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| − | == Billing Cheat Sheet == | + | =This Content Has Moved House= |
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| − | The purpose of this article is to list some common steps that you need to take during a typical month end billing cycle before you start to send invoices. This process ideally should be done before the end of your billing periods, or else you will have problems with cleansing quarantine and records falling into open periods. However this may not always be possible if your supplier delivers usage late frequently. If this will be a problem for you, you should turn on period approval (more regarding this below).
| + | This article has been moved to our new home for documentation and help content, the new Emersion Knowledge Base. |
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| − | === Process Overview ===
| + | We are sorry for the untidiness while we are shifting locations and we appreciate your patience during the transition to our new home. |
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| − | The diagram below explains in simple terms what happens in the system in relation to billing in a "typical" scenario. | + | [https://resources.emersion.com/display/EKB/The+Billing+Cheat+Sheet Take me to the Emersion Knowledge Base article] |
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| − | * Each service subscription and package subscription has periods. The periods are open at the start of the relevant period. Access Fees are generated.
| + | [[file:new_home_sm.jpg|900px]] |
| − | * Usage is downloaded from the carrier and the file checked for validity.
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| − | * System tries to find a service for the usage (identify).
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| − | * System attempts to find a valid active package/subscription and a valid period for each (Bucket).
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| − | * System will attempt to "Rate" Usage.
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| − | * Period is shut, either manually or automatically.
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| − | * Usage Cardline generated.
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| − | * Access fees generated in arrears if the plan setup requires it, or the service was entered later and backdated.
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| − | * Invoice raised picking up the pending cardlines raised prior.
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| − | [[File:Billing Process.png]] | |
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| − | === Month End Steps ===
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| − | ==== Add Services. ====
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| − | * If you know there are services that you are receiving usage for, or you plan on billing access fees in advance on the upcoming invoices you should add these services first and foremost before doing anything else.
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| − | * Remember to backdate the account date to a date on or before the date of the first usage.
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| − | * Do the same for the package subscription.
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| − | * Failure to do so will give you some difficulty later on. You cannot backdate a service prior to the account start date.
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| − | * The service subscription period must cover the dates of the usage, so it's important to backdate this as well.
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| − | ==== Check Usage has been Mediating ====
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| − | * Before you check quarantine, you should check to see whether usage has been mediating correctly.
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| − | * You can do this by going to Report -> List -> BMS Tab -> BMS Connector Status Report (note, this is relevant for those that have a direct relationship with a supplier. If you receive usage from an Emersion Wholesaler, this report will not apply).
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| − | [[File:Report List BMS.png|Report List]]
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| − | * In this report it will show your connectors and the last usage file from the relevant supplier it tried to process. In the Last File Processed column it will list the filename. Typically the carrier often has the date of the file in the filename itself. There is also a Date File Processed column. Depending on the frequency at which the supplier delivers usage files, if the date of these files is some time ago, then it would be wise to check to see if there is a problem before proceeding with billing.
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| − | [[File:Last File Processed.png|Last File Processed]]
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| − | ==== Check Quarantine ====
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| − | * Ideally Quarantine should be checked every day, so there should be no surprises here. Nonetheless this is not always possible for everyone, particularly if the carrier only sends usage once a month.
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| − | * First of all go to Billing -> Quarantine - > Non Existent Service.
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| − | * This tab was designed to give a list of services with the number of flagged quarantine records per service. Non Existent faults will also show in the main quarantine page as well, but here it doesn't list the record one by one, just a row for each service.
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| − | * On this section it will show records for Telephony BMS (Usage for Calls), Data BMS (usage for Internet/Broadband/Ethernet type services), and Misc BMS (charges for a service feature, access fees, contract fees, installation charges and the like from the carrier).
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| − | * If you haven't added the relevant services you should do so and cleanse quarantine after the service is active.
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| − | [[File:Non Existent Service.png|Non Existent Service]]
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| − | * You should additionally check other quarantine record types in the main quarantine section, correct and cleanse accordingly.Remember that when you land on this page it will show as blank. You actually have to click search in order for it perform a query.
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| − | [[File:Billing - Quarantine.png|Billing Quarantine.]]
