Defining General Bill Factor Information

You begin to define a bill factor by selecting Main Menu, Rates, Bill Factor.

Description of Page

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

Use Bill Factor Type to indicate if this bill factor uses Regular, Interval (i.e., real time) or Variance Parameter values. If you choose Regular, this bill factor's values are specified on Bill Factor Value - Main or on Contract - Contract Values . If you choose Interval, this bill factor's values are specified on Defining Interval Values. If you choose Variance Parameter, this bill factor's values are specified on Bill Factor Variance Parameter Values.

Enter a Currency Code to define the currency in which the bill factor's prices are denominated. This field will be gray if the bill factor is referenced on a rate component.

Select the Value Type to define the kind of value maintained by this bill factor.

This field will be gray if the bill factor is already referenced on a rate component 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. Confused? To clarify this, you need to be aware 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 rate component 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 contract 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 Contract page. This field will be gray if the bill factor is referenced as being tax exempt in a contract.

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 any type of bill factor where a customer may have their own unique price, turn on Value In Contract Term. For any contract that has a unique value for a given bill factor, the bill factor and the contract's value must be indicated on the Contract 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 contract and if one is not found, it will use the value on the bill factor. This field will be gray if a contract term referencing this bill factor exists. Variance Parameter bill factors may follow this same logic. Customers may override their Variance Parameter values by using a contract term.

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 contract.

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. Click here to see the algorithm types available for this system event.

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 Rate Component - Main Information 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 Contract Type - Main for more information about this algorithm.

A contract references Bill Factors as follows:

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

Register rules using the Bill factor based UOM conversion algorithm reference a bill factor to define the conversion amount.