This chapter covers the following topics:
Bill Presentment Architecture (BPA) uses rules to determine which template to use to display online or print a bill. When you define a rule, you specify one or more criteria for content item values. You can create different rules to assign templates to present online bills and printed bills.
Each criteria contains:
Attribute Name: An LOV of content items based on selections made in the Header and Footer display area from the primary or supplementary data source. For details on selecting a content item as an assignment attribute, see Selecting Content Items from Views.
Condition: A matching state such as equals, is greater than, greater than or equal to, less than or is less than or equal to.
Value: A user-defined value that occurs on your transactions for the content item selected as the attribute. You can select a value from the list of values, or enter a value.
When you select a bill to view online or print, BPA reviews the rules in the order you specify until it finds a match, and then uses the template associated with the rule to format the bill.
For example, for ABC Company:
If the Bill To City value on the invoice is Seattle, then you want to use Template ABC1.
If the Bill To City is any city other than Seattle, then you want to use Template ABC2.
To do this, you can define one rule called ABC-Seattle, as shown in the following table, and assign it to Template ABC1:
| Attribute Name | Condition | Value |
|---|---|---|
| Customer | equals | ABC Company |
| Bill To City | equals | Seattle |
You define a second rule, shown in the table below, called ABC and assign it to Template ABC2:
| Attribute Name | Condition | Value |
|---|---|---|
| Customer | equals | ABC Company |
When you order the rules, list ABC-Seattle before the ABC rule.
Related Topics
Creating a New Assignment Rule
Assigning a Template to a Rule
BPA provides default rules that assign the default template by Transaction Class or Format depending on the primary data source selected. For example, it assigns the Default Invoice Template to present invoices. If no rule matches attributes and content item values, it applies one of the two default rules based on your primary data source selection:
Default Transaction Rule: The Default Transaction Rule applies if you selected Oracle Receivables as your primary data source and BPA uses the default template to present the bill. This is true for transactions for all supplementary data sources.
Default Balance Forward Rule: The Default Balance Forward Rule applies if you selected Oracle Balance Forward Billing as your primary data source. BPA applies this rule and assigns the Default Balance Forward Summary Template or Default Balance Forward Detail Template depending on the choice of Format.
Note: If BPA does not find a match in any of the rules for a transaction with a supplementary data source other than None, then it reviews the rules associated with the supplementary data source None until a match is found.
You cannot update the Default Rule. If you want to change the template assigned to this rule, then create a new default rule with no attributes and order it before the seeded default rule.
You can create as many rules as you need to assign templates to transactions. Each rule can be composed of one or more attribute matching criteria. You can specify that a bill must match at least one attribute criteria, or must match all criteria, in order to be displayed by the template associated with the rule.
You can create a rule for any enabled data source. You must select a supplementary data source or select None.
To create a new rule:
Enter the name, description, and supplementary data source.
Next, select the order the rule will be applied. You can create different rule order for online and printed bills.
Note: If you are adding the first rule for a data source, the Rule Order section will not be displayed.
Next, select matching criteria. See Selecting Attribute Matching Criteria.
Finally, assign a template to the rule. See Assigning a Template to Rule.
To change the order in which the rules are applied, see: Reordering Rules.
Tip: Create a default assignment rule for each supplementary data source that you use in BPA. Do not add any attributes to the rule. Assign a generic or default template to the rule. The default rule will apply when no other rules match.
Note: If you create a rule for supplementary data source None, then order it before the Default Rule. If the rule for the supplementary data source None follows the default rule, it will never be invoked to assign a template.
For a rule, you can set up matching criteria for one or more attributes. You can specify that all conditions of the rule must be met in order to assign a template to transactions or that the rule will assign a template if any condition is matched.
Important: You must have designated content items to be used as assignment attributes in a previous step. See: Enabling Assignment Attributes.
Select an attribute from the Add Attribute list of values and click Go. BPA filters the list of available conditions for the selected attribute. Next, select the condition for the rule. For information about selecting matching conditions, see Selecting Conditions for Rules.
Then, add the attribute values for the rule. Depending on the type of attribute used in the rule, you can select a value from a poplist, use the flashlight to search for an attribute value, or enter a value. For attributes with numerical or date values, such as Billing Date or Outstanding Balance, enter a value.
When you set up the matching criteria for an attribute in a rule, you can select the condition for which a template is used to display or print bills. The condition must be met for a specified attribute that appears as a content item on your bills. The matching conditions available are:
Equals: Use this condition to match alpha or numeric values exactly, such as Operating Unit equals Vision Brazil.
Greater than, greater than or equal to, less than, and less than or equal to: Use these conditions to match numerical and date values, such as Total Amount greater than or equal to $2500.00 or Billing Date less than 1-MAY-2004. This condition can be used to match alpha values, but it is not recommended.
Starts with: Use this condition to match attributes that begin with the same value, so you don't have to create multiple rules using the equals condition. For example, if you bill several companies affiliated with Business Inc., you can set up a matching criteria, Customer Name like Business to assign the same template to all the related companies. BPA assigns the template for this rule to all customers starting with Business, such Business East, Business North, and Business West.
