Implementing Charges

This chapter, which is relevant only to the Oracle Forms-based module, describes the setup and configuration tasks required to successfully implement the Charges module of Oracle TeleService.

This chapter covers the following topics:

Overview of Charges

Charges is a component of the Oracle TeleService application that is used by many Oracle applications including Oracle Field Service and Oracle Depot Repair.

Using Charges you can:

Charges features make it possible to:

Key user procedures for Charges are outlined in Charges User Procedures.

Architecture of Charges

Charges is available only for the Oracle Forms-based Service Request window.

It integrates with the following Oracle applications:

The following diagram illustrates the architecture and data flow for Charges:

the picture is described in the document text

Charges integrates with Oracle Order Management for returns, shipments, and billing through APIs provided by Oracle Quoting. When you book an order (shipment or return), Oracle Quoting APIs pass the order to Oracle Order Management, an application that determines how the order is filled and shipped. Oracle Quoting APIs then give you a confirmation number that is displayed in the Charges window in the Line Number field. After the invoice cycle is complete, the invoice number and the invoice date are also displayed on the Order Status tabbed page of the Charges window in the Invoice Number and Invoice Date fields respectively. If an order line is split in Oracle Order Management, then Charges displays the status of the first line.

Oracle Service Contracts, Oracle Inventory, and Oracle Installed Base integrate directly with Charges, whereas Oracle Field Service Debrief, Oracle Advanced Pricing, and Oracle Depot Repair communicate with Charges through Charges APIs. Oracle Advanced Pricing communicates with Charges through Oracle Quoting APIs.

Setting Up Charges Process Overview

This procedure provides an overview of the major steps required to set up the Charges module of Oracle TeleService. Follow the references in each step for details.

Prerequisites:

You must complete implementation of the following applications:

The following are optional:

To set up Charges:

  1. Set up or verify the setups of your inventory items. The application uses inventory items not only for tracking physical items but also for pricing labor and expenses. You set up labor items in Oracle Inventory and price them using price lists in Oracle Advanced Pricing. See Setting Up Items in Oracle Inventory.

  2. Implement Oracle Order Management. For example, you must set up Line Types, Defaulting Rules, and Oracle Workflow processes assigned to the different line types and headers.

  3. Set up labor schedules for pricing labor in Oracle Service Contracts and a default schedule for labor not covered by contract. See About Setting Up Labor Schedules for Pricing Labor.

  4. Set up any discounts for the labor items within Oracle Service Contracts. See the Oracle Service Contracts Implementation Guide for details.

  5. Set up the rules for defaulting the operating unit, the financial entity that is used for billing and receiving payments from the customer. See Setting Up Rules for Defaulting the Operating Unit.

  6. Set up business processes, service activities, and billing types as described in Setting Up Business Processes, Service Activities, and Billing Types.

  7. To have agents ship or receive items tracked by Oracle Installed Base, you must set up the Installed Base Transaction Subtypes. See About Topics Relating to Charges and Oracle Installed Base.

  8. Optionally, you can modify the way charges are displayed on customer invoices. See Modifying the Display of Charges on Customer Invoices.

  9. Specify how you want Oracle Order Management to handle Charges orders by setting the system profile Service: Charges Book Order Automatically at the site level:

    • Set to Yes to add charges to booked orders or automatically create orders in Oracle Order Management with a status of Booked.

      If there is an existing booked order for the bill to party, then the application adds charges to it.

      If there are no booked orders, Charges creates a new order and books it automatically. This is true even if there are open Entered orders.

    • The default setting of No keeps the orders in the Entered status. The order must be booked before the customer is billed.

      If there is an open Entered order for the bill to party, then the application adds charges to it.

      If there are only Booked orders or if there are no open orders at all, then Charges creates a new order.

  10. If you are using Oracle Field Service, you can automate the submission of charges to Oracle Order Management.

About the Topics on Business Process, Service Activity, and Billing Type Setup

This section explains how to set up the classification system your agents use to enter the labor, parts, and expenses that are processed, shipped, and billed through Oracle Order Management.

