ServicePlans/Periods/ApprovingPeriods
Period Approval
Introduction
Under normal circumstances, the retrieval of records, rating and subsequent invoicing is an automated affair. Cumulus connects to an external service, downloads the records, mediates them, works out the services affected and what periods, or billing cycle, the records should be placed into. At the end of the period (typically at the end of the month), Cumulus will then process the period and generate card lines for any usage inside that period.
This works in most situations, however there are some circumstances where usage will not be made available for our automated system to retrieve (for example, the usage is delivered by courier on a CD), or that the usage will not always be available by a certain time. In times like these, customers can now configure the Service Plan so that the automated processes are stopped and the periods require manually approving prior to them being closed and billing activities (like rating, mediation and invoice generation) are kicked off.
Configuring the Service Plan
In order for Periods to require Approval, you must configure the Service Plan for Period Approval
Navigate to Packages and Plans > Management > Service Plans then click on the ID for the Service Plan in question.
Tick the box: Period Requires Approval Before Closing
Click Save. The notifcation: Saved Service Plan will appear.
Approving Periods
Once you have configured your Service Plan, at the end of the month, you will need to Approve the period prior to it being approved.
From within Cumulus, choose Billing > Period Manage.
The Period Manage Page allows you to see what Periods have not been approved for your customers. At this point, you will need to ensure that the usage files have been uploaded for Processing (contact Emersion support for assistance with this).
Once all of the usage has been imported and rated, you can choose to approve periods for selected customers, by clicking the Checkbox next to the appropriate customer and then clicking Approve only SELECTED Periods.
Alternatively, you can mass approve all outstanding Periods by clicking Approval ALL Periods.
