Payments

9 Payments

You can manage your customers' payments by using Oracle Communications Billing Care.

To work with payments, see the following topics:

Initiating a Payment

You can initiate a payment from any of the following locations in Billing Care:

From the Actions menu above the account bar, select Payments and then select Make a Payment.
From the Home section, click Make Payment under the Account History area.
From the Bills section, select the Actions menu and then select Make Payment.
From the Account details page of the account for which you want to make the payment.

For information about applying a payment to a customer's account, see "Making a Payment".

Making a Payment

Billing Care supports the following payment methods:

Credit Card
Debit Card
Cash
Check
Wire-Transfer
Inter Bank Payment Order
Postal Order

Note:

A payment amount does not need to match a bill amount. You determine where to apply a payment when allocating the payment.
You cannot make payments to wholesale child accounts.

To make a payment:

From the Actions menu, select Payments and then select Make a Payment.

The Make a Payment dialog box appears. See "Make a Payment Dialog Box" for details.

Tip:

For alternative ways to open the Make a Payment dialog box, see "Initiating a Payment".
Enter the amount.
(Optional) To use a payment method other than the one displayed, select Use a different payment method and select a method from the Payment Method list.
1. Enter the account information for the new payment method.
2. Select Use name and billing address from primary contact, or enter the name and address for the card holder.
3. (Optional) Select Save to Payment Methods on file for credit card and debit payment methods.
  
  If you are making a payment for an account, the payment method applies to the account. If you are making a payment for a bill unit, the payment method applies to the bill unit.
For Select a reason, select the reason that matches the situation.
(Optional) Enter notes.
Do one of the following:
- Click Continue to manually allocate to make the payment and to allocate the payment.
- Click Save to make the payment without allocating.

See "Allocating Payments" for information about allocating payments.

Make a Payment Dialog Box

Use the Make a Payment dialog box to enter a customer's payment and to add new payment methods.

Field	Description
Bill Unit	For accounts with multiple bill units, select a bill unit. If an account has only one bill unit, the term does not appear.
Use a different payment method	Select if you want to change the payment method.
Payment method	If multiple payment methods are available, select a payment method. If you selected Use a different payment method, select a new payment method option. For a new payment method, new fields appear for you to enter the details.
Amount	Enter the payment amount.
Select a reason	Select the reason that most closely matches the situation.
Notes	(Optional) Enter notes.
Continue to manually allocate	Click to save and allocate the payment.
Save	Click to make the payment without allocating the payment. You can allocate the payment later.

Viewing Payment Details

You can view details of a payment, including an audit trail of related payment actions, and enter notes from several places in Billing Care.

To view payment details:

Click the Bills tab and select a bill that has a payment.
Click Payment Applied.

One of the following happens:
- If only one payment has been made, the Payment Details dialog box appears. See "Payment Details Dialog Box" for details.
- If more than one payment has been made, the All Payments dialog box appears first. See "All Payments Dialog Box" for details. Click Payment Details to go to the Payment Details dialog box.
View payment allocations in the Allocation tab.
View the payment's audit trail in the Audit Trail tab.
(Optional) If all or part of the payment has been allocated, to see details about the allocated items, do any of the following:
- Under Original payment, click the Show all items affected link.
- In the Allocation tab, click the link in the Items Affected column.
The Items Affected dialog box appears. You can view details about the adjusted items. See "Items Affected Dialog Box".
(Optional) Click Export to save the account adjustment details to a CSV file.
Click Close.

Payment Details Dialog Box

Use the Payment Details dialog box to identify payments.

