Contents

Title and Copyright Information

Preface

• Audience
• Accessing Oracle Communications Documentation
• Documentation Accessibility
• Document Revision History

Part I About Billing

1 About Billing

• About Billing Customers
• About Accounting and Billing Cycles
  • About the First Cycle Forward Fee in a New Account
  • About Accounting Cycles
  • About Accounting Cycle Dates
  • About Billing Cycles
    • How BRM Sets the Billing DOM
    • About Actions Performed at the End of a Billing Cycle
  • About Auto-Triggered Billing
  • About Delayed Billing
    • About Delayed Billing and Changing the Billing DOM
  • About On-Demand Billing
  • About Bill Now
• About Accounting Types
  • How BRM Determines the Accounting Type
  • About Changing a Bill Unit's Accounting Type
• About Bill Items
• About Multiple Bills per Cycle
  • About Billing Cycles for Hierarchical Accounts with Multiple Bill Units
• How BRM Creates a Bill
  • About Bill Numbering in BRM
  • How Bill Now Works
  • How On-Demand Billing Works
• Billing for Sponsorship
• Related Documents

2 About Corrective Billing

• About Bill Corrections
  • About Simple Corrections to Bills
  • About Corrections to Charges in Bills
  • About Billing Customers
• About Corrective Bills
  • About Corrective Billing in Subordinate Hierarchies
  • About Generating and Viewing Corrective Bills in BRM
    • Regulating Permissions for CSR Roles
  • Validating Bills for the Corrective Billing Process
    • Standard Validations Performed by BRM
    • Policy Validations Performed by BRM
  • About Numbering Corrective Bills in BRM
  • About Maintaining a Bill's History
  • Corrective Invoice Document Types in BRM
  • About Threshold Amounts for Corrective Billing
  • Correction Reasons for Corrective Billing
  • About Payment Due Dates for Corrective Bills
  • Handling Payments for Bills with Corrections
    • Processing Payments for Previous Bills
    • Processing Payments Received before Creating a Corrective Bill
    • Processing Payments Received before Issuing a Corrective Invoice
    • Processing Payments after Issuing a Corrective Invoice
  • About Open Item Accounting and Rerating
  • About Handling Updates to Discount Sharing and Charge Sharing
  • About Collections
  • Preventing Corrective Bill Generation to Handle A/R Actions
    • Disputes
    • Settlements
    • Write-Offs
  • About Automatic Allocation from Rerating
  • When BRM Generates Corrective Bills
    • How BRM Handles Multiple Bill Corrections in the Same Period
    • How BRM Handles Bill Corrections Spanning Multiple Periods
      • Balance Forward Accounting Type
      • Open Item Accounting Type
• Setting Up the Corrective Billing Process in BRM
  • Enabling Corrective Billing in BRM
  • Restricting CSR's Permission to Corrective Billing
  • Specifying the Corrective Invoice Type for a Corrective Bill
    • Specifying the Default Invoice Type at the Account Level
    • Specifying the Invoice Type When Creating the Corrective Bill
  • Setting Up Custom Validations for Corrective Bills
  • Setting Up Bill Numbers for Corrective Bills
    • Retaining the Numbering Format Used for Regular Bills
    • Customizing the Bill Numbering Format
  • Customizing Due Dates for Corrective Bills
  • Specifying Correction Reasons
    • Providing Custom Reason Codes for Bill Corrections
  • Specifying the Threshold Amount for Corrective Bills
    • Providing Threshold Amounts Based on Customers
  • Enabling Automatic Allocation of Adjustments from Rerating
  • Rejecting Payments for Prior Bills
  • Generating Corrective Bills for Partially or Fully Paid Bills
• Generating Corrective Bills
  • Generating Corrective Bills Using Customer Center
  • Generating Corrective Bills for Bills without Charge Corrections
  • How PCM_OP_BILL_MAKE_CORRECTIVE BILL Works
  • Generating Corrective Bills with the pin_make_corrective_bills Utility
  • Post-Processing Actions for Corrective Bills
  • Viewing Corrective Bills

