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Normal Billing Run Execution System Processes

A Billing Run is used to bill billable entities (Subscriptions or Jobs) having a Normal Billing Term.

This process pre-bills or post-bills Services depending on how the Services were classified in each Billing Term Scheme, as well as Physical Goods, Expenses and One Time Services.  It results in a unified Accounts Receivable Bill, including multiple Invoices or Credit Notes, where each Invoice or Credit Note represents the total debits and credits of a specific billable entity owned by the Accounts Receivable in question.

A Normal Billing Run progresses through the following series of processes:

• Identification
• Rating
• Invoicing
• Assembling
• Posting
• Formatting

Normal Billing Runs can be performed up to a specific step and resume their execution from the step that was reached. The progress of each Normal Billing Run is determined by its Life Cycle State. The supported Life Cycle States are:

• 'Draft': Not executed yet
• 'Identification and Rating': Executed up to this step
• 'Invoicing': Executed up to this step
• 'Assembling and Posting': Executed up to this step
• 'Formatting': Executed up to this step
• 'Completed': Executed successfully
• 'Failed': Executed and no Bills were created
• 'Completed with Errors': Executed with minor errors and Bills were created

Identification Step

This step identifies all the unrated billable (chargeable or creditable) information which is ready to be billed and should be considered during the specific Billing Run.

The supported billable entities are the following:

• Subscriptions
• Subscription Usage Detail Records 
• Subscription Termed Services 
• Subscription Expenses
• Jobs 
• Job Expenses 
• Job Physical Goods
• Job Activities
  • Activity One Time Services

The process follows business rules which are defined specifically for each type of unrated billable information. The process considers the generic Billing Run attributes and applies the following logic:

• Identify billable entities having Normal Billing Term Schemes filtered by the following Billing Run parameters:
• Billing Term Schemes included in Normal Billing Run Billing Term Schemes conditions
• Billing Frequencies included in Normal Billing Run billing frequencies conditions
• Accounts Receivable Classifications included in Normal Billing Run Accounts Receivable Classification conditions
• Accounts Receivable 'Active' Payment Preference included in Normal Billing Run Accounts Receivable Payment Preference conditions
• Accounts Receivable Presentment Preference included in Normal Billing Run Accounts Receivable Presentment Preference conditions
• Accounts Receivable included in Normal Billing Run Accounts Receivable filter list
• Subscriptions included in Normal Billing Run Subscriptions filter list
• Jobs included in Normal Billing Run Job filter list
• Accounts Receivable in an 'Active' or 'Suspended' state
• Subscriptions having rating state equals to 'Pending', that will be processed by all the Billing Run steps
• Subscription having rating state equal to 'Completed' and at least one Rated Billing Item having a billing directive equal to 'Not Billed', that will be processed by the Billing Run starting from the invoicing step onward 
• Jobs having rating state equals to 'Pending', that will be processed by all the Billing Run steps

• For each Subscription/Job the following billable entities are identified:
• For pre-Bill Subscription Services: The process retrieves all Subscription Service Life Cycle State periods which were not already fully rated, based on the following rules:
• Billing effective date is before or equal to “Bill As Of Date.”
• Billing directive is equal to “To Be Billed” or "To Be Credited."
• For post-Bill Subscription Services: The process retrieves all Subscription Service Life Cycle State periods which were not already fully rated, based on the following rules:
• Subscription Service “Billing Effective Date” is before or equal to “Bill As Of Date.”
• Billing directive is equal to “To Be Billed” or "To Be Credited
• Subscription Service period started before the “Billing As Of Date.”
• Subscription Usage Detail Records: The process retrieves all UDRs that have: 
  • Billing Directive set to "To Be Billed" or "To Be Credited."
  • Life Cycle State equals to Posted
  • If a rated item exists, then it has a "Cancelled" Billing Directive  

Rating Step

The Rating step calculates and applies a rate on each Service or Physical Good to be billed, for a specific period, by creating Rated Billing Item/wiki/spaces/WIP/pages/10008754 The process considers all the unrated billable information and either rates them or not, based on the business rules specified on each Billing Run. 

The Rated Billing Items created can either be invoicing or crediting items. The System decides which Rated Billing Items must be created by acquiring information from the Subscription Service Life Cycle State periods.

During the Rating step, the System will also identify any Cancellations that will result in a Penalty and if necessary will create a Cancellation Penalty. Once completed, the Billing Run Life Cycle State will be updated to 'Identification and Rating.'

The Rating Step makes use of the Rating State which is defined on the following Entities:

• Usage Detail Records
• Subscription Service
• Subscription Expenses
• Subscriptions
• Jobs
• Buy in Advance

The Rating Step will include only the entities whose Rating State is set to 'Pending'.  Entities with a 'Completed' Rating State will not be taken into consideration as they have already been rated.