Field	Description
Effective	The payment's effective date.
Receipt Date	The payment receipt date.
Receipt No.	An automatically generated ID for a receipt.
Transaction ID	Similar to a payment ID, a transaction ID is automatically generated for each payment, payment reversal, and refund. Additionally, the transaction ID identifies transactions involving third parties, such as transactions with credit card processing companies.
Original Payment	The original payment amount and method.
Show all items affected	If any part of the payment has been allocated, click for details on the items.
Effective (reversal)	The payment reversal date (if a payment has been reversed).
Move to Suspended Payments	Click to move payment into suspense.
Reverse Payment	The payment reversal amount and method.
Audit Trail	The audit trail information for any payment reversal or suspense actions.
Payment Details	The amount (with payment method), time, reason, and notes (if notes are available) for the payment. Billing Care also lists any reversed payment amounts or amounts that have been moved into suspense.
Comment	Click to add a note to the payment.
Export	Click to export the payment details to a CSV file. The Export button is enabled for the Allocation tab and disabled for the Audit Trail tab.
Allocation	Account - This is only displayed when the customer has multiple accounts. Bill Unit - A bill unit is a group of one or more bills consisting of its own payment settings and invoices. This is only visible when the customer has multiple bill units. Note: Bill Unit will not appear if there is only one bill unit. Payment ID - An automatically generated ID for a payment transaction. Accounting can use this number to process payments, refunds, and payment reversals. Bill ID - Displays the ID number of the bill. Items Affected - If any part of the payment has been allocated, click the links under Items Affected for details on the items. Amount - Displays the payment amount. Date - Displays the date of the payment.

All Payments Dialog Box

Use the All Payments dialog box to view detailed payments information for a bill's payments.

Field	Description
Effective Date	The effective date of the applied payment.
ID	An automatically generated ID for a payment transaction. Accounting can use this number to process payments, refunds, and payment reversals.
Payment Amount	The payment amount.
Payment Actions	A description of reversed and suspended payment amounts.
Payment Details	The amount (with payment method), time, reason, and notes (if notes are available) for the payment. Billing Care also lists any reversed payment amounts or amounts that have been moved into suspense.
Export	Click to export the payment details to a CSV file. The Export button is enabled for the Allocation tab and disabled for the Audit Trail tab.

Items Affected Dialog Box

Field	Description
Payment ID	An automatically generated ID for a payment transaction. Accounting can use this number to process payments, refunds, and payment reversals.
Bill Unit	A bill unit is a group of one or more bills consisting of its own payment settings and invoices. This is only visible when the customer has multiple bill units. Note: Bill Unit will not appear if there is only one bill unit.
Bill ID	Displays the ID number of the bill.
Item	Details of the adjusted item.
Amount	Displays the payment amount.
Export	Click to export the payment details to a CSV file. The Export button is enabled for the Allocation tab and disabled for the Audit Trail tab.

Allocating Payments

You allocate payments to distribute the payments among the bills of an account. If the account has multiple bill units, you can allocate payments to specific bill units. You can also allocate payments to specific items.

Customers are credited for all payments. The company needs payments to be allocated for accounting purposes.

You can allocate to bills or to specific items or bill units. For information, see:

Allocating a Payment

To allocate a payment:

From the Actions menu, select Payments, and then select Allocate.

If there is only one unallocated payment, the Allocate Payment dialog box appears, and you can skip the next step. If there is more than one unallocated payment, the All Unallocated Payments dialog box appears.
In the All Unallocated Payments dialog box, select the payment you want to work with, and click Next.

The Allocate Payment dialog box appears.

Note:

To see more details about a bill or to allocate to a specific bill unit, or item, click the Advanced View icon. See "Allocating a Payment to a Bill Unit or an Item".
Click a bill.

You can search for a bill by entering the Bill ID or balance amount.

The amount available for allocation is automatically applied to the balance.

Tip:

Press Shift+select to contiguously select Allocate cells.
(Optional) Select an allocation cell and enter a specific amount to allocate.
(Optional) Continue allocating funds to other bills.
(Optional) Click Payment Details for more information about a payment.
Click Save to complete allocating the payment, or Save, select another payment to allocate more payments.
(Optional) Click Export to save the allocated payment details to a CSV file. Customize the exported data by choosing specific columns from the optional columns available in the drop-down list.

Allocating a Payment to a Bill Unit or an Item

You allocate payments to distribute the payment amount among multiple bills or bill units of an account. If the account has multiple bill units, you can allocate payments to specific bill units. You can also allocate to specific items.

To allocate a payment to specific bill units or items:

From the Actions menu, select Payments, and then select Allocate.

You can also allocate a payment while making the payment.
In the Allocate Payment dialog box, click the Advanced View icon.
(Optional) In Search, enter text to find bills, bill units, services, or items.
Click the bill, bill unit, or item that you want to allocate a payment to.

The amount available for allocation is automatically applied to the balances.