Part II Configuring Billing

3 Setting Business Policies for Billing

• Setting Default Billing Properties for Account Creation
  • Setting the Default Accounting Day of Month (DOM)
  • Setting the Default Billing-Cycle Length
  • Setting the Default Accounting Type
  • Setting the Billing DOM According to the Payment Method
  • Setting the First Billing Cycle to the Day after Account Creation
• Setting the Bill Unit Status When Billing Errors Occur
• Specifying the Minimum Payment to Collect
  • Setting the Minimum Amount to Charge
  • Setting the Minimum Amount for Invoices
  • Setting the Minimum Amount for Finalizing Bills
• Specifying the Minimum Amount to Refund
  • Defining Non-refundable Items
• Managing Cycles
  • About Time-Stamp Rounding
  • Specifying How to Handle Partial Accounting Cycles
    • Short and Long Cycles with New Accounts
    • How BRM Calculates Long Billing Cycles
    • Rounding Up Long Billing Cycles
    • Changing How to Handle Partial Billing Cycles
  • Aligning Account and Cycle Start and End Times
  • Including Previous Balances in the Current Amount Due in Open Item Accounting
  • Specifying Which Billing Cycle to Assign to Deferred Purchase Fees
  • About Billing Cycle Forward Fees in Advance
  • About Applying Cycle Forward Fees in Parallel
    • Configuring BRM to Apply Cycle Forward Fees in Parallel
    • About Enforcing Cycle Forward Fee Processing Prior to Billing
    • About Aggregating Service Charges to Account Level Items
    • Handling Skipped Billing
    • Using the pin_bill_day Script to Apply Parallel Cycle Forward Fees
    • About Limitations and Impacts of Applying Cycle Forward Fees in Parallel
  • About Flexible Cycles
    • Configuring Flexible Cycles and Cycle Forward Fees
    • Charging Cycle Forward Fees Associated with Flexible Cycles
    • Prorating Cycle Forward Fees Associated with Flexible Cycles
  • Calculating Product Cycle Fees for Backdating
  • Customizing Accounting Cycles
  • Customizing How to Bill Events That Occur Between Billing Cycles
  • Enabling Product Priority While Applying Cycle Fees
• About Calculating Charges When You Change the Rate
  • About Rate Changes in the Current Cycle
  • About Rate Changes in a Future Cycle
  • Calculating Charges When You Change the Rate in a Cycle
    • Configuring BRM to Apply Multiple Rates in a Cycle
    • Configuring Event Notification for Rate Changes
    • Configuring Event Notification to Create Rerating Requests for Rate Changes
    • Creating Rerating Requests When You Change the Rate
    • Recalculating the Cycle Fees When the Rate Changes
  • Prorating Different Resources When the Rate Changes
• Using 31-Day Billing
  • About Setting the Alternate Billing Day of Month
  • Setting the 31-Day Billing Feature
    • Switching to 31-Day Billing during BRM Installation
    • Switching to 31-Day Billing after You Install BRM
  • Setting the Forward and Back Billing Options
• Customizing Bill and Invoice Numbers
  • Customizing the Format of Bill and Invoice Numbers
  • Specifying When to Apply Custom Bill Numbers
• Configuring Bill Now
  • Selecting the Input for Bill Now
  • Changing the Bill Now Due Date
  • Providing Discounts to Closed Accounts
  • Prorating Cycle Arrears and Cycle Forward Arrears for Bill Now
  • Creating Two Bills during the Delayed Billing Period
  • Calculating Deferred Taxes with Bill Now
  • Customizing Bill Now
  • Applying Discounts and Folds with Bill Now
  • Running Bill Now for a Service
• Disabling Auto-Triggered Billing
  • Disabling Auto-Triggered Billing by Specifying Billing Delay
  • Disabling Auto-Triggered Billing by Setting AutoTriggeringLimit
• Setting Up Delayed Billing
  • Configuring Delayed Billing
    • Specifying the Billing Delay Interval
    • Specifying Auto-Triggered Billing for Delayed Billing
  • Specifying When to Apply Cycle Forward Fees and Cycle Rollovers
  • Enforcing Partial Billing in the Billing Delay Interval
  • Setting Delayed Cycle Start Dates to the 29th, 30th, or 31st
  • Billing Cycle Override
  • Using Pipeline Manager to Trigger Billing
  • Enabling a Billing Delay for Rated Event Loader
• Enabling Rerating and Rollover Correction Due to Delayed Events
  • Modifying Business Parameters to Enable Rerating and Rollover Correction
  • Configuring Event Notification for Rerating and Rollover Correction
• Configuring the BRM Cutoff Time
  • How Billing and Invoicing Are Affected by Changing the Cutoff Time
  • How Rating Is Affected by Changing the Cutoff Time
  • How General Ledger (G/L) Is Affected by Changing the Cutoff Time
  • How Searches Are Affected by Changing the Cutoff Time
  • How TimeStamp Fields Are Affected by Changing the Cutoff Time
  • Configuring the Billing Cutoff Time
• Setting Up Billing for Sponsorship
• Setting Up Billing to Run in a Multischema Environment
  • Running Billing on One Schema at a Time
  • Running Billing on Multiple Schemas Simultaneously
• About Suspending Billing of Accounts and Bills
  • Suspending Billing of Closed Accounts
  • Suspending Billing of an Account's Bill
• Setting up Billing in Subordinate Hierarchies

