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Billing

This chapter describes the procedures for handling customer inquiries about their invoices, usually performed by customer service representatives (CSRs). Using Siebel eCommunications, CSRs can retrieve past invoices, current unbilled charges, and other invoice details. CSRs can also arrange payment plans, record payments against an outstanding balance, or request adjustments to the customer's records in the event of an incorrect bill.

Administrators involved with billing will benefit from reading this chapter. It describes how your CSRs access billing information and update billing accounts. After becoming familiar with the end-user procedures, you can customize the software to fit your company's needs.

Billing processes are integrated with an external billing system that Siebel eCommunications accesses to retrieve information, such as the customer's last statement. That information is stored temporarily in Siebel database tables.

Performance of the billing screens depends on both the configuration and speed of retrieval from the external billing system. Configurators can set up Siebel eCommunications so that all messages are sent and received from the back-office application in real-time or batch mode. The results of these messages can also be stored in Siebel eCommunications database tables, allowing CSRs to resolve them in real-time.

Your company is responsible for performing the integration of Siebel eCommunications with billing systems. For detailed information, see Overview: Siebel eBusiness Application Integration Volume I.

For instructions on setting up profiles that are used to run credit ratings, record billing preferences, or store tax exemption information, see Profiles.


 Siebel eCommunications Guide 
 Published: 23 June 2003