Versions Compared

Old Version 5

changes.mady.by.user Persia Xenopoulou (Deactivated)

Saved on

compared with

New Version Current

changes.mady.by.user Persia Xenopoulou (Deactivated)

Saved on

Key

  • This line was added.
  • This line was removed.
  • Formatting was changed.

Anchor
top
top

Excerpt
hiddentrue

Learn to work with Bills

Panel
nameblue

On this page

Table of Contents
maxLevel2

Overview

A bill is an itemised itemized statement of the separate cost of goods supplied and services rendered, for normal subscriptions and jobs, issued against a customer account. It consists of the all invoices and credit notes created by the system for an account during the period the bill covers.

...

  • Bills include physical goods, expenses and one-time services delivered through jobs and termed, usage and expense services rendered through subscriptions.

  • They can be generated:
    • all All at once, through a Normal Billing Run, covering all subscriptions and jobs that are subject to billing
    • one One at a time, for a single subscription or job, through the respective subscription action or job action
    • one One at a time, for a single accounts receivable associated with several normal subscriptions and jobs (instead of billing individual subscriptions and jobs).
  • They can be sent to customers by email in groups and resent individually on customer request.

  • Bills that are potentially problematic, due to an exceeded credit amount or an exceeded account receivable credit limit, can be classified as 'Exceptional' for easy identification and further investigation.

...

Info

Billing > Billing > Manage Bill Bills

Bills are generated by the system, through the automatically during a normal billing run, or by billing individual individual accounts, subscriptions and jobs from the , subscriptions and jobs, from each entity's Data Entry page.  Bills cannot be created manually.

Image RemovedImage Added

Bill fields

The table describes the sections of the Bills Data Entry page and explains how the fields in on the page are used.

 Mandatory   Configurable

Bill Summary bill begins   bill on of included invoices. 

Balance Brought Forward: the account's outstanding amount on the date the bill is generated.

Total Debited Amount: the sum of included invoices.

Total Credited Amount: the sum of included credit notes Billed Amount: Total Debited Amount - Total Credited Amount
 TotalsTotal To Be Paidthe total owed by the customer

(Total Amount To Be Paid = Balance Brought Forward Amount + Total Billed Amount)

 (on a specific date), regardless of Displays communications containing information on the specific bill. The communications can be created either from the respective action in the bill Data Entry page or through the communications Data Entry page (with the bill referenced in the 'Referring To' section)
Main Information

Bill To: the owner of the account for which the bill was generated (by a billing run or for an individual subscription or job).

Accounts Receivable: the account for which the bill was generated.

Currency: the currency in which the bill amounts are displayed (selected by the customer when creating a new account).

Type: describes the Type of billing run that created the bill.

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: reflects to what extent the bill has been paid. of bills:

    • Settled: completely paid
    • Partially Settled: only a portion of the amount due has been paid and the remaining amount is still outstanding
    • Unsettled: none of the complete amount is still due has been paid.

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

Refer to Identifying exceptional billsExceptional Bills for information on setting up thresholds for classifications.

Billing Run Number

Billing Run as of Date: The date on which the current billing run started including services or physical goods.

Bill Summary

From Date: the day on which the

billing period

starts.

To Date:

the day on which the

billing period ends.

Due Date: the date by which the bill must be settled, set

to the earliest Due Date

in the included invoices. 

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).

Bill Items
A list of all included invoices and credit notes generated by the billing run for the current period.
Payments
Action Panel

Communicate Bill: Displays communications with information on the specific bill. The communications can be created from this action or from the Communications Data Entry page (with the bill referenced in the 'Referring To' section).

View communications: Displays a history of exchanged communications.

View payments: Displays payments made towards the bill or its items (provided the bill is included in the 'Payment Information' section of the 'Bills to Pay' field).

Communications

Set as is used to change the life cycle state of the bill to 'Presented', 'Presented and Confirmed or 'Presented and Rejected'.

Bill Items
A list of all included invoices and credit notes generated by the billing run for the current period.

 

Back to top

Creating and processing bills

...

Bills can be generated:

  1. All at once, through a normal Normal Billing Run, covering all subscriptions and jobs that are subject to billing.
  2. One at a time, for a single subscription or job, through the respective subscription action or job action.
  3. One at a time, for a single accounts receivable associated with several normal subscriptions and jobs (instead of billing individual subscriptions and jobs).

...

Anchor
exceptional
exceptional
Identifying exceptional bills

 

As a very large number of bills can be generated every month, manually checking each individual bill for errors is impossible. To this end, CRM.COM uses the 'Exceptional' classification as an alert for questionable bills. 

