An Overview of the Bill Creation Process
When the system is asked to produce a bill for an account, it attempts to create one or more bill segments for every non-cancelled / non-closed service agreement linked to the account. Whether or not a service agreement contributes bill segment(s) to a bill is a complicated subject as the system supports a wide variety of bill segment creation methods. For example, a service agreement that charges for metered service is produced as follows:
- The system first requests for the amount or usage consumed (or billing determinants) from Oracle Utilities Meter Data Management; for example, the number of lamps, the number of gallons of water, or the peak kW. For more information, refer to How the System Requests How Much Was Consumed .
- Next, the system applies the service agreement's rate to the amount consumed in order to calculate how much the customer owes. A bill segment and a financial transaction are generated to reflect the results of this calculation. The details of the calculations are captured in the bill calculation lines. For more information, refer to How Rates Affect The Information On Bill Segments for the details. Refer to Effective Dates and Price Proration for information about how the system prorates changes to rates and prices during a bill period.
There are many bill segment creation algorithms. The above points explain how a bill segment is produced for a bill determinants required service agreement. It's important to be aware that the system has other bill segment creation algorithms. For example, if the service agreement charges for a deposit, the system neither amalgamates consumption nor does it apply a rate. You may be wondering how the system knows which method to use. It uses the bill segment type on the service agreement's SA type. Refer to Designing and Defining Bill Segment Types for a description of the various bill segment creation algorithms that are supported in the system.
If errors are detected during the bill segment creation process, the bill segment is saved with its error. The system then proceeds to the account's next service agreement. This way, a user can see all problematic bill segments so they can be corrected en masse. Refer to Bill Errors for information about how to deal with bill errors.
Interdependent service agreements. Your organization may have some service agreements whose charges must be calculated in a specific order. For example, you might have a service agreement whose bill segments are calculated using charges from a different bill segment. If this describes your organization, be aware that the system creates the bill segments in the order of the billing processing sequence on each service agreement's SA type.
When every segment on a bill is error free, the bill is ready to be completed. When a bill is completed, the system:
- Creates a bill routing for each person linked to the account who requires a copy of the bill. The routing information controls the format of the printed bill and how the bill is sent to the person. Refer to The Source Of Bill Routing Information for the details.
- Links all bill messages to the bill. A bill message can come from a variety of sources. Refer to The Source Of Bill Messages for the details.
- If the Freeze At Bill Completion installation option has been turned on:
- All freezable bill segments will be frozen.
- All freezable adjustments whose adjustment type indicates Freeze At Bill Completion will be frozen.
- Sweeps recent financial transactions that have been created since the last bill was completed. Refer to Financial Transactions Created Between Bills for information about how payments, adjustments and bill corrections appear on a bill.
- There are several other functions that happen at completion time. Refer to the description of the Complete button under Bill Lifecycle for the details.
And that's it; the bill can now be sent to the customer.
The remaining topics in this section provide more information about the creation and completion of bills.
Batch and real-time bill creation. Anything the batch bill process does for whole sets of accounts, you can do to a specific account on-line / real time. Refer to How To Create A Bill For All Service Agreements Linked To An Account for information about how to create a bill on-line / real time. Refer to Batch Billing for more information about the batch bill creation process.