Overview

Normal subscriptions can be billed in a group through Normal Billing of 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 tab.  A bill is an itemized 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. 

More specifically billing process is responsible for:

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

Available Billing Models 

According to the billing model of each subscription being billed the 

• Pre-Billed - Pay before Bill: Services are pre-billed either anniversary or period based, and a bill is generated but only if the rated amount was already paid in advance.
• Pre-Billed - Pay after Bill: Services are pre-billed either anniversary or period based, and a bill is generated which is expected to be paid afterwards
• Post-Billed - Pay after Bill: Services are post-billed and a bill is generated which is expected to be paid afterwards

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 on the page are used.

 Mandatory   C Configurable values.

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 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 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 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

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 Run. The following entities are taken into consideration for normal subscription billing

• Subscription Usage Detail Records that should be billed or credited and have a posted life cycle state
• Subscription Termed Services: Checks for pre-bill and post-bill services that should be billed or credited (based on their 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 should be billed or credited (based on their billing directive)

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

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

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 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 and adjustment transactions are created if required. Finally the life cycle state of all rated service periods that were invoiced or credited will be updated to 'Billed.'

Billing run life cycle state will be updated to 'Invoicing.'

Assembling and posting step

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• The creation of the Bill consists of accumulating all Invoices and Credit Notes created by the Invoicing Step and calculating the Total Bill Amount.
• Billing also takes into consideration
  • Partially Settled or Unsettled Bills
  • Debit transactions which were posted between the current Bill and the previous Bill (and not included in any bills)
  • Credit transactions 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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The life cycle state of the billing run will be updated to 'Assembling and Posting'.

Formatting step is used to format the billing run results in an XML file, which includes all the information that was considered or generated by the Billing Run process. 

The Billing Run Life Cycle State is updated to 'Formatted.'

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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To extract the xml file:

1. From the Actions menu click on Actions > Download Billing Results File
2. From the click on Download and save the file locally so you can access it later and send to the print-house

Viewing generated bills

Bills generated from each billing run are easily accessible through action available from the Actions menu, 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 oneand SAVE the run. 

To execute the run

1. Select Actions > SUBMIT
2. Execute immediately or schedule the run.

Once the Billing Run is executed and finished the bills will be available for extraction in an XML format

Understanding the billing process

Account identification

The accounts to be billed are identified by the billing process.

Ranking

Subscriptions and subscription services are ranked to determine their processing order, as described in the table below

Billing based on billing 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:

Downloading billing run results file

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
• 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 file:

1. Click on Actions menu > Download Billing Results File
2. Click on Download and save the file.
   For a sample Bill XML file, click here.

Viewing generated bills

Bills generated by each billing run can be accessed from the bills Summary page (Actions > View Generated Bills).

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

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 to cover 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 DistributionAmend Services and Installed Itemssubscription distribution
• Amend services and installed items.

Additional fees applied to a bill

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Additional fees can be applied on bills during a normal billing run process, based on the presentment preferences of the subscriber. Additional fees are applied to each bill on a separate invoice financial transaction.

Glossary  

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