Tip:

Press Shift+click to contiguously select and enter amounts in Allocate cells.
(Optional) Click an allocation cell and enter a specific amount to allocate.
(Optional) Continue allocating funds to other bills.
(Optional) Click Payment Details for more information about a payment.
Click Save.

Allocate Payment Dialog Box

Use the Allocate Payment dialog box to allocate a payment to one or more bills. There are two views for allocating payments:

View	Description
Simple view	Includes the headings Bill ID, Due Date, Balance, and Allocate. In this view, you can sort the columns.
Advanced view	Includes the above headings and Name, Bill Unit, Service, and Item. In this view, you can: Filter the list of bills using any value that appears in the table. Allocate payments to specific items.

View

Description

Simple view

Includes the headings Bill ID, Due Date, Balance, and Allocate.

In this view, you can sort the columns.

Advanced view

Includes the above headings and Name, Bill Unit, Service, and Item. In this view, you can:

Filter the list of bills using any value that appears in the table.
Allocate payments to specific items.

Reversing a Payment

Payment reversals are necessary when a payment is recorded in Billing Care, but the payment is not deposited. For example, you could record a check payment for a check that does not clear. To reopen the bill so the payment can be made again, you reverse the payment. Reversing the payment enables Billing Care to treat the payment as if it never happened.

To permanently reverse a previously applied payment:

Note:

You can also reverse payments from the Payments Details dialog box (see "Payment Details Dialog Box" for more information) or from the Suspended Payments Details dialog box (see "Suspended Payment Details" for more information).

Click the Bills tab.
Click Switch Bills and select the bill containing the payment to reverse.
Click Actions, and then select Reverse Payment.

The Reverse Payment dialog box appears.
Set the effective date for the payment reversal. The effective date cannot be set in the future.
Select a reason for the payment reversal.
(Optional) Enter notes for the payment reversal.
Click Reverse Payment.

Working with Suspended Payments

Oracle Communications Billing and Revenue Management (BRM) automatically suspends payments that cannot be posted immediately to customer accounts due to insufficient information, account closure, or other criteria.

You manage suspended payments in Billing Care by viewing and allocating suspended payments to customer accounts when the payment error is resolved. You also use Billing Care to identify any incorrectly posted payments and move them into suspense for future resolution.

Finding a Suspended Payment

To find a suspended payment:

From the landing page, click Payment Suspense.

The Payment filter appears along with a list of suspended payments that meet the filter criteria. The Payment filter assists you in narrowing the suspended payments shown and helps you find a suspended payment for allocation. Billing Care sets a default 30-day search criteria for suspended payments. See "Payment Filter" for more information on using filters to set search criteria.
Click Add Filter to add additional filters to the suspended payments shown.
To enable or disable a filter, click the filter button.
Click Update.

The filtered suspended payments are shown.

Tip:

In the Payment filter, click X to remove a filter or click Reset to return to the default filter of less than 30 days.
Select a suspended payment to view it.

Billing Care displays the selected suspended payment details. See "Suspended Payment Details" for more information.

Tip:

Click Close to return to the Billing Care home page.

Payment Filter

Narrow your suspended payment search results by using the filters provided under Payment, Suspense, and Account.

Tips:

You can sort filtered results by date, amount, reason, and currency code using the Sort menu.
Scroll down to view additional suspended payments.
Search for payments using the information from the original suspended payment entry. Search criteria will not filter payments with changes made after the original payment.

Payment Filter	Description
Payment	Contains the following payment attributes used for filtering suspended payments: Amount: The amount of the suspended payment Date: The date the payment was made Method: The payment method (Cash, Check, Wire-Transfer, Inter Bank Payment Order, Postal Order, or Failed) Currency: The payment currency Channel: The payment channel
Suspense	Contains the following suspense attributes for filtering the suspended payments: Schema: For multi-schema, you can select the secondary schema for which you want to see the suspended payments. By default, the primary schema is selected. Reason: Unclassified Detailed Reasons: Account No not found Account status is closed Bill not found Invalid Transaction Id Missing Transaction Id Multiple Account Distribution Payment due to recycling MBI Distributed Payment MBI Distribution Required Default Reason Id Handler (see "Assigning Suspended Payments to Billing Care Users" for more information): Assigned to me Unassigned
Account	Contains the following filters for account information: Account Number Bill Number Payment Transaction ID

Payment Filter

Description

Payment

Contains the following payment attributes used for filtering suspended payments:

Amount: The amount of the suspended payment
Date: The date the payment was made
Method: The payment method (Cash, Check, Wire-Transfer, Inter Bank Payment Order, Postal Order, or Failed)
Currency: The payment currency
Channel: The payment channel

Suspense

Contains the following suspense attributes for filtering the suspended payments:

Schema: For multi-schema, you can select the secondary schema for which you want to see the suspended payments. By default, the primary schema is selected.

