Scheduling Recurring Invoice Payments

You can automate the manual E-Pay transaction export functionality (available in Accounts Receivable) using a scheduled job.

Note:

You can use manual and automated transaction creation methods interchangeably. For instance, you can use the manual method if you need to create payments earlier than what the scheduled job would do. The scheduled job will not pick up anything that has already been created manually.

Setup for Auto-Create Functionality

In the IDI Desktop Client:

• Enable Auto-create

• Exclude certain Bill Cycles as appropriate (optional)

• Edit the default Scheduled Job setup if needed (job is enabled and configured to run once daily by default)

Enabling Auto-create Recurring E-Pay Transactions

To enable this functionality, configure the Recurring E-Pay Transaction options via Applications > Accounts Receivable Management > Manage Recurring Transactions:

• Check the Auto-Create Recurring E-Pay Transactions option.

  Note:

  The scheduled job will not do anything when this setting is unchecked.

• Select either Due Date Minus or Invoice Date Plus and set the number of days.

  • Due Date Minus N Days – Transactions are created for invoices where the current date is greater than or equal to the due date minus the configured number of days.

    Example:

    Invoice Due Date = 03/28/2020

    Configuration: Due Date Minus 5 Days

    

    When the scheduled job runs on 03/23/2020, the recurring transactions will be created for invoices with a due date of 03/28/2020 (or lower).

  Note:

  The Due Date option may result in processing only a portion of the transactions in the bill cycle if the cycle has multiple due dates.

• Invoice Date Plus N Days – Transactions will be created for invoices where the current date is greater than or equal to the invoice date plus the configured number of days.

  Example:

  Invoice Date 03/01/2020

  Configuration: Invoice Date Plus 10 Days

  

  When the scheduled job runs on 03/11/2020, the recurring transactions will be created for invoices with an invoice date of 03/01/2020 (or lower).

Excluding Bill Cycles (Optional)

The exclude bill cycle option is intended to be used for bill cycles such as out-collects, where recurring payments are not applicable. This can help reduce the processing time for the scheduled job and ensure that no transactions are created for the bill period. The setting defaults to unchecked for all existing bill cycles.

If you need to exclude any bill cycle(s) from auto-create E-Pay Transactions, update the bill cycle via: Applications > Back Office Management > RateBill > RateBill Request Center > Bill Cycle Management > Bill Cycles.

Right click on the bill cycle to be excluded and choose Properties from the context menu.

Then check the Exclude from Recurring Transaction Creation checkbox in the Properties dialog.

Scheduled Job Setup

The scheduled job is enabled by default and configured to run daily. You can modify the default setup as needed.

How it Works

Some related menu items and a dialog in Accounts Receivable Management have been renamed, and there is a new scheduled job to drive this functionality.

Renamed menu Items

Two menu items under Applications > Accounts Receivable Management have been renamed:

• E-pay Transaction Export has been renamed Manage Recurring Transactions

• Transaction Export Search has been renamed Unprocessed E-Pay Transaction Search

This was done to provide clarity in the purpose of these menu items.

Manage Recurring Transactions Dialog

This dialog has been renamed to correspond to the menu item and enhanced to include the configuration options for creating recurring transactions. It continues to list completed and eligible billing cycles in a grid, with some modifications.

The upper section provides settings for Recurring E-Pay Transaction Creation and Create Transaction options.

• Recurring E-Pay Transaction Options: These are new settings for auto-creation of recurring E-Pay transactions using the new scheduled job.

• Create Transactions Options: These are previously existing options, and are also available via Applications > Accounts Receivable Management > Accounts Receivable Settings. They have been added to the top of this page due to their relevance, and to allow configuration of recurring E-Pay transaction options from a single page. No changes have been made to these settings. They impact both auto and manually created transactions.

  • Create Expired Credit Card Transactions – If checked, the system includes credit card transactions from expired credit cards when creating E-Pay transactions.

  • Create Transactions for Total Balance Due – If checked, the system makes E-Pay transaction amounts equal to the total balance due (as opposed to only charging the newest invoice charges).

  • Minimum E-Pay Charge – Specify the smallest amount to be charged in one month to the subscriber’s E-Pay account. If the amount due is less than this amount, it will be rolled into the next month’s invoice.

  • Maximum E-Pay Charge – Specify the largest amount to be charged in one month to the subscriber’s E-Pay account. If the amount due is more than this amount, the credit card is not charged.

Status Column

The 5^th column has been changed from Export Date to Status. This is because, when the Due Date Minus N Days option is used, the bill cycle may have transactions created on more than one day and a single date column cannot provide that detail.

This column provides the status of the transaction creation process for the billing cycle:

• Not Created: No recurring payments have been created. For bill cycles with this status users can right click to manually create all transactions (existing functionality).

  Note:

  See Considerations for Manually Creating E-Pay Transactions.

• Partial: Some recurring payments have been created. This status can only occur using the new auto-create functionality (when a bill period has multiple due dates and the due date option is selected). For bill cycles with this status users can right click to:

  • Create the remaining transactions -

    Note:

    See Considerations for Manually Creating E-Pay Transactions.

  • View all transactions that have been created

  • View a transaction summary (new functionality)

  • Void transactions (if they are unprocessed)

• Complete: All recurring transactions have been created. For bill cycles with this status users can right click to:

  • View all transactions that have been created

  • View a transaction summary (new functionality)

  • Void transactions (if they are unprocessed)

E-Pay Transaction Summary Option

An E-Pay Transaction Summary option is available on any bill cycle row with a status of Partial or Complete. Selecting this option opens a grid with a summary for the bill cycle.

The E-Pay Transaction Summary for Bill Period grid provides a breakdown by the specific date that E-Pay transactions were created (only 1 date in this example).

Considerations for Manually Creating E-Pay Transactions

For bill cycles with a status of Not Created or Partial, context menu options are available to manually create transactions:

• For Not Created you can Create All Transactions

• For Partial you can Create Remaining Transactions

Notes:

• These options replace the Export option that had previously been available.

• Functional changes made to support auto-creation impact the manual creation process such that it may take longer to complete depending on the size of the bill period. To inform users of transaction status, a Recurring Transaction Progress dialog will display while transactions are being processed. Once complete, a confirmation dialog will display.

  

Create Recurring E-Pay Transactions Scheduled Job

This job creates recurring E-Pay transactions. It is enabled by default and set to run daily, once upgraded to IDI platform release 20.4. The job frequency and time can be changed to accommodate business preferences.

When the new Auto-Create Recurring E-Pay Transactions option is disabled on the Manage Recurring Transaction dialog the job will not do anything when it runs.

If the new Auto-Create Recurring E-Pay Transactions setting is enabled, this job will create transactions for all bill periods that are not configured for exclusion based on the configuration for either ‘Due Date Minus N Days’ or ‘Invoice Date Plus N Days’.

If for some reason the job does not run for a period of days, the job will create transactions for the appropriate dates in the next run. For example, when the Recurring E-Pay Transactions option is set to Invoice Date Plus 10 Days, if the job did not run on 03/11/2020, but ran on 03/12/2020, the run on 03/12 will create transactions for invoices with an invoice date of 03/02/2020 or earlier, that have not yet had an E-Pay transaction created (including invoice date of 03/01/2020).

Permissions

There are no new permissions for this functionality; however, the existing E-pay Transaction Export permission has been renamed to Manage Recurring Transactions. This is to align with the menu and dialog name changes. No action is required in CostGuard/Security with this change as previous functionality is carried forward.