We are often asked, "How does TimelyBill rate usage, calculate billing charges and generate invoices?". The diagram above depicts the telecom billing process flow from the service provider's usage, through invoicing and all the way to the processing of payments. Here's a summary of standard telecom billing process steps below: Step 1: Service provider gathers usage files within their network Calls, bandwidth, faxes, per-use… Step 2: Service provider pushes usage to a secure FTP location (via a VPN) At predefined intervals Step 3: Billing system imports usage and "types" the calls Local, intralata, on-network… Step 4: Billing system rates usage as per configured rating plans and decks ↗️ Charges, rounding of decimal places, free minutes… Step 5: Billing system performs invoice generation and taxation Customer's recurring charges, non-recurring charges, taxes, discounts… Step 6: Billing system presents invoices to service provider's customers