At Postscript, we strive to be as transparent as possible with shops about how our pricing works. After thorough research and conversations with partners and customers, we determined a usage-based plan offers shops the flexibility needed to adapt to their industry throughout the year. With a usage-based approach to pricing, shops only pay for what they use and what they send.
In this article, we walk through your Postscript Billing tab and the different sub-tabs and charges you might see.
Understanding Your Billing Overview
Your Postscript Billing Overview contains three categories in which we group charges and fees as well as shows billing statements from previous months. Let's break these categories down.
- Messaging Fees. Messaging fees are usage charges and reflect the costs of sending SMS and MMS messages using Postscript.
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Estimated carrier fees. Carrier fees are small surcharges that mobile carriers (e.g. Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile, etc.) charge for sending messages using their networks. Learn more about carrier fees here.
- Why is it an estimate? Carrier fees update at the end of the day (midnight UTC, specifically). If you are viewing your summary mid-day, after sending a campaign, your carrier fees wouldn't yet reflect the fees associated with that campaign.
- Recurring Fees. Recurring fees are those fees a shop will pay on a monthly basis. This includes the monthly platform fee, which covers the features available to a shop within Postscript. It can also reflect the cost of a short code or other services.
- Previous Month's Statements. Below your current month's summary, you'll find billing statements from previous months. Selecting View Invoice will route you to an expanded view of that month's billing breakdown.
Understanding Your Postscript Invoices
How and when Postscript charges a shop will depend on the type of plan the shop is on. Below, we walk through the billing summary and schedule for the plans offered on Postscript.
On a Free and Growth plan, shops are charged for usage as they reach their usage cap. Each usage cap charge will be accompanied by a carrier fee charge for the fees related to that usage cap. You can learn more about this process here.
With this in mind, let's look at an example billing summary. Beneath the image is a breakdown of the items.
- Paid usage amount. This reflects usage activity for which a shop has already been charged.
- Paid carrier fees. This reflects carrier fees related to usage activity for which a shop has already been charged.
- Recurring fees. This reflects any recurring fees for which a shop has already been charged. In the above example, the $100.00 recurring fee reflects the monthly plan fee for a shop on the Grow plan.
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Unbilled usage amount. This reflects current usage activity for which a shop has not been charged. Once a shop reaches their usage charge cap (e.g., $100 or $500), they will be charged and that amount would be reflected in the Paid usage amount line.
- What are estimated carrier fees? Carrier fees update at the end of the day. If you are viewing your summary mid-day, after sending a campaign, your carrier fees wouldn't yet reflect the fees associated with that campaign.
On the Professional or Enterprise plans, shops are charged the total of their usage activity plus related carrier fees and recurring fees on a monthly basis.
Invoice Overview
With this in mind, let's look at the Invoices tab of a shop's billing page. The image below shows the Invoice Overview. Beneath the image is a breakdown of the items.
- Messaging fees are usage charges and reflect the costs of sending SMS and MMS messages using Postscript.
- Carrier fees. This reflects a total of carrier fees associated with usage and is updated daily (midnight UTC, specifically). Learn more about carrier fees here.
- Recurring fees. Shops are billed recurring fees at the start of the month, then charged for these fees at the end of the month.
Charge Breakdown
Below the Invoice Breakdown, you'll see a Charge Breakdown section. Within this section, you can download a CSV of your billing and view your usage by date or by a Charge Type view. Below, we break down both of these view types.
- By Date view allows your brand to view your usage on specific dates, on a day-by-day basis. For a more granular understanding of how you are billed each day, you can expand each date to see usage based on campaigns, automations, keywords, opt-ins, message type (i.e. SMS vs. MMS), and country.
- By Charge Type view shows usage based on country, campaigns, automations, opt-in messages, flows, and by date.
Get Support
Have questions? Please feel free to reach out to our wonderful Support team at support@postscript.io or via live chat. You can also submit a support request here!
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