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Back to Bills Main Page

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Understand the usage of Bills within CRM.COM

What does this section cover?

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Table of Contents

Table of Contents

What are Bills?

A Bill

represents

is a

set of invoices and credit notes that were

statement of the money owed for goods supplied and services rendered, issued against a customer

account for physical goods or services that where provided for a period of time. 
A Bill includes all Financial Transactions that were created for that specific customer account during the period of time that it represents. Each financial transaction though, includes information related with specific billable entities which are linked to that customer account. Bills are Implicit Viewing Access Entities and the owner group is implied from the related subscription.

 A bill can be itemized, meaning that it holds enough information which is used to provide details regarding the total amount to be paid, the financial transactions which were included in the bill and the rated service periods which were considered in order for those financial transactions to be generated.

Bills Glossary

TermDescriptionBillA set of invoices and credit notes that were issued against a customer account for physical goods or services that where provided for

financial account. A Bill is comprised of the Invoices and Credit Notes which were created by the System for the account over the period of time it covers.  Bills do not include Invoices and Credit Notes that were manually created via the Financial Transactions Data Entry page.

Bills Glossary

bills the customer owning bills or integrate them with third party systems.  
TermDescription
Normal BillingNormal billing is used for business billing models where customers are billed either before or after they start using services they are subscribed to, or delivered to them and it is handled by the execution of Normal Billing Runs.
Normal Billing RunA mechanism which is used to charge customers for goods and services provided over a period of time. It is usually performed on a monthly basis and  issues customers a Bill which covers the Invoices and Credit Notes related with their Subscriptions or Jobs.
Billable EntitiesThe entities (Subscriprions, Jobs and UDRs) which can be billed through the Billing Engine.
Accounts ReceivableThe financial account which will be debited with the Bill amount through the Normal Billing Run
Financial TransactionA Financial Transaction is an agreement between a buyer and a seller to exchange services or physical goods for payment. 
BillA set of Invoices and Credit Notes issued against a customer account for billable entities that have been provided over a period of time.
Bill ItemsThe bill

Bill items

which are included in each bill. Each bill item includes either a credit note or an invoice.
Presentment PreferencePresentment preferences

are lines withina Bill and each line is either a Credit Note or an Invoice that includes a billable entity

Invoices An Invoice is a financial document that shows a list of Services or Physical Goods and the prices to be paid for them. Invoices are debiting Accounts Receivable
Credit NotesA Credit Note is a financial document issued by a business to a customer to correct mistakes or adjust the amount that the customer was invoiced. Credit Notes are crediting Accounts Receivable
Total Billed AmountThe total amount for the current Bill, that includes Invoices and Credit Notes created within the billed period by the System
Total Amount to be PaidThe total amount owed by the customer, including past unsettled debts
Presentment PreferencePresentment Preferences are used to define the preferred method for sending Bills to the account owner and to export the Bills.

Bills Key Processes and Concepts

Processes / ConceptDescription
Bill Sending Runs

It is not enough to issue a bill, unless the bill reaches its debtor. In CRM.COM, once the bills are created via the Billing Run process you have the option to execute Bill Sending runs which can be used to send the bills to the customers. The process will

  • identify the bills that should be send
  • create a communication 
  • process the communications, by sending them through email or SMS either via CRM.COM or a 3rd party integrator to the customers

Bills Network Characteristics

Creation of Bills

Bills are created through Interactive or Batch system processes

  • Batch Process
    • Normal Billing Run
      This batch process can be executed on a recurring basis.  It identifies Services and Physical Goods that must be invoiced or credited and creates Bills.
  • Interactive Actions
    • Bill Subscription
      Bills can only be generated for Normal Subscriptions. Prepaid Subscriptions are not billed as they are prepaid
    • Bill Job
      Not all Jobs are billable. A Job must be defined as such in the Job type to be billable.
    • Bill Accounts Receivable
      Instead of billing each Subscription or Job individually, the Accounts Receivable to which the Jobs and Subscriptions are related can be billed.
Bill Sending Runs

Bill Sending Runs are used to send Bills directly to the customer via the System, avoiding the export and printing of Bills via 3rd parties

  • The Bills to be sent are identified
  • A Communication is created for each Bill and sent to the customer via one of the available options (email or SMS)
Re-sending of Bill upon requestIf customers request their Bill to be sent again, it is possible to do so via the Bill Data Entry page. Agents can access the page related to the Bill and send it to the customer via email. For more information view Creating and Sending Bill Details Printout

Bills Access & Viewing Controls

Business Network Characteristics define the level of access for each record. i.e. Whether whether it will be available for selection, for viewing or editing etc.

EntityNetwork CharacteristicsDescription

Bill

  Implicit Viewing Access Entity

Bills can be accessed, viewed and modified by users that belong to the Group defined at the Owned By Group of the related Accounts Receivable, or that belong to a Group that collaborates with the specified Group or by Super Users

Bills Related Modules

EntityInteraction of Bills with the EntityHow
Accounts ReceivableA bill belongs to an accounts receivableBill is issued for an Accounts Receivable
Financial TransactionsA bill is made up Bill consists of Invoice and Credit Note Financial Transactions
Rated Billing ItemsFinancial Transactions, included in a bill, are computed via

Rated Billing Items

that define

is a middle layer used to keep the details about the invoicing, such as the product, the amount and the period for which the customer is either charged or credited

Financial Transactions included in a Bill, are computed via Rated Billing Items.

SubscriptionsBills will charge/include services provided via include Termed Services and Expenses provided by a Subscription
JobsBills will charge/ include, Physical Goods, physical items and services provided via Expenses and One Time Services provided by a Job

 

Bills - Business Examples

The following section provides business examples to help you understand how of how the Bills module is used in CRM.COM Bills module is used.

Bill Sending Runs

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titleCompany ZX wants to sent end of month bills to their customers

Business Requirement

Company ZX would like to set up a bill sending run that sends to their customers any unsettled bills on the end of each monthsends new Bills by email to the customers that have requested Bills emailed rather in printed form


CRM.COM Solution

The following configurations will be required in the system in order to satisfy the requirements:

  1. Set up a Communication Template with the Content and Subject that matches your business needsSet up a Segment that will identify Bills that makes use of Bill Communication Tags to be used as the Bill information to be communicated to the customers.
  2. Create a new Bill Sending Run Definition
    1. Name:  Bills Due End of month and not communicated by email
    2. Under Criteria: specify
    3. Input Settings:
      Specify settings related to the communication
      1. Communication Template
      2. Communication Media: Email
    4. Criteria:
      Specify all the criteria that will retrieve the billsBills:
      1. Presentment Preferences: Email
      2. Communication Template: add the template you already created
      3. Accounts Receivable:(To retrieve customers that have the Presentment Preference set to Email)
      4. Bills
        Select the latest Billing RunSegments: add the segment you already created
    5. Under Scheduling

      1. Schedule the definition to be executed on a specific date and timeSchedule the recurrence to be each monthrun repeatedly, the day after the Normal Billing Run is executed.

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