Oracle Public Sector Financials (International) User Guide Release 12.1 Part Number E13418-03 | Contents | Previous | Next |
Standing Charges in Oracle Public Sector Financials (International) is an extension to standard Receivables that enables the user to enter standing charge agreements. Standing charge agreements are used as a source to create and accurately control periodic invoices. The Standing Charges functionality enables the user to charge customers periodically and automatically create invoices without the need to enter duplicate information. The user can also amend the standing charge agreements and update the standing charge item prices.
The following diagram shows the Standing Charges process flow, as described in the accompanying text.
Standing Charges Process Flow Diagram
Extended system options control creation of the context and segments for the invoice transaction flexfield and line transaction flexfield. If you implement multiple organizations, then the context must be set up for each operating unit.
Receivables uses the transaction flexfields to uniquely identify each transaction and transaction line created by standing charges. Transactions and transaction lines are imported through AutoInvoice.
After entering data in the Extended System Options window, run the Receivables Global: Populate Data program. Select the Standing Charges parameter before running the program.
Billing periods determine the frequency of standing charge invoice creation. Charge periods determine how often items are charged to the customers.
Set up billing and charging periods before entering standing charge items and standing charge agreements. There are four types of period component: Day, Week, Month and Year. If using a combination of components for a standing charge, the relationship must be set up in advance.
For example, there are three different periods set up as follows:
Monthly
Create a period for the component Month, entering the name as Monthly, description as Monthly, Unit of Measure as Month, and the Factor is set to 1.
Quarterly
Create a period for the component Month, entering the name as Quarterly, Description as Quarterly, Unit of Measure as Month, and the Factor is set to 3.
Annually
Create a period for component Annual, entering the name as Annually, Descriptor as Annually, Unit of Measure as Year, and the Factor is set to 1.
For example, Company A agrees with Customer B that charges are applied annually and bills issued quarterly. The relationship is set up as follows:
Billing Period: Quarterly
Charge Period: Annually
If there is a standing charge for another customer that is charged monthly and billed quarterly it is not necessary to set up the relationship between the two periods as they have the same component.
The unit of measure entered for the period is used as the unit of measure for the invoice lines created by Standing Charges.
Creating standing charge items for each operating unit makes it easier to enter standing charge lines as default values can be assigned to each item, for example, charge period, tax code, revenue account, and price. The values are default values and are overridden when standing charge lines are entered.
When there is an agreement with the customer that a charge is invoiced periodically the details of the agreement can be entered in the system. You create items and assign them to an operating unit and a legal entity. The operating unit is derived from the batch source list of values which includes operating unit as display only.
Before entering a standing charge, the following information must be available:
Customer name
Define customers in the Customers window and enable bill-to and ship-to sites. For more information, see Customers, Oracle Receivables User Guide.
Period when standing charge agreement is active
Enter the start and end dates of this period. Invoices are created only during the active period for a given standing charge.
How often the customer is invoiced
Enter a value in the Frequency field. For example, if this value is three months, then an invoice that includes all the charges for the period, is sent every three months to the customer.
How often the customer is charged for a particular item
For example, if the value is monthly and the price of the charge item is 100, then the customer is charged 100 every month. Per the previous example, if the billing frequency is three months, the customer is billed 300 every quarter as the billing period includes three charge periods.
Using invoicing rules
This is identical to the standard Receivables invoicing rule and is based on the same logic. If using an invoicing rule, then the accounting rule and the first accounting date must be assigned to the charge items.
Next Due Date
The Next Due Date is used to calculate the billing periods.
Note: This value cannot be modified after it is defined and invoices are created for the standing charge agreement. This date is updated by the Synchronize Standing Charges program that automatically calculates and updates the Next Due Date field using the value entered in the Frequency field.
Next GL Date
The Synchronize Standing Charges process updates the Next GL Date and the First Date at charge line level if invoicing rules are used. The only difference is that the Next GL Date and the First Date for the accounting rule can be updated and the updated value is used for calculating the GL dates.
