Billing - Recurring Bills

Transcription

1 Billing - Recurring Bills

2 Table of Contents Steps for Recurring Bills... 3 Process... 3 Creating a Recurring Bill Template and Defining a Schedule... 4 Overview... 4 Steps... 4 Verifying and Generating Recurring Bills...14 Overview...14 Steps...14

3 Steps for Recurring Bills Process To set up a recurring bill, a Recurring Bill Template must be created and a Schedule defined. Afterward, dates and amounts for upcoming recurring bills for a customer/invoice can be previewed. Invoice numbers for these recurring bills can be pre-assigned. When a batch process ("Generate Recurring Bills") is run, OAKS FIN will create bills for all those items with a "Generate Date" that has been reached. This will toggle the value of the field INV Generated? from "N" to "Y." Recurring bills are produced on the basis of the Cycle ID field as defined in the OAKS FIN Billing Cycle ID reference. What would you like to do? Create a Recurring Bill Template & Define a Schedule Generate Recurring Bills

4 Creating a Recurring Bill Template and Defining a Schedule Overview This process is used to create regularly recurring bills. Mostly this is used to split a large amount into equal installment payments or to charge the same amount on an ongoing basis -- monthly, quarterly, or annually. Recurring bills are produced on the basis of the Cycle ID field. The cycle specifies when each bill should be produced. For the Cycle ID of MTH-15-7-R, the MTH-15 indicates that the bill is produced each month on the 15th. The 7 indicates that the bill is created seven calendar days prior to the invoice date (to provide time for it to be reviewed prior to it being sent to customer). The R indicates recurring. Details on options are listed in the OAKS FIN Billing Cycle IDs topic. After selecting a Cycle ID, a Frequency must be selected. The options are: Once This is the default setting. A bill is sent to the customer once (for a onetime charge) for the full amount all at once. This is the Frequency used for entering a regular one-time bill. (This is covered in detail in the BI 201 course). Recurring The customer is being billed on an ongoing basis -- often for services provided throughout the year. These recurring charges might be invoiced monthly, quarterly, or annually. The particular Cycle ID can help accommodate the fiscal needs of the customer. For example, a school system should probably be sent annual bills in late September (when back in session for a few weeks; and, shortly after their new fiscal year has begun -- but not too shortly after their last one ended). Installment A bill (usually for a large amount) is split into equal smaller amounts that are invoiced separately over time. For example, a $10,000 bill might be split into 10 equal installments of $1,000 each month. (This is covered in detail in the BI 220 course). For assistance with accessing the OAKS FIN Billing module, refer to the Accessing the Billing Module topic. Steps OAKS FIN > Billing > Maintain Bills > Standard Billing

5 1. Click the Add a New Value tab. The Add a New Value page displays.

6 2. Verify that OAKS FIN has correctly populated the Business Unit. 3. If necessary, edit the Invoice number according to agency procedures; or, leave "NEXT" in the field to allow OAKS FIN to automatically generate the number. 4. Enter or select a Bill Type Identifier based on an agency's procedures. 5. Enter or select a Customer ID. 6. Click Add. The Header - Info 1 page displays.

7 7. Enter the date that should be printed on the invoice in the Invoice Date field. If a date is not entered, OAKS FIN uses the current date. 8. Select a Cycle ID. This field determines the cycle on which bills are sent e.g., weekly, monthly, quarterly, etc. Recurring bills MUST have an "R" at the end of their ID. 9. Select "Recurring" as the Frequency for the bill. Select the Frequency after selecting the Cycle ID. 10. Review the Pay Terms field and edit if necessary. This field defines when the bill is due. The default is "Net30" (days). 11. Verify that the name below the Billing Specialist field is the person to be contacted if there are any questions regarding the bill. 12. Click the Line Info 1 tab. The Line - Info 1 page displays.

8 13. Enter "ID" in the Table field. 14. Select the agency-defined change code ID in the Identifier field. Selecting the Identifier automatically populates the Description field and sometimes the Unit of Measure and Unit Price. 15. If necessary, select a Unit of Measure by clicking on the Look Up Unit of Measure icon. 16. Enter the quantity of goods in the Quantity field. 17. Click the Line Info 2 link. The Line Info 2 page displays.

