In two lines: Phones charges two different things — a prepaid balance for what calls and SMS consume, and a monthly fee per line. In an account your agency pays for, both are bought by you from inside that account: your card pays, and the balance and the lines stay with the client.

Balance and monthly fee: what each one covers

The balance covers variable usage only: call minutes and SMS (plus recording, on the lines that record). Each line's monthly fee is fixed and never comes out of the balance — it goes on an invoice. That's the whole difference: the balance runs out with use, the monthly fee arrives with the billing cycle.

Where do I see the balance and where do I buy?

In CRM > Phones, the Balance strip at the top shows the current balance and the estimated days of usage left. Recharge opens Balance detail, where you also find Transactions —every call, every SMS and every top-up— and the Auto-recharge block.
In CRM > Settings > Lines both things live together: the Balance card with the quick top-up buttons and Other amount, and the table of lines with each one's monthly cost. Top right, Buy number opens the purchase wizard.
If Phones isn't enabled in that account yet, those buttons open the access request (Request access) instead of the wizard — nothing is charged. An owner or admin of the agency can send that request from inside the client's account too.

Who can buy in each account?

It depends on who pays for the account — the same rule as the rest of the extras, explained in Your agency's billing: plans and who pays for each account:

Account with its own subscription (the client pays). Its owner or admin tops up the balance and buys the lines with their own card, and each line's monthly fee goes on their own invoice. Your agency doesn't buy for them.
Account your workspace pays for. Only the owner or an admin of the agency buys, standing inside the client's account. Your card is charged and the asset stays in the account: the top-up lands in that account's balance and the line is born in its CRM.

The account's own team always sees the balance, the transactions and its lines — that's their operation. What they don't see is the button: in its place appears "Purchases for this account are managed by your workspace". And no matter who topped it up, calls and SMS keep drawing down that account's balance.

How your agency tops up and buys a line inside a client's account

Enter the client's account from your organization selector.
For the balance: use one of the top-up buttons (or Other amount) and read the confirmation dialog. It spells out the three things that matter: For (the client's account), Paid by (your workspace) and the Card that will be charged. You confirm with Confirm purchase.
For a line: use Buy number, pick the country and the number, and read the panel on the right. At the top it shows For and Paid by; below, today's total (full month plus the prorated adjustment against your agency's cycle) and the line Then: monthly on {your agency}'s invoice.
Confirm. The number is provisioned in that account's CRM and can be used right away.

While your workspace funds the balance, the balance card shows a Paid by {your agency} chip and Balance detail adds a Paid by row. If you leave Auto-recharge on, the note under the switch reminds you that those automatic top-ups are charged to your agency too.

Where does the monthly fee of those lines show up?

On your agency's invoice, as an item of its own for that account: "{account} — Phone lines (N)", separate from that same account's modules charge. In Settings > Subscription, the Billing Summary shows it as a Phone lines (N) sub-line under the centralized-accounts total, so you know in advance what you'll pay. And in the account's lines table, each line paid by the workspace reads On {your agency}'s invoice instead of Billed monthly.

Line coupons don't apply when your workspace pays. The coupon section simply isn't shown in the wizard. It's deliberate: the discount could only reach the first charge, and the monthly fee would go back to list price the following month — better not to promise a discount that disappears.

Releasing a line your workspace pays for

Release number works the same, with one difference: the line stays active until the end of the paying workspace's billing cycle, and only then is it released and stops billing. There's no refund for unused days, and while the release is still scheduled you can undo it with Cancel the cancellation.

While an account has active phone lines billed to your workspace, it can't be deactivated, archived, deleted or switched to Client pays: MB Suite blocks the action and tells you how many lines there are. Release them first —or wait for the scheduled release to go through— and then make the move. That's what stops a live number from being left with nobody paying for it.

What if my agency's payment fails?

If one of your invoices goes unpaid, the lines of those accounts go to Suspended (unpaid) until the payment is settled; if it isn't, they're released once the grace period ends. When the invoice is paid, they come back on their own. The prepaid balance isn't touched: it still belongs to the account and keeps being consumed per minute.

Charges, prorating and release conditions are governed by the Terms and Conditions, which always hold the current version. For the day-to-day use of the phone, see Call from the CRM: every call logs itself.

Still have questions?

Ask MIA, the MB Suite AI assistant: open it with the MB AI button (⌘J) in the top bar. MIA knows the section you're in, so you can ask it about what you see on screen — and it can also answer how-to questions about using MB Suite.

Phones balance and lines: who pays for what