This section covers:

Key Charges Concepts

To enter a charge line, an agent must select:

  1. A business process

  2. A service activity

  3. An inventory item

  4. If the item is a physical item which is tracked by Oracle Installed Base, such as a product being returned for repair, then the agent may also be required to enter an instance number.

Business Process

A business process provides a general classification of the work performed. Examples include depot repair, field service, and customer support. The business process is the first entry agents make on a charge line.

Service Activity

Each business process is associated with a list of activities that can be performed as part of that process.

For example, if the business process involves the shipment of a replacement piece of equipment to the customer, the return of the defective equipment, and the installation of the new piece of equipment at the customer site by a field service technician, then you may wish to set up three activities "Ship Replacement", "Return Defective Equipment", "Install Replacement Equipment".

You must classify each activity as either of type order or of type return. Order activities can be related to bill-only lines, or the shipment of items to customers. Return activities are used for recording customer returns of items they own.

In the above case the Ship Replacement and Install Replacement Equipment are activities of type order. The Return Defective Equipment is of type return.

Service activities are reusable: you can associate one activity to multiple business processes.

The activity the agent selects determines which inventory items they can enter in the charge line. However, activities restrict the list of inventory items only indirectly through an inventory classification called a billing type.

Billing Types

Billing types are used to categorize items in inventory for use in service applications. For example, you associate the labor billing type with all of the different labor rates in inventory, and the material billing type with all of the parts and equipment in inventory that can be sold to customers.

By associating billing types with service activities you determine what items an agent can enter in a charge line for a given activity.

You can associate multiple billing types to a single service activity. For example, a repair activity may have billing types of material (the parts used in the repair), labor, and expenses (travel).

Note: You can create your own billing types for material and expenses, but you must use the seeded Labor billing type for all labor.

You may choose to associate the Ship Replacement activity from the above example, with two billing types: material (the new piece of equipment) and expense (shipping charges).

The Return Defective Equipment activity may just have one billing type: material (the equipment being returned).

The Install Replacement Equipment activity may be associated with three billing types: Material (for any additional parts needed by the field technician), labor (the labor involved in installing the new equipment), and expenses (any non-itemized costs).

The application comes with several billing types defined for you, but you can add as many additional billing types as you like by modifying the lookup code MTL_SERVICE_BILLABLE_FLAG.

For an item to appear in the list of items in Charges, you must associate it with a billing type.

Billing Categories

If you have created any additional billing types, you must classify them as either material or expense. (Charges does not support any additional labor billing types, only the seeded Labor billing type.) The categorization, using Billing Categories, ensures it is processed correctly by Charges and other applications that use Charges, including Oracle Field Service.

Business Processes, Service Activities, and Billing Types in Contracts

Business processes, together with service activities and billing types, are used by Oracle Contracts to specify the level of coverage and discounts for a customer. A contract may cover different business processes differently. For example, a customer's service-level agreement may provide free customer support over the phone, offer a 10 percent discount for in-house depot repairs, but charge the customer fully for field service visits.

Process Overview for Business Process, Service Activity and Billing Types Setup

This topic outlines the major steps you need to perform to set up the business processes, service activities, and billing types classification system.

To set up business processes, service activities, and billing types

  1. The application includes seeded material, labor, and expense billing types, but you can set up additional expense and material billing types following the procedure described in Setting Up Additional Service Billing Types. You must use the seeded Labor billing type for all labor.

  2. You must classify any additional billing types you have created as material, or expense by associating them with Billing Categories. Charges does not support any additional labor billing categories. See Associating Billing Types with Billing Categories.

  3. Set up the service activities as described in Setting Up Service Activities. This involves:

    1. Defining the service activities and associating each with all the billing types used for that activity. This restricts agent choices of inventory items to those associated with the billing types you associate here.

    2. To ensure that the items entered are processed through Oracle Order Management, you must associate each service activity and billing type pair with at least one operating unit and specify the header and line type for the order.

    3. For any activity that involves the shipment or receipt of items tracked by Oracle Installed Base, you must set up a corresponding Oracle Installed Base transaction subtype according to the procedure described in Setting Up Installed Base Transaction Subtypes.

