Know What a Price-Monitoring Job Costs Before It Runs
A usage-based bill is at its worst when the end of the month is the first time you see it.
Lookout comparison jobs can now be bound to a registered quotation code. Editing a job shows the billing basis, planned usage and a simulated monthly amount, and the monthly bill is calculated from the terms each run froze.
A wholesaler uses Lookout to watch prices across a few hundred hotels, running comparisons several times a week under its own quotation. Until now, a job recorded which hotels and dates to compare, but the quotation did not travel with it, and estimates left out the selected rate plans. The only way to know the month’s cost was to wait for the bill.
Usage-based billing goes wrong when the terms are unclear. If a quotation changes midway, are earlier runs repriced? Over a month of runs, which version of the terms did each one use? Leave either question vague, and the invoice at the end of the month turns into a reconciliation exercise for both sides.
The platform can bind a registered quotation code to a job, and an unregistered code is rejected outright. When a run starts, it freezes the quotation version, prices, the number of selected rate plans and the accounting date, and the monthly bill is calculated from those frozen terms. If the quotation changes later, invoices already issued are not repriced.
While editing a job, the page shows the billing basis, planned usage and a simulated monthly amount, and each run shows its frozen pricing summary and monthly settlement status. The quotation’s detailed parameters stay on the server; the page shows a summary and never calculates charges itself, and only platform staff with Lookout edit permission can change which quotation a job uses.