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Learn to work with Normal billing |
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On this page
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Overview
Several normal Normal subscriptions can be billed in a group at the same time through Normal Billing. A bill is an itemised 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.
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Configuration > Billing Application > Billing > Set up Billing Definition > Normal Bill Settings |
Using Normal Billing Runs
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| Billing > Billing > Perform Normal Billing Runs |
Normal billing run fields
The table describes the sections of the normal billing run Data Entry page and explains how the fields in on the page are used.
Mandatory Configurable values
Main Information | |
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Bill as of Date: The first day on which of the period covered by the normal billing run begins. Subscriptions with services having a 'Rated up to' date up to and including the 'Bill as of Date' are considered for billing. Life Cycle State indicates which stage the billing run is at:
Scheduled Date: A read-only field displaying the next date on which the run will be executed. | |
Criteria | |
Can be used to identify groups for billing (e.g., monthly or annual subscriptions). Values can be defined for billing term schemes, billing frequencies, classifications, payment preferences, and presentment preferences. | |
| Filters | |
Can be applied to bill selected entities (e.g., a group representing a specific geographical area). Filtering can be applied on to accounts receivable, subscriptions, jobs, and groups. | |
| Scheduling Settings | |
Recurring: Select repeating billing runs. Recurrence: A read-only value inherited from the billing definition settings, used by the system to schedule the next run once a recurring billing run is completed. | |
| Financial Transaction Settings | |
Financial Transaction Posting Date: Defines the posting date for invoices and credit notes created by the billing run. A default value is inherited from the normal billing definition and can be modified. Invoice Due Date Proximity: How the bill's due date should be calculated. The value must fall within the proximity range defined by the due date rules of the active /wiki/spaces/WIP/pages/10010232. The calculated due date overwrites credit period rules set on the accounts receivable. | |
Results | |
Provide information on the bills that were created by the run and are available once billing is completed. Results Per Step: A summary table listing the steps of the billing run, the financial transactions that were created and the included entities. | |
| Exceptions | |
Display accounts excluded from billing due to errors. |
Creating and executing a normal billing run
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Under Billing > Perform Normal Billing Run, specify the criteria that match the run you are interested in, or use NEW from the Actions menu to create a new run. Provide the mandatory information and SAVE the run.
Normal billing runs can be executed in progressive steps, allowing the user to review results and make amendments before bills are created. A run's progress is reflected in its life cycle state.To execute the run
- Select Actions > Execute Up To (select step)SUBMIT
- Execute immediately or schedule the run.
Identification and rating step
Identification locates unrated billable items that are ready to be charged or credited. The following entities are considered:
- Subscription Usage Detail Records that should be charged or credited and have a 'Posted' life cycle state
- Pre-bill and post-bill subscription termed services that:
- should be charged or credited (depending on the value of the billing directive)
- are not yet rated
- have a billing Effective Date up to and including the Bill as of Date.
- Subscription expenses that should be billed or credited (according to their billing directive).
Rating
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 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 is updated to 'Identification and Rating'.
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Invoicing step
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. During the invoicing step, figures are rounded and adjustment transactions are created. The life cycle state of invoiced or credited rated service periods is updated to 'Billed'.
Once the step is completed, the billing run life cycle state is updated to 'Invoicing'.
Assembling and posting step
The Assembling 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 and 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'.
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Formatting step
Creates an XML document including all the information used or generated by the billing run.
Once the step is completed, the billing run life cycle state is updated to 'Formatted'.
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Once the Billing Run is executed and finished the bills will be available for extraction in an XML format
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All steps in a run can be executed in one go. A run can also be executed up to the formatting stage, which can then be performed manually. Use the normal billing settings of the billing definition to set up the run according to your needs. |
Understanding the billing process
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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
| Sorting of Subscriptions | Subscriptions are sorted based on:
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| Sorting of Subscription Services | Services are sorted based on the following logic:
Services within each category are then sorted based on the following logic:
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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:
| Billing Model | Checks and Actions |
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| Pre-bill Pay Before Bill | Subject to sufficient funds for an additional billing period, or if the funds are automatically retrieved through a payment gateway:
If the funds are insufficient to cover the cost for the period:
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| Pre-bill Pay After Bill | If the credit limit of the accounts receivable will not be exceeded after billing the services for an additional period:
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| Post-bill Pay After Bill | If the accounts receivable hasn't reached its credit limit:
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Downloading billing run results file
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- Click on Actions menu > Download Billing Results File
- Click on Download and save the file.
For a sample Bill XML file, click here.
Viewing generated bills
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For more information, access the Data Entry page by clicking on a bill.
Other normal billing flows
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- Become effective subscriber
- Amend billing terms (if the action changes the subscription's scheme to Normal)
- Activate subscription
- Start subscription service
- Swap service
- End subscription resting
- End short term deactivation
- Add usage service
- Short-term activation
- Add effective Services
- Add expense
- Amend bundle services
- Change subscription distribution
- Amend services and installed items.
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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.
| Name | Description |
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Bill Additional Fees | Define if additional expenses will be applied on the bill of each account owner. Multiple additional fee rules might apply in each billing definition. Additional fee rules can be modified or deleted at any time. Start by specifying the expense service that the account owner will be charged for on each bill, as well as the conditions that should be met to apply this extra fee (such as, which account owners will be billed with the fee). During a normal bill perform run, the billing definition will be checked against the subscriber and the additional fees will be applied. |
Glossary
| CRM.COM Term | Definition |
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| Job | A small project initiated by the operator for customers, involving the delivery and billing of services, products, and activities. Customer requests and orders, such as that for a new subscription, can be initiated and registered through a job. |
| Subscription | A collection selection of customer services billed on a recurring, usage or one-time basis. |
| Billable Entity | Entities that can be billed through the billing engine (Jobs and Subscriptions). |
| Rated Billing Items (RBIs) | Information on services, physical goods and the billing period, generated by the billing engine during the rating step of the normal billing run, before the transaction takes place. RBIs let the user make amendments or corrections before (a binding) financial transaction is created. |
| Usage Detail Records (UDRs) | Information describing the use of usage subscription services. |
| Period Billing | A mode 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 mode 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). |
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