TELECOM BILLING Billing is the aggregation of all non-recurring, periodic, and chargeable events, on an account by account basis. It is also the calculation of all outstanding charges and available discounts and bonuses. The output from billing process is a stream of tagged bill data that can be used to create a bill on paper, disk, or any other media. Billing Engine which is part of the Billing System performs creates invoices. Bill Process: The following diagram shows the basic diagram of the Billing Engine and associated functions:
Billing Engine picks up an account due to generate a billing and following associated information to generate invoice data: • All the rated CDRs for the customer with-in the month of invoice. • All type of charges ( initiation, installation, periodic, suspension, termination etc.) applicable for the customer's product and services. • If there is any refund or any other charges applicable. • Total outstanding from previous bills. • Total payments made by the customer in the given month. • Total adjustment passed in favor of the customer or against the customer. • Total discount given to the customer. • Total taxes applicable on customer usage and rental charges. • Billing configuration parameter required to run the Billing Engine, for example payment due date etc. Above mentioned information is just an indicative and may vary from billing system to billing system and operator to operator. Billing Engine produce raw data having all the information required to generate a final bill and this raw data can be used to generate a final invoice to be sent to the end customer. Bill Cycles: When a customer is added into the Billing System, system assigns the customer a predefined Bill Cycle. A bill cycle is a date on while Billing Engine runs and produces bill for a set of customers. If there are many customers, then they are divided in to different billing cycles. For example, a group of customers can have billing data as 1st of every month; another can have the bill date of 15th of every month. If customer is assigned to run a bill on 1st of the month, this would be called customer's nominal bill date. But because of various reasons, many times bill run becomes belay and actual bill gets generated on a later date, this would be called actual bill date. Bill Types: There could be various types of bill available for a user. Few of them may not be supported by some Billing System. Bill Type Description Initiation bill Normally only requested as the first bill on an account. Includes product charges and adjustments, but no events. Periodic bill Produced at regular intervals. Includes all periodic charges, events, and adjustments. Interim bill An extra bill that contains charges due to events processed for the account since the last bill. Includes all events and adjustments, but no periodic charges. Suspension bill Sent when an account has been suspended. Includes all periodic charges, events, and adjustments. Final bill Sent when an account has been terminated to bill all outstanding charges that are due. Includes all periodic charges, events, and adjustments, along with any refunds, for example, the return of a deposit. Post-final bill Sent when a terminated account has receivables outstanding after the production of a final bill. Includes any post-termination events and adjustments, but no periodic charges.
TELECOM BILLING
ReplyDeleteBilling is the aggregation of all non-recurring, periodic, and chargeable events, on an account by account basis. It is also the calculation of all outstanding charges and available discounts and bonuses.
The output from billing process is a stream of tagged bill data that can be used to create a bill on paper, disk, or any other media. Billing Engine which is part of the Billing System performs creates invoices.
Bill Process:
The following diagram shows the basic diagram of the Billing Engine and associated functions:
Billing Engine picks up an account due to generate a billing and following associated information to generate invoice data:
• All the rated CDRs for the customer with-in the month of invoice.
• All type of charges ( initiation, installation, periodic, suspension, termination etc.) applicable for the customer's product and services.
• If there is any refund or any other charges applicable.
• Total outstanding from previous bills.
• Total payments made by the customer in the given month.
• Total adjustment passed in favor of the customer or against the customer.
• Total discount given to the customer.
• Total taxes applicable on customer usage and rental charges.
• Billing configuration parameter required to run the Billing Engine, for example payment due date etc.
Above mentioned information is just an indicative and may vary from billing system to billing system and operator to operator.
Billing Engine produce raw data having all the information required to generate a final bill and this raw data can be used to generate a final invoice to be sent to the end customer.
Bill Cycles:
When a customer is added into the Billing System, system assigns the customer a predefined Bill Cycle. A bill cycle is a date on while Billing Engine runs and produces bill for a set of customers.
If there are many customers, then they are divided in to different billing cycles. For example, a group of customers can have billing data as 1st of every month; another can have the bill date of 15th of every month.
If customer is assigned to run a bill on 1st of the month, this would be called customer's nominal bill date. But because of various reasons, many times bill run becomes belay and actual bill gets generated on a later date, this would be called actual bill date.
Bill Types:
There could be various types of bill available for a user. Few of them may not be supported by some Billing System.
Bill Type Description
Initiation bill Normally only requested as the first bill on an account. Includes product charges and adjustments, but no events.
Periodic bill Produced at regular intervals. Includes all periodic charges, events, and adjustments.
Interim bill An extra bill that contains charges due to events processed for the account since the last bill. Includes all events and adjustments, but no periodic charges.
Suspension bill Sent when an account has been suspended. Includes all periodic charges, events, and adjustments.
Final bill Sent when an account has been terminated to bill all outstanding charges that are due. Includes all periodic charges, events, and adjustments, along with any refunds, for example, the return of a deposit.
Post-final bill Sent when a terminated account has receivables outstanding after the production of a final bill. Includes any post-termination events and adjustments, but no periodic charges.
Source: Wikipedia.