Payment Browser

9 Payment Browser

Oracle Communications Billing and Revenue Management (BRM) suspends payments that cannot be posted to customer accounts because of insufficient information, account closure, or other criteria.

Use Payment Browser in Billing Care to find and manage payments across different payment states. You can find suspended payments, payments that were previously suspended and fully or partially allocated to customer accounts, and active payments that were posted directly to customer accounts without being suspended.

Depending on the payment state, you can allocate suspended payments to customer accounts and undo payment allocations directly from Payment Browser without navigating to individual customer accounts. You can also remove unallocatable payment amounts from suspense, reverse payments, or move incorrectly posted payments into suspense.

To work with Payment Browser, see the following topics:

Available Actions by Payment Category

The actions available for a payment depend on its payment category.

Table 9-1 Available Actions by Payment Category

Payment Category	Available Actions
Suspended	Allocate the payment, assign the payment to a Billing Care user, reverse the payment, or remove an unallocated payment from suspense.
Suspended, Partially Recycled	Allocate the remaining payment amount, undo an existing allocation, assign the payment to a Billing Care user, reverse the payment, or remove an unallocated payment amount from suspense.
Suspended, Fully Recycled	Undo an allocation or reverse the payment. Undoing an allocation returns the payment to suspense.
Active	Move the payment to suspense or reverse the payment.

Finding a Payment

You can use Payment Browser to find payments by applying filter criteria. You can sort the displayed search results and reset the filter criteria to return to the default results.

To find a payment:

On the landing page, click Payment Browser.

The Payment filter appears with a list of payments that meet the filter criteria. By default, Payment Browser displays payments in all payment lifecycle states: fully allocated suspended payments (Suspended, Fully Recycled), partially allocated suspended payments (Suspended, Partially Recycled), suspended payments that have not been allocated (Suspended), and active payments (Active). The Payment filter helps you narrow the payments shown and find a payment to manage. Billing Care sets a default 30-day search criteria.

To adjust the filter criteria, do the following:
1. Click Edit Filter next to the Payment area.
  
  The Filter dialog box appears.
2. Select the payment filter criteria. You can filter payments by currency, amount, date range, channel, payment method, and payment category.
3. Click Update.
  
  The filtered payments are shown.
  
  Tip:
  
  In the Payment filter, click X to remove a filter or click Reset to return to the default filter of less than 30 days.
Select a payment to view it.

Billing Care displays the selected payment details.

Tip:

Click Search Results at the top right to return to the payment search results.

Export the Search Results

You can export the payments displayed in Payment Browser search results. The exported file contains the payments that match the current filter criteria.

To export search results:

On the Payment Browser page, set the required filter criteria and display the search results.
Click Export.

Billing Care downloads the search results as a CSV file.

Make a Payment

You can use Payment Browser to create a suspended payment and later apply it to the appropriate accounts.

To make a payment:

On the Payment Browser page, click Make Payment.

The Make a Payment dialog box appears.
Select a payment method.
Enter the payment amount.
Select the payment currency.
Enter the receipt date.
Enter the receipt number.
Select a reason for the payment.
(Optional) Enter notes.
Click Save.

Allocating a Suspended Payment

Billing and Revenue Management stores suspended payments in a system account until allocation to a customer account's open balances and billable items. Use Billing Care to allocate suspended payments to customer accounts after resolving the issues that caused the initial payment suspension.

You can allocate a suspended payment to multiple customer accounts. However, you must complete the allocation for the initial distribution account before adding another distribution account.

To allocate a suspended payment to an account:

From the Billing Care landing page, click Payment Browser.
Select a suspended payment from the list. If no suspended payment is available, click Make Payment to create one. See "Finding a Payment" for more information.
On the payment details page, in the Account Distribution section, click Add Account.
In the Search Accounts window, enter search criteria such as Service ID, Account Number, First Name, Last Name, or Company Name, then click Search.

The search results appear on the right side of the window.
Select the appropriate account from the search results and click Continue.
On the Bill Unit page, select the required bill unit and click Continue.
On the Allocate page, enter an amount to allocate.

This amount must be less than or equal to the suspended payment amount. Multiple separate allocations to the same distribution account can be made if the payment still contains funds awaiting allocation.
Select a required reason from the list.
Select Auto Allocate or Manually Allocate buttons:
- Click Auto Allocate for Billing Care to automatically select the account's bill items to which to allocate a suspended payment. If an allocation amount is greater than all the account's bills, or if allocation amounts are made to accounts with no balance due, the remaining balance is assigned a status of Awaiting Allocation and available when a future payment is due.
- Click Manually Allocate to perform manual allocation at the bill or item level. Use the allocation grid to enter specific amounts for individual bill items, as shown in the Advanced View.
Click Save.

Note:

If more than one payment has been applied to a bill, including any payments allocated from suspended payments, the total payment applied for the bill will include all payments applied.

Allocating a Suspended Payment across Multiple Accounts

A suspended payment can be allocated across multiple accounts. For example, a customer may make one large payment that they want allocated to multiple accounts.

