Running the Interface to AP/Billing Process

This topic provides an overview of managing interface to AP/Billing and discusses how to run manage interface to AP/Billing.

Page Name

Definition Name

Usage

Manage Interface to AP/Billing Page

RUN_TXN_INTFC

Run to generate transactions to PeopleSoft Billing to create sales invoices to the tenants.

To generate invoices to PeopleSoft Billing, you must run the Interface to AP/Billing process. This process transfers approved transactions to the PeopleSoft Billing system using the PeopleSoft Transaction Billing Processor. This process is also used to generate payments to payees or landlords for payables leases.

See Understanding Leases.

The Transaction Billing Processor is a set of processes that are supplied by the PeopleSoft Contracts application that enable external applications to create sales invoices in the PeopleSoft Billing system. A contract must exist to utilize this interface. For the Lease Administration feature, the system creates a contract header, a contract line, and a bill plan every time a receivables lease is activated and associates the contract with the lease. Billable items such as lease transactions are submitted to the PeopleSoft Contracts system as transactions in the interface tables.

The following is the high level business process flow:

  1. PeopleSoft Lease Administration integrates with PeopleSoft Billing and PeopleSoft Contracts so that you can generate invoices for all of their transactions.

    Billing information from PeopleSoft Lease Administration is sent to PeopleSoft Contracts as transactions.

  2. The Transaction Billing Processor process selects Billing Plans (for rate-based billing methods) that have been marked in the PeopleSoft Contracts system as ready to bill and creates bill lines in the PeopleSoft Billing Interface tables for the transactions that are sent by the PeopleSoft Lease Administration system.

    For PeopleSoft Lease Administration transactions, PeopleSoft Contracts sends revenue to the PeopleSoft Billing system , and the PeopleSoft Billing system creates the receivables side of the debit entry.

  3. After the Transaction Billing Processor process stages the billing data in these tables, the Billing Interface processes the data to create bills.

  4. When a transaction is selected for billing, the data from the transaction and the data from the billing plan (including bill-to customer, bill by, and bill type) combine to create the basis for a bill line.

  5. The PeopleSoft Billing system then groups bill lines based on the Billing Options that are defined in the billing plan and generates invoices for the transactions and upon finalization, sends information regarding the invoices back to the PeopleSoft Contracts system.

The following example shows how a journal entry is created by the billing plan (as incurred method) in PeopleSoft Billing for a PeopleSoft Lease Administration transaction that was for 100 USD:

Credit

Debit

Receivables

$100

Revenue

$100

To post the entries that are shown in the example, you must set up an appropriate accounting rule so that the system can send the revenue to PeopleSoft Billing system and the PeopleSoft Billing system can create the receivable debit side of the entry.

Note: The billing business unit that is used for the receivables for this entry must share the same general ledger business unit as the PeopleSoft Contracts system business unit.

See Understanding Integration Messages for Transaction Billing.

Processing Errors

To resolve errors or issues for lease transactions that are sent through the Transaction Billing Processor, you must first determine where the error occurred. Resolution for the errors that occur after the transaction is sent from PeopleSoft Lease Administration to PeopleSoft Billing through the Transaction Billing Processor must be resolved in the PeopleSoft Billing system .

When the error occurs in the Interface to AP/Billing process or Transaction Billing Processor, the error is typically caused by incomplete setup of the accounting rules. The transaction detail is set to Error in the transaction queue and the resulting error stops the processing for that transaction. Although the error occurred for this transaction, other valid transactions continue to be processed. For example, if only one category of an operating expense transaction is in error, the other categories of that same operating transaction with valid accounting entries are transferred to PeopleSoft Billing to be invoiced. You need to resolve the error in the setup and run the process again to process the transaction through the PeopleSoft Billing system.

To resolve the error, you can search the transaction queue and review the transaction detail error message. You cannot change the transaction, but you can correct the setup. After the setup error is resolved, all the transaction details in error are automatically recycled when Manage Interface to AP/Billing process is generated.

See Understanding PeopleSoft Lease Administration Accounting Rules.

When a transaction is successfully processed through the Billing interface, the status in the transaction queue is set to Processed. You can view the transaction details in the grid. To review the transaction details, select the transaction from the queue. The system displays the invoice number on which the transaction detail resides. Clicking the invoice number link takes you to the Billing Inquiry page.

See Bill Summary Info Page.

Note: If a transaction with the status of Processed does not have an invoice number, it might be due to a delay in the execution of the PeopleSoft Billing interface.

Before you run the Interface to AP/Billing process, verify that transactions in the transaction queue are in Approved status.

Use the Manage Interfaces to AP/Billing page (RUN_TXN_INTFC ) to run to generate transactions to PeopleSoft Billing to create sales invoices to the tenants.

Navigation:

Lease Administration > Integrations > Manage Interface to AP/BI

This example illustrates the fields and controls on the Manage Interfaces to AP/Billing page. You can find definitions for the fields and controls later on this page.

 Manage Interfaces to AP/Billing page

Field or Control

Description

Business Unit

Enter a business unit to generate transactions that are specific to that business unit.

Lease Number

Enter a lease number to generate transactions for that lease. You must enter a business unit before you can enter a lease number.

Invoice Date

Select an option from the following:

  • Current Date: Current date is taken as the invoice date.

  • Schedule Date: Transaction schedule date is taken as the invoice date.

  • Custom Date: Invoice date that is saved on the Processing Payments page is taken.

Note: The invoice date selected here overrides the invoice date specified on the Processing Payments page if the date varies on both the pages.

Interface Selection

Field or Control

Description

Payables

Select to send all payables transactions for the business unit and lease number parameters to the staging table. If you leave both fields blank, the system sends all approved transactions for payables to the PeopleSoft Payables staging table.

Billing

Select to send all billing transactions for the business unit and lease number parameters to the staging table. If you leave both fields blank, the system sends all approved transactions for receivables to the Billing staging table.

See Understanding the Interface to AP/Billing Process.