Reason:

Unclassified

Detailed Reasons:

Account No not found
Account status is closed
Bill not found
Invalid Transaction Id
Missing Transaction Id
Multiple Account Distribution
Payment due to recycling
MBI Distributed Payment
MBI Distribution Required
Default Reason Id

Handler (see "Assigning Suspended Payments to Billing Care Users" for more information):

Assigned to me
Unassigned

Account

Contains the following filters for account information:

Account Number
Bill Number
Payment Transaction ID

Suspended Payment Details

The suspended payment detail includes the following information:

Field	Description
Payment ID	Contains the following suspended payment information: Payment ID Suspense reason Suspense Date Payment amount, currency, and method Allocated and Unallocated payment amounts
Account Distribution	Contains the eligible accounts for which a suspended payment can be allocated. See "Allocating a Suspended Payment" for more information.
Details	Contains the following suspended payment information (if available): Bank Code Bank Account Number Effective Date Bill Number Check Number Pay Order Id Postal Order Id Transfer ID
Notes	Contains a text field for adding notes to the suspended payment. See "Adding Notes to a Suspended Payment" for more information.
Audit Trail	Contains the audit trail for the suspended payment. The audit trail records the following activities: Payment Made Allocation Moved Into Suspense

Allocating a Suspended Payment

Billing and Revenue Management stores suspended payments in a system account until allocation to a customer account's open balances and billable items. Use Billing Care to allocate suspended payments to one or more customer accounts after resolving the issues that caused the initial payment suspension.

To allocate a suspended payment to an account:

Find the suspended payment to allocate. See "Finding a Suspended Payment" for more information.
Click on the suspended payment to allocate to view the payment details. A list of accounts eligible to receive the suspended payment allocation is shown in Account Distribution. Each account contains associated allocation details including the account owner's name.
If no distribution accounts are configured for the suspended payment, click Add Account in Account Distribution to add one or more accounts.
Use the search dialog box to add an account for allocating a suspended payment to. The search dialog box supports the following search parameters:
- Account number
- First name
- Last name
- Company
Billing Care searches for the account and adds the account to Account Distribution. Billing Care supports allocating a suspended payment to multiple accounts. However, you must complete the initial distribution account's allocation before adding another distribution account.

Note:

To remove an account from the distribution accounts list, click the account's menu icon, and then click Remove Account. Remove any accounts not receiving a payment distribution before performing allocation.
Enter an amount in Add Allocation to allocate to each distribution account. This amount must be less than or equal to the suspended payment amount. Multiple separate allocations to the same distribution account can be made if the payment still contains funds awaiting allocation. Billing Care groups and displays such allocations by account in Account Distribution.
Select a required reason from the list.

The Auto Allocate and Allocate buttons are enabled.
Do one of the following:
- Click Auto Allocate for Billing Care to automatically select the account's bill items to which to allocate a suspended payment. If an allocation amount is greater than all the account's bills, or if allocation amounts are made to accounts with no balance due, the remaining balance is assigned a status of Awaiting Allocation and available when a future payment is due.
- Click Allocate to perform manual allocation.
- Click Cancel to reset the allocation amount to zero, remove the reason code, and disable the allocation buttons.
Note:

If a selected distribution account contains no open balance or billable items, you must either:
- Click Continue to apply the suspended payment to the distribution account as unallocated.
- Click Cancel to reset the allocation amount to zero.
The Allocate Payment dialog box is displayed. See "Allocate Payment Dialog Box" for details.
Do one of the following:
- To allocate a payment to one or more Bill IDs, click the simple view button () and enter the amount to allocate for each Bill ID row.
- To allocate a payment to one or more Bill Units, click the advanced view button () and enter in the amount to allocate for each Bill Unit row.
Click Save.

