How You Use the Dates on a Recurring Bill Plan

Use the dates on the recurring bill plan to manage the billing activities and milestones for all transactions created by the plan.

If you need to update any dates related to the bill plan, you must ensure that all updates are consistent with the contract terms and all necessary billing periods and transactions.

If necessary, you can inactivate a bill plan, and then reactivate it at a later time. When a bill plan is reactivated, the next run of the Generate Recurring Billing Data process creates transactions for all applicable billing periods, including the periods during which the bill plan was inactive.

Contract Dates

The contract dates determine the length of the entire contract reflected by the bill plan. These dates should span the creation and delivery of all transactions belonging to the contract.

The default contract start date is the system date, and the default contract end date is one year later. You can update these dates according to the requirements of the contract. The contract end date should include the last date that a transaction is created.

First Transaction Date

Enter in the First Transaction Date field the date of the first transaction created by the bill plan. The default is the system date, the same date as the contract start date. You can enter a first transaction date either on or after the contract start date within the first billing period.

If you don't use the Second Transaction Date and Second Billing Period Start Date fields, then the remaining transactions in the bill plan are created according to the value in the Billing Frequency field. For example, if the first transaction date is January 1, and the billing frequency is Monthly, then all transactions in the bill plan are created on the first day of the month.

Second Transaction Date

Use the Second Transaction Date field to create a transaction date for the second and all subsequent transactions created by the bill plan. You enter a second transaction date if the first transaction created was for a partial period only, and you don't want to use the first transaction date as the creation date for all remaining transactions in the plan.

For example, a contract began on January 1 with a billing frequency of Monthly and transactions to be created the first of the month, but the first transaction is to be issued on January 15. You enter a first transaction date of January 15 to create a transaction for the partial period of January 15-31. You then enter a second transaction date of February 1 for the second and all subsequent transactions to be created on the first day of the month.

Second Billing Period Start Date

Use the Second Billing Period Start Date field to create a different billing period start date for the remaining billing periods in the bill plan.

The first billing period start date is the same as the contract start date. By default, each subsequent billing period begins according to the contract start date and the value in the Billing Frequency field. For example, if the contract start date is January 1 and the billing frequency is Quarter, then the second billing period start date is April 1.

If you enter a date in the Second Billing Period Start Date field, this becomes the start date of the second billing period. The subsequent billing periods begin according to the second billing period start date and the value in the Billing Frequency field.

For example, if the contract start date is January 1 and the billing frequency is Quarter, and you enter a second billing period start date of February 1, then the first billing period was January 1-31. The second billing period will be February 1 - April 30.