About Transferring Rollover Balances

About Allowing Customers to Transfer Rolled-Over Balances

Balances rolled over from one billing cycle to another are usually rolled over within the same account. By using the rollover-transfer feature, you can transfer noncurrency rollover balances from one account or service instance to other accounts or service instances.

BRM can perform rollover transfers in the following ways:

From one account to other accounts.
From a service instance in one account to service instances in other accounts.
From one account to service instances in other accounts.
From a service instance in one account to other accounts.
From a service instance in one account to other service instances in the same account.
Between services, even when the service types differ.

The sender's service type does not need to match the receiver's service type as long as both services own the same type of balance, such as dollars or minutes.

BRM cannot transfer rolled over balances in the following circumstances:

A member service shares a balance group with its subscription service.
The buckets were created as a result of a previous rollover transfer. Previously rolled over balances cannot be rolled over again.

If you offer subscription services, you can transfer rolled-over balances from a subscription service to a member service only if they belong to different balance groups. A member service that shares the same balance group as its subscription service can receive a rollover transfer but cannot send a rollover transfer.

About the Rollover-Transfer Profile

You specify how to transfer rollovers by using a rollover-transfer profile. The rollover-transfer profile specifies the following:

The account or service that owns the balance grant (the sender)
The list of balances to roll over
The accounts or services into which the rollover is transferred (the receiver)
(Optional) The validity periods in which the rollovers can transfer

You create, modify, and delete rollover-transfer profiles in Customer Center.

When you create a rollover-transfer profile, BRM, by default, verifies that the profile does not have overlapping validity periods or receivers for a given service. You can add or modify the verification checks by customizing the PCM_OP_CUST_POL_VALID_PROFILE policy opcode.

You can select any noncurrency balance to configure a rollover transfer unless there is a rollover rule defined in a charge offer and the sender has not purchased that charge offer. The sender must own the charge offer in which the rollover rule is defined for the rollover transfer to occur.

About Rerating the Receiver's Account due to Delayed Billing

When delayed billing is configured, balances rolled over to the receiver during the initial billing process can be accessed by delayed events of the sender.

After a rollover transfer, if the sender account is rerated and the rollover buckets are adjusted, the receiver's rollover amount is also affected. When a bill is finalized for the sender, BRM generates a rollover correction event to adjust the rollover of the sender if any rolled-over balances were consumed by delayed events. BRM adjusts the rollover transfer amount of the receiver accordingly.

Note:

You must manually rerate the receiver's account if events rated before the rollover correction were consumed from the rollover-transfer amount. BRM does not automatically create rerate jobs for the receiver.
The receiver must be rerated if there is rollover correction for the sender, even when the sender is not rerated.

Configuring BRM to Use Rollover Transfers

Before you can use rollover transfers, you must perform the following tasks:

Enable rollover transfers in the /config/business_params object.
Set up event notification for rollover transfers.

To enable rollover transfers, run the pin_bus_params utility to change the RolloverTransfer business parameter. See "pin_bus_params" in BRM Developer's Guide.

Go to BRM_home/sys/data/config.

Create an XML file from the /config/business_params object:

pin_bus_params -r -c "Subscription" bus_params_subscription.xml

In the XML file, change disabled to enabled:

<RolloverTransfer>enabled</RolloverTransfer>

Save the file as bus_params_subscription.xml.

Load the XML file into the BRM database:

pin_bus_params bus_params_subscription.xml

Stop and restart the CM.
(Multischema systems only) Run the pin_multidb script with the -R CONFIG parameter. For more information, see BRM System Administrator's Guide.

To configure event notification for rollover transfers, do the following:

Depending on which BRM features you use, your system may contain one or more configuration files for event notification.

If your system contains more than one of these files, you must merge their contents into a single file.

All of the event notification files available in your system are in the BRM_home/sys/data/config directory.
Add the following entries to the event notification file:
```
# Event notification for rollover transfers
9069    0    /event/billing/cycle/rollover/monthly
9069    0    /event/billing/cycle/rollover_correction
```
This configures the /event/billing/cycle/rollover/monthly and /event/billing/cycle/rollover_correction events to call the PCM_OP_SUBSCRIPTION_TRANSFER_ROLLOVER opcode (opcode ID number 9069) to determine if a rollover transfer can occur.
(Optional) If necessary, add, modify, or delete entries in your event notification file.
(Optional) If necessary, create custom code for event notification to trigger.
Load your event notification file into the BRM database's /config/notify object by running the load_pin_notify utility. See "load_pin_notify" in BRM Managing Customers.

For more information, see "Using Event Notification" in BRM Developer's Guide.