Designing Recommendation Rules

Users (and the renewal process) ask the system to recommend the scheduled payments for a Non-Billed Budget. In general, this recommendation process must establish:

  • The amount to be paid
  • The dates on which the payments are due

We envision many different types of recommendation rules. For example:

  • Recommend 26 scheduled payments to be made on a fortnightly basis that are due on Tuesdays.
  • Recommend monthly payments that are due on the nearest workday after the 10th of the month.
  • Recommend scheduled payments where the customer pays their annual charges in 10 out of 12 months where the payments are not due in November and December.
  • Recommend bi-monthly payments where the payments are due on the first workday following the 5th and 20th of the month.

Additionally, the recommendation rules must determine how to handle any outstanding payoff balances for covered SAs. The true-up rule provided with the base package payment schedule algorithm type can ignore the payoff balance, divide the payoff balance evenly between the scheduled payments, or add the payoff balance to the first scheduled payment.

A recommendation rule comprises three elements:

  • An algorithm to calculate an average daily amount (the NBDA-DA algorithm type provided with the base package uses premise billing history)
Note:

Calculating an Amount for Non-utility SAs. The algorithm type supplied with the base package only handles service-point oriented SAs. For example, the average daily amount algorithm calculates an average daily amount. For non-utility SAs, you must develop the appropriate algorithm types.

  • Two algorithm types are provided with the base package to calculate a schedule of payments. NBPS-MON calculates a monthly schedule and NBPS-PS calculates a scheduled based on a specified number of days.
  • A collection of default parameter values for the payment schedule algorithm type

A recommendation rule (based on the algorithm types provided with the base package) is illustrated below.

Weekly Payments Recommendation Rule

Note:

Additional Parameters. Not all of the parameters associated with the weekly payment schedule algorithm type are illustrated. Refer to the NBPS-PS algorithm type for a detail description of the parameters.

The default parameter values for the payment schedule algorithm type may change over time, so the collection contains an effective date. If default values are changed, these changes do not affect Non-Billed Budgets already in effect. Existing Non-Billed Budgets keep the parameter values that were used when the Non-Billed Budget was started.

A user may override the default parameter values for the payment schedule algorithm type to customize the schedule if an override is allowed for a parameter. Additionally, a user may edit the payment schedule details at any time (provided the payment has not yet been processed).

The parameter values used for the recommendation rule are kept with the Non-Billed Budget SA, so that any customized parameter changes can be re-applied to a renewed Non-Billed Budget. For example, the parameter that determines the payment due day may default to the first of the month. To customize the schedule, this value may be changed to the fifth of the month. This amended value is kept with the Non-Billed Budget SA to ensure that the renewed budget follows the same monthly schedule.

Note:

Normally parameter values for an algorithm type are kept with the algorithm. Because the parameters may vary for each Non-Billed Budget, the parameter values are kept with the SA in the case of Non-Billed Budgets.

Refer to Non-billed Budgets Recommendation Rule - Main for information on creating recommendation rules.