timestamp is before the date 2024-04-18 is returned as the result.

A complex AND filter

For the example data mentioned above, a complex filter based on timestamp AND data.call_minutes can be created:

This filter will yield the following result:

All the raw-metric data that you sent to Zenskar for the cusotmer 8578d067-b019-471c-b28c-5a3f35a3d05a before the date 2024-04-18 ANDwhere data.call_minutes is greater than 30 is returned as the result.

A complex OR filter

Simply clicking on the AND condition will change it to OR and vice versa, as shown below.

For the example data mentioned above, a complex filter based on timestamp OR data.call_minutes can be created:

This filter will yield the following result:

All the raw-metric data that you sent to Zenskar for the cusotmer 8578d067-b019-471c-b28c-5a3f35a3d05a before the date 2024-04-18 ORwhere data.call_minutes is greater than 30 is returned as the result.

Step 2: map customer

You must select a column in your table that can uniquely identify your customers.

• This can also be your customer's email ID

• You must map this column to one of the following columns in Zenskar:

  • email
  • external_id: this is usually a unique identifier (UUID) that your system generates or is generated by your CRM.
  • customer name

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Note

The Zenskar columns email, external_id, and customer name are created when you add your customer to Zenskar.

Step 3: set date field

Step 4: set billable metric over

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Note

Refer the documentation on data processing to understand how billable metrics work.

1. Select the aggregation method:

2. Select the column over which the aggregation must be performed.

COUNT

For the example data mentioned above, COUNT will return 3 for any column.

SUM

For the example data mentioned above, SUM will return the following values:

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NOTE

The SUM aggregate must be performed over columns of numeral data type: int, float, bigint, double, tinyint, smallint. Trying to SUM column of any other data type will result in the following error:

MAX

For the example data mentioned above, MAX will return the following values:

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NOTE

The MAX aggregate must be performed over columns of numeral data type: int, float, bigint, double, tinyint, smallint. Trying to run MAX aggregate over a column of any other data type will result in the following error:

MIN

For the example data mentioned above, MIN will return the following values:

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NOTE

The MIN aggregate must be performed over columns of numeral data type: int, float, bigint, double, tinyint, smallint. Trying to run MIN aggregate over a column of any other data type will result in the following error:

AVG

For the example data mentioned above, AVG will return the following values:

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NOTE

The AVG aggregate must be performed over columns of numeral data type: int, float, bigint, double, tinyint, smallint. Trying to run AVG aggregate over a column of any other data type will result in the following error:

UNIQUE COUNT

For the example data mentioned above, UNIQUE COUNT will return the following values:

SQL builder

You can build raw SQL queries using the SQL builder. You can choose the SQL builder:

• as an alternative to the visual builder to create billable-metric queries
• to edit queries built by visual builder

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NOTE

You can switch to the SQL builder to edit a billable-metric query built using the visual builder. However, this switch is permanent, and you will not be able to switch back to the visual builder.

Features of the SQL builder

• Syntax highlighting
• Code completion

• Table browser: select the table you are interested in to list all columns. The column names can be copied and used in the SQL builder . The Zenskar variables that can be used in the SQL queries are also available below the table browser.

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Engineering effort required

Creating raw SQL queries for complex scenarios is the job of an engineer proficient in SQL.

Tying it all together

Create billable metrics for the example data

Select database table and create filter

For the database table telephone_usage, create the following filter:

Map customer

Set date field

Set billable metric over the desired field

We will use the SUM aggregate to determine the total call minutes during the billing period.

Create billable metric

Provide a name that describes your billable metric.

Create a billable metric for SMS and internet data usage

Create two more billable metrics for SMS and internet data usage. Repeat the steps you followed creating the billable metric for call minutes.

Navigate to Metering > Billable Metrics to view all the billable metrics you created, as shown below.

Create products that use these billable metrics

Create a product for call minutes offered

Create a product for SMSes offered

Create a product for internet data offered

Create a contract that uses these products