Recurring and Non-Recurring Service Types

Until now, while creating a charge for a service or transaction type (i.e., price item), you were able to specify whether the charge for the price item is recurring or non-recurring. Now, the system enables you to classify whether a service or transaction type (i.e., price item) is a recurring or a non-recurring price item. The system then allows you to inherit the recurring information from the price item while creating a charge for it. You can override the default recurring information of a price item during the billable charge creation, if required.

The following new fields are introduced while defining or editing a price item:

• Charging Basis - Used to indicate how you want to charge a price item, by default. The valid values are:

  • Event Driven - At present, this charging method is only used for the reporting purposes and there is no functionality attached to it.

  • One-Time - At present, this charging method is only used for the reporting purposes and there is no functionality attached to it.

  • Recurring - Used when you want to create a recurring charge for the price item.

  • Usage - At present, this charging method is only used for the reporting purposes and there is no functionality attached to it.

• Recurring Method - Used to indicate whether the recurring bill segments for a charge must be created at the intervals defined in the bill period or at the set invoice frequency. The valid values are:

  • Bill Period

  • Frequency

  This field appears only when you select the Recurring option from the Charging Basis list.

• Bill Period - Used to indicate the bill period that you want to use for specifying the intervals at which the recurring bill segments must be created. This field appears only when you select the Bill Period option from the Recurring Method list.

• Invoice Frequency - Used to indicate the invoice frequency at which the recurring bill segments must be created. This field appears only when you select the Frequency option from the Recurring Method list.

Now, when you create a billable charge for a price item from the user interface, the system will prompt whether you want to inherit the recurring information from the price item. Note that this happens only when the recurring information is defined for the respective price item before creating its billable charge. Depending on your response, the system may or may not inherit the recurring information from the price item. You can override the default recurring information in the billable charge, if required.

While creating a billable charge for a price item through various other mechanisms in the system, such as File Upload Interface, On Demand Billing, Billable Charge Upload Request, or Inbound Web Service, the system will inherit the recurring information from the price item (when defined) if it is not available in the record. Note that this happens only when the C1-DFPIRECUR algorithm is attached to the Post-Processing system event of the C1-BILLCHARGE business object.

To implement this feature, the following changes are made in ORMB:

• The following new fields are added to the CI_​PRICEITEM table - PI_​CHARGE_​TYPE_​FLG, RECURRING_​FLG, BILL_​PERIOD_​CD, and POLICY_​INVOICE_​FREQ_​CD.

• The above fields are also added in the following approval workflow UI maps - C1-AppTxnPriceItemDisplay, C1-AppTxnPriceItemInput, and C1-RPCompareUI.

• The C1_​PRICEITEM_​BO business object is accordingly updated to reflect the changes.

• A new lookup field named PI_​CHARGE_​TYPE_​FLG is introduced in the system.

• A new algorithm named C1-DFPIRECUR is attached to the Post-Processing system event of the C1-BILLCHARGE business object.