Generating Revenue Assurance Data for Billing

3 Generating Revenue Assurance Data for Billing

This chapter describes how to configure Oracle Communications Billing and Revenue Management (BRM) to generate revenue assurance data for billing.

Configuring BRM to Generate Revenue Assurance Data for Billing

Note:

To generate revenue assurance data, you must have Revenue Assurance Manager installed. See "Installing Revenue Assurance Manager".

To configure BRM to generate revenue assurance data for billing, perform the following tasks:

Enabling Billing Utilities to Generate Revenue Assurance Data

The utilities listed in Table 3-1 contain preconfigured control points that can generate revenue assurance data:

Table 3-1 Utility Configuration Files

Utility	Configuration File
pin_bill_accts	BRM_home/apps/pin_billd/pin.conf
pin_collect	BRM_home/apps/pin_billd/pin.conf
pin_inv_accts	BRM_home/apps/pin_inv/pin.conf
pin_deferred_act	BRM_home/apps/pin_billd/pin.conf
pin_cycle_fees	BRM_home/apps/pin_billd/pin.conf
pin_trial_bill_accts	BRM_home/apps/pin_trial_bill/pin.conf

By default, however, those utilities do not generate revenue assurance data. You enable them to do so by changing an entry in their configuration (pin.conf) files. You make the same change in each configuration file.

To enable the utilities listed in Table 3-1 to generate revenue assurance data:

Using a text editor, open the utility configuration file.
Change 0 to 1 in the following entry:
```
- pin_mta enable_ara 0
```
1 enables generation of revenue assurance data; 0 disables generation of revenue assurance data.
Save and close the file.
Stop and start the Connection Manager (CM).

See the discussion of starting and stopping the BRM system in BRM System Administrator's Guide.

Enabling Custom MTA Applications to Generate Revenue Assurance Data

You enable your custom MTA applications to generate revenue assurance data by adding an entry to its configuration (pin.conf) file. This configuration file must be stored in the directory from which you run the application.

To enable your custom application to generate revenue assurance data:

Open your custom application's pin.conf file in a text editor.
Add the enable_system_ara entry and set it to 1:
```
- pin_mta enable_system_ara 1
```
where a value of 1 enables generation of revenue assurance data, and a value of 0 disables it.
Save and close the file.
Stop and start the Connection Manager (CM).

See "Starting and Stopping the BRM System" in BRM System Administrator's Guide.

Configuring Custom Non-MTA Applications to Generate Revenue Assurance Data

You can configure your custom non-MTA application to generate revenue assurance data when it is run as a custom job in Business Operations Center. To do so, configure your custom application to do this:

Perform its custom processes.
Call the PCM_OP_PROCESS_AUDIT_CREATE opcode to create the /process_audit/billing object, passing these mandatory input fields in the opcode call:
- PIN_FLD_ACCOUNT_OBJ
- PIN_FLD_PROCESS_NAME
- PIN_FLD_TOTAL_RECORDS
- PIN_FLD_SUCCESSFUL_RECORDS
- PIN_FLD_FAILED_RECORDS
Ensure that the status of the custom business operations job and your custom application was updated in the /job/boc object. To do so, call the PCM_OP_READ_FLDS opcode with the job ID passed as an argument and read the object's PIN_FLD_STATUS field.
If the /job/boc object's PIN_FLD_STATUS field has not been updated, update the field to the appropriate status:
- 1: The business operations job has been scheduled, but has not started yet.
- 2: The application has been started.
- 3: The application completed successfully.
- 4: The application failed.
- 5: The business operations job completed successfully.
- 6: The business operations job failed.
- 7: The business operations job could not run due to a scheduled blackout period.
- 8: The business operations job could not run because the system was down.

Enabling Billing Operations to Generate Revenue Assurance Data

In addition to the utilities in Table 3-1, the following operations can generate revenue assurance data:

Bill Now
Bill on purchase
Auto-triggered billing

By default, however, those operations do not generate revenue assurance data.

To enable the preceding operations to generate revenue assurance data, run the pin_bus_params utility to change the EnableARA business parameter. For information about this utility, see BRM Developer's Guide.

Go to BRM_home/sys/data/config.

Create an XML file from the /config/business_params object:

pin_bus_params -r BusParamsBilling bus_params_billing.xml

In the file, change disabled to enabled:
```
<EnableARA>enabled</EnableARA>
```
Save the file as bus_params_billing.xml.
Load the XML file into the BRM database:
```
pin_bus_params bus_params_billing.xml
```
Stop and restart the CM.
(Multischema systems only) Run the pin_multidb script with the -R CONFIG parameter. For more information, see BRM System Administrator's Guide.

Configuring Item Subtypes to Store Split Revenue Assurance Data

For bill items to work as configured in Revenue Assurance Manager, you must configure item subtypes.

Item subtypes define the different types of charges for item types such as cycle arrears, cycle forward, cycle forward arrears, and so on. For example, cycle forward fees and cycle arrears fees can be included in the recurring subtype and monthly usage in the usage subtype. For more information, see "About Splitting Revenue Assurance Data into Detailed Categories".

Before configuring item subtypes, you must configure bill items. See "Creating Custom Bill Items" in BRM Configuring and Running Billing.

To configure item subtypes:

Using a text editor, open the BRM_home/sys/data/pricing/example/config_item_types file.
Define your new item subtypes in the ItemType tag.

Use the item subtype recurring default item subtypes as examples. You can copy and change it as necessary.
```
<ItemType precreate="false" type="cumulative" sub_type="recurring">/item/cycle_forward_arrear</ItemType>
```
Note:

Be sure to enter Discount for discount subtypes. Otherwise, Revenue Assurance Center displays the item's data in the Revenue sections instead of the Adjustments/Discounts section.
In the Storable Class Editor, create the storable class /item/name, where name is the value in the PIN_FLD_TYPE field of /config/item_types.
Run the "load_config_item_tags" and "load_config_item_types" utilities in BRM Configuring and Running Billing to configure the item subtypes in the BRM database.

All defined subtypes except discount subtypes are displayed in Revenue Assurance Center in the Charge Type column of the Billing Details screen under the Revenue section. Discount subtypes are displayed in the Adjustments/Discounts section of the Billing Details screen. For more information, see Revenue Assurance Center Help.