Finance

In this section, you can view your invoices, see your provisions and check your quota.

Overview

This view will give you a detailed look at the invoices that have been issued as well as all payments that have been received. There is no equivalent for this transaction in the EPP interface. This information is available from September 2001 onwards.

Finance overview

• Click on ‘Finance’ in the left menu.

• You will see the ‘Overview’ screen immediately.

Choose the year you want to look at from the drop-down box. You can also choose to see payments or invoices or both types. After clicking ‘Search’, you will get a list of all transactions matching the search criteria.

Result of the finance overview

The result list displayed has 5 columns and there is a distinction between payments and invoices:

The payments:

• The date when the payment has been entered into the DNS Belgium system.

• Type contains ‘PAYMENT’ or ‘ONLINE PAYMENT’ to identify this entry as a payment.

• The amount of the payment in Euro.

• The details of a payment: By clicking on ‘view’ you can see extra info on the payment:

  • In case of an online payment, you see the reference here.

  • In case of a manual payment, you see the information provided by DNS Belgium staff.

• The last column is not relevant for payments.

The invoices:

• The date on which the invoice was issued (E.g. 30/11/2009 is the invoice for all new names, renewals, transfer etc. of November 2009).

• Type contains the type of invoice. Possibilities are: MONTHLY INVOICE, PREPAY INVOICE, SERVICE INVOICE, CREDIT NOTE, etc.

• The total amount of the invoice (including VAT!).

• The details of the invoice with the identification number of the invoice.

• The last column gives the possibility to download the invoice in a format preferred by you: pdf, xml or zip file.

The result of your search can be exported to an Excel or csv file.

To view the details of an invoice, click on the link in the ‘Details’ column.

The next screen will show you all the information you need about the invoice:

• The date of the invoice.

• The identification number of the invoice.

• The payment info you can use to transfer the money to DNS Belgium’s account.

• An overview of the paying transactions you’ve done in this month. By clicking on the transaction name, you will see the list of domain names concerned. Invoices may show 5 labels:

  • New names: all new registrations in that specific month.

  • Renewals: the number of names renewed in that month.

  • Reactivations: domain names that have been reactivated after a deletion.

  • Transfers: the number of names transferred from another registrar to yourself.

  • Transfers from quarantine: the number of names transferred from another registrar to yourself while the domain name was already in quarantine when the transfer was initiated.

• Below the overview, you can download the original invoice in different formats.

The invoice displays 2 addresses: the address of the billing contact to whom the invoice is sent, and your official address according to your contract with DNS Belgium.

Account status overview

For some registrars, it’s important to know the account status at the end of each month. In the ‘Finance overview’ page you also see a link to ‘Account status’. By clicking this link, you get an overview of your account status at the beginning and at the end of each month for the chosen year.

Please note that a rounding error (due to VAT calculations) might appear in some cases. The account status mentioned on the invoices however, is correct.

Provisioning

The invoice provision transaction will give you the number of domain names that will be renewed for each of the next 12 months. This will allow you to estimate the financial impact of the renewals well in advance and at your convenience.

View provisions

• Click on ‘Finance’ in the left menu.

• Click on ‘Provisioning’.

The following screen will show a table with 3 columns:

• The first column indicates the invoice month of the domain names.

• The second column indicates how many domain names expire in this month.

• The third column indicates how many domains under Domain Guard expire in this month.

A domain name that expires in a given month will be renewed automatically if that name still resides in the database on the last day of that month at 00:00 (midnight, CET). At that time, the registrar account will be reduced with the total cumulative fee for those names.

Note

If you don’t want to renew a specific domain name, you will have to delete it from the database before its renewal date!

Clicking on a specific month will give you a search result with only the domain names expiring in that month (in blocks of 20). Note that this transaction is not very practical for very long lists of domain names. In such cases, you should take a look at the Reports.

Quota check

The quota check gives an overview of the current turnover in respect to the annual turnover threshold.

This transaction gives the registrars the possibility to check their status with regard to their (contractually established) annual turnover threshold. To see your quota check:

• Click on ‘Finance’ in the left menu.

• Click on ‘Quota check’.

Quota check result

The quota is established as a virtual domain name counter and shows the actual status of that counter. The virtual counter shows the number of paying transactions. The virtual counter is increased:

• +1, for every new registration, every reactivation and every incoming transfer carried out,

• + number of renewals, for every monthly invoicing,

• + number of domains in portfolio, for a take-over of a portfolio.

