Changing Bill Cycles

Each customer is assigned to a Bill Cycle that specifies the frequency at which the customer is billed (monthly, quarterly and so on) and the day of the month on which the customer is billed (for example: 1st or 14th or 28th). You can change the bill cycle to which a customer is assigned at their request.

Before You Begin

There are several rules and considerations that you should understand before you attempt to change a customer's bill cycle.

When customers in a particular bill cycle are billed each instance is recorded in a bill period under the bill cycle. Bill periods are defined by a start and end date which is set by the bill cycle (for example 7th, 14th, 28th).

Note

The end date of one bill period is the start date of the next bill period. The end day is NOT included in the bill period.

When you change the bill cycle for a customer account you need to specify:

• An origination bill period - the last period when the current bill cycle will apply.

• A destination bill period - the first period when the new bill cycle will apply.

  To ensure billing accuracy, it is generally recommended that you choose contiguous origination and destination bill periods. Having too large a gap between the origination and destination bill periods may result in too much time lapsed between bills which may in turn cause problems with usage rating, discounts and so on.

Restrictions

IDI imposes restrictions to help ensure that you select optimal origination and destination bill periods. Managers may choose to override these restrictions via Manager Override.

The system categorizes origination and destination bill periods as Recommended or Override Required. Bill periods are categorized as Override Required when the selected origination and destination bill periods are not contiguous, or when the period end dates are too close to the date of the bill cycle change request. The time period that constitutes too close is configurable (with Administrator-level authority) and defaults to five days (measured in whole days). For the example, if the Override Required period is set to two days and the destination bill period ends on the 28th, the last day to move a customer into that period without Manager Override is the 25th.

For a selected bill cycle there is only one Recommended origination/destination pair. You are only permitted to select Recommended bill periods unless you have Manager Override authority.

Note

To avoid excessive usage recycling, it is strongly recommended that you DO NOT use Manager Override to move a customer to a new bill cycle without a final bill for the origination bill period. Call records may recycle due to age when moving to a newer cycle.

Note

The bill cycle change request may require a final billing of the origination bill period and/or relocation of usage records.

Exceptions

There are several circumstances where the system will not permit you to change a bill cycle. You cannot change a customer's bill cycle under the following circumstances:

• The customer is billing inactive (this does not include disconnected customers).

• The desired destination bill cycle does not have a current bill period created.

• The customer just moved into the bill cycle from a previous change request and has not invoiced.

• The customer is part of a corporate tree structure. Individual accounts within a corporate structure cannot be moved independently. The entire corporate structure must be moved together.

Changing the Bill Cycle for a Corporate Account

There are special considerations for changing the bill cycle for a corporate account. All individual accounts within a corporate account must belong to the same bill cycle; therefore, the bill cycle for all accounts must be changed together. To do this you need to issue the request from the parent (root) account. This requires Manager Override authority.

Users with the Manager Override permission may move entire corporate tree structures. The following rules apply:

• You must perform the bill cycle change on the parent (root) account. If you attempt to change the bill cycle on a child account, you'll get a message instructing you to issue the request from the root account.

• All accounts (inactive, disconnected, and so on) under the root account will be issued a bill cycle change. This avoids problems with reconnects.

• The request will fail if any child request fails due to invalid dates.

• You'll be required to respond to the Manager Override confirmation dialog.

How to Change a Customer's Bill Cycle

To change a customer's bill cycle:

1. From the Customer window Summary tab, click the Bill Cycle link in the top right area of the window.

   

   This displays the Change Bill Cycle window. The Origination Bill Cycle Information area indicates the current bill cycle and provides a drop-down nu for selecting the origination bill period. This menu contains the current (unbilled) bill period and all future bill periods which have been created. If the customer has never billed, bill periods with an end date greater than today's date will be listed. Each bill period is marked as Recommended or Override Required.

   

2. Select the Recommended origination bill period. Periods marked as Override Required require Manager Override.

   

3. Select the Destination Bill Cycle. This populates the Destination Bill Period drop-down menu with the bill periods that have been created for the selected bill cycle.

4. Select the Recommended Destination bill period. Periods marked as Override Required require Manager Override.

5. Click Save to submit the bill cycle change request.

   Notes:

   • The Save button is only enabled if the selected origination and destination bill periods are valid with regard to date.

   • When you submit a bill cycle change request, the Bill Cycle indication on the Customer window header is immediately updated to show the new bill cycle. Therefore, this indicator will be incorrect until the destination bill period occurs and the new bill cycle goes into effect.

   • If you make a mistake and select the wrong bill cycle you'll need to submit a clerk request to change the bill cycle again.

Adjusting Blackout

This function lets you establish the minimum time from the bill change request date to the selected origination and destination bill period end dates that will be allowed without requiring Manager Override. The default is five days. You can change this if you have Administrator-level authority. This is done via the Admin Console Backoffice Settings.

1. Select Business Rules > Backoffice Settings > Billing.

2. Enter the number of days in the Bill Cycle Blackout Days field.