Overview

A bill is an itemised account of the cost of physical goods supplied, termed, usage, one-time services rendered and Subscription 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. 

More specifically billing process is responsible for:

• Billing the services
• Renewing services
• Setting services as candidates for deactivation

A Payment-driven subscription is funded directly from the wallet of the subscriber. Billing takes place either when the service is activated or a billing run is executed. There must be sufficient funds in the wallet to cover the billing period in order for services to be activated. If there are insufficient funds during the billing run to cover billed services then the services become candidates for deactivation.

Available Billing/Payment Models

According to the billing/payment model applied on the subscription through its billing term scheme, subscriptions will be billed for different periods and based on different conditions:

• Subscription Driven: (pre-rated) The subscriber selects the pre-rated period at the subscription level, money is paid against the wallet and the software spends it FIFO based on the services consumption.
• Payment Driven: (pre-rated) Services are billed for a period based on the available wallet funds.

Billing type (set in Billing Term Schemes)

• Pre-Bill: Services are pre-billed either anniversary or period based, and a bill is generated which is expected to be paid afterwards
• Post-Bill: Services are post-billed and a bill is generated which is expected to be paid afterwards

Billing method  

• Period Billing: A model that involves billing customers for a period starting on a billing cycle day specified by the company. If the billable entity is activated for the first time on a day of the month other than the billing cycle day, the first bill will also include the days up to the billing cycle day.
• Anniversary Billing: A model that involves billing customers for a one-month period starting on a cycle day of their choice (e.g., the day on which the customer signed up). 

Billing Single Subscriptions

While subscriptions are created and billed on a recurring basis (by the billing run) as agreed on the contract, it is also possible to manually bill a specific subscription through a dedicated action. Refer to Subscription Actions (Bill Subscriber) for more information.

Automatic generation of a bill when an event is performed

By default the system will generate the bills through the billing run. However, in case that subscriptions follow the 'Pre-Billpay before bill' payment model (i.e. contact's account is set to 0 credit limit), it is possible to generate a bill automatically whenever an event that requires billing, takes place. A bill is only generated if there are sufficient funds in the account to pay it automatically. In cases of insufficient funds, the subscription is not billed and is deactivated.

To enable the billing of a subscription upon an event, set the Billing adjustment rules (Billing Term Scheme > Billing Rules) for the specific subscription action to be done immediately, and either bill the difference or bill for the whole period. For more information refer to Billing Term Schemes setup.

Billing Multiple Subscriptions

The Billing run takes place on a daily basis and is used to bill multiple subscriptions in one go and. Once the Billing Run is executed and finished, the bills will be available for extraction in an XML format.

Viewing generated bills

Bills generated by each billing run can be accessed from Billing > Billing > Manage Bills > search and locate the bill in question > View.

For more information, use the Actions menu from the bill screen. 

Billing payment-driven subscriptions 

Once the Billing Run is executed, credit and debit wallet transactions will be generated which will credit and debit wallets accordingly. When the system checks whether there are enough funds to cover the period, it will check against the wallet threshold. That is, funds in the wallet must not fall below the wallet threshold after the period is rated. The billing process identifies the price and period that subscriptions and services should be billed for, the services are then renewed and billed, or are placed in a queue for deactivation.

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Billing Based on Billing Payment Model

The billing process identifies the price and period that subscriptions and services should be billed for.  The services are then renewed and billed, or are placed in a queue for deactivation (when the respective process is executed), following the logic in the table below:

Understanding the Billing Process and Rated Billing Items (RBI)

In order for a subscription to bill subscription services and hence create a bill, it goes through an important process CRM.COM refers to as rating. Rating is the process that decides the period and the amount for which services and hardware will be billed. Define how far ahead you would like to bill subscriptions, and provide the default values for the bill as of day. Any services with 'rated to date' before or equal to the 'bill as of date' will be billed. The result of rating is that RBIs (Rated Billing Items) generated. RBIs are billing records containing information on the services and physical goods provided to customers, including the rates that were applied and how they were calculated. In greater detail they provide information on products to be billed, including the billing period (for termed services), the rate of charge, applicable discounts, and other factors that can affect the final price of a product.

RBIs are then converted by the billing run into invoices and credit notes. They can be cancelled, excluded from billing, billed individually or adjusted (to bill a different period or amount). Classification indicates whether an RBI is used for billing a subscription and usage detail record.