4 About Proration

• Calculating Prorated Cycle Fees
  • Calculating the Unit Interval
    • Calculating Unit Interval When use_number_of_days_in_month Is Not Set or 0
    • Calculating Unit Interval When use_number_of_days_in_month Is Set to 1
    • Calculating Unit Interval When Billing Day of Month Is 29, 30, or 31
  • Examples of Proration
    • Example 1: Use_number_of_days_in_month Is Not Set or Set to 0
    • Example 2: Use_number_of_days_in_month Is Set to 1
  • Examples Using the 29th, 30th, and 31st for Billing Day of Month
    • Example 3a: Use Forward Option with use_number_of_days_in_month Set to 0
    • Example 3b: Use Forward Option with use_number_of_days_in_month Set to 1
    • Example 3c: Use Back Option with use_number_of_days_in_month Set to 1
    • Example 3d: Use Back Option with use_number_of_days_in_month Set to 0
• Enabling BRM to Apply Proration Rules
• Proration for Special Cases
  • Special Cases
  • Addressing Special Cases
• Calculating Prorated Cycle Fees and Refunds for Customized Products
  • Example 4: Applying a Cycle Forward Fee with a Customized Product
  • Example 5: Refunding a Prorated Cycle Forward Fee with a Customized Product
• About 30-Day-Based Proration
  • Examples of 30-Day-Based Proration
    • Example 6: Prorated Purchase Fee with 31-day Billing Cycle
    • Example 7: Prorated Cancel Fee with 31-day Billing Cycle
    • Example 8: Prorated Purchase Fee with 28-Day Billing Cycle
    • Example 9: Prorated Cancel Fee with 28-Day Billing Cycle
  • Special Cases
    • Example 10: Full Purchase Fee Charged When Service Is Provided for 1 Day Less
    • Example 11: Full Cancel Fee Refunded When Service Has Been Used for 1 Day
  • Enabling 30-Day-Based Proration
• Using Two Events to Prorate Charges for Products Whose Validity Ends in First Cycle
• Prorating Cycle Fees after a Discount Purchase or Cancellation
  • Examples of Cycle Fee Proration
    • Example 12: Cycle Fee Is Refunded after a Discount Purchase
    • Example 13: Free Minutes Are Prorated after a Discount Cancellation
    • Example 14: Canceled Discount Proration Is Not Taken into Account When Product Is Canceled
• Prorating Cycle Fees When a Discount's Cycle Start or End Date Is Changed
  • Examples of Cycle Fee Proration
    • Example 15: Cycle Fee Is Refunded When a Discount's Cycle Start Date Is Changed
    • Example 16: Cycle Fee Is Charged When a Discount's Cycle Start Date Is Changed
    • Example 17: Cycle Fee Is Refunded When Discount's Cycle End Date Is Changed
    • Example 18: Cycle Fee Is Charged When Discount's Cycle End Date Is Changed

