Subscription Billing

Oracle Revenue Management and Billing (ORMB) facilitates the service based billing wherein the customers pay a subscription price to have access to a product or service. For example, the customer may subscribe for newspaper service, cable service, internet service, video service (like Netflix, Amazon Prime Video), cloud service, and so on. The consumers may have to pay one or more charges with respect to the subscribed service. These charges can be one-time or recurring charges in nature.

In ORMB, you can carry out service based billing for an account by creating subscription on the account. While creating an account subscription, you need to specify the subscription type using which you want to create the account subscription. It is the subscription type which helps the system to determine:

  • The business object using which the account subscription must be created in the system.

  • The division and contract type for which the subscription type is created.

  • The default duration for which the account subscription or service charge must be renewed when the automatic renewal option is selected.

  • Whether the service charges should be prorated when the account subscription is suspended for a particular duration, or when one or more services or the entire account subscription is terminated.

  • Whether already billed charges should be adjusted on the next bill in case of suspension and termination.

  • The adjustment type using which the adjustments must be created when the account subscription is edited, suspended, or resumed.

  • The adjustment type using which the adjustments must be created when one or more services or the entire account subscription is terminated.

  • The services which the consumer can subscribe when the account subscription is created using the subscription type.

  • The charges which can be charged when the consumer subscribes for a particular service.

  • The distribution code for each charge which indicates the GL account to which the corresponding financial transaction must be posted.

  • Whether the monthly recurring revenue is exempted for the service.

  • The algorithm which must be executed when the account subscription is terminated, suspended, or resumed.

While creating an account subscription, the system allows you to use only those subscription types for the account which are defined for the division to which the account belongs and which are associated with the contract type whose contract exists on the account. You can specify whether the account subscription must be automatically renewed for the default duration (which is specified in the subscription type). In case of subscription renewal, you can specify whether there is any cost escalation at the time of renewal. You can add services and its charges in the account subscription depending on the subscription type. The system allows you to indicate whether the charge is a one-time charge or a recurring charge. You can specify the frequency at which the recurring charges should be created for the subscribed services. In case of service charge renewal, you can specify whether there is any cost escalation at the time of renewal.

Once an account subscription is created, the status of the account subscription is set to Draft. You can then edit, delete, submit, or cancel the account subscription, if required. You can optionally configure approval workflow for the account subscription. On submitting an account subscription when the approval workflow is off, the status of the account subscription is changed to Active. However, on submitting an account subscription when the approval workflow is on, an approval transaction is created for the account subscription. Only when the approver approves the approval transaction, the status of the account subscription is changed to Active. Note that the status of the account subscription is changed to Active when the subscription start date is past dated. However, if the subscription start date is a future date, the status of the account subscription is changed to Validated irrespective of whether the approval workflow is on or off.

A new batch named Account Subscription Periodic Monitor (C1-ASUBM) batch is introduced in this release. It monitors or checks whether there are any account subscriptions in the Validated status. If there is an account subscription in the Validated status and its subscription start date is earlier than or equal to batch business date, the status of the account subscription is changed to Active. You can then edit the details, if required. However, while editing, you can only change end dates and add the services and charges in the account subscription. You cannot remove a service or charge from the account subscription once it is in the Active status. For more information on batch, see Oracle Revenue Management and Billing Batch Guide.

The system allows you to suspend the account subscription for a particular duration. While suspending the account subscription, you need to specify the suspension reason and suspension condition indicating whether fees should be charged or not for the suspended period. Based on the suspension condition and proration options defined, the system will accordingly update or cancel billable charges.

The system also allows you to terminate a particular service or all services at the same time. While terminating a service, you can specify the termination charges, if any. If the termination charges are specified, the adjustments will be created and posted accordingly on the next bill.

Related Topics

For more information on... See...
Subscription Type screen Subscription Type (Used for Searching)
Subscription Type screen Subscription Type (Used for Viewing)
Account Subscription screen Account Subscription (Used for Searching)
Account Subscription screen Account Subscription (Used for Viewing)

Parent Topic: Oracle Revenue Management and Billing Financial Services Business Processes