This condition cannot be used to match numerical values.
Contains: Use this condition to match attribute values that share a word or phrase. For example, if you want to assign a template to all customers with Business as part of the company name, you can set up a matching criteria, Customer Name contains Business. BPA assigns the template for this rule to all customers that have Business as part of the company name, such as Business World, World of Business, and International Business Corporation.
This condition can be used to match alpha values.
Related Topics
Assigning a Template to a Rule
Select the templates that the rule applies to from the list of assigned templates. You must assign a template for at least one transaction class.
There is a tab for each transaction class. BPA filters the available templates based on the supplementary data source, transaction class, and presentment type you select. Since deposits, guarantees, and chargebacks have no supplementary data source, BPA does not display these tabs for rules with a supplementary data source other than None.
Important: For balance forward billing templates you do not choose a transaction class and hence no separate tabs will be seen on screen for balance forward rule.
You can assign the same template for both online and printed bills, or you can assign different templates. To assign the same template for printed bills, select the Duplicate Assignment for Printed Bill option. The list of templates available for the printed bill includes external templates.
When you assign a template to a rule, you enter a range of transaction dates. The bill creation date corresponds to the date when the transaction was created in Receivables.
A bill creation date must be January 1, 1970 or later.
Bill creation dates cannot overlap within a rule. For example, if you assign two templates, Template A and Template B, to a rule, then the bill creation dates for Template A cannot overlap the bill creation dates for Template B.
The Bill Creation From date must be earlier than or equal to the Bill Creation To date.
Note: To assign a template to a rule, you must first click Add Another Row.
When you are assigning templates to rules, remember the following important points:
Only templates with a status of Complete can be assigned to a rule.
For each rule, you must assign at least one template for Online Bills or at least one template for Printed Bills.
Rules that do not have an assigned template will not be available in the shuttle boxes for Reorder Assignment Rules. For example, if a rule has a template assigned for only Printed Bills, it will not appear in the Online Bill reordering box.
If a template is already assigned to a rule and you change the template's status to Incomplete, then the template will no longer be available for assignment. You must reassign a template with a status of Complete to the rule.
If you change the data source for a template that is already assigned to a rule, then the template will no longer be available for assignment.
You cannot delete a template that is assigned to a rule.
A rule, and the templates assigned to it, must have the same supplementary data source.
Related Topics
Creating a New Assignment Rule
BPA applies rules based on the rule order that you define for each supplementary data source. The assignment engine in BPA begins with the first rule and searches until it finds a match. You can change the order of the rules at any time.
If no match is found for a particular supplementary data source, the rules for the supplementary data source None are checked until a match is found. The Default Invoice Rule applies if no other matches are found.
To reorder rules, select the Primary Data Source of the rules to reorder and click Reorder Rules available on the Assignment Rules page. Use the shuttleboxes for online bills and printed bills to change rule order. The Supplementary Data Source LOV will be set to None in case of a Balance Forward Billing template. If an external template is assigned to a rule, then the rule appears only in the Print Bill Available Rules shuttlebox.
Note: If you register a supplementary data source that has the same interface context as a seeded data source, then BPA will apply the rules created for the custom data source before the rules associated with the seeded data source.
In other words, the assignment engine will review the list of rules for the custom data source before reviewing the rules for the seeded data source. The rule order for each data source, however, will still apply.
Note: Only rules with assigned templates appear in the reordering shuttleboxes
Note: If you create a rule initially only for online bills, but later update the rule to apply to printed bills also, the rule is placed at the bottom of the list of rules for printed bills. You can change the rule order using the Reorder button. This is true also if you initially assign a rule only for printed bills and later assign the rule for online bills.
Related Topics
Creating a New Assignment Rule
Assigning a Template to a Rule
Working with Bill Presentment Architecture
Internal users and external customers can view bills online using Oracle Receivables, Oracle iReceivables, Oracle Collections. or other calling application. When a user selects a transaction number, or icon if available, the assignment engine in Bill Presentment Architecture (BPA) determines which template to use to display the bill.
When viewing a bill, all the features and functionality of BPA's Interactive Preview, such as drilldown to transaction details, or iReceivables, such as creating a dispute, printing bills, or making a payment, are available to the user.
To learn more about iReceivables, see: Oracle iReceivables Implementation Guide.
Related Topics
Preview, Creating a New Template
Bill Presentment Architecture Profile Options
Working with Bill Presentment Architecture
Use attachments to let internal users and external customers attach and view documents on online bills. An attachment document can be an image or data file, hyperlink, or text. To include an attachment, add the Attachment content item to a template. This content item is available only for the Oracle Receivables Invoice Header data source view. Add this content item to the header or footer of a template.
When adding an attachment to a transaction, select the document category, or add additional categories for attachments specific to BPA. See About Attachments, Oracle Applications User's Guide.
You can control whether users can view, or view and update, attachments by setting the AR: BPA Attachments Update Enabled profile option.
Related Topics