A High Level Overview Of The Bill Creation Process

When the system is asked to produce a bill for an account, it attempts to create one or more bill segments for every non-cancelled / non-closed billable obligation linked to the account. Whether or not an obligation contributes bill segment(s) to a bill is a complicated subject as the system supports a wide variety of bill segment creation methods.

The system determines the bill segment creation method to use from the bill segment type on the obligation's obligation type.

Some bill segment creation methods may apply the obligation's rate to a specific number / amount in order to calculate how much the taxpayer owes. The details of the calculations are captured in the bill calculation lines. For more information, refer to How Rates Affect The Information On Bill Segments for the details. Refer to Effective Dates & Proration for information about how the system prorates changes to rates and prices during a bill period.

If errors are detected during the bill segment creation process, the bill segment is saved with its error. The system then proceeds to the account's next obligation. This way, a user can see all problematic bill segments so they can be corrected en masse. Refer to Bill Errors for information about how to deal with bill errors.

When every segment on a bill is error free, the bill is ready to be completed. When a bill is completed, the system:

• Creates a bill routing for each person linked to the account who requires a copy of the bill. The routing information controls the format of the printed bill and how the bill is sent to the person. Refer to The Source Of Bill Routing Information for the details.

• Links all bill messages to the bill. A bill message can come from a variety of sources. Refer to The Source Of Bill Messages for the details.

• If the Freeze At Bill Completion installation option has been turned on:

• All freezable bill segments will be frozen.

• All freezable adjustments whose adjustment type indicates Freeze At Bill Completion will be frozen.

• Sweeps recent financial transactions that have been created since the last bill was completed.

• There are several other functions that happen at completion time. Refer to the description of the Complete button under Bill Lifecycle for the details.

And that's it; the bill can now be sent to the taxpayer.

The remaining topics in this section provide more information about the creation and completion of bills.