6 Configuring Write-Offs
Learn how to perform write-offs in Oracle Communications Billing and Revenue Management (BRM).
Topics in this document:
About Write-Offs
Note:
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Before you write off an account or bill unit (/billinfo object), ensure that all items have been billed and that no pending or unbilled items for the account or bill unit remain.
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To ensure that you can reverse a write-off on an account, the account status must be inactive before you write off the account.
A write-off removes from your company's assets an A/R amount that your company has determined the customer will never pay. A write-off can also remove an A/R amount that your company has decided it will not refund to the customer; for example, if the amount is very small or if you sent the customer a check that was returned because the customer moved without leaving a new address.
For write-offs, you always write off the entire account, bill, or bill item.
You can write off the following:
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Accounts: Write-offs are not available for an account that owns a top-level paying bill unit if its Due is zero. The account should be inactivated before it is written off.
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Bills: Write-offs are not available for a bill if it is pending or its Due is zero.
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Bill items: Item-level write-offs are allowed for pending and open items.
The following types of events are created for a write-off:
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A write-off event holding the total net amount of the write-off with a G/L ID for the net amount
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A tax write-off event holding the VAT amount of the write-off with a G/L ID for tax amount
To perform a write off:
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The items to write off must be open.
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The write-off amount must be less than or equal to the amount due.
BRM creates a write-off item for the amount to be written off. It transfers the Due from the write-off item to the bill items being written off and closes the bill items.
Writing off uncollectable debt or an unpayable credit lets you control how it is treated in your accounting and G/L reporting system. Depending on how your company has set up its G/L system, the amount written off is transferred from A/R to a bad debt account or, for unpayable credit, to a miscellaneous revenue account.
A write-off always includes taxes, but you can specify whether the net and tax amounts are written off in one or two events. If you write off in one event, the net and tax amounts are stored separately within the event and can be mapped to different sets of G/L accounts. If you write off in two events, one event stores the net amount of the write-off while another event stores the tax amount. The net and tax amounts stored in these two events can also be mapped to separate sets of G/L accounts. However, the way you specify mapping information for G/L accounts is different for the one-event and the two-event write-off. For more information on how you map the net and tax amounts of a write-off to separate sets of G/L accounts, see "Assigning G/L IDs to Nonrated Events".
You can use the PCM_OP_BILL_POL_VALID_WRITEOFF to customize how items are validated for a write-off. See "Customizing Write-Off Validation" in BRM Opcode Guide.