5 Managing Bill Units with Your Custom Application

• Opcodes Used with Bill Units
• Creating /billinfo Objects
  • Associating Account Balances with /billinfo Objects
• Updating /billinfo Objects
• Preparing /billinfo Data
  • Assigning Default Billing Information
  • Assigning DOMs to /billinfo Objects
    • Assigning DOM Based on the Billing Segment
    • Customizing the DOM Assignment Process
• Validating /billinfo Data
  • Validating Billing Segment Information
• Suspending and Resuming Billing of Closed Accounts
  • Suspending Billing of Closed Accounts
  • Resuming Billing When Closed Accounts Are Reactivated
• Deleting /billinfo Objects
• Creating /billinfo Object Hierarchy and Sponsorship
• Changing /billinfo Hierarchy and Sponsorship
• Billing Delays for Moved /billinfo Objects

6 Offering the Best Price to Your Customers

• About Offering the Best Price to Your Customers
• How BRM Determines the Best Deal
  • Calculating the Best Price by Using the Best Pricing Opcode
  • About Calculating the Best Deal When Alternate Deal Has a Best Pricing Configuration
  • About Finding the Best Deal in the Middle of a Billing Cycle
  • About Rerating Events to Apply the Best Price
  • About Rerating Events for a Prior Cycle for Which the Best Deal Was Applied
  • Adjusting the Account Balance to Apply the Best Deal
• How BRM Calculates the Best Price for Subscription Groups
  • Calculating the Best Price for Subscription Services
  • Calculating the Best Price for Member Services
• How BRM Calculates the Best Price in Resource Sharing Groups
  • Calculating the Best Price for a Discount Sharing Group
  • Calculating the Best Price for a Charge Sharing Group
• About Applying Exclusion Rules for Deals in a Best Pricing Configuration
  • Mutually Exclusive Deals and Best Pricing
  • Mutually Exclusive Discounts and Best Pricing
• About Keeping Track of Best Pricing Information
• About Configuring BRM to Use Best Pricing
  • Enabling Best Pricing

7 Setting Up Pipeline-Triggered Billing

• About Pipeline-Triggered Billing
  • Pipeline-Triggered Billing Components
  • How Pipeline Manager Triggers Billing
  • About the Pipeline-Triggered Billing Modules
  • About BillHandler
    • Overview of the Immediate Billing Process
  • About Suspending Billing-Trigger EDRs
• Configuring Pipeline-Triggered Billing
  • Setting Up Pipeline Manager to Trigger Billing
  • Setting Up the Billing Batch Applications
    • Configuring Batch Controller to Start BillHandler
    • Configuring BillHandler

8 About Bill Cycle Management

• About Managing Billing Cycles
  • About Billing Segments
  • About Accounting DOM Status
• Implementing Bill Cycle Management
  • Setting Up Billing Segments
    • Editing the Billing Segment Configuration File
    • Updating Billing Segments
  • Associating Bill Units with Billing Segments
    • Changing a Bill Unit's Billing Segment
  • Assigning Accounting Days of Month to Bill Units in Billing Segments
    • Manually Assigning a Billing DOM
    • Automatically Assigning a Billing DOM
    • Changing a Bill Unit's Billing DOM

9 About Bill Run Management

• About Managing Billing Runs
  • About Reducing Billing Run Loads
  • Billing Only Specified Accounts and Bill Units
  • About Managing Bill Due Dates
    • About Payment Terms
    • About Billing Calendars
    • About Billing Run-Time Due Date Adjustments
• Reducing Billing Run Loads
  • Configuring Auto-Triggered Billing for Bill Run Management
  • Splitting a Billing Run into Multiple Runs
    • About Sponsored Charges in Split Billing Runs
    • Including Only Specified Billing DOMs in Billing Runs
    • Including Only Specified Billing Segments in Billing Runs
    • Sample Billing Run Configuration File
    • Validating Your Billing Run Configuration File Edits
• Managing Bill Due Dates
  • About Configurable Bill Due Dates and Delayed Billing
  • Managing Payment Terms
    • Setting Up Payment Terms
    • Editing the Payment Terms Configuration File
    • Updating Payment Terms
    • Updating the pin.conf File to Use Payment Terms
    • Assigning Payment Terms to Bill Units
  • Managing Billing Calendars
    • Setting Up Billing Calendars
    • Editing the Billing Calendar Configuration File
    • Updating Billing Calendars
    • Associating Billing Calendars with Payment Terms
  • Specifying Due Date Adjustments in a Billing Run
    • Editing the Billing Run Configuration File to Adjust Bill Due Dates
    • Sample Billing Run Configuration File
    • Validating Your Billing Run Configuration File Edits
• How BRM Calculates Bill Due Dates
• Customizing Bill Due Date Calculations for Payment Terms
  • Functions for Calculating Payment Due Dates
  • fm_bill_pol_calc_pymt_due_t