  4. Set up the business processes agents will use to classify work for the customer and associate them with appropriate activities. For more information, see:

Setting Up Additional Service Billing Types

Use this procedure to set up additional service billing types. You can create as many material or expense billing types as you need. Charges does not support additional labor billing types.

To set up additional service billing types

  1. Under the Service responsibility, navigate to the Others, Customer Support Lookups.

  2. Using the Query By Example method, display the lookup type MTL_SERVICE_BILLABLE_FLAG.

  3. Enter the additional billing types. The Meaning field is what appears in the lists of values.

  4. Save your work.

  5. You must now classify the billing types you have created as Material or Expense. See Associating Billing Types with Billing Categories.

Associating Billing Types with Billing Categories

Use this procedure to classify any billing types you have created as Material or Expense. Only billing types associated with these billing categories are available for use in service applications.

To associate billing types with billing categories

  1. Under the Service responsibility, navigate to Setup, Charges, Billing Type Attributes.

    The Billing Type Attributes window appears.

    the picture is described in the document text

  2. Enter the billing type using the Billing Type list of values (LOV).

  3. Classify the billing type as either a Material or Expense using the Billing Category LOV.

  4. It is not necessary for you to enter dates in the Start Date and End Date fields as this controls the availability of the billing type to category mapping and not the billing type itself. The start date is populated for you automatically.

  5. Using the Rollup Item LOV you can specify a single item to appear on customer invoices as a substitute for all of the items classified by the billing type. For example, substituting the general term "Overtime" for multiple overtime labor rates. For an explanation of roll-up items, see Modifying the Display of Charges on Customer Invoices.

Setting Up Service Activities

Use this procedure to set up service activities that field-service, depot, and call center agents use to classify work performed on behalf of a customer.

Note: You must create separate activities of type order for Oracle Field Service (Debrief) and Oracle TeleService Charges module if a customer's installed base is being updated. This is because Oracle Field Service and Oracle TeleService update the customer's installed base separately.

To set up a service activity

  1. Under the Service responsibility, navigate to Setup, Charges, Service Activities and Billing Types.

    The Service Activities and Billing Types window appears.

    the picture is described in the document text

  2. Click New in the toolbar.

  3. Enter a name and an optional description in the Service Activity and Description fields.

  4. Specify if this activity is related to an order or a return by making a selection with the Line Category LOV. This setting prevents a single service activity from being used for an order in one operating unit and a return in another.

  5. If you plan to use this activity in Oracle Depot Repair, then select the Oracle Depot Repair Quantity update check box.

  6. If this activity does not incur any charges to the customer, then select the No Charge check box. The item still appears on the customer invoice but with no charge. You are setting up the default value only. The agent can change it when they enter a charge.

  7. If this activity is not billed to customers but has to be entered as a charge line by agents for costing purposes (for example, for tracking travel expenditures), then deselect the OM Interface check box. If this check box is unselected, then charges for it do not appear on the customer invoice.

    Leaving the check box selected (the default value) means the customer is billed for any charges for this activity.

    The setting you select is the default value only. The agent can change the status of this check box when they enter a charge.

  8. Select the Travel Flag check box to create travel debrief lines for the service activity in the Field Service Technician portal.

  9. Specify the billing types that can be used with the service activity. You can have multiple billing types for a single activity. For example, the replacement of a defective part may include material (the part itself), the labor required to install it, and expenses for shipping or travel. For each Billing type:

    1. With the activity selected, place your cursor in the Billing Types region and click New in the toolbar.

    2. Select the billing type using the Name LOV.

    3. Optionally, you can control the availability of the billing type by entering dates in the Start Date and End Date fields.

  10. For each activity and billing type pair, enter all of the operating units together with the Oracle Order Management order and line types. You may have multiple operating units if, for example, you have a central support center that is dispatching repair crews or parts from different locations (operating units):

    Note: The Operating Unit is an entity used by financial applications to create, process, and report on financial data. It is not the same as an Inventory Organization, an organization for which you track inventory transactions and balances, and/or an organization that manufactures or distributes products.

    1. Select the activity and one of the billing types you have associated to the activity in the previous step.

    2. In the Order Management Header and Line types region, enter the operating unit, order type, and line type that will be used by Oracle Order Management to process the order. Repeat this step for each possible operating unit.

