Standard Features

A standard feature is a reusable template for the features you sell over and over again. Instead of re-typing the same line-rental charge, voicemail fee, or SIP channel price on every customer, you define it once as a standard feature and link each customer’s feature to it. The pricing, tariffs, discount schemes, commission rules, and contract terms all come from the template, and you only override the fields that genuinely differ for a given customer.

Standard features are what let you run a price book. A typical platform has a handful of headline products (Business Line Rental, Hosted Handset, Cloud PBX Seat, Broadband 80/20) set up as standard features, plus historic versions kept around for customers on grandfathered pricing. When the headline price changes, updating the standard feature pushes the new rate out to every inheriting customer at the next billing run, with no mass-edit required.

Typical reasons to reach for a standard feature:

• Launching a new product: set up one template with all the charges, tariffs, and minimum terms, then attach it to every customer who signs up.
• Running a promotional rate: clone an existing standard feature, drop the price, and attach the new one to customers on the deal. When the promo ends, move them back to the headline template.
• Rolling out a price rise: apply a percentage increase to the standard feature (in place, or by creating an increased version) and every inheriting feature catches up at the next billing run. See Price Increases below.
• Keeping wholesale and retail linked: put both the customer charge and the carrier cost on the same standard feature, so margins stay consistent without editing every customer.

Standard features don’t bill anything themselves. Only the features linked to them produce charges on a customer’s invoice. Think of a standard feature as the price-book entry, and the feature as the customer’s purchase against that entry.

What this page covers

• How inheritance works, including the rule that drives which value a feature uses.
• A full field reference for every field on the standard feature record.
• How to add, edit, clone, and delete standard features.
• How to apply price increases and link a standard feature to a customer’s feature.

How Inheritance Works

When a feature is linked to a standard feature, the platform uses a simple fallback rule:

• If a field is filled in on the feature itself, that value is used
• If the field is empty, the value from the standard feature applies

This means you can use the standard feature for most settings and override just the fields that differ for a particular customer. For example, you might have a “Business Line Rental” standard feature at £12.00/month, but override the recurring charge to £10.00 for a specific customer on a promotional deal.

When you update a standard feature, all features that inherit from it pick up the changes the next time charges are raised. Only fields that haven’t been overridden on the individual feature are affected.

Field Reference

Standard features share many fields with regular features. See the Features field reference for background on shared fields. The tables below list every field on the standard feature record, grouped by the section it appears in on the add/edit form.

Feature Details

This section defines the basic properties of the standard feature template, including its name, type, description, and availability. Standard features provide reusable templates for creating customer features with consistent pricing and settings.

Charge Details

This section contains the default billing charges for features created from this template, including one-off charges, recurring charges, transaction types, and VAT rates. These values are inherited by individual features unless overridden.

Discount Scheme Details

This section defines default discount schemes that will be applied to features created from this template.

Tariff Overrides

This section allows specification of default tariff overrides for various call types that will be inherited by features created from this template.

Fill Discount Plan Pools

This section defines default discount plan configurations that will be inherited by features created from this template.

Carrier Charge Details

This section contains default carrier-specific information that will be inherited by features created from this template.

Commission Details

This section defines default commission settings that will be inherited by features created from this template.

Term Details

This section defines default term settings including renewal periods, minimum terms, and notice periods that will be inherited by features created from this template.

System Information

This section contains system-generated information about the standard feature template.

Identification

This section contains the core identifiers for the standard feature template.

No fields defined for this section.

Notes on key fields

Availability

The Availability field controls whether a standard feature appears when adding or editing features:

• Available: Shown in the standard feature dropdown when adding or editing features.
• Headline: Highlighted as a preferred option.
• Historic: Hidden from the dropdown but still linked to any existing features that use it.

Tariff Overrides

Tariff overrides on a standard feature replace the customer or number tariffs for the call class when set. Combined with a Fixed Fee Tariff, they let you centralise pricing that varies by number type, feature type, or transaction type.

Discount Plans

Up to four discount plans can be set, each with a multiplier to control how much of the feature’s usage counts towards the discount pool.

Commission

Default commission settings for linked features include profiles and amounts for one-off, recurring, and call charges. A secondary commission holder can also be configured.

Adding a Standard Feature

1. Go to Add menu > Standard Feature
2. Enter the standard feature details, starting with a unique Name
3. Fill in the default charges, tariffs, and terms as needed
4. Click Save

The standard feature is now available to select when adding or editing features.

Editing a Standard Feature

1. Open the standard feature from the standard features list
2. Click Edit
3. Make your changes
4. Click Save

Changes take effect the next time charges are raised for linked features. Only inherited (non-overridden) fields on linked features are updated.

Cloning a Standard Feature

To create a new standard feature based on an existing one:

1. Open the standard feature you want to copy
2. Click Actions menu > Clone
3. Give the new standard feature a unique name
4. Adjust any fields as needed
5. Click Save

Deleting a Standard Feature

1. Open the standard feature
2. Click Actions menu > Delete

Important: You can only delete a standard feature if no features are currently linked to it.

Price Increases

You can apply a percentage increase to a standard feature’s charges. Two modes are available:

• Apply Increase (In Place):increases the recurring (and optionally one-off) charges on this standard feature in-place. All linked features that inherit their charges pick up the new values at the next billing run. Available from the Expert menu (requires expert level 5 to edit).
• Create Increased Version:creates a new standard feature with increased charges, leaving this one unchanged. Available from the Actions menu.

See Price Increases for full details, scope options, and step-by-step instructions.

Linking a Standard Feature to a Feature

When adding or editing a feature on a customer or number:

1. Select the standard feature from the Standard Feature dropdown
2. The platform fills in empty fields from the standard feature’s values
3. Override any fields you need to change for this specific feature
4. Click Save

To remove the link, edit the feature and clear the Standard Feature field.

Practical Example

Scenario: You offer a standard business line rental at £12.00/month with a 12-month minimum term.

1. Create a standard feature called “Business Line Rental”
2. Set the recurring charge to £12.00 and the interval to monthly
3. Set the minimum term to 12 months
4. Set the fixed fee tariff to your standard business tariff

Now, when adding line rental to any customer:

• Select “Business Line Rental” as the standard feature
• All the pricing and terms are filled in automatically
• If a customer negotiates a different rate, just override the recurring charge on their feature

If you later increase the standard rate to £13.00, all customers still on the inherited rate are updated at the next billing run. Customers with an overridden charge keep their existing rate.