Setting Up Billable Charge Templates
A user creates a billable charge whenever a customer should be levied an ad hoc charge. For example, you would create a billable charge to charge a contractor for the repair of a ruptured gas line.
Interfacing billable charges from an external system. In addition to being entered manually, billable charges can also be interfaced from an external system. You would interface billable charges if your organization provides "pass through" billing services for a service provider. Refer to Uploading Billable Charges for more information.
A billable charge must reference a service agreement. This service agreement behaves just like any other service agreement:
- Bill segments are created for the service agreement. Whenever billing is performed for an account with billable charge service agreements, the system creates a bill segment for each unbilled billable charge.
- Payments are distributed to the service agreement. Payments made by an account are distributed to its billable charge service agreements just like any other service agreement.
- Overdue debt is monitored. The credit and collections process monitors billable charge service agreements for overdue debt and responds accordingly when overdue debt is detected.
Rates can be applied to billable charges. Billable charges can be connected to a service agreement that also specifies a rate. The rate will be applied and lines added to the bill segment after the billable charge lines are added. For example, a rate can insert flat charges or be applied to service quantities associated with the billable charge.
Taxes on top of billable charges. Rates cannot be applied to billable charge lines. If you need to perform a calculation such as applying taxes on top of the existing lines, add a service quantity (SQ) that contains the taxable amount with an SQ identifier that describes it as a taxable amount. A calculation rule can apply the tax to this SQ.
Refer to How To Create A One-Time Invoice for instructions describing how to create a bill for a billable charge outside of the normal bill creation process.
Billable charge templates exist to minimize the effort required to create a billable charge for a customer. A billable charge template contains the default bill lines, amounts and distribution codes used to levy a one-off charge.
The information on the template may be overridden by a user when the billable charge is created. For example, you can create a billable charge template to levy tree-trimming charges. This template would contain the bill lines, amounts and distribution codes associated with a tree trimming activities. Then, when you trim a tree for a customer, a user can create a billable charge using the template and override the amount to reflect the actual amount (if it differs from the norm).
Templates aren't required. A billable charge can be created without a template for a truly unexpected charge.
After setting up the billable charge templates, you must indicate the SA types that can use each template. Obviously, only billable charge SA types (as defined on the SA type's special role) will reference billable charge templates.