Invoicing for Hierarchical Bill Units

About Invoicing for Hierarchical Bill Units

When the pin_inv_accts utility processes bills for a bill unit hierarchy, it searches the BRM database for the nonpaying child bill units whose paying parent bill units are members of the hierarchy and generates their invoices automatically.

You can set threshold values to ensure system performance is not decreased while processing invoices for large bill unit hierarchies. The threshold values set the maximum number of nonpaying child bill units that can be rolled up to the paying parent bill unit and processed for invoicing.

If the value of the /bill object's PIN_FLD_AR_HIERARCHY_SIZE field is greater than the threshold value, the parent account's invoice includes information from only the paying parent bill unit.

If the number of nonpaying bill units is less than or equal to the threshold, the parent bill unit's invoice includes nonpaying child bill unit information.

Note:

If bill suppression is enabled on an account that contains paying parent bill units and the nonpaying child bill units threshold is exceeded, invoicing fails. This occurs because nonpaying bill units, which use the bill number of the account that owns their paying parent bill unit, are generated even when billing for the parent account is suppressed. In such cases, they do not contain bill numbers, which invoices require. To exclude invoicing for these bills, run pin_inv_accts with the -skip_blank_billnos parameter. (Nonpaying child bill units contain bill numbers only when the account that owns their paying parent bill unit is billed.)

For information on setting the threshold values, see "Setting Defaults for Hierarchical Bill Unit Invoices".

About Viewing Invoices for Accounts That Have Nonpaying Bill Units

If you open an account that has a nonpaying bill unit in Billing Care or Customer Center and then run Bill Now, the account's bill and invoice for the nonpaying child bill unit can be viewed only in the information page of the account that owns the paying parent bill unit.

When pin_inv_accts runs, it generates invoices for accounts with nonpaying bill units. You can view these invoices in Billing Care, Customer Center, and Self-Care Manager.

In Self-Care Manager, invoices can be viewed only for the account that is logged in.

Setting Defaults for Hierarchical Bill Unit Invoices

BRM automatically generates invoices for each paying parent bill unit and each nonpaying child bill unit in a bill unit hierarchy. For example, if a bill unit hierarchy contains a paying parent bill unit that has two nonpaying child bill units, BRM generates three invoices: one for the parent bill unit and one for each nonpaying child bill unit.

You can configure whether invoices for paying parent bill units also include information from nonpaying child bill units by running the pin_bus_params utility to change the SubARItemsIncluded business parameter. For information about this utility, see BRM Developer's Guide. Specifically, you can configure the following:

Whether nonpaying A/R items are displayed on a paying parent bill unit's invoice.
The maximum number of nonpaying child bill units that can be included in a paying parent bill unit's summary invoice.

When the number of nonpaying child bill units is less than the maximum, all nonpaying bill units are included on the parent's summary invoice. When the number of nonpaying child bill units exceeds the maximum, none of the nonpaying bill units is included on the paying parent's invoice.
The maximum number of nonpaying bill units that can be included in a paying parent bill unit's detailed invoice.

When the number of nonpaying child bill units is less than the maximum, the parent's detailed invoice lists the items and events for all nonpaying bill units. When the number of nonpaying child bill units exceeds the maximum, the paying parent's detailed invoice does not include nonpaying bill unit data.

To specify whether nonpaying details are displayed on paying parent invoices:

Go to BRM_home/sys/data/config.

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

pin_bus_params -r BusParamsInvoicing bus_params_Invoicing.xml

Specify whether to display A/R items for each nonpaying bill unit on paying parent invoices:

Set the SubArItemsIncluded entry to enabled to display nonpaying A/R items on paying parent invoices and to disabled to display only parent A/R items on parent invoices.
```
<SubARItemsIncluded>enabled</SubARItemsIncluded>
```
Set the threshold for summary invoices:

Change 0 to the number of nonpaying child bill units allowed in a paying parent's summary invoice:
```
<ThresholdSubordsSummary>0</ThresholdSubordsSummary>
```
If the threshold value is exceeded, the paying parent summary invoice does not contain the nonpaying bill unit data.

Note:

A value of 0 means that BRM does not check the size of the account hierarchy, and the paying parent's summary invoice automatically includes all nonpaying bill unit data.
Set the threshold for detailed invoices:

Change 0 to the number of nonpaying child bill units allowed in a paying parent's detailed invoice:
```
<ThresholdSubordsDetail>0</ThresholdSubordsDetail>
```
If the number of nonpaying bill units exceeds the threshold value, the paying parent's detailed invoice includes only the parent bill unit's details.

Note:

A value of 0 means that BRM does not check the size of the account hierarchy, and the paying parent's account summary invoice automatically includes all nonpaying bill unit data.
Save the file as bus_params_Invoicing.xml.

Load the XML file into the BRM database:

pin_bus_params bus_params_Invoicing.xml

Stop and restart the CM.

You do not need to restart the CM to enable these entries.

For more information on invoicing thresholds, see "About Invoicing for Hierarchical Bill Units".

Sending Child Account Invoices to the Parent Account's Email Address

By default, invoices for nonpaying child bill units are consolidated into the invoice for their paying parent bill unit and sent to the email address of the parent bill unit's account. To handle cases where the parent invoice is not consolidated and individual invoices exist for each nonpaying bill unit, you can configure pin_inv_send to send all nonpaying bill unit invoices to the email address of the parent invoice's account:

Open the invoice configuration file (BRM_home/apps/pin_inv/pin.conf).
Change the value of the send_sub_inv_2_parent entry to 1 and make sure it is not commented.
Save and close the file.