10 About Bill Suppression

• About Suppressing Bills
  • About Automatic Bill Suppression
  • About Manual Bill Suppression
  • About Manual Account Suppression
    • Suppressed Accounts versus Inactive Accounts
  • Exceptions to Bill Suppression
    • How Exceptions Affect Manual Bill and Account Suppression
• Automatically Suppressing Bills
  • Setting Up Automatic Bill Suppression
  • Associating Bill Suppression Information with Customer Segments
  • Editing the Bill Suppression Configuration File
    • Sample Bill Suppression Configuration File
    • Validating Your Bill Suppression Configuration File Edits
• Manually Suppressing Bills
• Manually Suppressing Accounts
• How Bill Suppression Works
  • How BRM Determines Whether Bills Should Be Suppressed
  • How BRM Suppresses Bills
  • How BRM Suppresses Accounts
  • How BRM Ends Manual Account Suppression
• Customizing Bill Suppression Exceptions
  • Adding Bill Suppression Exceptions
  • Deleting Bill Suppression Exceptions

11 Creating Custom Bill Items

• About Custom Bill Items
• About Defining Custom Bill Items
• About Tracking Charges in Bill Items
• About Creating /item Objects
• About Assigning Custom Bill Items to Events
  • About Using Event and Service Combinations to Assign Bill Items
  • About Using Event Attributes to Assign Bill Items
• How BRM Assigns Custom Bill Items to Events
  • Cumulative Custom Item for Taxes
  • How Batch Rating Assigns Custom Bill Items
  • How Real-Time Rating Assigns Custom Bill Items
• About Bill Items and Universal Event Loader
• Setting Up BRM to Assign Custom Bill Items to Events
  • Assigning Item Tags Based on Event and Service Combinations
  • Assigning Item Tags Based on Event Attributes
    • Setting Up Batch Rating to Assign Items Based on Event Attributes
    • Setting Up Real-Time Rating to Assign Items Based on Event Attributes
  • Mapping Item Tags to Item Types
    • Verifying Item-Tag-to-Item-Type Mapping
• Assigning Bill Items to Event Balance Impacts
  • How Batch Rating Assigns Custom Bill Items to Events for Balance Impacts
    • Creating a Batch Rating iScript for Balance Impacts
• Creating Custom Sponsored Bill Items
  • Splitting Sponsored Charges into Multiple Items

12 Remitting Funds to Third Parties

• About Remittance
  • About Remittance Products
  • About Defining Remittance Specifications
    • About Remittance Criteria
  • About Calculating Remittance
• Setting Up Remittance
  • Creating a Remittance Product
  • Creating a Remittance Account
  • Loading the Remittance Fields File
  • Defining Remittance Specifications
  • Loading the Remittance Specifications
    • Loading Remittance Specifications on Single-Schema Systems
    • Loading Remittance Specifications on Multischema Systems
• Running Remittance
  • Calculating Remittance
    • Running the Monthly Remittance Script
    • Running the Remittance Utility Separately
  • Creating Remittance Reports
  • Changing the Balance of a Remittance Account
• Using Remittance with Brands
• Using Remittance with Multiple Database Schemas
  • Running Remittance on One Schema at a Time
  • Running Remittance on Multiple Schemas Simultaneously
• Improving Remittance Performance
• Using Remittance for Sales Commissions
• Example of Setting Up a Remittance Specification
• About Customizing Remittance
  • About Adding Custom Remittance Criteria
    • Defining Custom Remittance Fields
    • Specifying Custom Remittance Criteria
  • About Using Custom Ratable Usage Metrics to Calculate Remittance
    • Calculating Remittance Using Custom RUMs
• How Remittance Works
  • Retrieving Remittance Accounts
  • Calculating the Remittance Amount
  • Verifying the Remittance Specification File
  • Customizing Remittance

