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Understanding Bills

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What are Bills?

A Bill is a statement of the money owed for goods supplied and services rendered, issued against a customer financial account. A Bill is comprised of the Invoices and Credit Notes which were created by the System for the account over the period of time it covers.  Bills do not include Invoices and Credit Notes that were manually created via the Financial Transactions Data Entry page.

Bills Glossary

TermDescription
Normal BillingNormal billing is used for business billing models where customers are billed either before or after they start using services they are subscribed to, or delivered to them and it is handled by the execution of Normal Billing Runs.
Normal Billing RunA mechanism which is used to charge customers for goods and services provided over a period of time. It is usually performed on a monthly basis and  issues customers a Bill which covers the Invoices and Credit Notes related to their Subscriptions or Jobs.
Billable EntitiesThe entities (Subscriptions Jobs and UDRs) which can be billed through the Billing Engine.
Accounts ReceivableThe financial account which will be debited with the Bill amount through the Normal Billing Run
Financial TransactionA Financial Transaction is an agreement between a buyer and a seller to exchange services or physical goods for payment. 
BillA set of Invoices and Credit Notes issued against a customer account for billable entities that have been provided over a period of time.
Bill Items

Bill items are lineswithinaBill and each line is either a Credit Note or an Invoice that includes a billable entity

Invoices An Invoice is a financial document that shows a list of Services or Physical Goods and the prices to be paid for them. Invoices are debiting Accounts Receivable
Credit NotesA Credit Note is a financial document issued by a business to a customer to correct mistakes or adjust the amount that the customer was invoiced. Credit Notes are crediting Accounts Receivable
Total Billed AmountThe total amount for the current Bill, that includes Invoices and Credit Notes created within the billed period by the System
Total Amount to be PaidThe total amount owed by the customer, including past unsettled debts
Presentment PreferencePresentment Preferences are used to define the preferred method for sending Bills to the account owner and to export the Bills.

Bills Key Processes and Concepts

Processes / ConceptDescription
Creation of Bills

Billsarecreated through Interactive or Batch system processes

  • Batch Process
    • Normal Billing Run
      This batch process can be executed on a recurring basis.  It identifies Services and Physical Goods that must be invoiced or credited and creates Bills.
  • Interactive Actions
    • Bill Subscription
      Bills can only be generated for Normal Subscriptions. Prepaid Subscriptions are not billed as they are prepaid
    • Bill Job
      Not all Jobs are billable. A Job must be defined as such in the Job type to be billable.
    • Bill Accounts Receivable
      Instead of billing each Subscription or Job individually, the Accounts Receivable to which the Jobs and Subscriptions are related can be billed.
Bill Sending Runs

Bill Sending Runs are used to send Bills directly to the customer via the System, avoiding the export and printing of Bills via 3rd parties

  • The Bills to be sent are identified
  • A Communication is created for each Bill and sent to the customer via one of the available options (email or SMS)
Re-sending of Bill upon requestIf customers request their Bill to be sent again, it is possible to do so via the Bill Data Entry page. Agents can access the page related to the Bill and send it to the customer via email. For more information view Creating and Sending Bill Details Printout
Classifying Bills based on their Total Bill Amount CRM.COM provides a way to identify Bills that went below went below the accepted credit amount or their Total Amount has exceeded the accepted Accounts Receivable Credit Limit.

Accepted values are defined in Normal Billing Run Definitions.
When a new Bill is created a classification is set based on the logic explained:

  • Normal: The Bill amount is neither too high (reaching the Maximum Credit Limit Amount) nor too low (reaching the Maximum amount in Credit)
  • Max Credit Amount Reached: The Bill has reached the maximum credit amount which is set in the Normal Billing Run Definitions - Assembly Settings
  • Max Credit Limit Amount Reached: the Bill has reached the acceptable debit amount, which is based on the Accounts Receivable Credit Limit
    i.e. either the Accounts Receivable Credit Limit, or the accepted Percentage (%) of the Credit Limit as set in the Normal Billing Run Definitions - Assembly Settings

Bills Access & Viewing Controls

Business Network Characteristics define the level of access for each record. i.e. whether it will be available for selection, viewing or editing.

EntityNetwork CharacteristicsDescription

Bill

Implicit Viewing Access Entity

Bills can be accessed, viewed and modified by users that belong to the Group defined at the Owned By Group of the related Accounts Receivable, or that belong to a Group that collaborates with the specified Group or by Super Users

Bills Related Modules

EntityInteraction of Bills with the Entity
Accounts ReceivableA Bill is issued for an Accounts Receivable
Financial TransactionsA Bill consists of Invoice and Credit Note Financial Transactions
Rated Billing Items

Rated Billing Items is a middle layer used to keep the details about the invoicing, such as the product, the amount and the period for which the customer is either charged or credited

Financial Transactions included in a Bill, are computed via Rated Billing Items.

SubscriptionsBills include Termed Services and Expenses provided by a Subscription
JobsBillsinclude,Physical Goods,Expenses and One Time Services provided by a Job

 

Bills - Business Examples

The following section provides business examples of how the Bills module is used in CRM.COM.

Bill Sending Runs

Company ZX wants to sent end of month bills to their customers

Business Requirement

Company ZX sends new Bills by email to the customers that have requested Bills emailed rather in printed form

CRM.COM Solution

The following configurations will be required in the system in order to satisfy the requirements:

  1. Set up a Communication Template that makes use of Bill Communication Tags to be used as the Bill information to be communicated to the customers.
  2. Create a new Bill Sending Run Definition
    1. Input Settings:
      Specify settings related to the communication
      1. Communication Template
      2. Communication Media: Email
    2. Criteria:
      Specify all the criteria that will retrieve the Bills:
      1. Presentment Preferences: Email
        (To retrieve customers that have the Presentment Preference set to Email)
      2. Bills
        Select the latest Billing Run

    3. Under Scheduling

      1. Schedule the definition to run repeatedly, the day after the Normal Billing Run is executed.

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