9 18. Select an Entry Type. The Entry Type defines the type of bill -- whether it's a regular Invoice (to a customer other than a state agency) or an ISTV (for a state agency); and, whether it's a debit or credit. For an ISTV, the Finalize and Print process prepares the invoice for printing. The ISTV will be ready to print from OAKS FIN Accounts Receivable the following day after the nightly processes have run. If desired, it can be printed immediately by following the steps in the topics Changing Bill Status and Finalizing and Printing Invoices. However, it will not be posted to Accounts Receivable until the following day. 19. Select the Entry Reason. The Entry Reason is used to determine the correct accounting string. Entry Reasons are defined by each agency. 20. To add another line item, click the Add a new row at row 1 icon; and, enter the second line item following steps above. 21. Click the Header Info 1 tab. The Header - Info 1 page displays.

10 22. Click Save. The Invoice Number is created. 23. Click the Go to Recurring Bill Schedule icon. The Recurring Bill Schedules page displays.

11 A recurring bill schedule must be defined for your bill to generate on time. 24. Select a date for the recurring bill to start in the Start Date field. 25. Select a date for the recurring bill to cease in the End Date field. The End Date can be modified later. 26. If desired, select the Pre-Assign Invoice Numbers checkbox. After selecting the Pre-Assign Invoice Numbers checkbox, OAKS FIN creates the invoice numbers for all future bills listed in the bill schedule. This creates a sequential numbering of invoices for your agency and allows easy identification of bills that are associated with the recurring bill schedule. However, this may cause gaps when reporting on invoice IDs in Billing and Item IDs in AR, because the system reserves the numbers but does not generate future recurring bills until the generate date. Otherwise, invoice number will be assigned at the time the recurring bill is generated later. 27. Click the Generate Rev. Rec. Bills icon to create schedule bill lines. Schedule bill lines display the schedule for each bill that will be created for this template. If the schedule is not generated, no bills will be created. 28. Review the Recurring Schedule for accuracy. 29. Click Save. 30. Click the Return to Bill Entry link. The Header - Info 1 page displays.

12 31. Change the Status to RDY. 32. Click Save. 33. If desired, click the Summary link and review the Bill Summary. The Bill Summary Info page displays key information about the recurring bill template you just created.

13 Some of the key fields are: o Invoice - Displays the invoice number for this bill. o Invoice Date - Shows the date the customer is invoiced. o Customer - Shows the person, company, or agency to whom you are sending this bill. o Bill Type - Shows the type you selected, which allows similar bills to be grouped. o Bill Status - Displays the current status of the bill, such as Ready (RDY). o Total Due - Shows you how much the customer owes on this particular bill.

14 Verifying and Generating Recurring Bills Overview Before a recurring bill invoice can be generated, a template must be created and saved with a cycle, frequency, and schedule. This will cause it to appear on the Recurring Bill Schedules as shown below. Once a template has been created and saved, it's time to: Verify Recurring Bill Schedules. Create Recurring Bills. Verifying Recurring Bill Schedules To verify that a bill is scheduled to be generated, check the Recurring Bill Schedule page as described below. Steps For assistance with accessing the OAKS FIN Billing module, refer to the Accessing the Billing Module topic. OAKS FIN > Billing > Maintain Bills > Recurring Bill Schedules

15 1. Verify that the Business Unit field is populated with the appropriate code. 2. Click Search to see the list of bills ready to be generated. Search Results are displayed at the bottom of the Recurring Bills Schedule search page.

16 If none appear, it likely means that a Recurring Bill Template needs to be created or the cycle, frequency, or schedule needs to be identified or adjusted. For more on these prerequisite steps, refer to the Creating a Recurring Bill Template and Defining a Schedule topic. To narrow the search, use the optional search criteria listed below (in combination with a range or delimiter -- "between," "contains," "not equal," "begins with," "less than," "more than," "equals," "<=," ">=," etc.): Invoice Bill Status: New Bill Pending Approval Ready to Invoice Invoiced Bill Finalized Bill Hold Bill Temporary Bill Temporary Ready Bill Customer Contract

17 Bills in Business Unit Template Invoice Flag: Recurring Bill Installment Bill No 3. Click on an Invoice number to see details about the recurring bill, its associated Template Invoice, and its Recurring Schedule. The Recurring Schedule page displays. In the above example, two invoices are shown on the page but they are the first two of 84 scheduled recurring annual invoices. To see other future scheduled billings, click the Show next row icon to move to the next two rows or click the View All link or the Find link. Important fields on this page: Template Invoice - Displays the invoice number of the template for the recurring bill. Generate Date - The Generate Recurring Bills process will create the bill when it is run on or after this date. Invoice Date - Displays the date the customer is invoiced.

