Frequently Asked Sparklist Billing Questions

For each payment period, you will receive an email invoice detailing your list activity and what payment is due, if any.

Your invoice includes a link to an HTML version of your invoice, which in turn links to a more detailed invoice with all the information used to determine billing for your list(s). This guide will help you understand your email and HTML invoices.

View the sample invoice
that accompanies this guide.
(It will launch in a new window.)

1.	The company name associated with this account.
2.	The invoice number. Please refer to this number in all correspondence about this invoice.
3.	The ending date of this billing period.
4.	The main contact for your account. Contact us if you would like to change the contact, or add additional contacts.
5.	The billing period for this invoice.
6.	The amount due, and a brief explanation about any payment plan you might have selected (prepay, credit card debit, etc.). You may owe nothing if you have pre-paid. If you have prearranged payment by credit card, your card will debited a few days after you receive your invoice. If you have not prepaid or prearranged payment by credit card, please send a check or money order to the address at the top of your invoice. Write your invoice number on your check. Contact your account representative if you have questions about your plan, or would like to change your plan.
7.	The number of mailings sent by your list(s) during the billing period, including digests and test mailings.
8.	The total number of individual messages sent. For example, if you sent two mailings to a list with a hundred members, two hundred messages would be recorded here.
9.	The total number of message units sent through your lists. A message unit is a message up to 10K (10240 bytes) in size. Messages above 10K use proportionately more message units. For example, a message that is 31,230 bytes would be 3.05 message units (31,230 divided by 10240, rounded). Your plan may include a set number of included message units. Message units in excess of your plan are considered overage, and will be charged at your plan's cost per thousand (CPM). For example, in this case, 156,013 message units were sent, but only 50,000 message units were included. Since the CPM is $1.00, the overage is $106.01.
10.	The total bandwidth used by your messages. Note that this number is not the total number of messages times the number of message units, as different lists may have sent messages of varying size. Your plan may include a set amount of bandwidth. Bandwidth used in excess of that amount would be considered overage.
11.	A summary of charges. For more detail, click on the HTML link at the bottom of your email invoice, then scroll to the bottom and select to view the invoice with a detailed list of all charges.
12.	The contract or plan group for this group of charges. If you have one contract, your charges will be summarized under "Group:All." If you have different contracts for different lists, the lists will be grouped under the different contract plans.
13.	The type of charge or credit, for example, prepayment or a payment plan.
14.	The billing plan for your list.
15.	A description of the charge. The description of your list includes the list name, the list's site, and the hostname of the server it is on.
16.	The amount charged or subtracted from your bill. Prepays or credits are displayed as a negative dollar amount here. In this example, the customer's prepay of $30.69 is being applied to this bill.
17.	Additional amount charged because the number and/or size of the messages exceeded that included in your billing plan (overage). Your plan includes a certain amount of mail to be sent. If you exceed that amount, you will be charged for the extra mail. In this case, plan included 50,000 message units, but 156,013 message units were sent, or 106,013 over the base plan. At a CPM (cost per thousand) of $1.00, the overage is $106.01.
18.	The total amount due.
19.	If you are viewing your email invoice, you will see a URL similar to this one at the bottom of your invoice. Click on it to be taken to a Web page with your invoice. On that page, there will be a link that you can click to show your detailed invoice.
20.	If you are viewing your standard Web page invoice, you will see this URL at the bottom. Click on it to be taken to a Web page with your detailed invoice.
21.	The billing detail for your lists. To view the detailed bill, select the HTML invoice at the bottom of your email invoice, and then select the detailed invoice at the bottom of your HTML summary invoice.
22.	The billing contract group and plan for this group of lists.
23.	The list's name, site and server hostname.
24.	The date the mailing was sent.
25.	The number of people who received this mailing.
26.	The mailing's size, in bytes.
27.	The mailing's subject.
28.	The mailing's cost. If "included", the mailing is covered by your billing plan. If you have exceeded your plan, the amount each mailing cost is noted here.
29.	The rate for this mailing. Mailings 10K (10240 bytes) and under are charged at 1. Larger mailings are charged at a proportionately higher rate, and use more message units. For example, a mailing that is 31,230 bytes would be 3.05 message units (31,230 divided by 10240, rounded).
30.	An example of a charge for postings not covered by the plan (overage). In this case, a larger mailing (16,944 bytes) is charged at a message rate of 1.6546875 (shown here rounded to 1.65), as it is approximately 1.65 times larger than the standard message unit (10240 bytes, or 10K). The overage cost is determined by the number of recipients times the rate, divided by the CPM (cost per thousand) defined by your plan. The cost is calculated using the actual rate, not the rounded rate displayed here for your convenience. For example: The message rate: (16,944/10240) = 1.6546875 The message rate times the number of recipients: 1.6546875 * 20677 = 34213.9734375 message units Message units divided by 1000 = 34.21 CPM (Cost per thousand message units): $1 Message cost: $34.21 Note that the cost is rounded to the nearest penny, so most test mailings are free.
31.	The subtotal of recipients and bytes sent to this list.
32.	The amount of bandwidth used by this list, in megabytes (Mb).
33.	The monthly minimum applied to this bill.
34.	The overage, or messages sent in excess of your billing plan.
35.	The total monthly minimum applied to your lists, and the total overage.

Return to the Common Billing Questions page.