The Rate Ready Calculation Method
If you provide billing services for a service provider (i.e., the service provider has a billing relationship of We Bill For Them ), you can load the service provider's rates in your system and calculate the charges for the service provider. We call this the Rate Ready calculation method.
It's Us can be Rate Ready. The prior paragraph indicated that the Rate Ready billing option was used for We Bill For Them service providers. If you subcategorize your services and use rates to calculate each subcategory's charges, the service provider(s) set up for your own organization will also be subject to the Rate Ready rules described below.
If a customer uses a We Bill For Them - Rate Ready service provider, the system will create a separate bill segment for the service provider's charges. Keep in mind the following in respect of these types of bill segments:
- The consumption is copied from the "master" service agreement (note: we copy item details and read details after pre-processing calculation groups, if any exist, have been applied). This means that the bill period on the sub SA's bill segment is identical to that on the normal SA. This also means that if the "master" SA is in error, bill segments for the sub SA will not be created.
- The rate defined on the sub SA is applied against this consumption. All pre-processing calculation groups defined on the service provider's rate will be used to manipulate this consumption. If you have pre-processing calculation group on your master SA's rate to apply a line loss or convert a cubic foot to a therm, you don't have to have these pre-processing calculation group on the sub SA's rate (because we copy the consumption from the master to the sub after pre-processing calculation group, if any exist, have been applied).
The following illustration should help:
Be aware of the following:
- This example is from a distribution company's perspective.
- From 1 Jan 99 through 15 Mar 99, the distribution company distributes power AND supplies energy (i.e., the distribution company is the service provider of energy).
- On 15 Mar 99, CheapPower becomes the energy supplier. However, the next bill period ends on 30 Mar 99. This means that CheapPower will only start supplying energy on 1 Apr 99. See the following note for why the effective date of the supplier switch is not the true effective date from billing's perspective.
Service Provider Changes Take Effect On The Next Bill. If the service provider is changed within a customer's billing period, the system assumes that the service provider in effect at the START of the period is effective the entire billing period. This means that a change of service providers will only take effect on the bill whose start date follows the change date.
Please be aware of the following characteristics of Rate Ready bill segments:
- You cannot cancel a Rate Ready bill segment independently from the master bill segment. If you need to cancel / rebill the sub SA's bill segment, you must cancel / rebill the master SA's bill segment.
- You cannot delete a Rate Ready bill segment independently from the master bill segment. If you need to delete the sub SA's bill segment, you must delete the master SA's bill segment.
- Similarly, if you cancel / rebill the normal SA's bill segment, all Rate Ready bill segments will be cancelled / rebilled.
Bottom line. Creating, freezing, deleting, and canceling a "master" bill segment does the same with all Rate Ready bill segments. You cannot create, freeze, delete or cancel a Rate Ready bill segment independent of its master bill segment.