Frequently Asked Questions

The SAFE Billing Platform is cloud billing software for UK telecoms resellers. It covers CDR import and rating, recurring charges, invoice production and delivery, a white-label customer portal and payment collection, with SAFE CRM available as an add-on.

UK telecoms resellers billing fixed line, VoIP, mobile and data services, from a few dozen customers to several thousand. Packages are sized by customer numbers, users and call volumes, so the platform can start small and move up a package as the base grows.

SAFE is built around telecoms billing: it reads 85+ UK carrier CDR formats, rates calls against your tariffs, discount plans and allowances, and handles UK VAT and Ofcom billing requirements. General subscription billing tools usually need call rating to be done elsewhere before invoicing.

Safe Online Billing Limited, a family-run UK business founded in 2005. The same team develops the platform and provides support.

For most telecoms resellers, the platform can be set up and ready to use within 5 to 7 working days. The time depends on the complexity of your tariffs, the carriers involved and the state of your existing customer data.

Yes. We import customer, service and tariff data from your current system, using templates to prepare the data where an export needs reshaping. Running a parallel billing period against your existing system is a sensible check before switching over.

Customer and service data, your tariffs and rate cards, carrier details and your branding. Someone on your team needs to make configuration decisions and attend training.

Invoices, emails and the customer portal carry your branding, so customers continue to deal with your business. They will see any changes you make to invoice layout and, if you introduce it, access to the self-service portal.

Yes. A move from aBILLity follows the same process as any other migration: we import your customer, service and tariff data and check the first billing run against your existing invoices.

SAFE reads 85+ CDR formats from UK carriers and wholesalers for fixed line, mobile and data services, and new formats are added when customers need them.

Yes. Invoices, customer emails and the customer portal carry your logo and colours. Full brand colours and fonts start at Standard, and a custom portal domain at Premium.

Yes. Line rentals, subscriptions and other regular charges sit on features with their own intervals, billed in advance or arrears, with pro-rating when services change mid-period.

Customers sign in to MyAccount to view and download invoices and, depending on their profile and your package, see usage and call analytics and pay online. The portal carries your branding, and can run on your own domain from Premium.

From the Standard package, Direct Debit through GoCardless and card payments through Stripe, plus card payment links for individual invoices. Each payment is recorded against its invoice.

Yes. Equipment, IT support, software licences, consultancy and other recurring or one-off charges can be billed on the same invoice as telecoms services.

The platform calculates VAT at the applicable rate for each service type, including reverse charge VAT for reseller transactions where required, and produces invoices for VAT-registered businesses. Its digital records support Making Tax Digital for VAT.

Yes. Tariffs can apply at customer, service or number level, with discount plans for bundled allowances and volume discounts, and feature discount schemes for introductory or loyalty pricing.

Where wholesale costs are tracked, which is included from Premium, reports compare carrier costs with retail charges by customer, service and carrier. Reports can be exported for further analysis.

No. The SAFE Billing Platform is cloud-based and runs in a modern web browser.

Yes. The REST API is read-only on Standard, with write access and webhooks on Premium and Enterprise. Xero integration is an add-on on Premium and included on Enterprise. The API reference documents the endpoints.

By manual upload, email collection, FTPS or API, depending on the carrier and your package. Manual upload through the portal is available on every package, including for bundles too large to email.

Processing frequency depends on your package: monthly on Startup, weekly on Standard, daily on Premium and real-time on Enterprise. Within that, timing also depends on how often each carrier delivers its CDR files.

Yes. SIP trunks, hosted PBX seats, extensions and other VoIP services can be billed as recurring features, with call usage rated from the carrier CDRs.

Standard reports cover revenue, usage, payments and customer activity, and each billing run has pre-billing and post-billing reports. KPI and dashboard data feeds are included from Premium, and custom reports can be built as an add-on.

Records that cannot be processed are listed under Billing Errors, and the pre-billing report lists unallocated and unrated calls and highlights figures more than 15% away from recent months. Staff confirm the report has been checked before bills can be produced.

Yes. Invoices can be reviewed and approved before sending; approving an invoice locks it so it can be emailed, downloaded or exported. An unapproved invoice is approved automatically when it is sent.

The failure is recorded against the account and the customer can be notified. Retries can run manually or automatically, configured in SAFE CRM Credit Control (early access), since providers may charge for each retry. All payment actions are tracked with a full history.

The pre-billing report compares each month with the rolling average of recent months and highlights figures that differ by more than 15%, which helps identify possible fraud, missing files or pricing errors before billing.

Data is encrypted, access is controlled by user permissions with two-factor authentication available, and the platform is hosted in UK data centres. Backups run continuously with point-in-time recovery.

The platform applies technical and organisational measures including access controls, audit logs and data minimisation, and includes tools such as itemisation settings and password-protected bill emails to help you meet your own obligations as controller.

Card details are handled by Stripe, a PCI-DSS Level 1 certified processor, using tokenisation, so raw card numbers are never stored, transmitted or processed by SAFE. Direct Debit is handled by GoCardless, an FCA-authorised payment institution.

Customer data is hosted in UK data centres. Third-party processors, such as payment providers, are listed in our data processing documentation.

Continuously, with point-in-time recovery and copies held in geographically separate locations. You can also download encrypted Disaster Recovery Files, including a full database export and invoice bundles, to keep your own copy.

It supports the billing accuracy, audit trail and record-keeping that Ofcom's General Conditions require, and SAFE CRM adds complaint records that track the six-week ADR timetable for complaints received from 8 April 2026. Responsibility for compliance remains with you as the provider.

Yes. We maintain a disaster recovery plan that is tested regularly, with redundancy in the infrastructure and backups held in geographically separate locations.

Support runs during UK business hours, 9am to 5:30pm, Monday to Friday. Email support is included from Standard (an add-on on Startup), and phone support is available on Premium and Enterprise.

Yes. The online documentation covers the platform and is updated as features change.

Changes are released continuously, usually without downtime, and recorded in the changelog inside the platform. Updates are included at no additional cost.