Defining General Bill Factor Information

Begin to define a bill factor by selecting Menu > Rates > Bill Factor > Add.

Description of Page

Enter a unique Bill Factor code and a Description for the bill factor.

Enter a Currency Code to define the bill factor's denomination, or currency. This field is disabled if the bill factor is referenced on a calculation rule.

This field is disabled if the bill factor is already referenced on a calculation rule or if the bill factor already has values

Turn on Error If No Value if the system should create a billing error when a bill factor value doesn't exist for the characteristic value linked to the customer. To clarify, understand that there are different types of bill factors:

• Those that should have a value for every customer whose rate references the bill factor. A bill factor used to levy the relevant state tax is a good example (assuming every state has a tax). For this type of bill factor, if the system cannot find a bill factor value for the taxing state, it must generate a billing error because data is missing from the system. You would turn on Error if No Value for this type of bill factor.
• Those that only have a value when the customer has a characteristic value that levies a charge. A bill factor used to levy the relevant city tax is a good example (because not all cities levy taxes). For this type of bill factor, if the system cannot find a bill factor value for the city in which the customer lives, the calculation rule will be skipped and no billing error will be generated. You would turn off Error if No Value for this type of bill factor

Bill factors used to levy taxes may or may not be eligible for tax exemptions; it's up to the respective taxing authority. Customers who are eligible for the tax exemption will have their tax obligation reduced (or nullified) at billing time. For bill factors that are eligible for tax exemptions, turn on Tax Exemption. If a service agreement is fully or partially exempt for the taxes defined by a given bill factor, the bill factor and the exemption information for the customer must be indicated on the Service Agreement page. This field will be disabled if the bill factor is referenced as being tax exempt in a service agreement.

Some types of bill factors do not have the same value for all customers. Rather, their value may be unique for every customer or it may be unique for some customers and common for others. For example, you may have rates where the price per kilowatt-hour is defined for every customer using the rate. You may have other rates where certain customers have their own price per kilowatt-hour defined and other customers who use the value defined on the bill factor. For any type of bill factor where a customer may have their own unique price, turn on Value In Contract Term. For any service agreement that has a unique value for a given bill factor, the bill factor and the service agreement's value must be indicated on the Service Agreement page. When applying the rate for a bill factor of this type, the system will first check for the existence of a contract value for the service agreement and if one is not found, it will use the value on the bill factor. This field will be disabled if a contract term referencing this bill factor exists.

Contract riders are used when the charge associated with the bill factor is only applicable to some customers for some period of time. For example, if a bill factor is used to provide a discount during the first 3 months of service, then a contract rider would be used. Turn on Contract Rider Applicability if the bill factor's applicability is contingent on the existence of a contract rider. This field will be gray if a contract rider referencing this bill factor exists on a service agreement.

The proration information tells the system how to handle changes to bill factor values and their optional contract riders that may occur during a customer's bill period. Turn on Allow Proration if changes to the bill factor's value and/or contract riders should be prorated. If the Bill Factor Type is not specified as Interval and if changes should not be prorated, indicate the Rate Selection Date Algorithm to use when the system retrieves bill factor values or determines if contract riders are applicable.

If you have sub service agreements, turn on Use Sub SA Contract terms if billing should access contract riders, values, tax exemptions from the sub SA rather than the master. If this switch is off, the system will use the master SA's riders, contract value, and tax exemptions when it creates bills for a sub service agreement. Refer to Sub Service Agreements for more information.

If the Contract Management module is not turned off, which includes umbrella agreement management, and you have checked either Tax Exemption, Value in Contract Term or Contract Rider Availability, indicate the Terms of Service Usage. Valid values are Check SA Only, Check TOS Only and Check TOS First, then SA. Refer to Overriding Rate Terms for details about how to set this value based on your business needs.

Bill Factor Tree

The right half of this page is dedicated to a tree that shows the bill factors characteristics and their respective values (for Regular bill factors) or interval value Sets (for Interval bill factors). You can use this tree to both view high level information about these objects and to transfer to the respective page in which an object is maintained by using the available Go To buttons.

Where Used

Many types of Rate Components may use a Bill Factor to define the price being charged. Refer to Designing Calculation Groups and Rules for more information.

The BILPC-TOTAL algorithm type that is used to levy late payment charges references the bill factor that defines the late payment charge percent. Refer to SA Type - Main for more information about this algorithm.

A Service Agreement references Bill Factors as follows:

• When a service agreement's Apply To calculation rule references tax exemptable bill factors AND the customer is tax exempt, the service agreement will define the bill factors from which the customer is exempt. Refer to Service Agreement - Tax Exemptions for more information.
• When a service agreement's rate references bill factors whose prices are customer-specific (i.e., specified on a contract term), the service agreement will contain prices for these bill factors. Refer to Service Agreement - Contract Values for more information.
• When a service agreement's rate references bill factors that are contingent on contract riders, the service agreement will define the rider period (if any) for these bill factors. Refer to Service Agreement - Contract Riders for more information.