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| − | ==== Check Rating Quarantine ====
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| − | * In the same section as the above screenshot, you must ensure you check rating quarantine as well under "Telephony Rating" and "Misc Rating". Rating is a different process and will have it's own errors. Correct errors and cleanse accordingly.
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| − | ==== Useful Quarantine Reports ====
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| − | * BMS Quarantine Balance per Carrier and Reason (Summary)
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| − | * Quarantine - Rated Misc Quarantine Report (Detail)
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| − | * Quarantine - Rated Telephony Quarantine Report (Detail)
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| − | * Quarantine - BMS Data Quarantine Report (Detail)
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| − | * Quarantine - BMS Misc Quarantine Report (Detail)
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| − | * Quarantine - BMS Telephony Quarantine Report (Detail)
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| − | ==== Check Usage Rated ====
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| − | * If you have just cleansed quarantine this might take a few hours to cleanse the records, particularly if it's a large quantity.
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| − | * If you like you can view the usage against a service subscription and see whether the records have been rated.
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| − | * Navigate to a relevant account -> service subscriptons -> Click on the "Service ID" second column from the left.
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| − | [[File:Customer List - Service Subscriptions.png| Service Subscription]]
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| − | * Now click on View Usage (Scroll to the far left of the screen).
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| − | [[File:View Usage.png|View Usage Button.]]
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| − | * If you choose a usage period in the drop down and look at the billing records, if the usage is rated you should see records here with an invoice amount greater than 0 (unless the rate has been setup in such a way that the call will have an invoiced amount of 0).
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| − | * If everything is well here there is a good chance rating has finished.
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| − | [[File:Usage list.png|Usage List]]
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| − | ==== Approve Billing Periods ====
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| − | * Note that this section will not apply to you if you do not use Manual Period Approval functionality.
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| − | * Some customer elect to enable period approval for their service plan. This is typical where the supplier often provides billing records late for a given month after the period is shut, and they need to hold the periods open while usage is processed.
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| − | * The effect of period approval is to hold the period open, even after the end date of the period is passed, so that calls for that period will fall into the period being held open, rather than the current period.
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| − | * If you have elected to do this, after all of the above steps are complete you will need to approve the periods before cardlines are generated.
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| − | * Go to the Billing Tab - > Period Manage.
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| − | * Tick the periods here for approval. After a couple of hours you should expect to see a cardline in pending cardlines.
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| − | [[File:Billing - Period Manage.png|Period Manage]]
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| − | ==== Assign Cardlines to Invoices ====
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| − | * Cardlines will only be automatically assigned to a Pending Invoice if the cardline was *created* before the invoice.
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| − | * Invoices are typically generated a couple of days after the end of a billing period. If you have sorted out everything above prior to this date, then the invoice should pick up the cardline.
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| − | * If not you will need to manually assign the cardlines to either a pending/new invoice.
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| − | * Go to Finance -> Accounts Receivable -> Pending Cardlines.
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| − | * Choose your filters then click search.
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| − | * From here you can see a list of pending cardlines. You can tick all pending cardlines at once by ticking the master tickbox on the far right (Scroll this window to the far right to view).
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| − | * From here you will have a few options as to what you would like to do with the cardlines as below. Careful with the options chosen, if only want to deal with ticked cardlines choose an "Allocate all selected cardlines" option.
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| − | ** Allocate all selected cardlines, to existing pending invoice if available.
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| − | ** Allocate all pending cardlines, to existing pending invoices, if available, for selected accounts.
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| − | ** Allocate all pending cardlines for selected account and attempt to create pending invoice if non exists.
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| − | ** Allocate selected cardline, to existing pending invoice if available and attempt to create a pending invoice if none.
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| − | *Once allocated you can view your pending invoices, adjust and approve as desired.
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| − | [[File:2015-01-14_09_24_10-Accounts_Receivable_-_Pending_Cardlines.png|Pending Cardlines]]
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This article has been moved to our new home for documentation and help content, the new Emersion Knowledge Base.
We are sorry for the untidiness while we are shifting locations and we appreciate your patience during the transition to our new home.
