Routing Billable Charges To Service Providers - Technical Implementation

Warning:

This section describes, technically, how we send billable charges to service providers. If you aren't technically inclined, skip this section.

The following illustration shows the logical steps involved with sending billable charges to service providers.

In sending billable charges to service providers, the application runs the bill completion algorithms defined on the SA Types of the bill's master service agreements. One of these algorithms determine if a "They Bill For Us" service provider is associated with each master service agreement on the bill. If so, the algorithm inserts a row on the FT Process table. Rows on the FT process table triggers batch processes that download billable charges to the service provider.

The following points explain the steps:

  • When a bill is completed, the system executes the bill completion algorithms defined on the bill's master SA(s) SA types.
  • If you've set up the system properly (i.e., you've put the appropriate Bill Completion algorithm on the master SA's SA type), one of these algorithms will determine if there is a They Bill For Us service provider associated with each master SA on the bill. If so, it will insert a row on the FT Process table.
  • Rows on the FT process table are used as "triggers" for batch processes. In this case, the batch process that is triggered is the one that downloads billable charges to the service provider. The ID of the batch process that is referenced on the trigger comes from the Service Provider's Billable Charge Download Process.
Note:

If there are multiple master SAs on a bill, the financial details associated with each respective master SA could be routed to different service providers (e.g., one service provider could receive the financial details for gas and another for electricity). Refer to Different Service Providers Can Bill Different Services for more information.