Branded Owner Billing Walkthrough

Owned by Mahnoor Khan (Deactivated)
Last updated: Sept 22, 2021 by Greg Walsh
4 min read

Summary

This document explains the process of billing an owner (whether part of a tier sync system or simply a branded owner).

Process

The general guidelines are below and can be applied to any partner / owner that needs to be billed in whole:

  1. Go to the partner / owner account

  2. Click Reports

  3. Click Account Services - The report as filtered below will provide you with a view of packages that need to bill. Focus on the next bill dates that will be within the period that you want to bill for. For example, if you are billing for May, note the services that are dated in May as those will be the ones that EngageIP will pick up to bill

    • Filter out only active services and active accounts

    • Sort the report by 'next bill date' ascending (smallest first)

    • Now that you have an idea for what packages need to be billed (and you may need to catch up older packages if they need to be caught up) you can proceed to reviewing the bill group

  4. Click on Setup

  5. Click Bill Groups

     

  6. Click on the existing bill group to see its configuration:

    • Ensure that the billgroup is marked as 'Billable'

    • Ensure that the delivery type is correct, as well as any other configuration such as Email body text etc and PDF attachment options as required. Generally the billgroup will be ready to go each time and no adjustments will be necessary other than the 'Billable' check box. Billable means that EngageIP has permission to bill anybody with that bill group assigned

  7. Next, on setup tab click Bill Runs

  8. Click on the existing bill run (generally there is only one bill run)

     

    • In the bill run, click the check box for 'Enabled'. This turns on the bill run

    • In 'Start Date' set the date to yesterday (this acts as an ON/OFF switch. If this date is greater than NOW / TODAY, the bill run will wait until that date/time to process)

    • 'Bill Customers Between' / 'And' - The next two date fields provide the range for EngageIP to look within to determine if there are packages to be billed. If, as in the image, the range is May 1 to May 31, EngageIP will look for packages with next bill dates between that range and bill them. Any packages outside of that range will not bill. You can expand this range to catch up older packages for example as needed

    • Configure the check box options as needed

    • Billing - this actually adds transactions to the accounts based on the packages that are being billed

    • Run Render Invoice - this renders the invoices so that they are ready for printing or emailing or other kinds of delivery (nothing is sent to customer using this option, this is simply and internal EngageIP process)

    • Credit Card / ACH - these will process payments as needed based on the balance of the accounts so if you want to charge the customers credit card during the run, you can check these - this assumes your credit card processor is configured

    • Run Delivery - this is the process that delivers the invoices, via email, hardcopy etc.

    • Payment Terms - this is the process that automates dunning rules such as applying late fees etc. if configured (see the Credit Rating link on the setup page)

    • Bill Usage Only - this is used if you want to only bill usage on the bill run and NOT bill any packages

    • Use For Posting Date - this in conjunction with the Posting Date Month and Posting Date Year will tag any transactions in this bill run with that posting date stamp. Increment the month and year as needed based on what you want the posting date to reflect. Generally the month you're billing for-  in the image, May - would be the same as you would use to configure the posting month / year

    • Close Invoices on cancelled customers - If checked, this ensures that open invoices are closed, this is a 'clean up' process should there be any invoices still open and undelivered (see Invoices report to see if there are any cancelled customers with open status invoices)

  9. Once config is complete, click Save

  10. Ensure 'EngageIP billing service' is running - typically this service is running all the time (See 'Configuration' link on the root owner to confirm its status)

  11. Monitoring Bill Run - Click on Reports

    • Click Event Log to monitor the bill run. This will show packages being billed, invoices being rendered and emails being processed as selected in the bill run

    • Once billing is complete, click on Bill Run History. This will list the bill runs

       

    • Click on the latest bill run to see the list of invoices processed during that bill run

  12. Once billing has completed and charges confirmed go to the Setup page

  13. Click Bill Runs

  14. Click existing bill run

  15. Uncheck Enabled

  16. Click Save - this turns off the bill run so that it will not fire on its own again until you are ready