Entity Hierarchy Relationship

An entity hierarchy relationship enables you to group related services (i.e. price items) offered to the customers under one group header for the reporting purposes. You can define group headers as hierarchy entities in the system. For example, you can group all payment services, such as Auto Clearing House (ACH) Transfer, Auto Clearing House (ACH) Reversal, Lockbox Service, Dealer Debit, and so on under a group header (i.e. hierarchy entity) named Payments.

You can include hierarchy entities at different levels and thereby design the structure for an entity hierarchy relationship. For example, you can create three hierarchy entities named Cash Management, Payments, and e-Statements. Then, while designing the structure of an entity hierarchy relationship named CASHMGT, you include the Cash Management hierarchy entity at the first or root level and then the Payments and e-Statements hierarchy entities at the second level.

While defining a hierarchy entity, you need to specify the following:

• Level at which you can include the hierarchy entity in an entity hierarchy relationship.

• Division to which the hierarchy entity is associated.

You can include a hierarchy entity in an entity hierarchy relationship when the hierarchy entity is associated with the division for which the entity hierarchy relationship is created. You can associate a hierarchy entity with one or more divisions. While associating a hierarchy entity with a division, you need to specify the date from when the hierarchy entity is associated with the division. The system allows you to include a hierarchy entity in an entity hierarchy relationship when the hierarchy entity is effective for the division on the entity hierarchy relationship start date.

At present, the system supports maximum 10 levels in an entity hierarchy relationship. Therefore, you can define hierarchy entities for upto 9 levels (i.e. Level 1, Level 2, ...., Level 9). The last level (i.e. Level 10) is reserved for a price item that you want to include in an entity hierarchy relationship. If you do not require 10 levels in an entity hierarchy relationship, you can set a lower maximum limit in the Maximum Hierarchy Level option type of the C1-EHRCONFIG feature configuration. However, note that the system will allow you to create a hierarchy entity upto one level less than the level specified in the Maximum Hierarchy Level option type. For example, if you set the value of the Maximum Hierarchy Level option type to 5, the system allows you to create hierarchy entities for upto four levels (i.e. Level 1, Level 2, Level 3, and Level 4). The last level (i.e. Level 5) is reserved for a price item that you want to include in an entity hierarchy relationship. Therefore, you need to accordingly set the value as per the business requirements.

While defining an entity hierarchy relationship, you need to specify the following:

• Division for which you want to create the entity hierarchy relationship.

• The date range for which the entity hierarchy relationship is effective for the division.

• The hierarchy entity that you want to include at the first or root level (i.e. Level 1) in the entity hierarchy relationship. Here, you can only specify a hierarchy entity where the entity level is set to Level 1.

  Note: This is the root from where the entity hierarchy relationship starts and hence only Level 1 entities are allowed to be placed at the root of the entity hierarchy relationship.

• The hierarchy entities that you want to include at the subsequent levels (i.e. Level 2, Level 3, and so on) in the entity hierarchy relationship and their respective parent hierarchy entity.

You can include multiple hierarchy entities at the same level. But, you need to ensure that the parent hierarchy entity for such parallel levels is same. For example, when you include the Payments and e-Statements hierarchy entities at the same level, you need to ensure that their parent hierarchy entity is set to Cash Management.

Cash Management
    Payments
        ACH Transfer

Associating a price item or price item bundle with a hierarchy entity does not has any impact on the billing module. At present, the price item hierarchy is only displayed in the Deal Modelling and Simulation module.

While editing an entity hierarchy relationship, you cannot change the hierarchy entity at the first level when a price item is associated with a hierarchy entity either at the first or subsequent level in the entity hierarchy relationship. In addition, you cannot delete an entity level from the entity hierarchy relationship or change the details of an entity level when a price item is associated with the hierarchy entity at the respective entity level or at any level in the vertical hierarchy of the entity hierarchy relationship. Let us assume we have the following entity hierarchy relationship…

Cash Management
    Payments
        ACH Transfer
        ACH Reversal
        Lockbox Service
        Dealer Debit
    e-Statements
        TWIST Statement
        CAMT Statement
        SWIFT Statement

In the above entity hierarchy relationship, you cannot remove the Payments or e-Statements entity level or change the details of the Payments or e-Statements entity level because the price items are associated with the Payments and e-Statements hierarchy entities. In addition, you cannot change the hierarchy entity at the root level because the price items are associated with the Payments and e-Statements entity levels which is in the vertical hierarchy of Cash Management.

Related Topics

Parent Topic: Pricing Management