'Exceptional' bills exhibit a credit or debit amount that is unusually high compared to a user-defined threshold.  Once specific bills are brought to the user's attention, they can be reviewed before they are sent out to customers.

The two user-defined 'Normal Billing Settings' of the billing definition are:

...

Definitions must be submitted when they are created and can be executed on a recurring basis, according to the Scheduling Settings.

Once After the process is executed, a log is available through the Process Runs tab. 

A run can be deleted as long as it is not yet executed ( still in a 'Draft' state (i.e., not yet executed).

Postconditions

In order for bills to be selected when executing a Bill Sending Run definition, they must:

  • be Be associated with an active accounts receivable
  • be Be associated with an accounts receivable that includes an active presentment preference with a type specified in the presentment preference conditions
  • meet Meet the definition criteria.

Bill sending run fields

The table describes the sections of the Bill Sending Run Data Entry page and explains how the fields in on the page are used.

 Mandatory   Configurable

Communication Media:

  • Email: Applies if the Criteria>Presentment Preference Type is set to 'email' or one of the 'Custom' Types
    • SMS: Applies if the Criteria>Presentment Preference Type is set to 'SMS' or one of the 'Custom' Types
  • Device: Applies if the Criteria>Presentment Preference Type is not set to 'email' or SMS.
    • Communication Template: the available templates are filtered based on the selected media. for

    Input Settings

    Used for selecting bills to send and for creating their communications

    Communication Settings

     

     


    Criteria
    Presentment Preferences

    Type: for a bill to be forwarded, the type must match the selection in the customer's accounts receivable.

    Several bill sending run definitions can be set up to cater

    to different customer preferences.

    A separate communication template can be configured for each definition, presenting distinct information, which is subject to each medium's restrictions.

    • Post
    • Email
    • SMS
    • F2F
    • Other
    • Custom (Types)
    Bills Criteria

    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).
    Billing Run Filter Method: determines the run from which the bills should be extracted.

  • Bills Included in the Latest Normal Billing Run
    • Bills Included in Specific Billing Runs: select the run from which the bills should be extracted, under Included Billing Runs. 


    Bills selection method: determines which bills should be retrieved, based on the date they were posted (Input the UOT, expressed in Days, Weeks, or Months.)

    Exclude Bills with 0 Total Amount (False by default)

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

    Throttling Settings

    Maximum Batch Size:Maximum number of bills included in each run

    Start Again After: the period before the bill sending run executes again.

    Scheduling Settings

    Determines when to apply the definition and send the bills. Bill sending run definitions can be applied ad hoc or on a recurring basis. Scheduling settings include:

     

    Back to top 

    Bills Analytics

    ...

    A printout displays all the information contained in a bill. It is available through the bills Data Entry page, in one of the following formats: HTML, XLS, CSV, RTF, and PDF.

    Refer to Printouts for information on how they can be created, printed and sent.

    Image RemovedImage Added

    Back to top 

    Bills Business Example

     

    Panel
    nameblue
    titleE-bills

    Scenario 1

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

    Solution

    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. Specify Input Settings
        Communication settings:
        1. Template
        2. Media: email
      2. Specify Criteria for bill retrieval
        1. Presentment Preferences: email
          (To retrieve customers with email preference)
        2. Bills
          Select the latest Billing Run
      3. Specify Scheduling Settings

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

    Note
    titleNotes
    • If you are using a previous release, view CRM.COM Release ChangesChanges.
    • Use the Bills WEB API to create and manage Bills from an external system, such as a customer portal. View the Bills WEB API for a complete list of actions available through the WEB API.

     

    Glossary  

    CRM.COM TermDefinition
    SubscriptionA collection of customer services billed on a recurring, usage or one-time basis.
    Normal SubscriptionA subscription that is billed on a term basis.
    JobA 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.
    Normal BillingUsed for business billing models where customers are billed either before or after they start using goods or services they are subscribed to, or delivered to them and it is handled by the execution of Normal Billing Runs.
    Normal Billing RunA mechanism that is used to charge customers for goods and services provided over a period of time.  Each run is usually performed on a monthly basis and issues a bill including the invoices and credit notes associated with customer subscriptions or jobs.
    Billable EntityAn entity that can be billed through the billing engine (job or subscription).
    Accounts ReceivableA ledger of the financial transactions carried out between a company and its customers, such as invoices and payments.
    Financial TransactionAn agreement between a buyer and seller to exchange services or physical goods for payment.
    Presentment PreferenceDefine the account owner's preferred method for receiving and exporting bills, and integrating bills with third-party systems.

     

    Back to top 

    ...