Reseller billing
This page covers provider (super admin) → reseller billing and reseller → reseller’s customer billing, plus vendor billing notes and current limitations.
For the partner model comparison, see Reseller vs Vendor.
Features listed under Current limitations are known gaps or under review / QA. They will be addressed in future releases. Do not report them as bugs unless live behaviour differs from this page.
Two billing layers
| Layer | Who is billed | What drives the charge |
|---|---|---|
| Provider → Reseller | Reseller | Aggregated usage of the reseller’s customers, at provider → reseller pricing |
| Reseller → Customer | End customer | Services the customer consumes, at reseller pricing / payment mode |
End customer creates VM (any cycle / mode)
│
├─► Reseller → Customer: bill per reseller rules (prepaid / postpaid / manual)
│
└─► Provider → Reseller: usage rolled up (typically hourly) → bill reseller
Onboarding and commercial setup
- Admin onboards the reseller and assigns a rate card (or creates a reseller-specific rate card).
- Currency assigned at onboarding is the currency the reseller uses for customers.
- Global billing cycles enabled by the super admin apply to the reseller. The reseller cannot add or remove cycles.
- Reseller cannot create their own plans; they can change existing plans assigned by the super admin (prices / margin).
- After the rate card is assigned, the reseller can update prices or add margin (fixed amount or percentage) from the reseller admin dashboard.
Payment modes
CMP supports PREPAID, POSTPAID, and MANUAL.
Provider → reseller
The super admin chooses the reseller’s payment mode from modes enabled for reseller accounts (see Payment Mode Settings).
Example: If the super admin has PREPAID and POSTPAID enabled for resellers, the reseller is onboarded on one of those modes.
Reseller → customer
Modes available to the reseller’s customers follow what is enabled on the provider → reseller path for that relationship.
Example: If PREPAID and POSTPAID are enabled for reseller billing, reseller customers can use PREPAID and POSTPAID. MANUAL is not available in that example unless enabled for that path.
Provider → reseller billing cycles
Stack Console supports hourly, monthly, quarterly, semi-annual, and yearly cycles for end services — but provider → reseller charging for compute-style services is strictly hourly usage (unless a global flag forces a narrower rule — see force_reseller_hourly_billing).
How hourly provider billing works when the customer buys yearly
- Reseller’s customer creates a service on the 15th with a yearly cycle.
- Reseller → customer: reseller can charge the customer yearly and collect that bill.
- Provider → reseller: CMP still calculates the reseller’s liability on an hourly basis from the 15th to month end, then full months, while the service remains active — regardless of the customer’s cycle.
How yearly sale maps to hourly cost to the reseller: hourly rate is derived from the billing-cycle price of that service (for example yearly package price → hourly via the normal cycle formulas — see Pricing formulas).
Invoice timing (provider → reseller)
- An invoice to the reseller is generated at the end of each month (payment-mode specifics below).
- Prepaid reseller: must maintain wallet balance; infra credit is deducted as usage accrues; invoice still generated at month end for services (depending on prepaid receipt model — see Prepaid).
Add-ons and licenses
If a reseller’s customer purchases an add-on or license, the reseller is also billed for that item using the billing cycle selected for that add-on/license (not necessarily hourly).
Example: Compute may be hourly provider → reseller; an add-on bought monthly generates a monthly charge to the reseller for that add-on.
Free trial (provider → reseller)
- Free trial is not supported for provider → reseller charging.
- Resellers may offer free trials to their customers, but the reseller is still charged by the super admin for that usage.
force_reseller_hourly_billing
| Setting | Behaviour |
|---|---|
force_reseller_hourly_billing = true | Resellers are billed with only hourly invoices for services, except Licenses and Add-ons (add-ons also depend on enable_hourly_addons) |
Confirm live flags under Billing Settings (admin) / Global Settings when available.
Provider → reseller by payment mode
Prepaid (admin → reseller)
- Billing to the reseller is hourly for applicable services.
- Reseller must keep sufficient funds.
- When reseller customers create paid services (any customer cycle / mode), usage is calculated hourly for the reseller as it accrues.
- Invoices:
- Against infra credit top-up (actual fund transfer): invoice can generate immediately.
- Against services: invoice typically on the 1st of the next month (per prepaid model / platform settings).
- Quota: Admin can assign quota to the reseller. If reseller quota is exceeded, customers cannot create resources even if customer quota remains.
- Disciplinary / insufficient funds: If the reseller has insufficient funds, customers cannot create services. Message example: You can not create services at the moment. Please contact the administrator.
- Taxation: Super admin tax by branch/country; provider → reseller tax per reseller country; super admin can mark a reseller tax exempt.
Super admin → reseller disciplinary actions are under review and not available for now. See Current limitations.
