Troubleshooting
Table of contents
As a CloudBilling user, incidents can occur due to a variety of reasons. This Chapter will try and provide some ways to troubleshoot these incidents. The use of the dashboard, pricing rule results, and purchases page will be discussed in more detail. For more Frequently asked questions, refer to the FAQ.
Troubleshooting with Dashboard Widgets
The Dashboard is a valuable tool which gives insights into the data that is currently in the CloudBilling environment. There are also widgets that should always be in place which give valuable insight into possible problems in the environment. The widgets that will be discussed in more detail are the “Connector Status” Widget and the “Purchase Details” Widget. The Connector Status Widget can be used to troubleshoot connector runs, while the Purchase Details Widget can be used to troubleshoot purchases. Both of these widgets might be useful when the expected revenue differs from the revenue on the invoice(s).
Connector Status Widget
The Connector Status Widget shows the last run of the connector and the status of the connector run. Additionally, there is a warning which will be shown when there are unmapped customer mappings. The connector run will show the green check mark if the most recent run was successful. However, if there are warnings or errors, it will respectively show the orange or red triangle with an exclamation mark. These warnings and errors can be investigated by either directly clicking on the connector run in the Connector Status Widget or by going to the Connectors page. By going to “Activity” under the respective connector, the last runs and their statuses can be found. By clicking on a run, more information will be shown, and the error can be found by looking for the orange or red line(s) in the run logs.
The errors can be easy to read, but some errors are very generic and could occur because of various reasons. It already helps to simply read what the error says, but if there are errors that seem worrisome it is always recommended to contact support. Some examples of errors and how to solve them can be found below.
- Error: An error occurred while sending the request
- Solution: Check whether the run is retrieving Microsoft Licenses by looking for “License Metering” in the run log. If this is not the case, it is no issue if the next connector run is successful. Check the next day whether this is the case.
- Error: Maintenance failed: Could not retrieve price sheet
- Solution: Sometimes Microsoft will be late with updating the pricing lists at the beginning of the new month. If this keeps occurring over multiple days, ensure to send in a ticket in your Microsoft Partner Center.
- Error: Failed: Forbidden
- Solution: Check whether the credentials of your connector account are up-to-date and whether the API token is not revoked. If everything seems to be in order, contact support instead.
- Error: Failed: Authorization failed: The provided grant has expired due to it being revoked, a fresh auth token is needed.
- Solution: The API token has expired, a new one should be generated and updated in the settings.
Purchase Details Widget
The Purchase Details Widget shows various information regarding the Purchases that are in the CloudBilling environment. There is some generic information, like the total number of purchases, the number of new purchases in the current month and the number of active purchases. Active purchases are purchases that are not yet invoiced. The most important information in this Widget, however, are the Unmapped and Not Invoiced purchases. These two statuses should ideally always be zero.
A purchase is unmapped when CloudBilling cannot immediately connect the purchase that comes into CloudBilling to an existing product, customer, or invoice based respectively on the Product Label, the customer code, or the invoice reference that are on the purchase. These purchases can be mapped semi-automatically or manually.
- Purchases that are not recognized based on their product label are not connected to a product automatically. These purchases can be mapped by adding a new product with the corresponding product label as an SKU or adding the corresponding product label as an SKU of an existing product.
- Purchases that do not have a customer will most likely have to be mapped manually, as the customer code on the customer cannot be changed. Alternatively, a new customer can be made with the corresponding customer code, or the purchases could be sent in again with the correct customer code. When the latter is chosen, ensure to remove the purchases with the incorrect customer code.
- Purchases that do have an invoice reference that is not recognized can be mapped to a new invoice by creating an Ad Hoc invoice. If they need to be on another invoice, they might be manually adjusted by changing the invoice reference or sent in again with the correct invoice reference. When the latter is chosen, ensure to remove the purchases with the incorrect invoice reference.
Not Invoiced purchases are purchases that are currently not attached to any invoice. These purchases contain usage, which means that revenue might be missed if these purchases are not put on an invoice. A purchase can come in as “Not Invoiced” when the customer is suspended in CloudBilling, but the customer is still generating usage. The invoices of a suspended customer will not generate as the customer is “inactive”, which will leave the purchases unable to connect to an open invoice of the customer. This will be fixed by taking the customer off the “Billing suspended” status, invoices will then again generate, and the purchases will be able to connect themselves to the correct invoice. If the customer is suspended intentionally, the Not Invoiced purchases should be deleted from CloudBilling so that the Not Invoiced purchases can be monitored appropriately.
Troubleshooting with Pricing Rule Results
For troubleshooting specific invoices, the Pricing Rule Results in the viewer may be used. These are specifically useful when a Tally error shows up. Tally will state what amount of revenue is counted by Tally and what is “expected” in the assertion. The assertion is based on the Pricing Rule Results. All Pricing Rule Results are clickable. From this page the Pricing Rule Results can be clicked through to look for the exact difference that Tally has found to see whether the pricing rule is set up correctly. Often a Billing Output Tag is missing or not capitalized or spelled correctly. Check other pricing rules to see what the correct capitalization and spelling of the BOT should be.
Step by Step: Using Pricing Rule Results
- Open the Viewer of the invoice.
- Note down the numbers that Tally gives back.
- Tally’s count
- Assertion
- Difference
- Go to the tab “Pricing Rule Results” at the right top of the Viewer.
- Open multiple Pricing Rule Results to see if the exact difference can be found.
- Check the pricing rule and the pricing rules that do seem to work to find a possible difference.
- Adjust the offending pricing rule to match the expected format.
Troubleshooting with Related Purchases
Alternatively, one or multiple purchases could seem to be missing from the invoice. To check what purchases are on the invoice, visit the Purchases page by clicking on the Purchases button for the specific invoice. This page will automatically search for the Invoice Id, which can be seen in the Advanced Search options. Therefore, this page will always show all purchases that are related to this specific invoice. Specific products can be investigated by searching for the product cluster. Important checks are investigating the dates and quantities of the purchases, as these respectively indicate for which period the purchase has come into CloudBilling and how many items you should expect on the invoice based on the data. This can also be compared with the reconciliation files of the Cloud Partner.
To download the reconciliation files, refer to the FAQ. Other Frequently Asked Questions can also be found there.