Note: When a registrar (A) takes over the portfolio of another registrar (B), then all domains in the portfolio of registrar (B) are added to the virtual counter of registrar (A).

Deletes and outgoing transfers don’t have an impact on the virtual counter. A registrar should achieve its yearly quota between 1 January and 31 December. Registrars who start up, won’t have their quota checked in the first incomplete period before 1 January.

The screen of the quota check typically contains the following information:

• First of all, a message is shown whether or not you’ve reached your quota. More on this message below.

• In Quota checked on the time and date when the report was generated is shown (using the current state of affairs).

• The Start date shows when the registrar was activated.

• The Year shows the current year, which always runs from 1 January to 31 December.

• Must reach quota indicates whether the registrar must reach the quota in this period.

• The Quota is the turnover threshold of 250 ‘units’. As explained earlier, a unit corresponds with a domain when it is created, transferred, renewed or reactivated. E.g. when a registrar registers 250 new domain names in a year but loses them all at the end of that year, the virtual counter will remain at 250.

• The actual status of the virtual counter.

• Provisions gives an estimate of the number of units that will be added to the virtual counter in the remaining months of the current year. The estimate is based on the expected number of renewals. In case some of these domain names are not renewed, the total will be lower than estimated. The provisions do not consider new registrations that will probably be done in those months.

• The total of these estimates for the remaining months of the current year.

• In the summary, the current virtual counter is compared with the quota to be reached. If the net result is negative, at this point of the year, the quota has not been reached. The negative number is the number of domain names that needs to be added to the virtual counter to reach the quota. If the result is positive, the quota has been reached for the current year.

• The last section only exists if the net result is negative. In that case, the current virtual counter is increased with the estimated number of renewals for the remaining months ( projected provisions ). This projected revenue is compared with the quota to be reached. If the projected net result is positive, the target will be achieved if all domain names that need to be renewed in the remaining months of the current year, are effectively renewed.

Possible messages are:

• In case the registrar doesn’t have to reach the quota, because he is in his activation year, the message will be: “The quota check details are indicative. You do not have to obtain a specific volume (quota) in <<YEAR>>”.

• In case the status of the virtual counter is positive without any provisions for renewals, the message will be: “Net result is positive, quota has been reached in <<YEAR>>”.

• In case the registrar doesn’t reach his quota, but will reach it if all provisions are met, the message will be: “Projected net result is positive, quota will be reached in <<YEAR>>, provided the provisioned renewals will be attained”.

• In case the registrar doesn’t reach his quota, even when considering the provisions for the renewals in the remaining months: “Projected net result is negative, quota will NOT be reached in <<YEAR>>. An additional revenue of <<TARGET>> is necessary, provided the provisioned renewals will be attained”.

If you’re supposed to reach your quota and you haven’t, you will receive a service invoice for the remainder of the yearly quota fee owed to DNS Belgium. It is therefore very important to keep an eye on your virtual counter and take appropriate action beforehand to make sure your quota will be reached.

Online payment

This section gives the registrar the possibility to make an online payment.

Execute an online payment

To initiate a payment:

• Click on ‘Finance’ in the left menu.

• Click on ‘Online payment’.

The next screen is made up of 2 sections: The first section shows your account overview. The current amount is the amount available as indicated in the top right of ‘My registrations’. The expected renewals indicate the cost of the renewals at the end of this month, in case no domain names are deleted or transferred away. The expected amount available is your expected account status at the end of this month when the renewals are deducted. If this amount is negative, this means you won’t be able to make paying transactions at the beginning of next month unless you top up your account.

In the next section, you can make a deposit:

• Amount (EUR): Enter the amount you want to deposit. This should be minimum 100 EUR and maximum 5000 EUR.

• Payment method: Enter the payment method you want to use.

• Transaction fee: This will always be 0. We do not charge transaction fees anymore.

By clicking ‘Pay now’, you are redirected to our payment gateway. Follow the instructions to complete the payment.

When your payment is completed, your account status is raised with the deposited amount.

Tip

When using Maestro as a payment method, you can enter 000 or 999 as CVC code. Please contact your bank if this doesn’t work.