    3. Repeat this procedure for each of the billing types associated with the activity.

  11. If agents are going to be using the activity you have set up to enter items tracked by the Oracle Installed Base, then you must set up the activity as an Oracle Installed Base transaction type. See Setting Up Installed Base Transaction Subtypes.

  12. Associate the activities to business processes. See Associating Service Activities to Business Processes.

    Business processes are required both for Charges and for defining Oracle Service Contracts' coverage templates and the default service level agreement. Coverage templates specify your organization's contractual obligations to customers including response times, resolution times, and discounts.

Associating Service Activities to Business Processes

Use this procedure to associate service activities to business processes.

Prerequisites:

You must first set up:

To associate service activities to business processes

  1. Under the Service responsibility, navigate to Setup, Charges, Service Business Process.

    The Service Business Process window appears.

  2. Use the query by example method (View, Query by Example) to display the business process you want to set up.

  3. Associate the service activities to the business process in the Service Activities region.

Setting Up Items in Oracle Inventory

Use this procedure as a guideline for:

Prerequisites:

To set up inventory items

  1. Under the Inventory responsibility, navigate to Items, Master Items.

    The Organizations list of values window appears.

  2. Select the Inventory organization in profile option ASO: Product Organization.

    The Master Items window appears.

  3. Follow the steps described in Oracle Inventory User's Guide to set up your items or verify that existing items have been set up correctly. The following entries and settings are important for service applications:

    • Main Tab

      • Enter item name and description in the Item and Description fields.

      • Entries in the Unit of Measure region are used as the default units of measure in Charges.

    • Inventory Tab

      • Inventory Item check box: Select for all items.

      • Stockable check box: Select for tangible inventory items only. Leave unselected for labor and expense items.

      • Transactable check box: Select for tangible inventory items only. Leave unselected for labor and expense items.

    • Order Management Tab

      • Customer Orders Enabled check box: select for all items.

      • Shippable check box: Select for physical items. Leave unselected for labor and expense items.

  4. Select the Service Tab.

    the picture is described in the document text

  5. In the Service region, make one or more of the following optional entries:

    • To make it possible for agents to create service requests for this item, select Enabled from the Service Request drop-down list.

    • To make it possible to apply service contracts for this item, select the Enable Contract Coverage check box. You must also select Track in Installed Base check box before you can apply service contracts to it.

    • Select Enable Defect Tracking only if your organization uses Oracle Quality Online.

    • Select Enable Provisioning if this item can be delivered through electronic fulfillment by the Oracle Service Fulfillment Manger (SFM).

  6. In the Installed Base region, make one or more of the following optional entries:

    • Select the Track in Installed Base check box to track this item via Oracle Installed Base.

    • If you have selected the Track in Installed Base check box, then you can select the Create Fixed Asset check box to create a depreciable inventory asset used in Oracle Asset Tracking. See Oracle Asset Tracking documentation for more information.

  7. In the Debrief and Charges region:

    1. Select the Enable Service Billing check box.

    2. Use the Billing Type drop-down box to select a billing type for the item.

      Selecting a billing type makes it possible for agents to enter the item in the Task Debrief (Oracle Field Service) and the Charges tab (Oracle TeleService). It also makes it possible for you to define discounts for the item in Oracle Service Contracts.

      Note: The Recovered Part Disposition drop-down box is reserved for future use by Oracle Spares Management.

  8. Leave the Service Contracts Region blank. This region is used for creating contracts as inventory items. Specifying a Billing Type for an inventory item means that the item can be covered by a contract.

Guidelines for Setting Up Items in Inventory

The tables below provide you with guidelines for Item Master setups for the three possible types of inventory items: parts, labor, and expenses.

