Notification System > Texting History Screen > Texting History Screen Details

Use the Texting Metrics tab to access the performance metrics for the texting process. Metrics can be used for measurement, comparison, or to track performance or production.

Billing Periods

When billing information is generated on the Texting Server, it generates the data from the start of the 28th of the previous month to the end of the 27th of the current month. This means that a billing period runs from the 28th of the prior month to the 28th of the current month. For example, if the billing date was February 1, 2017, billing data would be generated for all text messages queued in the Texting Server between January 28, 2017 at 12:00:00.000 AM and January 27, 2017 at 11:59:59.999.

There are many reasons why billing runs from the 28th of the prior month to the 28th of the current month, including:

•February is the shortest month of the year and consists of 28 days.

•Texts can be queued at any time of the day or night.

•Immediately after monthend, servers become heavily strained performing monthend calculations.

•The Host is frequently in offline mode during monthend processing, making it extremely difficult to select a reliable time shortly after the end of the month when writing billing records to the Host would be possible.

•All texts are accounted for and no texts get counted twice during billing periods.

•Makes it easy to account for the variable number of days between different months.

Custom Time Frames

Clicking the <Calculate from Custom Time Frame> button retrieves the total number of text messages queued between the dates entered in the Low Date and the High Date fields. The custom time frame uses data from the start of the Low Date of the previous month to the end of the High Date of the current month. This means that the data is collected from the start of the Low Date to the end of the date just before the High Date. For example, if the Low Date was January 1, 2017 and the High Date was March 31, 2017, data would be generated for all text messages queued in the Texting Server between January 1, 2017 at 12:00:00.000 AM and March 30, 2017 at 11:59:59.999.

See the following example of this tab followed by field and button descriptions.

Texting Metrics Tab

Field Descriptions

Field	Description
Billing Information List View	The Billing Information list view displays all of the billing data stored on the Texting Server with a billing date between the dates entered in the Low Date and the High Date fields. The following columns display information in this list view: •Billing Date: Displays the month the bill was generated for. If the <Calculate from Custom Time Frame> button is used, only dashes are displayed in this column since no actually billing period is used. •# Text Messages: Displays the total number of text messages which were queued during the billing period. This includes incoming texts from customers and outgoing texts from your institution. •Low Date Range: Displays the date the first text was queued during the billing period. •High Date Range: Displays the date the last text was queued during the billing period.
Low Date	Enter or select a beginning date to use to retrieve billing information.
High Date	Enter or select an ending date to use to retrieve billing information.

Field

Description

Billing Information List View

The Billing Information list view displays all of the billing data stored on the Texting Server with a billing date between the dates entered in the Low Date and the High Date fields.

The following columns display information in this list view:

•Billing Date: Displays the month the bill was generated for. If the <Calculate from Custom Time Frame> button is used, only dashes are displayed in this column since no actually billing period is used.

•# Text Messages: Displays the total number of text messages which were queued during the billing period. This includes incoming texts from customers and outgoing texts from your institution.

•Low Date Range: Displays the date the first text was queued during the billing period.

•High Date Range: Displays the date the last text was queued during the billing period.

Low Date

Enter or select a beginning date to use to retrieve billing information.

High Date

Enter or select an ending date to use to retrieve billing information.

Button Descriptions

Button	Description
<Save Selection to CSV>	Click this button to save the information selected in the Billing Information list view into a Comma-Separated Values (CSV) file.
<Retrieve Billing Information>	Click this button to retrieve any billing data stored on the Texting Server with a billing date between the dates entered in the Low Date and the High Date fields.
<Calculate from Custom Time Frame>	Click this button to retrieve the total number of text messages queued between the dates entered in the Low Date and the High Date fields. This button always displays only one row of data in the Billing Information list view because it doesn't calculate distinct billing periods. This button is useful to retrieve the total number of text messages for a non-standard billing period (e.g., for a quarter, six months, a year, or multiple years).