How Transactions for Balance Forward Billing Are Selected

Use the Create Balance Forward Bill process to generate balance forward bills. The steps in this topic illustrate how the Create Balance Forward Bill process selects transactions for inclusion on a balance forward bill.

Settings That Affect the Inclusion of Transactions on Balance Forward Bills

You must select a billing cycle and a currency for a balance forward bill.

If you enter a billing date, the process includes on the bill only those transactions with a billing date on or before the date you enter.

If you change the billing cycle for a customer or group of customers, transactions entered after the change inherit the payment terms attached to the new billing cycle, but existing transactions retain the old payment terms. During the next submission of the Create Balance Forward Bill process, existing transactions with no activity against them inherit the new payment terms, billing date, and due date. Transactions with activity retain their existing payment terms, billing date, and due date.

Caution: If the balance forward bill contains transactions that retain the old payment terms, this may cause an aging discrepancy. This is because the transactions that don't inherit the new payment terms may have due dates different from the other transactions on the bill. If necessary, you can run the process for one set of payment terms only within the selected billing cycle.

How Transactions Are Selected

The Create Balance Forward Bill process selects transactions for inclusion on a balance forward bill using this sequence:

1. Determine the payment terms:

   1. Use the balance forward billing payment terms selected, if applicable.

   2. If no payment terms were selected, use all balance forward billing payment terms that match the selected billing cycle.

2. Determine the customers:

   1. Use the customer or customers selected, if applicable.

   2. If no customers were selected, select all applicable customers. This includes:

      • Customers that have balance forward billing enabled.

      • Customers that have the selected payment terms at the account or site level.

      • Customers with a scheduled billing date earlier than or equal to the submission date.

      The process checks payment terms belonging to the account profile for customers enabled for account-level balance forward billing, and belonging to the site profile (or account profile if no payment terms are specified at a site) for customers enabled for site-level balance forward billing.

      Note: The Create Balance Forward Bill process doesn't select transactions from customers who are related either by customer or account relationships.

3. Select transactions of the specified customers:

   • Include all transactions that have the selected payment terms.

   • Include all transactions that weren't included on a previous balance forward bill.

   • Exclude all transactions that have the Print Option set to Do Not Print.

4. Validate transactions:

   • Verify the balance forward payment terms on the transaction.

   • Verify that the transaction billing date is equal to or earlier than the balance forward bill billing date.

     If the transaction has a billing date earlier than that of the balance forward bill, the process includes the transaction if it has no activity.

5. Determine the opening balance of the balance forward bill:

   • Use the ending balance of the previous billing period as the opening balance of the new bill.

   • If this is the first time balance forward billing runs, the opening balance is zero.

6. Calculate the ending balance of the balance forward bill. The calculation accounts for the previous balance, new transactions, and any activity that occurred during the billing cycle.

Note: The Create Balance Forward Bill process generates a bill even if no activity takes place within a billing cycle. Such a balance forward bill displays the previous balance, zero current activity, and ending balance.