The Contracts Billing Interface Process (CA_BI_INTFC)
The Contracts Billing Interface process is divided into three major parts: rate-based contract line billing (controlled by PeopleSoft Project Costing), fixed-amount and value-based contract line billing (controlled by PeopleSoft Contracts), and recurring billing (controlled by PeopleSoft Contracts).
In billing for rate-based contract lines, the flow of data is controlled by PeopleSoft Contracts, but the data source is PeopleSoft Project Costing. You control the flow of billing in PeopleSoft Contracts by attaching projects to contract lines, associating the contract lines with billing plans, readying or holding the billing plans, and possibly creating billing events. When the particular billing plan and event is ready, the resource rows that are associated with the designated project are selected for billing. In addition, PeopleSoft Contracts controls much of the header information that is sent to billing, such as the bill to customer, bill by date, and tax information.
In billing for fixed-amount contract lines, PeopleSoft Contracts provides both the data source and the control over billing. You associate dollar amounts with the contract lines. You control the flow of billing in PeopleSoft Contracts by associating the contract lines with billing plans and billing plan lines, readying or holding the billing plans, and possibly creating billing events.
In billing for recurring contract lines, PeopleSoft Contracts provides both the data source and the control over billing. Products are priced by PeopleSoft Enterprise Pricer or through the list price that is associated with the product. Pricing for recurring contract lines occurs dynamically when you view the billing plan or when you process the bill.
In all cases, the information that is sent to billing is structured as required by the interface staging table. Each billable row creates a LINE transaction containing the bill amount, billing parameters, and descriptive information. Each billable row also creates at least one Accounting Entry (AE) transaction containing the amount that is to be charged to each ChartField distribution. In addition, a billable row may contain one or more DS (discount) transactions (except for recurring contract lines), and one or more NOTE transactions.
The Contracts Billing Interface passes the contract line start and end dates to the interface staging table in PeopleSoft Billing. You enter these values on the Contract Lines page – General tab. The contract line start and end dates do not appear on the delivered PeopleSoft Billing Invoice SQR. However, the data is available to add to your SQR if desired. There are no edits or restrictions on these fields.
Rate-based Billing
When a PROJ_RESOURCE row is selected for billing, the data from this row, including the amount and project string data, and data from the billing plan, including bill to customer, bill by, and bill type, combine to create the basis for a LINE transaction.
Because the revenue for all rate-based contract lines is handled through PeopleSoft Contracts, the accounting information source for this row is the Accounting Rules table (PSA_RULES_LN) for as-incurred billing plans. This table holds the accounting distribution for PROJ_RESOURCE rows. The contract asset side of the accounting rules entry is selected by the Contracts/Billing process. This data is stamped on the AE row.
The process then checks for discounts or retainages that are specified on the corresponding contract line. A DS row is created if a discount is specified, and another DS row is created if a retainage is specified. The process also checks the tolerance amount to see if the sum of the rows for a billing plan meet the minimum amount billed. If the rows for a billing plan do not pass the tolerance check, the rows are not sent on to billing.
Billing currency is determined according to the value that the users selected for the Bill Currency Option field for the billing plan on the Billing Plan - Billing Plan General page. If the user selected billing currency, the row is billed in the contract currency; if the user selected transaction, the row is billed in the transaction currency that is in the PROJ_RESOURCE table.
Once all data is finalized, the LINE rows are considered for prepaid utilization and the LINE row is written to the billing cross-reference table (CA_BP_XREF) with a status of New.
For rate-based contract lines, organizations have the option of holding billing on unpaid cost.. If selected at run time, voucher costs from Accounts Payable and costs from Expenses are evaluated to determine if payment has been made. If payment has been made, the costs are included in the Contracts Billing Process. If payment has not been made, then the costs are not sent to Billing until they have been paid.
Holding Unpaid Cost from Billing and Revenue Recognition
For some federally awarded contracts, a cost incurred by the organization must be paid by the organization before it can be billed to the sponsor (customer). Contracts to billing interface has been modified to prevent unpaid cost from being billed. Similarly contracts revenue recognition processing has been modified to prevent unpaid cost from being included in revenue recognition. To enable this two new selections, Hold Billing on Unpaid Cost and Hold Revenue on Unpaid Cost can be selected on the Contracts Installation Options page. These selections default to the sponsor and contract, but can be modified. Also these selections are pre-populated when you generate a contract through Grants or when you create a contract online, but can be changed. These selections will default to the contract line when you add a contract line online. The contract billing process and contract revenue process use the selections on the contract line to determine whether costs must be paid before they are processed. The other selections mentioned provide default capabilities only. From the Award Profile page, Grants administrators can view the Hold Billing and Hold Revenue selections on the related contract. This is read only. Changes to the contract level configurations must be made on the contract. Organizations can update the new Hold Billing and Hold Revenue selections on the contract en Masse. It is important to note that a voucher must be completely paid before any costs on the voucher can be billed. If only a portion of the voucher has been paid, then all costs on the voucher will be held from billing.'
See Updating Hold Billing and Revenue on Unpaid Cost Options, Defining Contract Lines, Defining Contract Billing Options, Application Fundamentals: Setting Up Application-Specific Installation Options, PeopleSoft Order to Cash Common Information: Adding General Customer Information.
Fixed-Amount Billing
There are three fixed-amount, or amount-based, billing methods. In all three cases, some data comes from the billing plan, including the bill to customer, bill by, and bill type, some data comes from the contract line itself, including the basis for the amount and taxes, and other data comes from the bill plan lines, including the description. In the case of the Immediate billing method, this is the only data that makes up a LINE transaction. In the case of the Percent Complete and Milestone billing methods, the billing events determine the percentage of the base amount that is to be included in the LINE transaction.
Once a LINE transaction is created, the process creates the accounting that is associated with the line. Because fixed-amount bill lines may hold multiple accounting distributions, the accounting must be separated into AE entries. Any number of AEs may be created. The accounting distribution source depends on the revenue recognition method of the contract lines. If the method is Billing Manages Revenue, then there is no Contract Asset and the accounting distribution comes from CA_DETAIL_DST. For all other revenue recognition methods, the accounting distribution comes from CA_DETAIL_UAR.
The process then checks for discounts or surcharges that are specified on the corresponding contract lines. One or more DS rows may result.
Value-based Billing
When running the Contracts Billing Interface Application Engine process (CA_BI_INTFC), value-based billing acts similar to fixed-amount billing. However, discounts do not apply to value-based billing plans. Most data for value-based billing plans comes from the billing plan lines (amount, description, quantity, and so forth). Other data also comes from the billing plan and contract line. The accounting distribution comes from CA_DETAIL_UAR. As with immediate billing plans, this is the only data that makes up a LINE transaction. Every value-based billing plan is associated with at least one event.
Recurring Billing
When running the Contracts Billing Interface Application Engine process (CA_BI_INTFC), recurring billing processes similar to fixed-amount and value-based billing. However, discounts and surcharges do not apply and no events are associated with recurring billing plans. The data for recurring billing comes from the billing plan and contract line. Because the revenue recognition method must be Billing Manages Revenue for recurring billing plans, the accounting distribution comes from CA_DETAIL_DST.