Define Billing Characteristics

Advantage Financial allows you to define many aspects of billing through configuring tables associated with the billing process. Software coding changes are not needed.

The Billing Profile table defines the basic characteristics of a customer bill. A single Billing Profile, or bill definition, can be assigned to one or many customers. A Billing Profile combined with a customer code constitutes a customer account.

Important billing characteristics that a Billing Profile allows you to specify include:

Bill Type - Determines whether a customer receives an invoice, a statement, both an invoice and a statement, or no billing at all. Customers for whom the setting of both statement and invoice has been selected are billed using invoices, but will also receive a periodic statement detailing activity against their account. Statement customers are billed through statements only and do not receive invoices.
”Remit to” information - Specifies the name and address that will be printed on the bill identifying where and to whom payments should be made.
Central Remit - On the Billing Profile table, the Central Remit flag determines whether the central remittance address should be used on the accounts receivable transactions assigned to this billing profile. This flag also determines whether the respective customer notice generation programs need to generate a Coupon ID and write a record to the Coupon Return table for Invoices, Statements and Payment Plan related notifications. In addition, selection of this flag also causes the Auto Apply flag on the Coupon Return table to be set to True when the table is updated.
Refer to the Billing Setup Tables topic for more information on the Coupon Return table. Refer to the Generating Cash Receipts for Centralized Billing topic for information on how the Coupon Return table is used to create zero-dollar Cash Receipt transactions.
Output Distribution - Selection of this field specifies where each form will be routed after it has been printed.
Organization/Contact Information - Contains name, address, and other related information to inform customers whom they should phone or email if they have questions about their bill.
Minimum Billing Amount - Lets you override the system-wide minimum billing amount level set on System Options when the Allow Override of Minimum Billing Amount is true.
Use Default Intercept Remittance - Selection of this flag indicates that the Default Billing Profile specified on the Intercept Options table (plus the AR Department and Unit from the referenced Receivable) should be used to infer the remittance contact information when an internal debt record is saved to the Intercept Request table.
Finance Charge Cycle - A charge cycle is an alternative to use the five finance charge fields on Billing Profile, that will allow 1 to an unlimited number of finance charges to be applied in a structured fashion. This field must first be made visible with Configure Page and then populated with the appropriate cycle. Defining cycles is done on the Finance Charge Cycle (FNCHC) page and can only use finance charges with the Rate Type set to Fixed Percentage on FNCHG. This field is initially hidden without a default and can be made visible to complete configuration.
Enable Electronic Billing - Determines if electronic billing is allowed for the billing profile record. The Enable Electronic Billing flag must be selected for the current fiscal year on System Options (Revenue) SOPT before updating a billing profile to true.
Enable Past Due Electronic Billing - Determines if past due electronic billing is allowed for the billing profile record. The Enable Past Due Electronic Billing flag must be selected for the current fiscal year on SOPT before the Enable Past Due Electronic Billing flag can be selected on BRPO.
Enable Electronic Collection Letters - Determines if electronic collection letters are allowed for the billing profile record. The Electronic Collection Letters flag must be selected for the current fiscal year on SOPT before updating a billing profile to true.
Enable Payment Plan - Determines if electronic Agreement, Reminder, Cancellation, and Completion are allowed for the billing profile record. The Enable Payment Plan flag must be selected for the current fiscal year on SOPT before updating a billing profile to true.
Sender’s Email Address - When a billing profile needs a specific sender’s email instead of the address provided in a given system process, this address supplies that override.
Email Subject - When the subject line should be specific to a billing profile instead of the subject provided in a given system process, this field provides that override. All email subject lines must be set up as Billing Instructions.

For statement customers, the Billing Profile lets you define:

Statement Frequency - Determines when statements are sent; for example, weekly, monthly, quarterly, and yearly.
Statement Day - Determines which day statements will be generated for a particular frequency
Weekend/Holiday Exceptions - Specifies the day on which statements will be generated for a particular frequency when the billing day falls on a holiday, a weekend, or when the regular defined statement day is not part of the month.
Special instructions - Identifies the special text to be included on the statement.
Expanded statement - determines whether detailed transaction activity should be printed on the statement.
Central Statement - Indicates that the billing profile record can be used for central statements. When this flag is selected, these billing profiles can be used to specify Statement billing options used to generate a consolidated statement or past due statement when there are transaction activities from multiple customer accounts for a customer.

For invoice customers, the Billing Profile table lets you define:

Special instructions - Identifies the special text to be included in the invoice.