One of Zimbabwe’s leading Internet Service Providers, Zimbabwe Online (ZOL), which suspended its billing system a few weeks ago as it could not cope with all the zeroes, has come up with an innovative billing system. It has introduced a new way of charging their customers- the ZOL Internet Unit (ZIU).

In a message to its customers ZOL explained that with immediate effect all their services would be denoted in ZIUs.

Many companies in Zimbabwe have resorted to billing and accounting minus three or six zeroes. A loaf of bread currently costs over Z$100,000,000,000 (one hundred billion dollars) and so you can understand the angst of any accounting department in the country.

Below is the statement from ZOL to its customers:

As you know ZOL suspended its billing process three weeks ago for two main reasons:  Firstly our billing system was not coping with the zeros and frequent re-pricing and secondly we could not find a reasonable or sane way to price our services in an environment when the official exchange rate could move 15% a day.

Over the past weeks we have worked hard to find a solution and to upgrade our billing system to cope.  This has required a lot of development and modifications to the system that are particular to our specific needs.  We have developed a solution that gives us maximum flexibility to deal with changes whilst ensuring we give value to our customers and maintain our viability.

We are introducing the “ZOL Internet Unit” or ZIU and all our services will be valued with respect to a ZIU which will allow our prices to remain stable.  You will be able to deposit ZIUs into your account based on a value on the day you pay.

In particular this new billing system will allow:

• Ability to pre-pay your account if you wish, without losing value.
• Service renewal offers emailed out 30 days before service expires - giving you plenty of time to pay the charges.
• Accept part payments towards broadband hardware costs.
• Refund of unused ZIUs at current value.

No doubt you have many questions about this  new process.  We have included common questions and answers at the end of this email, but if you still have queries or concerns, please reply to this email.

Frequently Asked Questions:

Q:  What’s a ZIU and what is its ZWD value?
ZIU stands for “ZOL Internet Unit” and is a measure of value with respect to ZOL services.  All our ZOL services are now priced in ZIU and will not change based on macro-economic conditions.  Therefore one ZIU will always buy you the same product from ZOL.  The current value of a ZIU in ZWD terms will change and can always be found here: http://www.zol.co.zw

Q:  How does my new ZIU account work?
Your ZOL account has been converted to a ZIU deposit account.  Any payments you make will be deposits towards your ZIU balance, based on the value on the day you pay.  These deposits of ZIUs will retain their value and be available for ZOL purchases.

Q:  Can I get a refund of my deposit in my ZIU account?
Absolutely yes, and because a ZIU does not lose its value we will refund you at the current price of a ZIU. Therefore we encourage you to always maintain ZIUs in your account so you never get suspended.

Q:  How much can I deposit in my ZIU account?
Initially we will limit the maximum deposit of up to one year of your expected ZOL service expenses.  Depending on how this works, we may change this limitation in the future.

Q:  How have you converted old balances to ZIU?
We have converted your old balance into ZIU based on the value of service you could have purchased when the balance was incurred.  For example, say you had $200 million in credit at the end of March.  This could of bought you about 2.5 hours of dialup extra usage.  We would convert that to 380 ZIU, which can also buy you about 2.5 hours.  In a similar way if you owed money to ZOL we have converted your balance to ZIU so that we retain the original value of the service charge.

Q:  Do your prices include VAT?
All our ZOL services are now priced in ZIUs and include VAT in terms of ZIU.  For example if a service is quoted as 115 ZIU, it includes 15 ZIU of VAT.

Q:  Do I pay VAT when I make a deposit?
When you make a deposit on your account you do not pay VAT.  This is because VAT is not chargeable on a deposit since no service or goods are actually bought, delivered or consumed.  You are simply making a deposit into your ZIU denominated account.

Q:  So how is VAT charged and how do I get a VAT Invoice?
When you buy a new ZOL service, or your existing service is due for renewal, we will “pull” units from your ZIU deposit account to cover the cost.  At that point VAT is chargeable and you will automatically be emailed a ZWD VAT Invoice reflected the VAT value that day.

Q:  Can you give me an example of how VAT works?
Let’s say on the 10th of the month you deposit $100 billion and receive a value of 100 ZIU on your account ($1 billion per ZIU).  You will not receive a VAT invoice at this stage.  At the end of the month your service costing 60 ZIU is due and is removed from your accounting - leaving 40 ZIU on deposit.  Let’s assume the cost of a ZIU has increased to $2 billion at this point.  You will receive a VAT invoice for 60 ZIU x $2 billion = $120 billion of which $15.65 billion is VAT and will be sent to ZIMRA.  You will be emailed a VAT Invoice for your records showing this.  Incidentally you could then request your 40 ZIU refunded at $2 billion each for a total of $80 billion.  Therefore your initial $100 billion deposit to your ZOL ZIU account has maintained its value.

Q: How can I fund my ZIU account?
Initially we will accept ZWD deposits via cheque, RTGS and cash.  We will expand this to accept Old Mutual shares and fuel coupons shortly.  We hope that giving you many options of funding your account on a timetable that suits you, will help manage your cash flow and maintain Internet service at ZOL.

More information from: ZOL Website