Main Tab

The following table describes the setups on the Main tab of the Item Master window:

Type of Inventory Item Name Unit of Measure
Part Entry Required Entry Required
Labor Entry Required Entry Required
Expense Entry Required Entry Required

Inventory Tab

The following table describes the setups on the Inventory tab of the Item Master window:

Type of Inventory Item Inventory Item check box Stockable check box Transactable check box
Part Selected Selected Selected
Labor Selected Unselected Unselected
Expense Selected Unselected Unselected

Order Management Tab

The following table describes the setups on the Order Management tab of the Item Master window:

Type of Inventory Item Customer Orders Enabled check box Shippable check box
Part Selected Selected
Labor Selected Unselected
Expense Selected Unselected

Service Tab (Service Region)

The following table describes the setups in the Service region on the Service tab of the Item Master window:

Type of Inventory Item Service Request drop-down list selection Enable Contract Coverage check box Enable Defect Tracking check box
Part Enabled Selected Select only if your organization uses Oracle Quality Online.
Labor Enabled Unselected Unselected
Expense Enabled Unselected Unselected

Service Tab (Installed Base region)

The following table describes the setups in the Installed Base region of the Service tab on the Item Master window:

Type of Inventory Item Track in Installed Base check box Create Fixed Asset check box
Part Enable this check box if the item is to be tracked by Oracle Installed Base. Select only if you selected the Installed Base Tracking check box and the item is a depreciable asset in Oracle Asset Tracking.
Labor Unselected Unselected
Expenses Unselected Unselected

Service Tab (Debrief and Charges region)

The following table describes the setups in the Debrief and Charges region of the Service tab on the Item Master window:

Type of Inventory Item Enable Service Billing check box Billing Type drop-down list
Part Selected Select a billing type
Labor Selected Select a billing type
Expense Selected Select a billing type

References:

Oracle Inventory User's Guide

About Setting Up Labor Schedules for Pricing Labor

Labor schedules determine what your organization charges for labor at different times. There are two places where you can define labor schedules: in Oracle Service Contracts (optional) and in Charges (required).

You must set up the default labor schedule in Charges for each business process as described in this procedure only if your organization is charging customers for labor using the Debrief window in Oracle Field Service or Oracle Depot Repair.

This setup is required because Debrief does not require agents to select the applicable labor item (the labor rate for the work performed).

This topic covers:

How Charges Determines Labor Charges

The application charges for Oracle Field Service labor in three steps:

  1. Agents debrief labor in the Debrief window. Entry of the labor item (containing the applicable labor rate) is optional.

  2. If the labor item is not specified, the application determines it based on:

    1. The labor schedule from the service contract selected for the charge line. This schedule is entered in the Oracle Service Contracts' Billing Rates window. See Setting Up the Labor Schedule in Contracts.

    2. The default labor schedule you create using the procedure described in Setting Up the Default Labor Schedule.

      If the agent has worked across multiple time periods specified in a labor schedule, then the application creates multiple charge lines.

      Suppose, for example, you create a labor schedule with regular time between 8 a.m. and 4:59 p.m.; overtime to be between 5 p.m. and 7:59 p.m.; and double time after 8 p.m. If an agent reports they have worked between 4 p.m. and 9 p.m., then the application creates three charge lines for the customer: one hour of regular time, three hours of overtime, and one hour of double time.

  3. The application determines the price.

    The price can be based on the price list alone or, if a contract is specified, in combination with a labor rate. A labor rate modifies or overrides the price list price: you can either specify a percent over or under the price list price or a flat currency amount which overrides the price list price. The labor rate pricing is available only when there is a contract specified for the charge line.

    The concurrent program CSF: Update Debrief Lines creates the charge lines from debrief lines when a task assignment status is changed to Completed, Closed, Cancelled, Rejected, or On Hold.

    For charges lines entered directly in the service request and in Oracle Depot Repair, the application looks up the price directly as described in step 3 above.

Setting Up the Contract Labor Schedule

If your organization uses Oracle Service Contracts together with Charges, then you can set up a labor schedule in each contract.

The steps below provide a guideline for entries important to Charges only. Refer to Oracle Service Contracts Implementation Guide for more details about this and other contracts-related setups.

Guidelines for setting up the labor schedule

  1. Under the Contracts Manager Responsibility, navigate to Launch Contracts.

  2. To set up the labor schedule in a single contract:

    1. Select the contract you wish to set up and display it in the Service Contracts Authoring window.

    2. Select the Lines Tab.

    3. Select the Effectivities subtab.

    4. Select the service coverage item and click Edit Coverage in the Coverage Region.

      The Service Contracts Coverage window appears.

