Determine The Consumption Period For Metered Service
The consumption period is the inclusive period passed in to the rate application. It is used for calculating the charges for the bill segment. The consumption period is visible on the bill calculation header that groups together the bill calculation lines.
• Consider a bill segment that covers June 1 through July 1 and a subsequent bill segment that covers July 1 through August 1. The charges for July 1 are included on the first bill segment, so the second bill segment should not actually bill July 1. In this scenario, the inclusive consumption period provided to rate application for the second bill segment will be July 2 through August 1.
• Consider a bill segment that must include bill factor value proration .
• Assume the bill segment dates are July 1 - August 1 and that a new rate version calculation group is effective on July 20 and that the charges should be prorated. The rate application process will be called twice, with the following inclusive dates:
◦ Period for charges calculated by old rate version calculation group: July 2 - July 19
◦ Period for charges calculated by new rate version calculation group: July 20 - August 1
Two bill calculation headers will be created in this case, each with the appropriate dates and the collection of bill calculation lines that represent the charges for the bill.
• Consider what should occur for the very first bill segment for a service agreement.
◦ It is possible that the start date of the new customer's service agreement matches the end date of the previous customer's service agreement. In this case, the stop/start date is billed to the old customer and the new customer should not be billed for it.
◦ It is possible that no other service agreement has been billed for the start date. Perhaps this is new service that has never been billed. Perhaps there is a gap in time between when the previous customer stopped service and when the new customer starts service.
You configure your SA types to tell the system what to do for the initial consumption period . You may instruct the system to calculate the start of the consumption period from the day after SA start date, to always include the SA start date, or include the SA start date only if no previous customer was billed for that day (i.e., a 'back-to-back' situation).