If a suspended payment has been fully allocated, the payment suspense search screen is shown.

Note:

Fully allocated suspended payments no longer appear in payment suspense search results. Additionally, if more than one payment has been applied to a bill, including any payments allocated from suspended payments, the total payment applied for the bill will include all payments applied.

Allocating a Suspended Payment across Multiple Accounts

A suspended payment can be allocated across multiple accounts. For example, a customer may make one large payment that they want allocated to multiple accounts.

To allocate a payment across multiple accounts:

Make a new payment in Billing Care. See "Manually Creating a Suspended Payment" for more information.
Under Account Distribution, click Add Account.
Search for and add an account to allocate the payment to.
Repeat the search to add additional accounts to the payment.
(Optional) Select a new payment administrator from the Assigned to list.
(Optional) Enter notes and click Post for the payment.
Do one of the following:
1. Manually enter the amounts to allocate for each account and click Allocate.
2. Click Auto Allocate for Billing Care to automatically allocate payment amounts to the selected accounts until the full payment amount is allocated.

Note:

Unallocated payments are placed into a suspense. You can use the payments search filter to find unallocated payments ready for multiple account distribution. Select the suspense reason as Unable to Process, and the detailed reason as Multiple Account Distribution to filter for unallocated payments.

Adding Notes to a Suspended Payment

To add a note to a suspended payment:

Open the suspended payment details. See "Finding a Suspended Payment" for more information.
Enter your notes in Notes.
Click Post.

Note:

You can make additional comments to existing notes in a suspended payment. To add a comment to an existing notes thread, click Comment.

Assigning Suspended Payments to Billing Care Users

Production Billing Care installations configured securely with Oracle Identity and Access Management (IAM) allow suspended payments to be assigned to users with a suspense payment management role and permissions. See Billing Care Installation Guide for more information on production installations and securing Billing Care with IAM.

By default, suspended payments are not assigned to any Billing Care user. Users with access to suspended payments functionality can assign an authorized handler to manage the payment.

To assign a suspended payment to an authorized user:

Find the suspended payment. See "Finding a Suspended Payment" for more information.
From the search results, select and open the suspended payment.
In the Assigned to list, select a Billing Care user with permissions to manage suspended payments.

Reversing a Suspended Payment

Suspended payments that cannot be allocated can be reversed for accounting purposes. See "Reversing a Payment" for more information on reversing a suspended payment.

Withdrawing a Posted Payment into Suspense

Posted payments may contain errors requiring manual resolution. You can withdraw incorrectly posted payments into suspense for resolving errors and correcting payment allocations using Billing Care.

Note:

You can also withdraw posted payments from the Payments Details dialog box (see "Payment Details Dialog Box" for more information) or from the Suspended Payments Details dialog box (See "Suspended Payment Details" for more information).

To withdraw a posted payment into suspense from the Bills tab:

Open the account containing the payment to suspend.
In the Bills tab, select the bill with the posted payment to suspend using the Switch Bills menu. See "Viewing Payment Details" for more information.

Note:

If a bill contains more than one applied payment, click Payments applied to view the All Payments dialog box to select the payment to move into suspense.
Confirm that the correct amount is shown in Payment applied.
Click Actions, and then select Move Payment to Suspense.

The Move to Suspended Payments dialog box is displayed.
In the Effective field, enter a date.
Select a reason for suspending the payment.
Do one of the following:
- Click Move to move the payment into suspense.
- Click Move and view into Payment Suspense to move the payment into suspense and return to the suspended payments detail screen.

Payments withdrawn into suspense remain viewable in the customer's account.

Manually Creating a Suspended Payment

To manually create a suspended payment in the Payment Suspense interface for allocation:

From the landing page, click Payment Suspense.
In the filters section, click Make Payment.

The Make Payment screen appears.
Select a payment method from the list.
Enter a payment amount and select a currency.
Enter the additional payment detail required for the selected payment method.
Select a reason for the payment from the list.
(Optional) Enter notes.
Click Continue.

The Payment Allocation screen is displayed. Use this screen to allocate the new payment to one or more accounts. See "Allocating a Suspended Payment" for more information.