Overview

Billing of Several normal subscriptions is used to bill customers before (pre-bill) or after (post-bill) they start using services they have bought or are subscribed to. Through the billing run, bills to be sent to customers are created, while the customer's accounts receivable is either debited or credited accordingly.  Other than subscription services (termed and usage services), a normal billing run also bills physical goods, expenses and one time services, that are either added to a Subscription or a Job. 

Setting up Normal Billing Runs

Configuration required before executing normal billing runs is available at Billing Definition at Normal Billing Settings tabcan be billed in a group at the same time through Normal Billing.  A bill is an itemised account of the cost of physical goods supplied, termed, usage and one-time services rendered and Subscription or Job expenses.  Bills consist of the invoices and credit notes created by the system for an account during the period the bill covers, and are created by a billing run. Billing can take place before or after customers start using their subscription services.  

Setting Up Normal Billing Runs

Before executing normal billing runs, perform the necessary configurations in the Normal Bill Settings tab

Using Normal Billing Runs

Normal billing run fields

This table contains an explanation of The table describes the sections of the the normal billing run Data  Data Entry page , a description of the usage of its fields and additional informationand explains how the fields in the page are used.

 Mandatory    CConfigurable values.

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Creating and executing a normal billing run

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Navigate to normal billing run and specify Under Billing > Perform Normal Billing Run, specify the criteria that match the billing run you are interested in, or click on use NEW from the Actions menu to create a new billing run. Provide the mandatory information as defined in the fields table above and save the billing and SAVE the run. Once you create your billing run you must execute it.

Normal billing runs can be performed up to a specific step and resume their execution from the step that was reached, giving you the capability executed in progressive steps, allowing the user to review results and make changes if required before you proceed creating the actual bills. The progress of each normal billing run is determined by amendments before bills are created. A run's progress is reflected in its life cycle state.  

1. Select Actions > Execute up to 'step you would like to go'
2. In the Execute Normal Billing Run Modal:
   1. Execute Now: Check the box to execute the Billing Run directly.
   2. Scheduled Date: Click on the calendar to select a date and time to start the execution. Click DONE when completed.
   3. Click SAVE
3. Up To (select step)
4. Execute immediately or schedule the run.

Identification and rating step

Identification identifies all the unrated billable (chargeable or creditable) information which is ready to be billed and should be considered during the specific Billing RunIdentification locates unrated billable items that are ready to be charged or credited. The following entities are taken into consideration for normal subscription billing

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considered:

• Subscription Usage Detail Records
that
•  that should be
billed
• charged or credited and have a
posted
• 'Posted' life cycle state
Subscription Termed Services: Checks for pre
• Pre-bill and post-bill subscription termed services
that should be billed or
•  that:
  • should be charged or credited (
based on their
• • depending on the value of the billing directive)
  • are not yet
fully rated and their billing effective date is before or equal to the bill as of date.Subscription Expenses:Checks for expenses that
• • rated 
  • have a billing Effective Date up to and including the Bill as of Date.
• Subscription expenses that should be billed or credited (
based on
• according to their billing directive).

Ratingcalculates and applies the rates on each service or physical good to be billed, for a specific period, by creating

Rating is the process of creating rated billing items for physical goods and services using the rate from the price plan and information from the following entities:

• Usage services 
  Usage Detail Records (UDRs) with a 'Pending' (not yet processed) rating state are considered for billing.  The UDR billing directive specifies whether a debit or credit rated billing item

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• Usage Detail Records
• Subscription Service
• Subscription Expenses
• Subscriptions
• Jobs
• Buy in Advance

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• should be created. The period to be billed is indicated by the 'Started on' and 'Ended on' dates. 
  
• Termed services
  The source of information for rating termed services is their life cycle states.  Each life cycle state represents one period.  The 'Started on' and 'Ended on' dates indicate the period.  Life cycle states in a 'Pending' rating state are considered for billing.   The billing directive of each life cycle state specifies whether a debit or credit rated billing item should be created. 
• Expenses 
  The billing directive for the life cycle state of the expense specifies whether a debit or credit rated billing item should be created.
• Installed items (for Jobs)
  The billing directive for the life cycle state of the installed items specifies whether a debit or credit rated billing item should be created.
• Buy in Advance requests 
  Considered to decide whether a rated billing item should be created for a period longer than the defined billing frequency of the subscription.
• Additive Discounts
  Additional discounts that should be applied on the job or the subscription are taken into consideration after discounts that may have been applied through the price plans.

Penalties arising due to the premature cancellation of subscriptions or services are created during the rating step.

Once the step is completed, the billing run life cycle state will be is updated to 'Identification and Rating'.