Rating of Flexible Bundle Products

During Rating, the System will decide how Flexible Product Bundles will be rated and eventually billed. The billing may differ according to the definition of the Products in the Price Plans. The following pricing models are available:

• Rate only the Flexible Bundle Product
• Rate all the products defined as components of the Flexible Bundle Product
• Rate both the Flexible Bundle Product and its components

If no rate exists for the components when provided through the specific Bundle, then the rate of the component offered as standalone will be used.

Invoicing Step

The Invoicing step is responsible for the generation of Invoices or Credit Notes, based on the Rated Billing Items generated by the Rating step, or on existing items that are not yet processed.

The System will perform the following steps for each Accounts Receivable.

• All the Rated Billing Items that have not yet been billed will be summed up. 
• If the total amount of the items is below the minimum debit amount as specified in the Configuring Normal Billing Run Definitions, then the debit will not be created.
• If the total amount of the items is above the minimum debit amount and above or equal to zero, then an Invoice will be created, with the related Invoice lines. 
• If the total amount of the items is less than 0, then a Credit Financial Transaction will be created with the related lines.
• In case adjustment transactions should be created based on the rounding options specified on the Normal Billing Run Definitions
  • If the amount should be rounded up then create an invoice adjustment Financial Transaction
  • If the amount should be rounded down then create a credit adjustment Financial Transaction
• The Life Cycle State of all rated service periods that were invoiced or credited will be updated to 'Billed.'

Billing Run Life Cycle State will be updated to 'Invoicing.'

Assembling Step

The Assembling step is responsible for the generation and assembling of the actual Bill, considering all the information that was generated in the previous steps. Each Bill is related to a customer account and includes all the Financial Transactions generated for that account.

• The creation of the Bill consists of accumulating all Invoices and Credit Notes created by the Invoicing Step and calculating the Total Bill Amount.
• Billing also takes into consideration
  • Partially Settled or Unsettled Bills
  • Debit transactions which were posted between the current Bill and the previous Bill (and not included in any bills)
  • Credit transactions which were posted between the current Bill and the previous Bill (and not included in any bills)
    The Total amount to be paid is calculated using the following formula
    Total billed amount + Total due amount from previous Bills + Total debit amount posted between Bills - Total credit amount posted between bills
• The billing Classification is set based on the following logic:
  • If the Bill amount is less than the maximum credit amount specified in Normal Billing Run Definitions Exceptional Bill thresholds then
    the Billing Classification equals to 'Maximum credit amount reached.' 
  • Else if the Bill amount is more than the maximum credit limit fixed amount, or the Accounts Receivable credit limit * credit limit multiplier, as specified in Normal Billing Run Definitions Exceptional Bill thresholds then Billing Classification equals to 'Maximum credit limit amount reached.'
  • Else Billing Classification equals to 'Normal.'

Posting Step

The Posting process is responsible for posting all Financial Transactions included in each Bill, by setting their Transaction and Due Date and changing their Life Cycle State to 'Posted'.

• Financial Transactions date will be set equal to the specified transaction date.
• Financial Transaction due date, on all invoices, will be set equal to the calculated due date; Due Date will be set as defined in the Normal Billing Run if valid, otherwise as set in the Accounts Receivable Setting and updating Credit Terms for Accounts Receivable.
• All Financial Transactions will be posted
• The Bill Life Cycle is set to 'Posted.'

The Life Cycle State of the Billing Run will be updated to 'Assembling and Posting'.

Formatting Step

The Formatting process is used to format the Billing Run results in a standard format, readable by both humans and machines. The process generates an XML file, which includes all the information that was considered or generated by the Billing Run process. The following steps are applied:

• All Bills generated by Billing Run are exported in an XML file, which is stored on a specific path.
• The file name includes the Billing Run Number and the date on which it was performed
• The export file includes all information related to each Bill such as the amount to be paid, Financial Transactions, rated periods, etc.
• The export file includes the following additional information which is not directly included in the Bill:

• Rated Service Periods, included based on the rated Service periods formatting settings defined on Normal Billing Run Definitions

• Subscription Service Usage Detail Records (UDRs) are included based on the usage detail records formatting settings defined on Normal Billing Run Definitions

• Export file includes a summary of the following:
• Bills that were created
• The total amount of Accounts Receivable that were billed
• The total number of Services billed per Service
• The total number of Invoices
• The total number of Credit Notes
• The total debited amount
• The total credited amount
• The total debited amount per Service
• The total credited amount per Service

The Billing Run Life Cycle State is updated to 'Formatted.'