Usage

When implementing a usage-based plan for your customers on Salesbricks, you have the flexibility to charge based on two distinct types of usage data: Gauges and Counters, referred to as Final value and Prorated in the admin interface.

Counter / Final value

With final value measurement, tally up all billable events over a set time period. This approach is suitable for measuring cumulative usage, such as the total number of API calls in a month.

Example

Calculation is sum(billable events) * unit price = total. In the illustrated graph, (6 + 4 + 8 + 5 + 3) * $2 = $52

Example use cases

  • API Usage: Number of API calls used in a month.
  • Exported Documents: Count of document exports by a customer.
  • Service Requests: Total service requests made by a client.

Gauges / Prorated

With prorated measurement, tally up billable events per time unit over a set period. This method is ideal for tracking usage over time, such as virtual machine hours used in a month.

Example

Calculation is ((billable events * time unit (days), ...) * unit price = total. In the illustrated graph, ((3 * 6) + (4 * 8) + (8 * 6) + (5 * 3)) * $2 = $226

Example use cases

  • Virtual Machine Usage: Number of virtual machine hours used in a month.
  • Subscription Tier Utilization: Hours spent in different subscription tiers.
  • Feature Utilization: Time spent using specific features within a service.

Simple API Calls

Regardless of your chosen pricing strategy, integrating usage data with Salesbricks requires just two simple API calls:

  • incrementCounter Used with final value bricks, this call increments the counter for a specific billable event.
  • setGauge Used with prorated bricks, this call sets the gauge for a specific billable event and time unit.