Your First Billing Cycle

What you'll build

By the end of this tutorial you will have a working billing loop: a MikroTik router connected to ISP-OS, a postpaid plan, three subscribers with PPPoE credentials, a generated invoice, and a recorded payment that triggers auto-reconnect. This is the same loop that runs every month for a production ISP.

Estimated time: ~15 minutes

Prerequisites:

• A MikroTik router accessible via WireGuard (see Connect MikroTik via WireGuard if you have not done this yet)
• An ISP-OS account with admin access
• A desktop browser for the router onboarding flow

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Step 1: Connect your MikroTik router

ISP-OS manages subscribers through your MikroTik router. The first step is registering it as a NAS (Network Access Server).

1. In the sidebar, navigate to Routers.
2. Click Add Router.
3. Enter a router name, for example Main Router - Brgy. San Jose, and submit.
4. ISP-OS opens the onboarding page in the inspect phase. Copy the inspect command and paste it into your MikroTik terminal.
5. Review the bridge screen, then click Continue to final setup.
6. Copy the install command and paste it into the router terminal.
7. Wait for the router to connect and for ISP-OS to open the snapshot review page automatically.
8. If this is a clean lab router with nothing to import, click Skip for now and continue with the tutorial. If ISP-OS found existing brownfield plans or subscribers you want to keep, review that page before moving on.

If the router stays in the registering step for more than about 90 seconds, inspect the error surfaced on the onboarding page and verify the router can reach the ISP-OS WireGuard endpoint. See Connect MikroTik via WireGuard for the full onboarding flow and NAS Device States for the steady-state status reference.

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Step 2: Create a billing plan

Plans define what your subscribers pay for — speed, price, and billing type.

1. Navigate to Plans in the sidebar.
2. Click Add Plan.
3. Fill in the plan details:
   • Plan Name — e.g. Fiber 50 Mbps
   • Monthly Price — e.g. ₱1,500.00 (enter as 1500; ISP-OS handles the formatting)
   • Download Speed — e.g. 50 Mbps
   • Upload Speed — e.g. 50 Mbps
   • Billing Type — select Postpaid
4. Click Save.

The plan is now available when adding subscribers.

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Step 3: Add three subscribers

Now add the subscribers who will use this plan.

1. Navigate to Subscribers in the sidebar.
2. Click Add Subscriber.
3. Fill in the subscriber details:
   • Full Name — e.g. Juan dela Cruz
   • Email — e.g. juan@example.com
   • Phone — e.g. 09171234567
   • PPPoE Username — e.g. juan.delacruz
   • PPPoE Password — e.g. pppoe-pass-01
   • Plan — select Fiber 50 Mbps
   • Router — select the router you added in Step 1
   • Billing terms — leave individual price and discount blank so the service uses the plan price
4. Click Save.

Repeat for two more subscribers:

Name	PPPoE Username	Plan
Juan dela Cruz	juan.delacruz	Fiber 50 Mbps
Maria Santos	maria.santos	Fiber 50 Mbps
Pedro Reyes	pedro.reyes	Fiber 50 Mbps

Each subscriber is immediately provisioned in the RADIUS database.

If a subscriber has a negotiated monthly rate or a temporary discount, open the subscriber's service and set those values in Billing terms. Individual price replaces the plan price for that service; discounts apply after that price.

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Step 4: Generate an invoice

ISP-OS generates invoices automatically on the billing day you configure in Settings. For this tutorial, you can trigger generation manually to see how it works.

1. Navigate to Billing in the sidebar.
2. If it is not yet the billing day, click Generate Invoices.
3. ISP-OS creates one invoice per active subscriber for the current billing period.

Subscriber	Amount	Status	Due Date
Juan dela Cruz	₱1,500.00	Sent	15 days from now
Maria Santos	₱1,500.00	Sent	15 days from now
Pedro Reyes	₱1,500.00	Sent	15 days from now

Invoice service lines use each subscriber service's billing terms at the time the invoice is generated. If you set an individual price or discount, the invoice item keeps that pricing snapshot even if you change the service later.

What happens next

Once invoices exist, ISP-OS can send reminders, warn overdue subscribers, and auto-suspend them based on your collection settings.

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Step 5: Process a payment

Let us record a payment for one subscriber.

1. On the Billing page, open Juan dela Cruz's invoice.
2. Click Record Payment.
3. Enter:
   • Amount — 1500
   • Method — Cash or GCash
   • Reference — e.g. GCash-20260408-001
4. Click Submit.

The invoice status changes from Sent to Paid.

In production, this is automatic

Once you set up NextPay, subscribers pay through their personal payment page and ISP-OS records the payment automatically.

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Step 6: Watch auto-reconnect

This is the core of ISP-OS's value: when a suspended subscriber pays, they get reconnected automatically in under 30 seconds.

Here is the real-world sequence:

1. Pedro Reyes does not pay his invoice by the due date.
2. ISP-OS auto-suspends Pedro after the configured overdue window.
3. Pedro opens his payment page and pays.
4. ISP-OS applies the payment to the outstanding invoice.
5. Pedro is restored automatically.

Admin suspensions are different

If you manually suspend a subscriber with an admin reason, auto-reconnect will not restore them. Only auto-suspensions caused by overdue billing are eligible.

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What you've learned

You have completed the full billing loop that runs every month for every subscriber:

1. Router connected — MikroTik linked to ISP-OS via WireGuard and snapshot review cleared or deferred
2. Plan created — speed and price defined
3. Subscribers added — PPPoE credentials created, ready to connect
4. Invoices generated — billing starts, reminders are scheduled
5. Payment recorded — applied to the subscriber's bill
6. Auto-reconnect — suspended subscriber pays, internet is restored automatically

Next step

Now configure your ISP branding, billing schedule, and collection policy:

Setting Up Your ISP →

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