The Structure Of A Bill Factor
All bill factors share a common structure as illustrated below:
The above example shows a standard bill factor made up of the following tables:
- A bill factor contains descriptive information and attributes that control how the bill factor may be used in the system.
- All bill factors have the capability of having different values depending on some characteristic. For example, a bill factor used to levy a state tax would have a different tax rate depending on the state in which the customer resides. A bill factor characteristic must exist for every state with a tax (states without a tax will not be linked to the state tax bill factor). At billing time, if the system cannot find a bill factor characteristic that corresponds with the customer's state of residence, the charge will be skipped.
- And finally, each bill factor characteristic may have many bill factor values over time. To continue with our state tax
example, each state with a tax can have different tax rates over time.
There are different ways in which a bill factor's values may be defined:
- For bill factors whose values are applicable to many customers where only one value is effective on a given date, e.g., a city tax, the values are defined using bill factor values. Refer to Defining Bill Factor Values for more information.
- For bill factors whose values are applicable to many customers where more than one value is effective on a given date, e.g., an interval price or a weighted average price, the values are defined on an interval value set. Refer to Defining Interval Values for more information about interval value sets.
- For bill factors that define values for a collection of Variance Parameter codes for a given date, the values are defined using bill factor Variance Parameter values. Refer to Bill Factor Variance Parameter Values for more information about Variance Parameter.
- For bill factors whose value differs per customer, the value is defined in the customer's contract. Refer to Contract - Contract Value for more information about bill factors in contract terms.