Agency rebilling
The protected reseller billing model: client separation, connected payment accounts, pricing floors, and the release checks required before an agency can collect live payments.
The model in one sentence
An agency owns the client relationship and can charge its client through its own connected payment account; Beam remains the operating system and does not unlock a client line until the agency's own required upstream payment and line-cost protection are confirmed.
What the agency controls
| Agency controls | Beam protects |
|---|---|
| Client workspace creation, its brand, client-facing price, invoice presentation, and access to the client inbox. | Minimum pricing, dedicated-line assignment, sending lock state, audit history, and the ability to pause unsafe activity. |
| Whether a client is offered Starter, Team, Scale, or a permitted client-specific price. | Public plans cannot be set below $79/month; an SMS/MMS line cannot be set below $35/month. Existing subscribers never change silently. |
| Its own customer payment collection and customer communication. | The agency's wholesale obligation to Beam. A successful client payment does not substitute for the agency's own confirmed coverage. |
Agency setup flow
Connect the agency payment account
The agency owner completes the provider-hosted connection. Beam stores only the account reference and connection state; it never asks the agency to paste a secret key into the client workspace.
Create a client workspace
The client gets an isolated inbox, numbers, assistant, CRM connection, analytics, users, and API credentials. Agency access is logged and expires.
Publish the client price
The agency chooses a standard plan or an approved client-specific price above the enforced floor. A new future-checkout price is created; it does not rewrite an existing subscription.
Send the branded checkout
The client completes the agency-owned checkout. A browser return is not proof of payment; the signed payment event is.
Confirm coverage, then assign the line
Beam verifies the necessary agency and client payment states, creates one tracked provisioning request, and a platform operator assigns the dedicated line. Sending stays locked until assignment.
Non-negotiable protection rules
- No funded payment, no new line. A checkout page, client promise, or successful browser redirect never activates a line.
- Payment failure pauses sending first. The client does not keep sending while a failed payment remains unresolved. The documented grace and quarantine process follows.
- Never lower the floor to win a deal. A client-specific price may go up but must not go below the established plan and SMS/MMS minimums.
- Every impersonation and price action is audited. Agency client view, price publishing, payment state changes, provisioning, assignment, and removal need an actor and timestamp.
- Connected payment events are verified. Use the provider's signed Connect webhook, dedupe events, and check live versus test mode before changing state.
Real launch checklist
- Connect a sandbox agency account and verify the server stores only the account reference, not a secret in browser storage or a client workspace.
- Create a sandbox client checkout from that account and verify the charge, subscription, and webhook identify the correct agency and client.
- Replay the same signed payment event and prove that only one allocation request exists.
- Fail a renewal and prove sending locks immediately, then verify the documented recovery and quarantine behavior.
- Disconnect the agency payment account and prove new checkout and line assignment fail closed, while the audit record remains.
- Repeat the complete flow in controlled live mode with one internal agency client before selling the feature publicly.