To allocate a payment across multiple accounts:

Make a new payment in Billing Care. See "Make a Payment" for more information.
Under Account Distribution, click Add Account.
In the Search Accounts window, enter your search criteria and select the account to allocate the payment to.
Click Continue.
On the Bill Unit page, select the required bill unit and click Continue.
Enter the amount to allocate to this account in Add Allocation. The allocation amount must not exceed the available suspended payment amount.
Select a required reason for allocation.
Choose an allocation method:
- Click Auto Allocate to automatically apply funds to the account's open bill items.
- Click Manually Allocate to specify allocations at the bill or item level in the allocation grid (Advanced View).
Click Save.
To allocate any remaining payment amount, repeat steps 2–8 for each additional account.
(Optional) Assign a payment administrator from the Assigned to list.
(Optional) Enter notes and click Post for the payment.

Any portion of the payment not allocated remains in payment suspense with the status Awaiting Allocation.

Note:

Unallocated payments are placed into suspense. You can use the payments search filter to find unallocated payments ready for multiple account distribution. Select the suspense reason as Unable to Process, and the detailed reason as Multiple Account Distribution to filter for unallocated payments.

Adding Notes to a Payment

To add a note to a payment:

Open the suspended payment details. See "Finding a Payment" for more information.
In the Notes area, click the following icon:

An Enter notes here box appears.
Enter your notes.
Click Post.

Moving an Active Payment to Suspense

You can move an active payment to suspense when the payment was posted to a customer account incorrectly and requires further resolution. An active payment is a payment that was posted directly to a customer account without previously being suspended.

To move an active payment to suspense:

Find and open an Active payment in Payment Browser.
Click Actions, and then select Move to Suspense.

The Move to Suspense dialog box appears.
Review the amount to move.
Set the effective date.
Select a reason for moving the payment to suspense.
(Optional) Enter notes.
Click Move.

Assigning Suspended Payments to Billing Care Users

Production Billing Care installations configured securely with Oracle Identity and Access Management (IAM) allow suspended payments to be assigned to users with a suspense payment management role and permissions. See Billing Care Installation Guide for more information on production installations and securing Billing Care with IAM.

By default, suspended payments are not assigned to any Billing Care user. Users with access to suspended payments functionality can assign an authorized handler to manage the payment.

To assign a suspended payment to an authorized user:

Find the suspended payment. See "Finding a Payment" for more information.
From the search results, select and open the suspended payment.
Click the Edit icon next to the Assigned to field.
From the Assigned to list, select a Billing Care user with permissions to manage suspended payments.
Click Save.

Reversing a Payment in Payment Browser

You can reverse an eligible payment from Payment Browser when the payment must be canceled. Reversing a payment enables Billing Care to treat the payment as if it never occurred.

Payment Browser supports payment reversal for active payments and suspended payments, including partially and fully recycled suspended payments.

Note:

Reversing a payment is permanent and cannot be undone.

To reverse a payment:

Find and select the payment to reverse. See "Finding a Payment" for more information.
Click Actions, and then select Reverse Payment.

The Reverse Payment dialog box appears.
Set the effective date for the payment reversal. The effective date cannot be set in the future.
Select a reason for the payment reversal.
(Optional) Enter notes for the payment reversal.
Click Reverse.

Removing an Unallocated Payment from Suspense

If a suspended payment amount cannot be allocated to the proper account, you can remove the unallocated amount from suspense. This enables the funds to be tracked in the general ledger system.

Note:

Removing an unallocated payment is permanent and cannot be undone.

To remove an unallocated payment:

Find and select the suspended payment to remove. See “Finding a Payment” for more information.
Click Actions, and then select Reverse Unallocated Payment.

The Reverse Unallocated Payment dialog box appears.
Set the effective date for the unallocated payment removal.
Select a reason for removing the unallocated payment.
(Optional) Enter notes for removing the unallocated payment.
Click Reverse.

Returning an Allocated Payment to Suspense

You can undo an allocation for a payment that was previously suspended and then allocated to a customer account. Undoing the allocation returns the payment to suspense, where it can be managed as a suspended payment.

To return an allocated payment to suspense:

On the Payment Browser page, find and open the suspended payment that contains the allocated payment.
In the Account Distribution section, click for the account distribution, and then select Return To Suspense.

The Move to Suspense dialog box appears.

Note:

To view information about the payment allocated to an account, select Payment Details for This Account from the menu.
Review the amount to move to suspense.
Set the effective date.
Select a reason for moving the payment to suspense.
(Optional) Enter notes.
Click Move.

Returning All Distributions

You can return all distributions for a suspended payment to suspense at the same time. This returns the payment amounts distributed to customer accounts and makes them available for further suspense management.

To return all distributions to suspense:

On the Payment Browser page, find and open the suspended payment with distributions to return.
Click Actions, and then select Return All Distributions.

The Move to Suspense dialog box appears.
Review the amount to move to suspense.
Set the effective date.
Select a reason for returning the distributions to suspense.
(Optional) Enter notes.
Click Move.