Postpaid (admin → reseller)
- Billing is hourly for applicable services.
- Threshold is required when creating a postpaid reseller (or set from reseller overview). Default may come from currency-level global threshold; if that default is zero, global currency threshold applies.
- When threshold is reached, the user cannot create further services (per threshold rules).
- Customer-driven usage still accrues hourly to the reseller.
- Invoice: for hourly services when usage reaches the threshold; postpaid invoices are processed automatically.
- Payment method: credit card required for postpaid reseller settlement.
Manual (admin → reseller)
- Behaves like postpaid for accrual patterns.
- Invoices are not processed automatically — pay / mark paid manually.
Reseller → customer billing
- Reseller can sell with PREPAID, POSTPAID, and/or MANUAL as enabled for that path.
- Global billing cycles set by the super admin apply to reseller customers.
- Global billing rules set by the super admin apply — reseller-specific billing rules are not available.
- Invoices follow normal prepaid / postpaid / manual rules (like a regular system).
- Quota: Reseller assigns customer quota; customers can request increases via quota request when exceeded.
- Disciplinary (customer): Insufficient funds block creates and renewals. Triggers include low / negative balance and unpaid invoice (from due date), using disciplinary freeze timing — see Disciplinary Actions.
- Taxation: Reseller can configure tax by branch/country for customers; can exempt a specific customer.
Vendor billing (summary)
Full comparison: Reseller vs Vendor.
Vendor → customer — no billing
- No direct billing to the vendor’s customer.
- Customer account has no taxable invoices / invoice numbers; usage may be tracked internally.
- Creates validate against the vendor balance.
- Vendor onboards customers (no self-registration for vendor customers).
- Customer payment mode is compulsory Manual (avoids customer invoices and disciplinary on that account).
- If the vendor is prepaid, infra credits are checked on the vendor, not the customer.
Super admin → vendor
- Vendor manages customer accounts; cannot create services directly.
- System aggregates all customer usage and charges the vendor in a single monthly invoice.
- Invoice on the 1st covering the previous month (example: May usage → invoice 1 June).
- No threshold invoices for vendors (month-end only).
- Vendors are subject to the same style of disciplinary actions as regular customers for non-payment.
Vendor customer services — month-end rollup example
Vendor’s customers may create a monthly VM, hourly snapshot, and semi-annual LB. Usage for each follows its billing rules; at month end all are summed into the vendor’s bill.
Billing rules reference (partner / long cycles)
Provider and partner invoicing for quarterly / semi-annual / yearly services follows the same rule families as the platform. Examples:
| Rule | Yearly example (created 25 Apr 2025) |
|---|---|
| UNFIXED_PRORATA | Pro-rata 25 Apr–30 Apr; next 1 May–30 Apr 2026 |
| FIXED_PRORATA | Pro-rata 25 Apr–30 Apr; next 1 May–31 Dec 2025 |
| DATE_TO_DATE | 25 Apr 2025–24 Apr 2026 (−1 day) |
| FIXED_CALENDAR_MONTH | 1 Apr 2025–31 Dec 2025 |
| UNFIXED_CALENDAR_MONTH | Pro-rata calendar month then 1 May–30 Apr 2026 |
Full detail: Billing Rules.
Quarterly UNFIXED_PRORATA example: created 25 Feb → pro-rata to end of Feb; next unfixed period 1 Mar–30 May (three months from the 1st after creation month — not tied to calendar quarter labels alone).
Quarterly FIXED_PRORATA example: created 25 Feb → pro-rata to end of Feb; next to end of current fixed quarter (for example 1 Mar–30 Mar when quarters are Jan–Mar, Apr–Jun, …).
Current limitations (known gaps)
These are expected current product limits. Resolve confusion by pointing partners here; track delivery in future releases.
| Limitation | Status / note |
|---|---|
| Super admin → reseller disciplinary | Under review — not available now |
| Add-ons and Store for resellers | Under QA — do not treat incomplete Store/Add-on reseller flows as production-complete |
| Products (Store catalogue) for resellers | Not supported yet — future update |
| Reseller-specific billing rules | Not available — only global rules apply to reseller customers |
| Reseller cannot create own plans | By design — only change assigned plans / pricing |
| Vendor cannot change package prices | By design |
| Vendor customers: no invoices | By design — Manual mode compulsory |
| Vendor customer self-registration | Not possible — vendor must onboard |
| Free trial provider → reseller | Not supported — customer free trial still charges the reseller |
| Provider → reseller billing | Hourly rollup (even if customer bought yearly/monthly) |
| White-label domain | Reseller must prepare and configure their own whitelisted domain after onboarding |
Limitations above are planned to be reduced over time (disciplinary for resellers, Store/Products for resellers, and related partner features). Until then, configure commercial expectations with partners using this page.