    5. Select the Billing Types subtab.

    6. Select the Business Process and the Service Activity Billing Type pair you wish to set up. The Billing Type must have the Billing Category of Labor.

    7. Click Billing Rates to display the Billing Rates window.

  3. If you are setting up the labor schedule for a contract template, then navigate to the Billing Rates window following the instructions in Oracle Service Contracts Implementation Guide.

    the picture is described in the document text

  4. If you are pricing labor based on labor inventory items, then, on the Regular tab, set up the labor charges for different days and times as follows:

    Note: Make sure the start and end times do not overlap.

    1. Enter the start and end time for the rate.

    2. Select the days this rate is applicable using the check boxes for the days of the week.

    3. Select the labor item to be applied for this time period using the Labor Item LOV.

    4. Leave the rest of the fields blank.

  5. To use the labor rates in the contract to override or modify the price, set up the labor charges for different days and times on the Regular tab as follows:

    Note: Make sure the start and end times do not overlap.

    1. Enter the start and end time for each rate.

    2. Select the days this rate is applicable using the check boxes for the days of the week.

    3. Select the labor Inventory item using the Labor Item LOV.

    4. Use the Bill Rate LOV to enter the bill rate. The list of values is based on a lookup.

    5. To specify a price for this rate, enter the currency amount in the Flat Rate field and select a unit using the UOM LOV. Do not make any entries in the %Over List Price field. This price you enter here overrides the price list price for this contract.

    6. To specify a discount or a surcharge for this rate, enter a positive or a negative percentage in the %Over List Price field. A positive number increases the rate an agent enters. A negative number decreases the amount. Do not make any entries in the Flat Rate or UOM fields.

  6. Repeat the entries you made on the Regular tab on the Holiday tab to set up the holiday rates.

  7. Click OK to save and close the window when you are done.

Setting Up the Default Labor Schedule

Use this procedure to set up the labor schedule that is used by charges to supply a missing labor item when none is found in the customer contract or when there is no contract specified for the charge line. You must set up one default labor schedule for each business process.

To set up the time and material labor schedule for a business process

  1. Under the Service responsibility, navigate to Setup, Charges, T&M Labor Schedule.

    The Time & Material Labor Schedule window appears.

    the picture is described in the document text

  2. Use the Business Process LOV to select the service business process.

  3. Specify the different labor times and their pricing. For each, line:

    1. Enter the start and end times.

      Note: Make sure that the start and end times of your entries do not overlap.

    2. Select the days the line is applicable using the check boxes for the days of the week.

    3. Select the labor item to be applied for this time period using the Labor Item LOV.

    4. If you are using labor rates in your contracts, then select a billing rate using the Labor Rate LOV.

      Note: Labor Rate in this window is the same field as the Bill Rate field in the Contracts' Billing Rates window.

      Note: You do not enter a currency rate (Flat Rate) or discount (% Over List Price) for the rate here, the application looks these up in a customer contract instead. Please see Oracle Service Contracts documentation for details.

  4. Click Save in the toolbar.

  5. Click Validate Setup to validate your entries.

    If your entries do not overlap and the coverage is complete, then a check mark appears in the Validation Completed check box.

Restricting Agent Use of Operating Units for Charge Lines

By default, agents can submit charges against any operating unit to Oracle Order Management. (The charge line defaults an operating unit according to the rules you specify in Setting Up Rules for Defaulting the Operating Unit, but the agent can select a different one using the list of values.)

You can restrict the ability of agents to submit charges against operating units by setting up a security profile and entering that security profile in the system profile MO: Security Profile.

Charges enforces the chosen security profile and provides an error message whenever agents attempt to submit to Oracle Order Management a charge for an operating unit that is not permitted by the security profile.

See Oracle Applications Multiple Organizations Implementation Guide for information on setting up security profiles.

Setting Up Rules for Defaulting the Operating Unit

When agents enter a charge line, the application automatically supplies a default operating unit based on the rules you set up in this procedure. The operating unit is the financial entity used for billing and receiving payments from the customer.

