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AutomatedBilling
From MikroTik Wiki

Contents
■ 1 Introduction
■ 2 Requirements
■ 3 The Four Scripts Involved
■ 3.1 Oversight
■ 3.2 Month End
■ 3.3 Usage Warnings
■ 3.4 Billing
■ 4 What You Need To Know Before Starting
■ 4.1 Copying the Script
■ 4.2 User Manager Field Requirements
■ 4.3 The Pool Name Field
■ 4.4 The Comment Field
■ 5 Known Issues
■ 5.1 RouterOS Versions
■ 5.2 Active Sessions Interim Update

Introduction
This script was first written as a small device to send users a bill for their usage at the end of every
month. It has since developed into a far more complex system that is now used to almost fully automate
Billing, and also send out Usage Warnings to users.

If you find this script helpful, or found a bug, please let me know. Comments or suggestions are
welcome as well - Send to admin@qnect.co.za

Requirements
■ Mikrotik RouterOS version 3.0rc5 or above
■ User Manager
■ Some free resources to run the script
■ A Basic Understanding of Scripting

The Four Scripts Involved

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Oversight
The first of the scripts, I've called Oversight. This is a very simple script that simply takes a single
global variable, and if it's value is True, it'll trigger another script. If it's value is False, it will trigger a
completely different script. Take note, this script is the one that will be entered into the Scheduler, which
facilitates setting the script in motion at the end of every day, or at whatever time or interval you wish.
In our setup, we've set the scheduler to run every 24 hours at 23:50.

You can find the script Oversight here.

Month End
The Global variable that I speak of, is determined by our second script, which I call MonthEnd. This
script, quite simply, checks if Today (or, more accurately, the date/time at which it is run) is the last day
of the month, or not. This script compensates for months with 30 or 31 days, and also compensates for
Leapyears in February. This script then returns True or False on the Global variable called "found".

You can find the script MonthEnd here.

Usage Warnings
The Third script is the UsageWarnings script. The name should say it all. We'll get into the inner
workings of this script shortly.

This script basically works by comparing the user's download-used and upload-used counters' sum to the
Cap, and extrapolates a Percentage from that. If the percentage is at a certain point, it issues a warning to
the user by sending their usage information to their E-mail address. The "usage warning level" is then
updated onto the user's profile in User Manager, which tells the script to not issue a warning of the same
level again, until they reach a 'higher' usage warning level.

A skeleton version of this is also sent to Accounts E-mail, just for reference. It is particularly handy for
100% Usage warnings, so one can contact the client for possible cap-increase options, or whatever the
case may be. The script can also be adapted to send a warning to the Accounts E-mail only if the user
has reached 100%, and not all the other warnings.

You can find the script Usage Warnings here.

You can find examples of the Usage Warning E-mails here.

Billing
The Fourth and final script is Billing. This one is also quite complex, and we'll explain as we go along.

In short, this script uses a loop to pull each user's information individually. For each user, and E-mail is
compiled stating their usage, how much they owe us, how much discount they are getting, if any, and
what our banking details are for payment.

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It sends a second E-mail, which is a skeleton version of the previous one to the Accounts E-mail, stating
only the necessary information. This is kept for our records and to keep track of who has paid and who
has not.

You can find the Billing Script here.

You can find examples of the Billing E-mails here.

What You Need To Know Before Starting

As mentioned, this script works on User Manager. It must be installed/running on the same router that is
running User Manager.

It requires access to an outgoing E-mail server, either locally or remotely. Currently, it is written for a
Remote SMTP server. Your outgoing server also should not require Authorization to relay E-mails.

Copying the Script

When you copy the script, I recommend you first copy it into a plain text editor. You'll notice every
single line starts with a space. Even the empty lines. All these spaces need to be manually removed in
order for the script to work properly. This is just a small little snag inherent in copying text from Wiki
Code frames. Also, make sure no line ends in a space either. This also seems to cause problems when
running the script.

User Manager Field Requirements

This script also requires each and every user to have the following user fields filled in:

/tool user-manager user print

■ First Name
■ Last Name
■ E-mail Address
■ Pool Name
■ Comment Field

The Pool Name Field

In this setup, we've used the Pool-name field to specify which one of our wireless packages the user has
opted for. This directly translates to a certain amount that the user owes us every month. More about this
later.

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The Comment Field

Because of the limitations in User Manager's database structure, we were forced to enter more than one
piece of information into one field.

Example: 1000230007509
Broken Up: 10002 - 3000 - 75 - 09

What this means:

■ The first 5 Characters is the next Statement/Invoice Number to be issued.

■ The following 4 character is the User's data Cap, in Megabytes.
■ The next 2 characters is the last "Usage Warning Level" that was issued for this user
■ The last 2 characters is the Month in which the last Statement/Invoice was issued.

Although there is a Usage-Limit function in User Manager and RouterOS, for the purposes of this script,
we have chosen to not use it. It is in the planning to implement it.

Please review the Scripts for additional information.

Known Issues
RouterOS Versions
This script has given problems under RouterOS 2.9.46 and earlier. The problems that we have
experienced were no longer there once we upgraded to 3.0rc5. We are also successfully running the
script on Version 3.6.

Active Sessions Interim Update

In the event that the Month-End lapses, and the Billing script is run, the counters in the User Manager
are reset. However, if the user is still connected, and has an active session, the interim update of that
session will simply logged it's current usage against the User Manager again, regardless of the fact that
User Manager's counters were reset.

In this event, it is necessary to either suspend the accounting session, or terminate the active session and
therefore force the accounting session to close.

This functionality will be implemented in the next version of this script.

Retrieved from "http://wiki.mikrotik.com/wiki/AutomatedBilling"

Category: Scripting

■ This page was last modified 11:14, 22 April 2008.

http://wiki.mikrotik.com/wiki/AutomatedBilling 8/26/2009