For example, if the Next Due Date and the Next GL Date are both 01-JAN-2000 and the frequency is monthly, then after Receivables AutoInvoice creates the invoice for 01-JAN-2000, the Synchronize Standing Charges program updates the Next Due Date and the Next GL Date to 01-FEB-2000.
If the Next GL Date is updated to 10-FEB-2000 and the invoice is created on 01-FEB-2000, then running the Synchronize Standing Charges program updates the Next Due Date to 01-MAR-2000 and the Next GL Date to 10-MAR-2000.
After entering the standing charge agreement in the system the Standing Charges: Preliminary Invoice Register Report can be run to AutoInvoice. The following details are listed as follows:
Charge reference
Customer
Billing period
Charge period
Item code
Price
Tax code
This program populates standing charge invoice data in the AutoInvoice tables. Run the Standing Charges: Preliminary Invoice Register Report with the same batch source and date before submitting the Standing Charges: Generate Interface Data program. The created invoices can be viewed and amended, ensuring that invoices are created with the correct details.
AutoInvoice is a standard Receivables program to import invoices into Receivables from feeder systems. Standing charges uses this program to import standing charge invoices into Receivables. The imported invoices have the same features as standard Receivables invoices and are included in customer accounts and can be listed by standard Receivables reports.
Use the transaction workbench to review the transactions created by Standing Charges and check that the invoices are created with the correct details. Standing charge invoices can be amended before posting them.
Run the Standing Charges: Synchronize Standing Charges program to update the Next Due Date, Next GL Date at header level, and First Date at line level if invoicing rules are used. Running the Standing Charges: Synchronize Standing Charges program ensures that no duplicate invoices are created for the standing charges.
Note: One invoice can be created for each standing charge agreement in a standing charge period cycle. For example, a standing charge agreement has 01-JUN-2000 as the Next Due date and a weekly billing cycle. If the Standing Charges: Generate Interface Data program is run with the parameter Run Date: 01-JUL-2000 and the corresponding batch source, only one invoice is created for the due date 01-JUN-2000 and no invoices are created for subsequent due dates, for example, 08-JUN-2000, 15-JUN-2000.
No new invoices are created if an invoice is created for the standing charge in a period cycle and the Standing Charges: Synchronize Standing Charges program is not run to update the Next Due Date.
Note: The reports Preliminary Invoice Register Report, Generate Interface Data, Auto Invoice and Synchronize Standing Charges Data create data in Oracle Receivables.
Standing charge item prices can be amended at any time on the Standing Charge Items window. The users must enter the new current price and effective date. A record to track item price history is created each time an item price is modified.
Note: Modifying the item price on the Standing Charge Items window only affects newly created standing charges and does not modify the item prices on existing standing charge agreements.
Individual standing charge item prices can be modified on the Standing Charge Details window. Entering a new current price and effective date only modifies the item price for the current standing charge agreement and has no effect on the price of the same item included in another standing charge agreement or the price of future agreements using the same charge item.
The item price update does not modify item prices for the data already transferred to the AutoInvoice tables by generating interface data or the prices of the invoices already imported into Receivables.
Use the Global Price Update window to update the price of one or more items for each accessible operating unit. This is useful when the price of more than one item requires changing by the same amount or percentage or the price of one item must be modified in more than one existing standing charge agreement.
When running the global price update program, there are a number of options that are as follows:
None
Select None if updating item prices only. No standing charges are modified, the new prices apply only to standing charges entered after the effective date.
All
Select All if all the item prices and standing charges including the specific item or range of items require updating.
Default
Select Default if only standing charge lines with default charge item prices require updating.
Review the Preliminary Price Update Report before committing the changes. This report is always submitted when changes are saved on the global price update window. The changes made by the global price update can be viewed in advance using the Global Price Update window, drilling down to review the standing charges affected.
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