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Creating Charge Consolidation Plans

You can create customized invoices by creating a charge consolidation plan that searches for and consolidates charges by using predefined criteria, such as account and currency. To automatically generate customized invoices, perform the procedure in this topic, and see Setting Up Auto-Invoice.

A charge consolidation plan consolidates all charges for a charge schedule into a single invoice. You can use this plan to define the charges that are included in an invoice for the invoice period. Ideally, when a service package is associated with a charge consolidation plan, a monthly invoice is created for the recurring and nonrecurring charges. For more information, see About Processing Logic for Generating Invoices and FS Charge Consolidation Business Service.

To specify the charges to include on an invoice for the invoice period, define the following information:

• A schedule that determines when consolidation occurs.
• Consolidation rules that determine the charges that appear on invoices.

  You can restrict the invoice charges to those charges that meet the specified rule criteria. You can consolidate the charges by account name, activity type, agreement, currency code, organization ID, or service request ID. All of the charges applicable to either the activities or the recurring and nonrecurring charges for the agreement are consolidated into a single invoice. This consolidation reduces the requirement for providing multiple invoices to the customer at different billing addresses over a time period.

To use the charge consolidation plan, activate the FS - Charge Consolidation workflow. For more information about activating workflows, see Siebel Business Process Framework: Workflow Guide.

This task is a step in Process of Administering Invoices.

To create a charge consolidation plan

1. Navigate to the Administration - Contracts screen, then the Charge Consolidation Plans view.
2. Create a new charge consolidation plan record, and complete the fields as appropriate.

   Some fields are described in the following table.

   Field	Comments
   Start Date	Select the starting date for charges. Charges dated after this date, and before the ending date, are included in the invoice for the charge consolidation plan.
   End Date	Select the ending date for charges. Charges dated after this date are excluded in the invoice for the charge consolidation plan.
   Released	Select this check box to release the charge consolidation plan and make it active and available for use.
   Last Invoiced	Select the last invoiced date. When a charge consolidation plan is released, the Last Invoiced field value is set to the Start Date field value.
   Next Invoice Date	Select the date on the next invoice. When a charge consolidation plan is released, or an invoice is created, this field is recalculated according to the schedule.
   Use Bill To Account Flag	Select this check box to create a new invoice for each unique bill-to account on the service request or agreement instead of invoicing the account address.

3. In the More Info view, complete the fields as appropriate.

   Some fields are described in the following table.

   Field	Comments
   Advance To	Select the date up to which to execute the charge consolidation plan. For example, select the 20th day of the month to create invoices on the 10th of the following month that include charges up to and including the 20th day of the month.
   Payment Term	Select the payment term for the charge consolidation plan (for example, Net 30).
   Currency Code	Select the currency code of the invoice to create using the charge consolidation plan.

4. Click the Consolidation Rule view tab.
5. Create a new consolidation rule record, and complete the fields as appropriate.

   Some fields are described in the following table.

   Field	Comments
   Sequence Number	Displays the sequence number of the consolidation rule. This field is not important in the consolidation process because if the consolidation rule contains multiple criteria records, then the records are evaluated using the AND relationship.
   Name	Select the name of the consolidation rule. Typically, this name denotes the charge field for comparison purposes in the rule. You can select Search Spec in this field to define a search specification in the Value field.
   Operand	Select the criteria applicable to the field in the Name field. If the rule operand is =, LIKE, or NOT LIKE, then you must enter a value in the Value field.
   Value	Type the value to compare with the field in the Name field. If the rule operand is =, LIKE, or NOT LIKE, then you must enter a value in this field.