Knowledge Base  /  Cloud Application Manager  /  Cloud Optimization
Knowledge Base  /  Cloud Application Manager  /  Cloud Optimization

Partner Cloud: Consolidated Billing

Updated by Ben Swoboda on Nov 20, 2019
Article Code: kb/14

Overview

Cloud Optimization and Analytics offers consolidated billing to make payments easy. Standard Consolidated billing is simplified, compared to vendor invoices, and can offer efficiency rebates.

If you require detail into your usage before the invoice is available, that is offered with Analytics

Audience

All of our customers are invited to use Cloud Optimization via Cloud Application Manager.

Prerequisites

  • An understanding of the features and benefits of Partner Cloud Integration

  • To experience consolidated billing, the user must have enabled at least one Cloud Optimized provider.

Important Information

When a customer migrates an existing AWS account to Lumen, the customer will receive 2 bills for the first month.

The customer will still receive a bill from AWS for the month that the customer was migrated. AWS will send a bill that covers the usage from the beginning of the month to the time that the account was transferred to Lumen. Lumen will send a bill from the time the account was transferred till the end of the month.

For competitive pricing and tax purposes, Lumen defines most services either as IaaS or SaaS.

The patterns of estimates and billing are currently as follows:

Pattern Description Timing Retrieved Data Status
Arrears Usage Instead of basing invoices off of estimates and reconciling one month later, Lumen waits until the vendor's invoice has been finalized before collecting the usage data and providing an invoice. Your entire month's usage will be will be billed two months in arrears All usage and fees from the previous month are considered in our calculations. Usage from 11/1/2019 onward
Monthly Usage On the last day of the month, Lumen will take the most updated estimate from the vendor for your Optimized accounts and apply that to your Lumen invoice. This will, by necessity, exclude a few hours of the month's usage. The last update will occur at approximately 3pm UTC (10am Central). Your Lumen invoice is normally available on the first day of the new month. AWS: All data available since the last update; Azure: All data from one day ago, 5am UTC to 4:59 UTC (12:00am to 11:59 Central). Standard until 11/1/2019
Reconciliation Usage Reconciliation charges account for any difference between what Lumen charged in monthly usage and what our partners show on finalized invoices. Reconciliation charges appear on Lumen invoices one month in arrears. All usage and fees from the previous month are considered in our calculations. Standard until 11/1/2019

Understanding Optimization Charges on Your Invoice

For a detailed explanation of your invoice, please review your Usage History Report.

More complete information about your Cloud Application Manager invoice should be reviewed here.

Your aggregated charges for all the services from any of your Cloud Optimized accounts will appear as Cloud Application Manager line items, labeled as the following.

Arrears Usage
AWS

  • Integrated AWS Services IaaS
  • Integrated AWS Services SaaS
  • Integrated AWS EC2 Services
  • AWS Monthly EC2 Reserved Instance Charges
  • Integrated, AWS Reserve Instance Fees - IaaS
  • Integrated, AWS Reserve Instances - IaaS

Azure

  • Integrated Microsoft Azure Services IaaS
  • Integrated Microsoft Azure Services SaaS

Monthly Usage

This will appear the same as arrears, but the entirity of the month's usage will not be shown.

Reconciliation

AWS

  • Update to Previous Month AWS Services IaaS
  • Update to Previous Month AWS Services SaaS
  • Update to Previous Month AWS EC2 Services
  • AWS Monthly EC2 Reserved Instance Charges
  • Update to Previous Month AWS Reserve Instance Fees - IaaS
  • Update to Previous Month AWS Reserve Instances - IaaS

AZURE

  • Update to Previous Month Microsoft Azure Services SaaS
  • Update to Previous Month Microsoft Azure Services IaaS

Exchange Rates

The way Lumen handles Monthly Usage billing for non-US customers is obtain the current exchange rate of the day of the update, not necessarily the rate for the day associated with the retrieved data (see table above).

The way Lumen handles Reconciliation billing for non-US customers is to obtain the exchange rate for the first day of the month for which the Reconciliation data is available, not the rate for any day associated with the month of the retrieved data.

The way Lumen temporarily handles arrears billing for non-US customers is to hold onto a record of all usage until the 27th of the month following the month of actual usage. We then use the conversion rate on the 27th to convert the usage to USD in order for it to be to processed. If you informed Lumen that you wanted your invoices to be in your country's currency, that charge will be converted to your currency again on the last day of the month, using that date's exchange rate. Lumen makes no guarantee the exchange rates will be the same on the 27th and last days of the month.