Configure Batch Processes to Create Monthly Aggregates and Snapshots

You can configure Customer Cloud Service (CCS) batch processes to aggregate financial transaction data and financial transaction general ledger data by month. This allows you to improve the query performance of visualizations that use monthly aggregates.

You can also configure batch processes to take monthly snapshots of service agreement arrears. This enables you to capture arrears data at a specific point in time.

On this page:

Aggregate Financial Transactions by Month

You can configure a batch process to aggregate financial transactions by month so that the application does not need to sum up the transactions every time a query is issued. Using your scheduler of choice, configure and schedule the following batch process to run monthly:

  • Batch Control: C1-FTMA

  • Batch Name: Aggregate Financial Transactions Monthly

  • Parameters: The following parameters are used to determine the start and end dates of an aggregation period.

    • Aggregation Horizon: The number of months in which financial data will be included in the aggregation.

    • Aggregation Lag: The number of months in which financial data will be excluded in the aggregation as calculated from the current month.

Example Steps and Parameters

  1. Run a one-time batch process to aggregate historical financial transaction data.

    For example, let's say you are currently in the month of April, 2022. If you have historical financial transaction data going back three years and four months, then set the Aggregation Horizon to 38 months. This means data would be aggregated by month from January 2019 through February 2022. Then set the Aggregation Lag for one month, which excludes the data for March 2022. (March is excluded in this case because updates may still be made to the financial transactions of that month.)

    Note: This one-time batch process covers a long period of time, and so it may take a while to run. Wait until the process is finished before beginning the next step.

  2. Use a batch scheduler of your choice to run the batch process on a recurring monthly basis. In this case, you would set the Aggregation Horizon to 2 (for two months prior to the current month of April), and the Aggregation Lag to 1 (for one month prior to the current month of April, so that any financial data that is still in progress would be excluded). This means that for the next month (May), the aggregation period would shift to February through March.

Back to Top

Aggregate Financial Transaction General Ledgers by Month

You can configure a batch process to aggregate financial transaction general ledger (GL) data by month so that the application does not need to sum up the transactions every time a query is issued. Using your scheduler of choice, configure and schedule the following batch process to run monthly:

  • Batch Control: C1-FTGMA

  • Batch Name: Aggregate FT GLs Monthly

  • Parameters: The following parameters are used to determine the start and end dates of an aggregation period.

    • Aggregation Horizon: The number of months in which financial data will be included in the aggregation.

    • Aggregation Lag: The number of months in which financial data will be excluded in the aggregation as calculated from the current month.

Example Steps and Parameters

  1. Run a one-time batch process to aggregate historical financial transaction GL data.

    For example, let's say you are currently in the month of April 2022. If you have historical financial transaction GL data going back three years and four months, then set the Aggregation Horizon to 38 months. This means data would be aggregated by month from January 2019 through February 2022. Then set the Aggregation Lag for one month, which excludes the data for March 2022. (March is excluded in this case because updates may still be made to the financial transactions of that month.)

    Note: This one-time batch process covers a long period of time, and so it may take a while to run. Wait until the process is finished before beginning the next step.

  2. Use a batch scheduler of your choice to run the batch process on a recurring monthly basis. In this case, you would set the Aggregation Horizon to 2 (for two months prior to the current month of April), and the Aggregation Lag to 1 (for one month prior to the current month of April, so that any financial data that is still in progress would be excluded). This means that for the next month (May), the aggregation period would shift to February through March.

Back to Top

Take Monthly Snapshots of Service Agreement Arrears

The monthly Service Agreement Arrears subject area allows you to answer questions about customers who have outstanding debt. The batch process below must be configured and scheduled using your scheduler of choice to run on a monthly basis so that you can capture a snapshot of the service agreement arrears for the previous month.

  • Batch Control: C1-SASNM

  • Batch Name: Capture Monthly SA Arrears Snapshot

    This batch process captures the service agreement (SA) arrears snapshot for the previous month. For example, if the job was submitted on any day in January, 2022, it would take the previous month’s snapshot through December 31, 2021. The following criteria are used to select SAs and include them in the snapshot:

    • Exclude cancelled SAs.
    • Exclude SAs whose start date is later than the snapshot’s end date. For example, if you ran a batch on May 5, a snapshot would be generated for the month of April. Any SA created after April 30 would be excluded.
    • Exclude closed SAs whose end date is before the snapshot date and where the difference, in days, between the snapshot end date and SA end date is greater than the configured number of days to exclude closed SAs. The configured number of days to exclude closed SAs is based on the daysSinceClosed parameter below. See the parameter description for details and examples.

  • Parameters:

    • daysSinceClosed: Number of days to include closed SAs relative to the snapshot’s end date. Any SAs that closed within the number of days provided will be included in the snapshot. A closed SA is one whose arrears balance is 0, meaning there are no more financial responsibilities.

      For example, let’s say you configure daysSinceClosed to 7, and then you run a batch on May 5. A snapshot would be generated for the month of April. Since daysSinceClosed was set to 7, then any SAs that were closed within 7 days dating backwards from April 30 (that is, from April 23-30) would be included in the snapshot. Any SAs closed before April 23 would be excluded.

      It is recommended that you set the daysSinceClosed parameter to 0. This way, the snapshot will not include any SAs that were closed within the previous month. If you want to include SAs that were closed in the previous month in your snapshot, then set the parameter to 30.

Example Steps and Parameters

You can run the batch process to generate a snapshot of the previous month. You can also run the batch process to generate a snapshot of a month in the past prior to the previous month.

To generate a snapshot of the previous month:

  1. Set the daysSinceClosed parameter to the desired number of days within which to include closed SAs as part of the snapshot. It is recommended that you set the parameter to 0. This way, the snapshot will not include any SAs that were closed within the previous month. If you want to include SAs that were closed in the previous month in your snapshot, then set the parameter to 30.
  2. Run the batch process. It will generate a snapshot of the previous month.
  3. Use a batch scheduler of your choice to run the batch process on a recurring monthly basis.

To generate a snapshot of a month other than the previous month:

  1. Set the business date of the batch process to a date in the month that follows the month for which you want a snapshot. For example, let’s say you are in the month of May, and you want a snapshot for the month of February. You would set the business date of the batch process to March 1 or any other day in March.

  2. Set the daysSinceClosed parameter to the desired number of days within which to include closed SAs as part of the snapshot. See the procedure above for an example of the values you might want to use.

  3. Run the batch process. It will generate a snapshot of the month prior to the business date you set.

    Note: When you follow this procedure, the status of the SAs included in the snapshot may not be accurate. This is because the system always uses the latest status of an SA. This means that your historical snapshot may include SAs that were active in the past, but have since been closed. However, the arrears amount of the historical snapshot will still be accurate.

Back to Top