18 Invoice - Displays the invoice number of the newly created bill. Bill Header: From Date - Displays the beginning date of the billing cycle for this bill. To Date - Displays the end date of the billing cycle for this bill. INV Generated? - Displays a "Y" or "N" to show whether or not OAKS FIN has created an invoice for this bill. Date - Displays the date on which this invoice was created. Click the Recent Search Results icon at the top of the page (at end of the breadcrumbs navigation) to see Recurring Bill Schedules that were recently displayed through search results. This will display in a pop-up window. Create Recurring Bills Recurring bills can be generated based on the Bill Cycle ID, Invoice ID, or Customer ID. As with any other batch process, a Run Control ID is required. A Run Control ID is a set of information selected and saved for running a specific report or process in OAKS FIN. Users can create their own Run Control IDs. Each time this process is begun, the user has an option to: Re-use a Run Control ID (if already created). Create a new Run Control ID (as described below). OAKS FIN > Billing > Maintain Bills > Create Recurring Bills

19 1. Click the Add a New Value tab. The Add a new Value page displays. 2. Enter a descriptive name consisting of up to 30 alphanumeric characters, with no space, in the Run Control ID field. Some agencies have specifications for the format. 3. Click the Add button. The Create Recurring Bills page displays.

20 4. Verify that the Business Unit field is populated with the agency's BU code. 5. Make a Range Selection -- Bill Cycle, Invoice ID, or Cust ID. In this example, Bill Cycle is chosen. An additional field or two will display based on type of range selected: Bill Cycle selection adds Cycle ID field. Invoice ID selection adds the fields From Invoice and To Invoice (for a single invoice, enter the same number in both fields). Cust ID selection adds Customer field. A range selection is not required; however, if not specified, OAKS FIN will print every invoice for that Business Unit with a status of New. 6. In the field(s) that is (are) displayed upon range selection, enter the Cycle ID (or From Invoice and To Invoice fields; or Customer). The "Look up" icon (magnifying glass) beside each field can be used to see valid choices and/or to search through them. In this example, the Cycle ID chosen is "ANNUAL9R" (for bills that recur every September 1st with a seven-day lead). 7. Click Save (if this Run Control ID is to be used again). 8. Click Run. The Process Scheduler Request window opens.

21 9. Verify or select the process to run. "BIRECUR" (Bill Recurring) is always the Process Name assigned by OAKS FIN for the Generate Recurring Bills process. 10. Click OK to close the window and return to the Create Recurring Bills page. A Process Instance number is assigned. Jot this down in case there are several rows listed in later steps. 11. Click the Process Monitor link to review the status of the run request. The Process List page displays. 12. Click Refresh periodically, until Run Status displays Success, and Distribution Status displays Posted. Success means that OAKS FIN has finished processing and the job ran successfully. Posted means OAKS FIN has successfully created the statement.

22 13. Click the Details link on the row with the Process Name BIRECUR (recurring bill) and the Instance number. 14. Review the process steps to verify that there were no errors. If there were no errors, proceed with these additional verification steps. This involves navigating back to Recurring Bill Schedules. 15. In the navigation breadcrumbs (at top of the page), click on Maintain Bills. 16. In the cascading menu that opens, click Recurring Bill Schedules. The Recurring Bill Schedules page displays. 17. Click Search. 18. Search Results display at the bottom of the page. If a long list is shown by default, add search criteria to narrow the results. 19. Click the link of the Invoice number just run. The Recurring Bill Schedules page for that invoice displays.

23 20. Verify that the invoice has been generated for the most recent in the series of recurring bills by checking for a "Y" below Inv Generated?.