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Defining Charge Plans for Agreement Line Items (End User)

You must set up charges for agreement payments. Most agreements include the following types of charges:

• An initial payment to establish the agreement. This payment is referred to as a nonrecurring charge (NRC)
• A recurring charge (RC). This charge is usually a monthly charge for the service package

  NOTE:  A third kind of charge applies to usage charges.

For example, a company has a service package with a price of $15,000. There is an initial charge of $3,000 to activate the service package, followed by 12 monthly charges of $1,000 on the first day of each month. To manage this service package, you can set up a contract schedule, an NRC, and RCs for the charge plan. If you pay the NRC in installments, then you might also set up a charge plan for the NRC.

This task is a step in Process of Managing Agreements.

Defining Charge Plans

Before you can define and run a charge plan, administrators must define contract schedules and set up the plans. For more information about these tasks, see Process of Administering Charges.

You add NRC, RC, and any charges, adjustments, and use plan details to the agreement line items. This information includes the following data:

• A schedule plan for the first charge to create
• The start time for the first charge

  NOTE:  If you add a use plan to the agreement line item, then make sure that you select the appropriate product and asset to associate with the line item. You must select an asset that has measurements to allow usage recording.

To define a charge plan for an agreement line item

1. Navigate to the Agreements screen, then the List view.
2. Drill down on the Name field of a selected agreement.
3. In the Line Items view, select a line item.
4. On the link bar of the Line Items view, click Charge Plan.
5. In the Charge Plan form, complete the fields as appropriate.

   Some fields are described in the following table.

   Field	Comments
   NRC Schedule	Select a value for how frequently and when the nonrecurring charges are generated. The NRC schedule can be different than the invoice schedule.
   NRC Start	Select the starting date for nonrecurring charges.
   Non-Recurring	Type the total amount of the nonrecurring charge. Payments occur according to the NRC schedule. A nonrecurring charge can include a service charge or a discount.
   NRC Plan	Select the NRC billing plan. If this field is blank, then the NRC amount is divided by the number payment installments in the NRC Qty field to determine the charge for each period.
   NRC Qty	Type the number of payment installments for the nonrecurring charge.
   RC Schedule	Select a value for how frequently and when the recurring charges are generated. NOTE:  If a product measurement record is associated with the product in the line item, then the RC Schedule field value must match the Frequency field value in the Measurements view in the Service Information view in the Products view of the Administration - Product screen.
   RC Start	Select the starting date for the recurring charges.
   Recurring	Type the amount of the recurring charge.
   RC Adjust	Type the amount to charge for partial periods in the RC schedule. This field defines the dollars for each unit of time that the Charge Engine uses to calculate the recurring charge for the line item.
   RC Adjust U/M	Select the length of time applicable to the adjustment amount.
   Adjust Charge	Type a positive or negative adjustment amount for the amount of a charge. The Charge Engine clears this field after generating a charge.
   Commit	Select this check box to activate the Charge button.
   Charge End	Select the last possible date to generate a charge.
   Charge Basis	Select the method of charging. Values include: Advance. Generates advance charges 1 period in advance. Schedule. Generates charges according to the contract schedule.
   Use Start	Select the starting date for the usage charge.
   Use Plan	Select the use plan. Only the plans that apply to the product in the selected line item are available for selection.

6. (Optional) If you add a use plan to the agreement line item, then complete the following steps so that the appropriate product and asset are added to the agreement line item, and users can record the measurements for usage:
   1. On the link bar, click Line Detail.
   2. In the Service Asset number (#) field, select the assets that track usage.

      You can add multiple assets to an agreement line item in the Assets view in the Pricing view in the Line Items view in the List view of the Agreements screen.

Running Charge Plans Using the Charge Button

After you define a charge plan, you can run the plan to create the charges for an agreement line item. All the charges for the RC and NRC schedules are created with the amounts and adjustments that the charge plan indicates.

You can generate multiple charges for an agreement line item by configuring the FS - Generate Agreement Charge workflow to run on a periodic basis. For more information, see Running Charge Plans for Agreement Line Items Using Workflows.

To run a charge plan using the Charge button

1. Navigate to the Agreements screen, and then the List view.
2. Drill down on the Name field for a selected agreement.
3. In the Line Items view, select a line item.
4. On the link bar of the Line Items view, click Charge Plan.
5. In the Advance To field at the start of the Charge Plan view, select the date up to which to create charges.

   You can create charges no later than the date in this field, or no later than the date in the Charge End field in the form for the charge plan, whichever date is earlier.

6. Click Charge.