Designing Your SA Types And Start Options For Sub SAs
When you were Designing Service Providers, you defined the service providers that were valid for every combination of SA type and SA relationship type. If you provide billing services for another service provider or if you subcategorize your own services, you another task - you have to design the SA types for your sub SAs.
As described earlier, there will be a separate Sub Service Agreement for every SA relationship for which we calculate a bill segment. Every sub SA must reference an SA type. The following table shows sample SA types (notice that they are only used for We Bill For Them and It's Us service providers).
CIS BU/
SA Type
SA Relationship Type
Service Provider
SA Type(s) for Sub SAs
G/COM
Energy supply
AmeriGas
AG1
TransGas
TG1
Green Power - Gas
GP-GC1
G/IND
Energy supply
AmeriGas
AG1
TransGas
TG1
Green Power - Gas
GP-GI1
E/RES
Energy supply
Green Power - Electric
GP-ER1
Cheap Power - Res
CP-ER1
Us - Billable
US-ER1
E/COM
Energy supply
ElectriCorp
Not applicable - they bill for us
Cheap Power - Com/Ind
Not applicable - dual billing
TeniCorp - Com
TC1
Meter service
MeterCorp
Not applicable - dual billing
Us - Non billable
Not applicable - no billing
E/IND
Energy supply
ElectriCorp
Not applicable - they bill for us
Cheap Power - Com/Ind
Not applicable - dual billing
TeniCorp - Ind
TC1
Meter service
MeterCorp
Not applicable - dual billing
Us - Non billable
Not applicable - no billing
The design steps required to set up these SA types are similar to those described under Designing SA Types For Service Agreements With Service Points. The following points provide a few suggestions that will help you design your SA types for sub SAs:
• The business unit should be the same as defined for the master service agreement.
• Service type should be set up as per Service Segmentation.
• Distribution code should be set up as per Receivable Segmentation.
• Obviously, the sub SA switch should be turned on.
• Start options:
◦ If the SA type is used for a We Bill For Them - Rate Ready service provider or for yourself, the start options should be Required because rates, contract riders and/or contract values will be populated on the sub SA from a start option. Refer to Automatic Creation of Sub SAs for more information.
◦ If the SA type is used for a We Bill For Them - Bill Ready service provider, the start options should be not allowed because we don't need to default rates, contract riders and/or contract values on billable charge sub SAs.
• The payment distribution and late payment information should be set up as for any SA type. Refer to Cash Distribution Segmentation and Late Payment Charge Segmentation for more information.
• If the SA type is used for We Bill For Them - Bill Ready service provider, the special role should be Billable Charge, otherwise it should not be used. Remember, you should not use sub SAs for Cash Deposits.
• Deposit class should be used if the sub SA is covered by a deposit. Refer to Deposits Issues for more information.
• The one time charge switch should be off.
• Bill segment type:
◦ If the SA type is used for a We Bill For Them - Bill Ready service provider, the bill segment type should reference a bill segment creation algorithm that creates bill segments from billable charges (and generates bill segment errors until the last night of the bill cycle). Refer to The Bill Ready Calculation Method for more information.
◦ If the SA type is used for a We Bill For Them - Rate Ready service provider, the bill segment type should reference a get consumption algorithm that gets consumption from the master SA, and a bill segment creation algorithm that applies a rate.
• Specify a characteristic premise is required if the sub SA is associated with premise-oriented service.
• The calendar billing options should not be used.
• The recurring charge information should not be used.
• Sub SAs used for We Bill For Them - Rate Ready service providers should NOT be eligible for budgets and therefore the eligible for budget switch should be off. This admonition is given because budget billing causes current amount due to be out-of-sync with payoff amount due and we don't want this to happen for sub SAs. Why? Because we use the bill segments associated with these sub SAs to determine how much we owe the service provider.
• If the SA type is used for a We Bill For Them - Rate Ready service provider or for your own company, rates need to be set up; otherwise they should not be used.
• Sub SAs never reference service points. Refer to Only The "Master" Service Agreement Is Linked To Service Points for more information.
• Adjustment types profiles should be set up accordingly.
• Refer to Credit and Collection Issues for recommendations in respect of the debt class, write off debt class, and severance criteria associated with these SA types.
• Billable charge templates should not be used.
• Completion algorithms cannot be used for sub SAs.
• If the SA type is used for a We Bill For Them service provider, you should link to the SA type the FT freeze algorithm that controls how we pay the service provider. Refer to Pay At Bill Time vs. Pay At Pay Time for how this algorithm is used.
• The creation of bill segments for the sub SAs occurs after the bill segment for the related master SA is created. If you populate a billing processing sequence on an SA type for a sub SA, it is used to control the order in which the sub SAs for a given master SA are processed relative to each other.
Refer to Setting Up SA Types for how to set up these new SA types in the system.