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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 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.

Configuration > Billing Application > Billing > Set up Billing Definition > Normal Bill Settings

Using Normal Billing Runs

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 on the page are used.

Mandatory Configurable values

Main Information
Bill as of Date: The first day of the period covered by the normal billing run. 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: Draft (not yet executed) Identification and Rating Invoicing Assembling and Posting Formatting Completed (all steps executed successfully) Failed (not executed, no bills created) Completed with Errors (run executed with minor errors; a number of bills were created successfully). 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 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

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.

To execute the run

Select Actions > SUBMIT
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

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

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:

Ranking level, as defined on the subscription type, in ascending mode
First activation date, in ascending mode
Creation date, in ascending mode.

Sorting of Subscription Services

Services are sorted based on the following logic:

Mandatory services without prerequisites
Mandatory services with prerequisites
Optional services without prerequisites
Optional services with prerequisites.

Services within each category are then sorted based on the following logic:

By tier level, in ascending mode, as defined on the subscription type
By first activation date, in ascending mode
By creation date, in ascending mode.

Subscriptions inherit a ranking number from their subscription type, while services are ranked based on whether they are mandatory (higher ranking) or optional (lower ranking). This is also defined in the subscription type.

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:

Billing Model

Checks and Actions

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:

The services are renewed
A bill is generated and settled

If the funds are insufficient to cover the cost for the period:

Subscription services are classified as candidates for deactivation and are placed in a deactivation queue
No bill is generated

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:

The services are renewed
A bill is generated

Post-bill Pay After Bill

If the accounts receivable hasn't reached its credit limit:

The termed services are renewed
A bill is generated

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:

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

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

Normal billing supports the model of prepayment, where billable subscription actions can only occur if account owners have enough funds to cover their expense. Prepayment is not handled by the normal billing run. The account owner must pay for an event in advance and the system must validate that there are sufficient funds to bill the event at the time 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 real-time billing is triggered when one of the following subscription actions is performed:

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.

Additional fees applied to a bill

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

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
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 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).

Notes

If you are using a previous release, view CRM.COM Release Changes.
Use the Normal billing WEB API to create and manage accounts receivable from an external system, such as a customer portal. View the accounts receivable WEB API for a complete list of actions available through the WEB API.

Billing of Normal Subscriptions