Hold Direct Debit Instruction

In the financial services and health insurance domains, there might be scenarios wherein the customers would like to review their invoices before the charges are directly debited from their accounts. In such scenarios, there is a need to hold a direct debit (i.e. automatic payment) for a bill until the confirmation is received from the customer.

Oracle Revenue Management and Billing provides the ability to hold a direct debit (i.e. automatic payment) for a bill until the confirmation is received from the customer. A new field named Auto Pay Review Required is added in the Auto Pay tab of the Account screen. On completing a bill for an account, the system creates the automatic payment records in the CI_​BILL_​ACH table as per the auto pay instructions defined for the account. If the Auto Pay Review Required option is selected, the system sets the EXTRACT_​ELIG_​SW column corresponding to the automatic payment records in the CI_​BILL_​ACH table to N. However, if the Auto Pay Review Required option is not selected, the system sets the EXTRACT_​ELIG_​SW column corresponding to the automatic payment records in the CI_​BILL_​ACH table to Y. The EXTRACT_​ELIG_​SW column indicates whether the automatic payment record is eligible for the extraction. If the EXTRACT_​ELIG_​SW column is set to N, the APAYCRET batch does not consider the automatic payment record in the CI_​BILL_​ACH table for automatic payment creation.

Once the confirmation is received for one or more bills, the system enables you to create an automatic payment request for the bills. While creating an automatic payment request, you need to specify an automatic payment request type using which you want to create the automatic payment request. It is the automatic payment request type which helps the system to determine:

  • The business object using which the automatic payment request should be created in the system

  • Whether the approval is required for the automatic payment request

Once you specify the automatic payment request type, the system creates the automatic payment request in the Draft status. You can then include the bills for which invoice confirmation is received from the customers in the automatic payment request. At least one bill should be included in the automatic payment request. Before submitting an automatic payment request, you need to do the following:

  • Edit the Schedule Extract Date (if required) of each bill

  • Set the Eligible for Extraction field of each bill to Y

You can also delete a bill from an automatic payment request when it is in the Draft status. Once you edit the required details of the bills in an automatic payment request, you can submit the automatic payment request. If the approval process is not configured in the respective automatic payment request type, the system does the following:

  • Updates the ELIG_​EXTRACT_​SW and APAY_​CRE_​DT columns corresponding to the automatic payment records in the CI_​BILL_​ACH table

  • Changes the status of the automatic payment request to Processed

If the approval process is configured in the respective automatic payment request type, the system changes the status of the automatic payment request to Approval In Progress. A To Do notification is created for the approver using the approval To Do type (specified in the respective automatic payment request type) and assigned to the users with the approval To Do role (specified in the respective automatic payment request type). Once the approver reviews an automatic payment request, the approver can approve, reject, or resubmit the automatic payment request based on the observations. If the approver approves the automatic payment request, the system does the following:

  • Updates the ELIG_​EXTRACT_​SW and APAY_​CRE_​DT columns corresponding to the automatic payment records in the CI_​BILL_​ACH table

  • Changes the status of the automatic payment request to Processed

If the approver rejects an automatic payment request, the status of the automatic payment request is changed to Rejected. However, if the approver requests the submitter to resubmit an automatic payment request, the status of the automatic payment request is changed to Draft. A To Do notification is created for the submitter using the submitter To Do type (specified in the respective automatic payment request type) and assigned to the users with the submitter To Do role (specified in the respective automatic payment request type). While rejecting or resubmitting an automatic payment request, the approver needs to specify the reason for rejection or resubmission.

To implement the hold direct debit feature, the following new screens are introduced in this release:

  • Auto Pay Request Type - Enables you to create, edit, delete, and copy an automatic payment request type.

  • Auto Pay Request (Used for Searching) - Enables you to search for an automatic payment request. It also enables you to create an automatic payment request.

  • Auto Pay Request (Used for Viewing) - Enables you to edit, delete, submit, approve, reject, and resubmit the automatic payment request. It also enables you to add, edit, and delete bills from the automatic payment request.

In addition, the following changes are made to the system:

  • Auto Pay Review Required - This field is added in the Auto Pay tab of the Account screen. It indicates whether you want to hold direct debit (i.e. automatic payment) for the bills of the account until the confirmation is received from the customer.

  • Eligible for Extraction - This column is added in the Auto Pay tab of the Bill screen. It indicates whether the automatic payment record for the bill is eligible for extraction.

Parent Topic: Oracle Revenue Management and Billing Generic Business Processes