An Easier Way To Create One Time Charges

We use the term "one-time charge" to describe ad hoc charges, e.g., tree trimming charges, damage assessments, etc. The following points describe how one-time charges are levied if you don't use the order transaction:

Determine if the customer to be invoiced already has an appropriate "one-time charge" service agreement. If one doesn't exist, you must create one using Start/Stop Service.
Next, a billable charge is added to the "one-time charge" service agreement (using Billable Charge Maintenance). The billable charge contains the invoice lines and amounts. The system will produce the bill for this charge when the account's bill cycle next executes.

Rather than going through the above multi-step process, you can also use the order transaction to create both a "one-time charge" service agreement AND create the billable charge. In addition, if the customer receiving the charge is new, the order transaction will also create a new person and account at the same time.

To take advantage of this facility, you must set up a campaign that has a separate package for each type of one-time charge as illustrated below. When an order is taken for such a campaign, the user simply selects the package that corresponds with the desired one-time charge. The system will then create the necessary customer and financial information when the package is confirmed.

Note:

Billing of one-time charges. The order transaction will not cause a bill to be generated for the customer. Rather, the next time the account is billed, the system will see that there's an unbilled billable charge and create a bill segment for it. This bill segment will appear on the customer's regular bill along with their other charges. If you'd prefer to create the bill for the one-time charges immediately, you could setup the campaign to automatically transfer the user to the bill transaction where they can create an ad hoc bill. If you do this, you'll need to create a new plug-in algorithm on the billable charge SA type to automatically activate the service agreement when it is created (otherwise the user would have to manually activate the billable charge service agreement before the bill can be generated).

Note the following about this campaign:

One-time charges can be levied against both new and existing customers. This means that orders associated with this campaign may cause new customers to be created. Therefore, we have specified information to default onto orders for new customers on the campaign. Note that we defined "residential-oriented" default values as the majority of one-time charges are levied against residential customers.
If we assume you don't ask marketing / eligibility-oriented questions when you levy a one-time charge then this campaign would not require any questions.
We have assumed that you are not capturing miscellaneous fields when you levy a one-time charge.
As described under Marketing Surveys, all campaigns need at least one eligibility rule. We have assumed that this campaign's packages can be selected by all types of customers and have therefore specified an eligibility algorithm that will be true for all customers.
Because this campaign has packages, we have indicated that the button that allows an order to be completed without selecting a package is disabled. This means a user must choose one of the packages to complete the order.
You might want to setup this campaign to automatically transfer the user to the bill transaction after the order is completed. See the note above the illustration for more information.
We have assumed that this campaign can be used to levy two kinds of one-time charges - a tree trimming charge and a damaged line charge - and therefore this campaign requires two packages. Note the following about each package:
- A package's eligibility rules control whether the package can be selected when an order is taken. With more sophisticated campaigns, you may have packages that are only applicable to certain types of customers. In our example, we've assumed that these types of one-time charges can be levied against all customers and have therefore used "universal" eligibility criteria (i.e., there are no eligibility restrictions). Refer to A Package That Is Always Eligible for more information.
- On a package, it's possible to define additional questions to be posed if a package is selected. In our example, there are no additional questions to be posed for the one-time charge packages.
- On a package, it's possible to define additional fields to be captured if a package is selected. In our example, there are no additional fields to be captured.
- On a package, you define the types of service agreements to be created if a package is selected. In our example, we only need a single service agreement created / updated if the package is selected and therefore there's just one entry in SAs To Create. Please note the following about the information used to create this service agreement:

The SA Type is one that's used for a billable charge service agreement.
The SA Type's Start Option is one that will automatically create a billable charge when a service agreement is created (if a start option references a billable charge template, a billable charge will be created when this start option is used). In our example, we have assumed a different start option has been setup for each type of one-time charge.
Billable charge service agreements do not require service points and therefore SP Type is not applicable.
We've indicated a Start Algorithm of Billable Charge . Refer to STRM-AS for an example of such an algorithm (type).