Bill Runs

Overview

Bill runs perform billing, invoicing and payment collection actions as well as execution of contract and accounts receivable terms (dunning rules). Bill runs can be triggered in either a manual 'one-off' fashion or using an automated recurring approach. The accounts that a bill run processes are determined by the bill groups that the accounts are under. Bill runs are associated with bill groups in order to bill the accounts under the bill groups.

Bill runs can be set to run daily, however, executing a bill run does not mean billing, invoicing or other enabled bill run options will occur for every account that the bill run is evaluating. Bill runs check bill dates on accounts to determine if billing, invoicing and other bill run actions should occur. For instance, bill runs configured to bill packages will evaluate the 'next bill date' value on account-packages and only if bill dates have been reached will packages be billed.

More information on bill run options and when these options execute can be found below in this guide.

Prerequisites

• Currency exchange rates must be configured before bill runs can be setup

• Bill groups need to be setup in order to specify which accounts to bill 

Functionality

Bill runs are added to a bill run queue by the bill run scheduler once the scheduled bill run date has been reached. From there the 'Bill Run Manager' process picks the bill run from the queue and executes it. The bill run manager proceeds to execute the bill run in the following order:

1. Execute accounts receivable terms. E.g. apply late payment penalties, suspend accounts for non-payment, etc. before billing runs

2. Bill packages

3. Bill usage

4. Execute contract terms

5. Apply transactions to invoices/stamp the invoice id on account transactions

6. Render the invoice (create and finalize it)

7. Deliver the invoice based on the account's bill group invoice delivery configuration

Bill Runs Panel

The Bill Runs panel on the left of this screen allows you to select an existing bill run so that you can view and edit it on the Edit Bill Run panel to the right. In addition, actions are available which are shown as icons on the left above the Filter text box. Available actions are detailed below.

Actions

Icon	Description
	Deletes the selected bill run if not in use (connected to a bill group)
	Adds a new bill run

When you select a bill run in the list additional details will be displayed in the Edit Bill Run panel to the right. These details are explained below.

Edit Bill Run Panel

The information in this panel reflects the currently selected bill run. From here you can change bill run details (fields will display a red left border if a value is required and purple text if the field is read-only and cannot be modified).

Bill Run Fields:

• Name: a unique and descriptive name of your bill run, e.g. 'Recurring Bill Run'

• Collection Type: defines how payments are collected during a bill run. Note that this field will only appear when the ‘Collect Payments’ option is selected on the bill run ‘Settings’ tab

  • Account Balance: collect payment if the account has a positive balance

  • Invoice Due Date: collect payment for invoices that are due

• Bill Period Start: this value determines the start of the billing period range. The billing period range is defined by the Bill Period Start date and the Bill Period End date. When the bill run executes account-packages will be billed if the package’s 'Next Bill Date' falls within the billing period range and the option 'Bill Package' is enabled on the bill run. This setting does not control when the bill run executes, as these are based on a schedule which is configured on the Schedule tab

• Bill Period End: this value determines the end of the billing period range. See the Bill Period Start notes above for more information

• Posting Date: allows you to specify a posting date for all transactions generated by the bill run

• Bill Run Status Type: indicates the status of a bill run that is running or has finished running (i.e. this field will indicate if the bill run is in progress or completed)

Settings tab

This tab allows you to configure billing, invoicing, payment collection and other options that are performed when the bill run is executed.

• Billing:

  • Bill Package: bills account-packages that have a 'Next Bill Date' that falls within the Bill Period (Bill Period Start to Bill Period End) date range

  • Bill Usage: bills usage charges related to account-packages that have a 'Next Bill Date' in the bill period date range (Bill Period Start to Bill Period End). All unbilled usage charges that precede the 'Bill Period Start' date will also be billed if it is determined that the account-package should be billed

• Invoicing:

  • Run Invoices: compiles charges, applies taxes, totals up balances and stamps transactions with an invoice number

  • Render Invoices: generates invoices in a pdf format. A rendered invoice is a finalized invoice that cannot be edited or have additional transactions added to it. Rendering will only occur when the invoicer account's ‘Bill Day' is reached (the bill day falls within the Bill Period Start and Bill Period End range), until the invoicer account’s bill day is reached the bill run will not render an invoice when this option is selected

  • Deliver Invoices: delivers invoices based on the bill group's 'Invoice Delivery' setting. Invoices that are not rendered will not be delivered (i.e. no invoice exists to be delivered). Invoices are only delivered when the invoicer account's bill day is within the billing period (i.e. the bill day falls within the Bill Period Start and Bill Period End date range)

• Contracts:

  • Run Contract Commitments: when enabled account and account-package contracts on the accounts being billed will be evaluated to see if contract related charges are applicable. If commitments are not met/contracts have been terminated prematurely then any configured penalty fees on the contract will be applied. When this option is enabled contract dates will be checked to determine if contract charges are valid, the 'Bill Period Start' date on the bill run is not referenced when the system is evaluating contracts on accounts/account-packages. This means that contract charges related to periods earlier than the specified bill period start date will be applied

• AR Terms:

  • Run Dunning Process: when enabled this setting will trigger the execution of dunning rules that have been configured on the account (e.g. send the account's billing contact an email notification if they are X days overdue for payment, email and change the account status to suspended if payment is Y days overdue, etc.). It's recommended that you configure a standalone bill run to execute dunning rules on a daily schedule

• Payments:

  • Collect Payments: when enabled payment can be collected from accounts that have an ‘Auto Pay’ payment method configured. Integration with a payment gateway must also be configured for payment collection to function

Bill Group tab

This tab displays which bill groups are associated with the bill run and allows you to connect or disassociate the bill run with existing bill groups.

See the guides pages below this article instructions on how to add or remove bill groups on bill runs.

Exchange Rates tab

This tab allows you to specify which currency exchange rates to use for currency conversion. For reporting requirements currencies will be converted to the owner's currency (base currency) during the bill run, but from an invoicing perspective currency conversion will only be applicable when an account is in one currency and the account receiving the invoice (the invoicer) is setup with a different currency. Any charge can be converted to another currency if necessary, depending on the invoicer's currency.

Schedule tab

This tab allows you to configure when the bill run executes as well as view currently running and previously completed bill runs. Bill runs can be scheduled on a 'one-off' basis or on a recurring frequency (e.g. daily, monthly).