Including Usage Services in Billing

In addition to termed services and expenses, usage based subscriptions or subscriptions that include usage services among others, are subscriptions where customers will be billed based on the usage they have consumed. These kind of subscriptions can be used in various lines of business such as:

• OTT: Over The Top refers to audio, video, and other media content delivered over the Internet without the involvement of a multiple-system operator (MSO). When OTT is provided through subscriptions, it is usually measured and invoiced based on its usage, e.g. how many VODs (Videos On Demand) where ordered.
• Fleet Management: In the fleet management business usage subscriptions are used for fleet members in order to keep track and measure usage of the product being offered, e.g. petrol.

Billing of usage services is done by the use of UDRs (Usage Detail Records) which hold raw information describing the use of 'usage services'. 

Usage Detail Records (UDRs) provide information of a usage service's consumption by customers. This detailed information includes where, when and how a usage service was consumed and facilitates the usage service's billing. A UDR is rated once it is submitted in CRM.COM and it will be included in the upcoming Bill. UDRs might be invoiced immediately once Usage Service Limit restrictions are reached. Reaching usage limits however will not generate the bill, as it will be generated in the upcoming billing run.

Usage Detail Records can be accessed via Billing > Billing > Manage Usage Detail Records, further options are available from the Actions menu option: 

• Cancel
• Set as creditable
• Set as not to be billed
• Adjust

For more information on UDRs refer to Setting up Usage Based Subscriptions.

Using Rated Billing Items

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Adjusting a Rated Billing Item

Services and physical goods that were incorrectly rated can be adjusted manually before the next billing run is performed, unless they are 'Cancelled'. Click on Actions > Adjust, provide the new dates and amount and SAVE the change. Once adjusted:

1. The billing directive of the existing item is updated to 'Cancelled'.
2. A new similar RBI is created with the adjusted information.
3. If the RBI that is being adjusted is already billed, then an identical RBI of opposite value is also created. 

Cancelling an Rated Billing Item

If there is an error in the rating of goods or services, the rating can be cancelled and corrected in the next billing run. It is possible to cancel both billed and unbilled rated billing items. The system handles each case accordingly and the corrections are reflected in the account or wallet in the next billing run. Click on Actions > Cancel, provide the reason that the item was cancelled and SAVE.

In order to cancel an RBI, there must not be other RBIs for the same service for a period after that of the RBI to be cancelled. Once cancelled:

1. The billing directive of the existing item is updated to 'Cancelled'.
2. If the item was cancelled before being billed, a new RBI will be created for the same period in the next billing run.  
3. If the cancelled item was already billed:
   1. A new identical RBI is created of opposite value and included in the next billing run.
   2. A new RBI will be created for the same period in the next billing run.

Billing an Rated Billing Item

The billing run is responsible for billing all RBIs in one flow. The manual billing of individual RBIs is also possible through the respective action, available from the rated billing items Data Entry page, given that the Billing Directive is set to 'Not Billed'  Click on Bill from the Actions menu and SAVE. Once billed:

1. The billing directive is updated to 'Billed'.
2. An invoice or credit note is created.

Excluding a Rated Billing Item from billing 

If necessary, an RBI created for a specific period can be excluded from billing unless it was already cancelled. This can be used to settle a complaint about a technical issue (by not charging the service for the period in question) or to cancel a bill generated by mistake.

Click on Actions > Set as Not to be Billed and then SAVE.  It is possible to perform the action whether the item has been billed or not and the system will handle each case accordingly.  Follow the steps below to exclude RBIs from billing. Once excluded:

1.  The billing directive of the RBI is updated to 'Not To Be Billed'.
2.  If the item was set as 'Not to be Billed', it will be ignored by consecutive billing runs and the period covered by the item will never be billed.
3. If the item was already billed, a new identical RBI is created of opposite value and included in the next billing run.

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Using Bills

Bills are generated automatically during a billing run, or by billing individual accounts or subscriptions from each entity's data entry page. Bills cannot be created manually.

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• Maximum Amount in Credit: The maximum amount that the customer should be in credit. For example, if this is set to 100, then if a generated bill amount is -101 then the bill will be classified as exceptional.

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Communicating a bill

Bills can either be communicated through Event-based Communications with the help of communication tags - refer to the Communications manual for a complete list of bill tags, or alternatively bill information can be communicated by using Actions > Communicate Bill from the Bill screen. 

Additional fees applied to a bill

Additional fees can be applied on bills during the billing run process, based on the presentment preferences of the subscriber. Additional fees are applied to each bill on a separate invoice financial transaction. If you would like to provide an additional fee on bills, for example for the ones that are delivered via mail then:

1. Navigate to Configuration > Billing > Set up Subscription & Billing model > Subscription and Billing Policies.
2. Under Expenses create a new conditional expense rule for additional fees on bills.
3. Select the fee and under which conditions it should be applied.

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