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Hi Shawn & list,
Usage billing
From: Alan Williamson
Date: Friday, January 30, 2004
Time: 10:55:31 pm
For some time, we've been doing a fair bit of manual work to=
manage excess usage charges. I've been looking for ways to=
automate things, but I've run into some difficulties. I thought=
it was time to bring my problems here and see what suggestions I=
could get. Maybe we'll find some enhancements for you to make=
Shawn, since you seem to have so little to do of late... :)
We have a number of dial-up plans. All are offered on monthly,=
quarterly or annual billing. We want to, wherever possible,=
combine invoicing of the billing cycle items and excess charges=
onto a single invoice (and this bit, we have working fine). We=
also want to raise off-cycle invoices for excess usage charges,=
(ideally) limiting those invoices raised to $20+ and letting=
smaller amounts carry over to the next or later months.
To make life easier, we've now pro-rated all accounts to expire=
on the 1st of the month, and we raise invoices 21 days earlier=
(8th - 11th). As I said, we've got usage charges adding to=
these regular invoices fine, and charges for the current month=
(if any) are left off since the month isn't complete. This=
bit's "just peachy". Last month I tried to figure out how to=
raise the off-cycle usage invoices. I started by turning on the=
"Create separate usage invoices" option, but when "Generate=
invoices" still said there was nothing to do, I also turned on=
"remind to invoice for excess usage".
When I said "Yes" to the dialog box ("Some customers have ...=
invoice them now?") I got a list of the excess usage to be=
billed. I have two problems here:
1. If you "Omit" any of these items, OG sets the "Billed" flag=
for that usage even though it hasn't been billed. (I guess=
"Omit" in this case means "Forget this one" or "Omit forever")
2. The list includes current month usage, even though the month=
isn't complete. This is despite the "Usage invoicing delayed=
when in current month" option being set to yes. This would=
appear to be a bug to me.
So... What I need is to be able to generate usage-only invoices=
mid-month, after I've done my regular invoicing (which will=
include excess charges as applicable for some customers). At=
the moment, I have no automated way of doing that because the=
list on offer includes current month charges that shouldn't be=
billed. Ideally, we would generate usage-only invoices only for=
amounts above the $20 threshold, but I'm guessing the chances of=
this aren't good. (We'll have to settle for putting up with=
customers who ignore the "If the balance due is less than $20,=
please don't pay now" notes I guess ...)
Basically, the only reason for raising these off-cycle invoices=
is to make sure that the customer is aware of the bill they're=
racking up, and to get them thinking about a change of service=
plan.
Any thoughts Shawn?
Regards,
Alan Williamson
Virtual Access
Web: www.virtual.net.au
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