To set up the rules for defaulting the operating unit

  1. Navigate to Setup, Charges, Multi Org Setup.

    The Service Request Multi Org Set Up window appears.

    the picture is described in the document text

  2. Enter the sequence in which you wish Charges to look for the value of the defaulted operating unit.

    Rule Name Description
    Operating Unit of the Contract If a contract is associated with the service request, then charges uses the operating unit of the contract.
    Operating Unit of the Installed Base Product If the service request concerns an Oracle Installed Base item, then charges defaults the operating unit of the item.
    Profile Option: Service Default Operating Unit Charges uses the operating unit selected in system profile Service: Default Operating Unit.
    Operating Unit Stamped on the Service Request Charges uses the operating unit associated with the service request.
    Operating Unit of the Account Site The application derives the site operating unit from the bill to party site and the account number.

    The application defaults the first operating unit it finds. For example, if you enter the sequence of 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5, then the application first looks for the operating unit in a valid contract. If there is no contract available, then it checks to see if the service request is for an Oracle Installed Base item, and so on until it finds the operating unit.

  3. Click Save on the toolbar to save your entries.

Modifying the Display of Charges on Customer Invoices

Normally the customer receives an invoice detailing all of the individual items agents have entered as charges.

You can use this procedure to create an inventory item with a generic name, called a Rollup Item, to appear on customer invoices instead of the individual inventory items in a billing type. The roll-up item does not change what customers are charged, it affects only the name of the item printed on the invoice.

Suppose you have three different overtime labor items, Labor 1, Labor 2, Labor 3, all associated with the Labor billing type.

Normally, if the agent specifies the engineer worked for two hours at Labor 1 rate, three hours at the Labor 2 rate, and one hour at the Labor 3 rate, then the customer sees three items on the bill:

By setting up a new inventory item Overtime Labor with the Labor billing type, and creating a roll-up item using the procedure below, the customer bill substitutes Overtime Labor for each of the lines:

Prerequisites:

You must know the correct inventory organization

To set up an inventory item to modify the display of charges in customer invoices

  1. Under the Inventory, Vision Operations responsibility, navigate to Items, Master Items and set up the replacement items you wish to appear on the customer invoice. See Setting Up Inventory Items.

  2. Switch to the Service responsibility, and navigate to Setup, Charges, Billing Type Attributes.

    The Billing Type Attributes window appears.

    the picture is described in the document text

  3. Use the Billing Type list of values (LOV) to select the billing type for the inventory items you wish to summarize.

  4. Select the inventory item you wish to use as the roll-up item using the Rollup Item LOV.

  5. Save your work.

Setting Up Charges System Profiles

Use this general procedure to set up any of the Charges profiles.

To set up system profiles

  1. Under the Service responsibility, navigate to Others, Profile System Values.

    The Find System Profile Values window appears.

  2. In the Profile field, enter the search criteria. For example: "Service%charges%".

  3. Click Find.

    The profiles matching your search criteria appear in the System Profile Values window.

About Setting Up Remaining Charges System Profiles

Setting up the remaining Charges system profiles to control Charges behavior includes:

Setting Up the Default Sort Order on the Charges Tab

Agents can decide how to sort the charges displayed in the tab by making a selection from the Sort By drop-down list. You can set up the default value by setting the system profile Service: Charges Default Sort Order to any one of the following:

By default, this system profile is set to Creation Date.

Defaulting the Service Request Business Process

Charges automatically defaults the business process from the service request into the charges lines when the system profile “Service: Charges - Default Service Business Process from SR” is set to “Yes”, the default seeded value. If you set this profile to “No”, the agent must always enter the business process manually.

Specifying the LOV Type for Price List

If your organization uses a large number of price lists, you can select to use the long list of values format by setting the system profile “Service: Charges - Use Long List LOV” for Price List to “Yes”. This forces agents to enter search criteria before displaying the list of values and thus improves performance. A setting of “No”, the seeded default, displays the short list of values format.

Preventing Errors from Recalculating Prices in Oracle Order Management

The setups in this procedure are required only to prevent agents receiving application errors when they attempt to use the Sales Order window in Oracle Order Management to recalculate prices of charge lines submitted from Oracle TeleService.