Figure 1

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Invoicing step

Invoicing step is responsible for the generation of invoices or credit notes, based on the rated billing items generated by the rating step, or on existing items that are not yet processed. Normal The invoicing step generates invoices using rated billing items and other unprocessed items.  The creation of invoices is subject to the normal billing run settings defined in the billing definition are observed and invoices will only be created if the rules are met. Rounding options are also taken into consideration .   During the invoicing step, figures are rounded and adjustment transactions are created if required. Finally the   The life cycle state of all invoiced or credited rated service periods that were invoiced or credited will be is updated to 'Billed'.'Billing

Once the step is completed, the billing run life cycle state will be is updated to 'Invoicing'.'

Assembling and posting step

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The Assemblingis responsible for the generation and assembling of the actual Bill, considering all the information that was generated in the previous steps. Each Bill is related to a customer account and includes all the Financial Transactions generated for that account.

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 step takes the invoices and credit notes generated by the invoicing step and uses them to calculate the Total Billed Amount and to create the bill.  Billing takes into consideration:

• Partially settled or unsettled bills
• Debit and credit transactions not included in a bill, which were posted between the current Bill and the previous Bill (and not included in any bills)
  The Total amount to be paid is calculated using the following formula
  Total billed amount + Total due amount from previous Bills + Total debit amount posted between Bills - Total credit amount posted between bills

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• previous bill, as such: 

Total Amount To Be Paid = Total from the previous bill + Debits between bills - Credits between bills

Once the transaction and due date of a bill are set, no further processing is required.  The life cycle state of the bill progresses to 'Posted'. 

The Once the step is completed, the billing run life cycle state of the billing run will be is updated to 'Assembling and Posting'.

Formatting step is used to format the billing run results in an XML file, which includes

Creates an XML document including all the information that was considered or used or generated by the Billing Run processbilling run. 

The Billing Run Life Cycle State Once the step is completed, the billing run life cycle state is updated to 'Formatted'.'

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Downloading billing run results file

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• Rated service periods formatting settings defined on Billing Definitions

• Subscription Service usage Detail Records (UDRs) are included based on the usage detail records formatting settings defined on Billing Definitions

Additionally the file includes a summary of the following:

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The XML document, including all the bills created by the run, includes the following information for each bill:

• Total Amount Due
• All financial transactions created 
• Rated service periods (for termed services)

• Usage Detail Records (UDRs) (for usage services)
  Rated service periods and UDRs are formatted as defined in the billing definition formatting settings.
  

The file also includes:

• Number of bills created
• Total number of accounts receivable billed
• Total number of services billed
• Total number of invoices and credit notes
• Total debited amount and total debited amount per service
• The total Total credited amount and total credited amount per service
  
  

The XML document can be sent to a print-house to print the bills.  The bills can then be forwarded to the customers. 

To extract the xml XML file:

1. From the Click on Actions menu click on Actions > Download Billing Results File
2. From the click Click on Download and save the file locally so you can access it later and send to the print-housefile.
   For a sample Bill XML file click here.

Viewing generated bills

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Bills generated from by each billing run are easily accessible through action available can be accessed from the Actions menu, Actions bills Summary page (Actions > View Generated Bills. The action will transfer you to the bills Summary page where only bills created from the selected billing run are shown. You can then click on each of the bills to access their Data Entry page where more information is available for each one.).

For more information, access the Data Entry page by clicking on a bill.

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Other normal billing flows

Using prepayment

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Normal billing supports the model of prepayment where any billable events , where billable subscription actions can only be performed occur if account owners have enough funds in their accounts to cover the amount that will be billed. In such case, account owners must make a payment in advance in order for the billable event to be performed. Billing in case of prepayment their expense.  Prepayment is not handled by the normal billing run but .  The account owner must pay for an event in advance and the system will validate and bill must validate that there are sufficient funds to bill the event at the time that the billable event is executed. The following are considered as billable events in the system.of execution. If the funds are not sufficient, the action (e.g., a subscription or service activation) is rejected. 

The process of validating a billable action and applying this real-time billing will be is triggered when one of the following actions following subscription actions is performed on normal subscriptions: 

• Become effective subscriber 
• Amend billing terms but only (if the action changes the subscription's scheme into a to Normal one)
• Activate subscription
• Start subscription service
• Swap service
• End subscription resting
• End short term deactivation
• Add usage service
• Short Term term activation
• Add Effective effective Services
• Add Expenseexpense
• Amend Bundle Servicesbundle services
• Change Subscription Distributionsubscription distribution
• Amend Services and Installed Itemsservices and installed items.

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Glossary