Ways To Control The End Date Of A Bill Segment

The following points describe the different methods that can be used to define the end date on a service agreement's bill segments:

• Meter Read Date. For service agreements with metered consumption (excluding real time meters), the end date is the date of the meter read used on the last day of the bill segment. This is a deceptively disingenuous statement because the algorithm used to select this end read is complex (and it relies on the service cycle schedule - hence the name of this option).
• Bill Period Schedule. Non-metered service agreements may have the end date of their bill segments defined on the user-maintained bill period calendar. This option is used when bill segments must fall on strict calendar boundaries (e.g., quarterly bills that end on the last day of the quarter).
• Anniversary. In addition to the Bill Period Calendar method, non-metered service agreements may have their bill segment end date based on the first day of service. For example, if service started on the 16 th of some month, the ongoing bill segments will start on roughly the 16 th of each month. This option is frequently used to bill for garbage or cable service.
• ASAP. For non-meter service agreements that use neither the Bill Period Calendar nor Anniversary methods, the system assumes the end date of a bill segment is the current date. This option is frequently used for service agreements that deal with items (e.g., street lamps, phone booths).
• Billable Charge. For non-metered service agreements that exist to levy billable charges, the start AND end dates are defined on the billable charge information that is entered by a user or interfaced from an external system.

The topics in this section discuss each of the above methods.