Streamlined Billing

Streamlined billing is a simplified billing process that reduces the number of steps for invoicing bills. You can run streamline processing from the Billing Review page in PeopleSoft Project Costing or from a run control page in PeopleSoft Contracts. This job runs all processes that are required to take billable transactions to a finalized invoice. Streamlined billing enables you to process transactions from PeopleSoft Contracts to PeopleSoft Billing and back to PeopleSoft Contracts, with one job once the necessary streamline billing parameters have been defined in your system.

Important Setup Parameters

You must set up billing parameters correctly for streamline billing to process through to a final invoice:

  • Set up the billing plan correctly.

    Select the Direct Invoicing and Pre approved check boxes on the billing plan. Also, the billing plan must be in Ready status, with any events in Ready status. The Direct Invoicing check box determines whether streamlined billing can occur. Only those bill plans that have this check box selected process through to an invoice.

  • Specify the range selection ID and direct invoicing option on the Bill-By Identifier page during setup.

  • Establish billing user preferences.

    The system uses the user ID that you specify on the Billing User Preferences page to determine which group of billing jobs will run, Load or No Load.

  • Specify a server on the Billing User Preferences page during setup.

Note:

If you fail to complete any part of the required setup for billing transactions, the job does not process through to a final invoice. The job stops at either the worksheet or a new invoice that needs to be readied. You can view the process monitor to determine the status of your job.

See PeopleSoft Project Costing: Reviewing Project Billing Transactions

Streamlined Process

The streamlined billing process consists of one of two PeopleSoft Contracts jobs, CABIDIR1 or CABIDIR2, to run all PeopleSoft Contracts, Billing and Project Costing processes to get transactions billed and PeopleSoft Contracts and PeopleSoft Project Costing updated. The Contracts Billing Interface process (CA_BI_INTFC) determines whether to call the Load process (BIDIRIVC) or No Load process (BIDIRIV2) if the direct invoicing option is selected on the billing plan. The specification on the billing user defaults determine which process the Contracts Billing Interface process selects. Then, the Contracts Billing Interface process schedules the job accordingly. The system flow from PeopleSoft Contracts is a bill plan to a printed invoice. After running the Load or No Load process, the system runs the Projects/Contracts Interface (BIPCC000) and Billing to Projects (PC_BI_TO_PC) processes, respectively. The Projects/Contracts Interface updates status in PeopleSoft Contracts. As long as all data is set up correctly, the jobs process without any manual intervention.

Load Versus No Load

The system uses two processes for streamlined billing:

  • Load (BIDIRIVC).

  • No Load (BIDIRIV2).

The PeopleSoft Billing documentation contains detailed information regarding the application engines that are processed by the Load and No Load processes.

Note:

For Load processing, the system initiates the Commitment Control process only if Commitment control is enabled on the Installation Options - Installed Products page.

For Load processing, the system does not print Federal Invoice Formats 1080 and 1081 for direct invoice jobs see PeopleSoft Billing documentation.

PeopleSoft Project Costing Issues

If you initiate streamlined billing from the Billing Review page in PeopleSoft Project Costing, note that:

  • All reviewed transactions for the particular BU/PROJECT ID are eligible for billing.

  • The contracts billing plan dictates how far the billing transactions go (to worksheet or finalization).

  • Because each project can have multiple activities and each activity can be assigned to a different contract line and billing plan, there may be multiple invoices created.

See PeopleSoft Project Costing documentation for more information.

Additional Streamlining Options

In addition to the streamlined billing processes previously outlined, you can also select additional jobs for the system to run in conjunction with the Contracts Billing Interface process. On the Processing Billing - All Other Methods run control page, if you select the Process Milestones or Process Project Progress check boxes, the system runs the selected processes prior to running the Contracts Billing Interface process.

For more information about batch processing and using PeopleSoft Process Scheduler to personalize and streamline batch processing, see PeopleTools: Process Scheduler