Receiving Billing Activity from External Sources

The PeopleSoft Billing system can accept information from several billing sources. The Billing interface tables (INTFC_BI, INTFC_BI2, INTFC_NOTE, INTFC_BI_AEDS, INTFC_BI_TAX, INTFC_BI_EXSD and INTFC_BI_HDR) act as staging areas for this external source information, holding it until you run the Billing Interface process (BIIF0001).

This section provides an overview of the Billing interface staging area and discusses how to assign zero values to revenue percentage fields that exceed size limits.

Note: When importing data into the Billing interface from an external source, ensure that you round the data to the currency precision of the transaction.

To maintain performance efficiency, the system does not perform edit checks for all of the required fields. Ensure that the source system populates required Billing interface fields with valid data.

Understanding the Billing Interface Staging Area

Consider the Billing interface staging tables as the denormalized form of the online bill data structure. Therefore, the Billing interface staging area supports the online bill data structure, storing one or more rows of data for each line of chargeable activity sent into PeopleSoft Billing.

The type of data stored in the Billing interface is characterized by one of five transaction types.

LINE

Represents a bill line charge. For any bill line presented to the interface staging area, one or more accounting entries may be related. For example, if a charge is presented to the staging area and the revenue is distributed 50 percent to one account and 50 percent to another account, then two account entry (AE) transactions are populated in the Billing interface, one for each of the accounts.

AE (accounting entry)

Represents different types of accounting entries for the LINE transaction. The different types of accounting entries are revenue, deferred revenue, accounts receivable (AR), unbilled accounts receivable (UAR), InterUnit payables, InterUnit expenses, and statistical information. AE transactions for general ledger (GL) are only mandatory for a LINE transaction when PeopleSoft Billing is generating GL accounting distributions.

NOTE

Represents a note or comment for the LINE transaction. Notes or comments may be related to a LINE transaction and may represent bill header notes or comments or bill line notes or comments. In the event that there are multiple notes or comments for a particular LINE transaction, multiple NOTE rows may be populated in the interface staging area for the LINE transaction. Note or comment transactions (NOTE) are not mandatory for LINE transactions.

DS (discount or surcharge)

Represents an optional discount or surcharge for the LINE transaction. Discounts and surcharges may be related to a LINE transaction. In the event that there are multiple discounts or surcharges for a specific LINE transaction, multiple DS rows may be populated in the interface staging area for the LINE transaction. DS transactions are optional for LINE transactions.

DDS (deferred discount surcharge)

Represents deferred accounting distribution for the discount or surcharge of the LINE transaction. When the deferred revenue feature is enabled, each DS entry has DDS accounting distribution.

AHDR (adjustment header)

Represents an adjustment header. This transaction type is used only when adjusting an entire bill (CRALL and RBALL). It is also used to specify values to appear on the rebill header. AHDR is the only transaction type that does not require an associated LINE transaction.

EXSD (excise, sales tax, and VAT detail)

Represents excise, sales tax, and VAT detail. This transaction type is used only for India transactions and is applicable only to transactions from the PeopleSoft Order Management feeder system.

TAX (sales tax detail)

Represents sales tax detail of the LINE transaction. This transaction type is applicable only to transactions from the PeopleSoft Order Management feeder system.

Note: To ensure that the data is populated correctly in the Billing interface staging tables, populate all of the Billing interface fields for which you have valid data. Even though the system provides default values for some fields if you leave them blank, you should populate all fields for which you have valid data. This also reduces the work required by the Billing Interface process and can impact batch performance.

Assigning Zero Values to Revenue Percentage Fields that Exceed Size Limits

When importing from an external source other than a PeopleSoft application and when you have defined the GL Level as BI Creates GL Acct Entries (billing creates general ledger accounting entries) on the Installation Options - Billing - Integration Options page, the source system must assign a zero value to all revenue (DST) percentage fields if they exceed the +/-999.99 size limit. The source system cannot successfully insert into the interface tables if the Revenue Percentage field values exceed this size limit.

Additionally, for bill lines with zero-dollar gross extended amounts, you must assign a zero value to all revenue (DST) percentage fields.

A bill line revenue percentage might exceed the +/-999.99 size limit, for example, when there exists a sizable discrepancy between the line amount and the gross amount.

Note: Discount and surcharge percentages must not exceed the +/-999.99 field size limit.