Understanding Your Voice/SMS Text Messaging Usage Invoices Follow
Understanding Your Monthly Voice/SMS Usage Invoices
As a Law Ruler customer, you may receive varying usage-based billing on a monthly basis depending on which services are consumed. Certain vendors may bill you via monthly invoicing for usage-based services that will be passed through on your monthly Law Ruler bill per the Subscriber Agreement.
Twilio, Inc., the world's largest internet phone company will bill your Law Ruler account directly for any usage of any Voice/SMS services for calls, phone numbers, text/MMS messaging, or related services. Any Twilio billing will be passed through on your monthly Law Ruler invoice. All Twilio services are usage-based and are metered based on how much of Twilio's services that your business consumes each month.
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Product Usage Account Summary
The product usage summary on the front page of your invoice summarizes usage across all items to show a high-level summary per product group. Each product listed represents the total usage costs billed in each invoice, along with any applicable following non-product line items such as taxes or regulatory fees, as billed by Twilio.
To view a current or past voice/SMS usage invoice at any time, please visit Reports -> Voice/SMS Usage inside of your Law Ruler system. Note: this requires reports or admin access permissions.
| Product | Quantity |
| Local Phone Numbers | 0 numbers |
| Toll Free Phone Numbers | 0 numbers |
| Inbound Local Calls | 0 minutes |
| Inbound Toll Free Calls | 0 minutes |
| Outbound Voice Minutes | 0 minutes |
| Dialer Voice Minutes | 0 minutes |
| Recordings | 0 recorded-minutes |
| Lookups | 0 lookups |
| Outbound SMS | 0 messages |
| Inbound SMS | 0 messages |
| Outbound MMS | 0 messages |
| Inbound MMS | 0 messages |
| AI Contact Center Tasks | 0 tasks |
| Total | $0.00 |
Twilio Products are categorized as follows:
| Product | Description |
| Local Phone Numbers | 10-digit local numbers that are rented monthly for a fee per number |
| Toll Free Phone Numbers | 10-digit toll free numbers that are rented monthly for a fee per number |
| Inbound Local Calls | Per minute fee for any inbound calls received on local phone numbers |
| Inbound Toll Free Calls | Per minute fee for any inbound calls received on toll free phone numbers |
| Outbound Voice Minutes | Per minute fee for any outbound calls made from phone numbers |
| Dialer Voice Minutes | Per minute fee for Voice-Over-IP (VOIP) calls made from your phone numbers using the Smart Dialer |
| Recordings | Per minute fee for any call recordings made on your phone numbers. This is usually bundled in the Voice Minutes and not billed separately. |
| Lookups | Per use fee for a caller name (CNAM) registration lookup for each call received. This is required for Caller ID purposes for each call. |
| Outbound SMS | Per use fee for any outbound text messages (SMS) sent from your phone numbers |
| Inbound SMS | Per use fee for any inbound text messages (SMS) received on your phone numbers |
| Outbound MMS | Per use fee for any outbound multimedia messages (MMS) sent from your phone numbers |
| Inbound MMS | Per use fee for any inbound multimedia messages (MMS) received on your phone numbers |
| AI Contact Center Tasks | Per use fee for any Smart Dialer automation tasks routed through the AI Task Router. This is used for AI call queue management and outbound call automation per use. |
Usage Details FAQ
Since seeing the usage details may prompt some additional questions, we are taking this opportunity to answer some common queries here:
Q: How are my Twilio prices determined?
A: Twilio prices are calculated based on the volume of your firm each month and are subject to rate changes at any time depending on your firm's volume and various changes by Twilio and the wireless phone carriers depending on regulatory, government action, and other telco industry events, service fees, and taxes. In addition, Law Ruler bundles certain Twilio services that are traditionally broken down into a series of product categories for the purposes of simplifying invoicing as much as possible.
Q: Why am I being charged for phone numbers, even though I didn't purchase any this month?
A: Phone numbers have a monthly rental fee that is charged each month until the phone number is released. A phone number may be released at any time, but please be aware that releasing a phone number is permanent and irrevocable since upon release, the number goes back to the general public and could be purchased at any time by another company. This is not recommended unless you are certain that you will never need a phone number again.
If you would like to move a number outside of the Law Ruler service to another company, then you may do what is known as "port out" the number and take ownership of it directly, but there is a service fee of $25 per number ported out.
Q: When and why are taxes charged?
A: Twilio calculates and charges taxes at the end of each month for usage incurred throughout the previous month. Taxes are assessed based on your business address provided.
Q: I see charges for more SMS than I sent. Why is that?
A: Long SMS are broken into smaller segments of 160 characters each by the telecom carriers. Each segment is charged at the rate of one SMS. The invoice shows the total segments used.
Q: Why do I see differences between my invoice and the Law Ruler Voice/SMS Reports/logs?
A: For invoicing purposes, Twilio always uses the UTC timezone. User accounts set to use a local (non-UTC) timezone will likely see differences in the usage captured in product logs on the first and last days of the month. In addition, the billing system at Twilio works in 5 decimals places, i.e. $0.00001 precision. However, for simplicity, invoices are rounded to two decimals, i.e. $0.01 precision. This might cause a mismatch in fractions of a cent for a line item between invoices.