Agents using Oracle Order Management's Sales Order window have the option of recalculating the price of line items by choosing either Partial Price or Calculate Price in the Calculate Price Flag field of the Line Items tab and Pricing Subtab.

The Calculate Price Flag field is highlighted in the following image.

the picture is described in the document text

Because Oracle Order Management is not aware that Oracle TeleService Charges may have already applied contractual discounts to the prices passed from Charges, the recalculation may result in an error.

To prevent the recalculation error, use this procedure to create a dummy price modifier to be passed by Oracle Charges if the agent requests a recalculation.

To prevent pricing recalculation errors in Oracle Order Management

  1. Under the Order Management, Super User responsibility, navigate to Pricing, Modifiers, Modifier Setup.

  2. In the Main tab header, enter Discount List as the Type.

  3. Enter any name.

  4. Enter an easy to remember string in to the Number field. You will need this later to identify the modifier.

  5. Enter a start date.

  6. On the Modifiers Summary subtab, the number in the Modifier No field is generated automatically. Make a note of this number because you will need it to identify the modifier later.

    The two modifier number fields you need to remember are highlighted in the image below.

    the picture is described in the document text

  7. For Line, choose Line.

  8. For Modifier Type, choose Discount.

  9. Enter a start date.

  10. For the Pricing Phase, choose List Line Adjustment.

  11. Select the Discounts/Charges tab.

  12. For Application Method, choose Percent.

  13. Enter 10 or any other number in Value.

  14. Switch responsibility to Service.

  15. Navigate to Others, Profile System Values.

  16. Set the system profile Service: Default Manual Modifier to a modifier you have set up. You can search the list of values by the automatically generated modifier number and the string you enter in the Number field.

Setting Up Charges User Hooks

Oracle TeleService provides a user hook that allows you to execute custom logic for the retrieval of prices for Charge line items.

Pricing API User Hook

The Pricing API user hook allows you to embed custom logic for the retrieval of prices for Charge line items. You can calculate the price of an item based on pricing rules such as modifiers, qualifiers, and price breaks defined in Advanced Pricing.

To execute the user hook:

  1. Define a PL/SQL package CS_CHARGE_DETAILS_CUHK for the procedure that will be invoked by the user hook. The package may already exist if you have used other Charges user hooks.

  2. Define procedure Call_Item_Pricing_Pre to be invoked by the user hook. This is the user hook for the Charges Pricing API. It must be defined with the following parameters in the CS_CHARGE_DETAILS_CUHK package.

    PROCEDURE Call_Pricing_Item_Pre (
  p_inventory_item_id           IN NUMBER,
  p_price_list_id                       IN NUMBER,
  p_uom_code                                    IN VARCHAR2,
  p_currency_code                       IN VARCHAR2,
  p_quantity                                    IN NUMBER,
  p_org_id                                              IN NUMBER,
  x_list_price                          OUT NUMBER,
  p_in_price_attr_tbl           IN ASO_QUOTE_PUB.Price_Attributes_Tbl_Type,
  x_return_status                       OUT NOCOPY VARCHAR2,
  x_msg_count                           OUT NOCOPY NUMBER,
  x_msg_data                                    OUT NOCOPY VARCHAR2);

    Note: You must implement the logic in this procedure to calculate the price of an item on the charge line.

  3. Verify user hook registration. All user hooks need to be registered in the JTF User Hooks Framework. Your System Administrator must execute a query on the database command line to verify, as no UI is available to do this.

    Select count(*) from jtf_user_hooks where api_name = ‘Call_Pricing_Item’;

The value returned should be 1.

  4. Enable the user hook. You need to enable the user hook so that it will get executed in the Charges module.

    The System Administrator must execute a statement on the database command line to enable to user hook, as no UI is available to do this.

    UPDATE jtf_user_hooks SET execute_flag = ‘Y’
WHERE pkg_name = ‘CS_CHARGE_DETAILS_PVT’
AND api_name = ‘CALL_PRICING_ITEM’
AND processing_type = ‘B’
AND user_hook_type = ‘C’

    Note: To disable the user hook, replace the execute_flag=‘Y’ with execute_flag=‘N’ in the SQL statement.