Part III Running Billing

13 Running Billing Utilities

• About Billing Your Customers
  • Regular Billing Process
  • Corrective Billing Process
• About the Billing Utilities
  • Billing Accounts with the pin_bill_accts Utility
    • When to Run the pin_bill_accts Utility
    • Increasing Performance of the pin_bill_accts Utility
    • Customizing the pin_bill_accts Utility
  • Billing Accounts with the pin_make_corrective_bill Utility
    • When to Run the pin_make_corrective_bills Utility
    • Increasing Performance of the pin_make_corrective_bill Utility
    • Customizing the pin_make_corrective_bill Utility
  • Generating Invoices with the pin_inv_accts Utility
    • When to Run pin_inv_accts
    • Viewing Invoices
    • Emailing or Printing Invoices
  • Prorating Cycle-Forward Fees and Canceling Products with the pin_cycle_fees Utility
    • How the pin_cycle_fees Utility Prorates Cycle Forward Fees
    • When to Run the pin_cycle_fees Utility
    • Informing Customers That a Free Period Has Ended
    • Improving Performance of the pin_cycle_fees Utility
  • Executing Deferred Actions with the pin_deferred_act Utility
    • When to Run the pin_deferred_act Utility
• About Running the Billing Scripts
  • Customizing the Billing Scripts
  • Running Billing
  • What Time to Run Billing Scripts
  • Manually Running the pin_bill_day Script
• Customizing the pin_bill_day Script for Best Pricing Options
  • To Bill Subordinates before Member Discounts
  • To Bill Member Discounts before Subordinates
  • To Apply Cycle Fees for Subordinates and Sponsorship Members in One Run
  • To Apply Cycle Fees for Subordinates, Sponsorship Members, and Discount-Sharing Group Members in One Run
• Specifying Start and End Times
  • Setting Start and End Dates for pin_collect
• Editing Billing Utility Configuration Files
• Editing the Billing Scripts
  • Changing the Path in the Billing Scripts
• Testing Billing
• Running Daily Billing
• Running Weekly Billing
• Running Monthly Billing
• Handling Billing Failures
  • If the Billing Utility Was Interrupted
  • If You Miss a Daily Billing Run
• Running Billing Utilities Manually
• Monitoring Billing Activity
  • Checking for Payment-Processing Errors
  • Maintaining Transmission Logs for Billing Transactions

14 About Trial Billing

• About Trial Billing
  • Comparing Billing and Trial Billing
  • How Trial Billing Works
    • Generating Trial Invoices
    • Collecting Split Revenue Assurance Data
• About Trial Invoices
  • How Trial Invoices Are Stored
  • Using Trial Invoices for Validating Billing Charges
• About Collecting Revenue Assurance Data From Trial Billing
• Running Trial Billing
  • Specifying Accounts for Trial Billing
  • Specifying Bill Units, Billing Segments, and DOMs for Trial Billing
    • Specifying Bill Units for Trial Billing
    • Specifying Accounting DOMs for Trial Billing
    • Specifying Billing Segments for Trial Billing
  • Creating Trial Bills without Generating Trial Invoices
  • Hierarchical and Sponsor Groups for Trial Billing
• Purging Trial Invoices
• Exporting Trial Invoices
• Viewing Trial Invoices
• Improving Trial Billing Performance

Part IV Billing Utilities

15 Billing Utilities

• load_config_item_tags
• load_config_item_types
• load_pin_bill_suppression
• load_pin_billing_segment
• load_pin_calendar
• load_pin_payment_term
• load_pin_remittance_flds
• load_pin_remittance_spec
• pin_bill_accts
• pin_cycle_fees
• pin_cycle_forward
• pin_deferred_act
• pin_make_corrective_bills
• pin_remittance
• pin_rollover
• pin_trial_bill_accts
• pin_trial_bill_purge
• pin_update_items_journals