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Overview
A bill is an itemised 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.
Bill features
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 at once, through a Normal Billing Run, covering all subscriptions and jobs that are subject to billing
- one at a time, for a single subscription or job, through the respective subscription action or job action
- 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.
Setting Up Bills
Related configuration areas
The following module is related to bills and may be configured for the bills module to operate at its full capacity.
| Module Link | Area | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Normal Subscriptions | Normal Billing settings in Billing definitions | Configure the 'Assembling and Formatting' settings; select formatting options (including rounding) and establish 'Exceptional' classification thresholds. |
Using Bills
Billing > Billing > Manage Bill
Bills are generated by the system, through the normal billing run, or by billing individual accounts, subscriptions and jobs from the entity's Data Entry page. Bills cannot be created manually.
Bill fields
The table describes the sections of the Bills Data Entry page and explains how the fields in the page are used.
Mandatory
Configurable
| 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 billing run that created the bill Life Cycle State reflects a bill's progress and can take the following values:
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.
Classification: designates that bills are over their credit limit threshold or that their credit amount is too high.
Refer to Identifying exceptional 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 | |
| Bill Summary | From Date: the day on which the bill period begins. To Date: the day on which the bill period ends. Due Date: the date by which the bill must be settled, set on the earliest Due Date 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. Total Billed Amount: Total Debited Amount - Total Credited Amount |
| Bill Totals | Total Amount To Be Paid: the total owed by the customer (Total Amount To Be Paid = Balance Brought Forward Amount + Total Billed Amount) Outstanding Amount: the aggregated amount of posted unpaid debits (on a specific date), and are past their due date (calculated dynamically). 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 | |
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 | |
| 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). | |
Creating and processing bills
Selecting and creating Bills
Bills are generated by the system, through the Normal Billing Run, or by billing individual accounts, subscriptions and jobs from the entity's Data Entry page. Bills cannot be created manually.
Bills can be generated:
- All at once, through a normal Billing Run, covering all subscriptions and jobs that are subject to billing.
- One at a time, for a single subscription or job, through the respective subscription action or job action.
- One at a time, for a single accounts receivable associated with several normal subscriptions and jobs (instead of billing individual subscriptions and jobs).
Updating the life cycle state of bills
The life cycle state of a bill is informative and reflects a bill's progress. It is manually updated through dedicated actions available from the Actions menu (Action > Life Cycle State) and can take the following values:
- Posted (set by billing run)
- 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 (for example, 'Printed').
Applying business flows on bills
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:
- Maximum Credited Amount: credited through a bill before it is classified as exceptional
- Maximum Debited Amount: debited through a bill before it is classified as exceptional.
The credit limit of the account is used in calculating the maximum debited amount. The maximum amount can be set equal to the credit limit or expressed as a percentage of the credit limit.
Bills are evaluated during the billing process. If either threshold is exceeded, the respective classification will be set on the bill:
- Max Credit Amount Reached: The bill amount is too low (for example, if the 'Maximum Credited Amount' is set to €100 and the 'Total Bill Amount' is €-101).
- Max Credit Limit Amount Reached: The bill amount is too high (for example, if the 'Maximum Debited Amount' is set to be equal to the credit limit of the accounts receivable, which is €500 (fixed amount), and the 'Total Bill Amount' is €501).
Paying a bill using Quick Pay
The Quick Pay process supplements the usual method of creating payments (through financial transactions) and is used to quickly settle outstanding bill amounts.
You can access Quick Pay through the Actions menu.
- Amount: a read-only value for the bill's unsettled balance.
The following information can be edited:- Payment Type
- Payment Method
- Issued On
- Category
- Received By User
- Received by Unit
- Click SAVE.
Communicating a bill
Supplementing the Bill Sending Run and the Bill Printout that are used to forward bills to customers, bill information can be communicated by using the Communicate Bills action available through the Actions menu.
You can use tags related to bills (text that is automatically replaced by values specific to selected records) when creating communications. Tags are available for selection by typing '#'.
Refer to the Communications manual for a complete list of bill tags.
Send bills to multiple customers
Billing > Billing > Perform Bill Sending Runs
Bill sending runs identify and send new bills to customers, according to criteria set in the bill sending definition (including which communication templates to use).
Definitions must be submitted when they are created and can be executed on a recurring basis, according to the Scheduling Settings.
Once 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).
| Postconditions | In order for bills to be selected when executing a Bill Sending Run definition, they must:
|
|---|
Bill sending run fields
The table describes the sections of the Bill Sending Run Data Entry page and explains how the fields in the page are used.
Mandatory
Configurable
Input Settings Used for selecting bills to send and for creating their communications | |
|---|---|
Communication Settings
|
|
| Criteria | |
Several bill sending run definitions can be set up to cater for different customer preferences. A separate communication template can be configured for each definition, presenting distinct information, which is subject to each medium's restrictions.
| |
| Bills |
|
Bills Analytics
Printouts
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.
Bills Business Example
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.
- Set up a Communication Template using Bill Communication Tags, supplying the information to be conveyed.
- Create a new bill sending run definition.
- Specify Input Settings
Communication settings:- Template
- Media: email
- Specify Criteria for bill retrieval
- Presentment Preferences: email
(To retrieve customers with email preference) - Bills
Select the latest Billing Run
- Presentment Preferences: email
- Specify Scheduling Settings
Schedule the definition to run repeatedly, the day following the execution of the Normal Billing Run.
- Specify Input Settings
Notes
- If you are using a previous release, view CRM.COM Release Changes.
- 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 Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| Subscription | A collection of customer services billed on a recurring, usage or one-time basis. |
| Normal Subscription | A subscription that is billed on a term basis. |
| 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. |
| Normal Billing | Used 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 Run | A 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 Entity | An entity that can be billed through the billing engine (job or subscription). |
| Accounts Receivable | A ledger of the financial transactions carried out between a company and its customers, such as invoices and payments. |
| Financial Transaction | An agreement between a buyer and seller to exchange services or physical goods for payment. |
| Presentment Preference | Define the account owner's preferred method for receiving and exporting bills, and integrating bills with third party systems. |
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