Overview

Normal subscriptions can be billed in a group through Normal Billing.  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/payment model applied on the subscription through its billing term scheme, subscription will be billed at different times and based on different conditions.

• 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

Billing Single Subscriptions

While once normal subscriptions are created they are billed on a recurring basis as agreed on the contract by the normal billing run, 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 in normal billing the system will generate the bills through the normal billing run. However, in case that subscriptions follow the 'Pay Before Bill' payment model , 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 case the funds are insufficient, the subscription is not billed and deactivated.

To enable the billing of a subscription upon an event, set the Billing adjustment rules in the Billing Term Scheme 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

Billing Runs are used to bill multiple subscriptions in a go. Depending on the billing model and the business rules followed by your company, the frequency of the billing runs differs. For example, if your subscribers follow a period billing model where all customers are billed on the same date every month, usually from the beginning to the end of the month, then one billing run per month should be enough. However, if subscribers follow an anniversary model, where each subscriber has a different billing cycle day, then a billing run must be executed daily.

1. Before executing normal billing runs, perform the necessary configurations in the Normal Billing Settings available at Configuration / Billing Application / Subscription & Billing Settings as explained at Normal Subscriptions
2. Navigate to Billing / Billing / Perform Billing Runs and click on NEW from the Actions' menu to create a new run. Provide the mandatory information and SAVE the run. 
3. To execute the run select Actions > SUBMIT
4. 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

If the volume of subscribers to be billed is too large and you would like to make multiple billing runs and on different times of the month it is possible by using a list of conditions available in the billing run setup. You can create groups for billing by defining one or more of the following:

• billing term schemes,
•  billing frequencies,
• accounts receivable classifications,
• payment preferences,
• presentment preferences.

Additionally you have the option to bill specific subscriptions accounts receivable jobs or groups.

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.

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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

Billing / Billing / Manage Bills

Life Cycle State reflects a bill's progress and can take the following values:

• • Posted
  • Presented
  • Presented and Confirmed
  • Presented and Rejected

The life cycle state can also be modified following actions that result from an integration with a third party (e.g., 'Printed').

Status of bills:

• • Settled: completely paid
  • Partially Settled: only a portion of the amount due has been paid and the remaining is still outstanding
  • Unsettled: the complete amount is still due.

Classification: designates that bills are over their credit limit threshold or that their credit amount is too high.

• • Normal: the bill amount is neither too high nor too low
  • Max Credit Amount Reached: The bill amount is too low
  • Max Credit Limit Amount Reached: The bill amount is too high

Total Bill Amount: The total amount to be paid.

Outstanding Amount: the aggregated amount of posted unpaid debits that are past their due date (calculated dynamically on a specific date).

Unsettled Amount: the aggregated amount of posted unpaid debits, regardless of their due date (calculated dynamically).

Type: how will the bill will be sent (i.e: email, sms)

Communication Template to use the communication template used for each type (use different template according to the type, i.e. other template for SMS and other for email)

Bills Filter Method: determines which bills will be sent.

• Process Only Failed and Not Sent: retrieves bills that were processed and rejected or that are not yet processed.
• Process Only Failed: retrieve bills that were processed and rejected.
• Process Only Not Sent: retrieves the bills that are not yet processed.

(Check the  Communication queue to find rejected bills).

Send Bills Posted in the Last: Input the UOT, expressed in Days, Weeks, or Months.

Scenario

Aluxsat Co. sends new bills by email to customers that have requested their bills in electronic rather than printed form.

Configuration

Normal Billing must have already been executed. 

1. Set up a Communication Template using Bill Communication Tags, supplying the information to be conveyed.
2. Create a new bill sending run definition.
   1. In the conditions define Type: email and select the respective Communication template
   2. Specify Criteria for bill retrieval
      
      1. Send Bills posted in the last: provide information associated to the last billing run
   3. Specify Scheduling Settings

      1. Schedule the definition to run repeatedly, the day following the execution of the Normal Billing Run.