Advanced Recurring Contract Billing Parameters

Modules > Advanced recurring contract billing > Setup > Advanced recurring contract billing parameters

Use this page to set up the default values for creating a billing schedule in Advanced Recurring Contract Billing (ARCB). All billing schedules that you create begin with these default values, but you can change the values for each billing schedule as needed.

Billing schedules are created on the Billing Schedules page.

General tab

Use this tab to set the default values for creating billing schedules.

Processes

You set up the default values in the General tab: 

  1. Select the Billing schedule group.
  2. In Termination type, select how the final invoice is calculated when a billing schedule is terminated.
  3. In Unique schedule type, select whether customers are limited to a single billing schedule or the type of restriction if a customer can have more than one billing schedule.
  4. In Align to month, select whether to align the billing schedule detail lines to the end of a month when a billing schedule is created or updated.
  5. Select whether to Prorate partial periods and the Proration method.
  6. Select whether new billing schedules are on Hold.
    Also, as an option, you can specify a Remove hold password to restrict who can remove holds placed on billing schedules.
  7. Select the default Invoice transaction type.
  8. In Align deferral to billing, select whether to align the dates of a corresponding deferral schedule to use the same dates as the billing schedule.
  9. For sales orders created from billing schedules, you can specify the following: 
    1. Whether invoices are consolidated by customer, item, or item group. You can select any combination for consolidating the invoices.
    2. Whether to split renewal items by item groups.
    3. The Posting option for invoices:
      • Create sales order: Creates the sales order only.
      • Create sales order and show posting invoice from: Creates the sales order and opens the page where you can manually post the invoice.
      • Post invoice automatically: Creates the sales order and automatically posts the invoice.
    4. Whether to Add billing dates to item description.
  10. If you use the support and renewal feature, set the following values: 
    1. Select Auto enable support and renewal to automatically use the support and renewal feature.
    2. Select the default Support and renewal level, and specify the Support and renewal quantity.
    3. Select the Default support and renewal start date.
    4. Select whether to Include discount in calculation of the support or renewal amounts.
    5. Select the support and renewal frequencies.
    6. In Align by item group, select whether to align the start and end dates of additional items to existing items based on the item group.
    7. In Align to next unbilled period, select whether alignment date for a renewal item is determined by the date of the next unbilled period after the renewal starts.
    8. In Copy serial number, select whether to copy the item serial number from the initial sales order line is copied to the corresponding billing schedule line.
  11. When using escalation on the billing schedule, select the method used for the CPI escalation calculation.
  12. Select how records are filtered on the Invoice Creator page.
  13. If you use the Unbilled revenue feature, ensure to specify which options you want to use.
  14. Specify the default Termination options to use for terminating a billing schedule and its lines.
  15. Select Save.

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Field Description
Billing schedule group

Select the default billing schedule group when new billing schedules are created. Billing schedule groups are created on the Billing Schedule Group page.

Proration method

Select the calculation for proration: 

  • Daily: Uses the number of days for the proration calculation.
  • Monthly: Uses the number of months for the proration calculation.

For example, the annual amount for a contract is 12,000. The contract is from March to May. The amounts are calculated as follows: 

  • Daily: 92 days based on 365 (or 366) days for the year. The partial year is calculated as 12,000 * (92/365) = 3024.66.
  • Monthly: 3 months based on 12 months in a year. The partial year is calculated as 12,000 * (9/12) = 3,000.00.

If this option is changed, existing billing schedules are not affected. Only future calculations are changed.

For more information on proration, see Proation Method: Examples.

Termination type

Select the default termination type: 

  • Bill Remaining: Adds any remaining amounts in the billing schedule to the termination period, changes the status of the schedule to Last Billing, and updates the deferral end date for an associated deferral schedule.
    When the billing start date is after the termination date, the total amount of all remaining billing periods is added to the billing period and the remaining billing periods are remove.
  • Adjust schedule: Cuts off the billing schedule at the termination date, changes the status of the schedule to Last Billing, and adjusts the associated deferral schedule by reversing the amount that no longer must be recognized.
    When the billing start date is after the termination date, the remaining billing periods are removed.
  • No adjustment: Terminates the billing schedule as of the termination date specified. No adjustments to the billing schedule are made.
    When selected, Credit option is set to No credit and Prorate daily is set to No. Both options become read-only and cannot be changed.
Unique schedule type

Select the schedule type:

  • None: No restrictions on creating billing schedules for customers.
  • Customer: Only one billing schedule can be created for each customer.
  • End user: Only one billing schedule can be created for each customer-end user combination.
Align to month

Select whether to align the billing schedule line to the end of a month when a billing schedule is created or updated:

  • Yes: Aligns the billing schedule lines to the end of a month.
    For example, a billing cycle for a line starts on April 15. The billing frequency is monthly. When this option is set to Yes, the dates of the first billing cycle are April 15 to April 30. Then each subsequent billing cycle for the line starts on the 1st of the month and ends on the last day of the month.
  • No: Aligns the billing schedule lines to the same date of a month of when the billing schedule is created.
    If you want to use the alignment functionality on the Support and Renewal Process page, set this option to No.
    For example, a billing cycle for a line starts on April 15. When this option is set to No, the dates of the first billing cycle are April 15 to May 14. Each subsequent billing cycle starts on the 15th of the month and ends on the 14th of the month.

Note icon. Note: When this option is set to No and the start date of the billing cycle is near the end of a month, the way the alignment start and end dates are determined do not follow the standard functionality. For details, review the following examples.

  • When the billing start date is the 28 of the month, each billing period starts on the 28 of the month and ends on the 27 of the following month. In this situation, the standard functionality works as expected. ClosedView billing periods.
  • When the billing start date is the 29 of the month, each billing period starts on the 29 of the month and ends on the 28 of the following month. In this situation, the standard functionality works as expected for all months except February. ClosedView billing periods.
  • When the billing start date is the 30 of the month, each billing period starts on the 30 of the month and ends on the 29 of the following month. In this situation, the standard functionality works as expected for all months except February. ClosedView billing periods.
  • When the billing start date is the 31 of the month, each billing period ends on the 30 of the following month. The start date of a billing cycles depend on whether the end date of the previous billing cycle is the last date of the month. ClosedView billing periods.
Align deferral to billing

Select whether to align the start and end dates for the deferral schedule to use the same dates as the billing schedule.

  • Yes: Sets the default start and end dates of the deferral schedule to be the same as the billing schedule.
  • No: Does not align the default start and end dates of the deferral schedule to be the same as the billing schedule.
Prorate partial periods

Select whether to prorate the partial billing periods: 

  • Yes: Calculates partial amounts for first or last periods that are not full billing periods. The amounts for partial billing periods is a fraction of the full billing period amount.
  • No: Does not calculate partial amounts when the first or last periods are not full billing periods. Partial billing periods are charged the same amount as full billing periods.
Hold

Select whether a billing schedule is on hold when it is created: 

  • Yes: Newly created billing schedules are on hold, and require an approval process before they are active.
  • No: Newly created billing schedules are immediately active and do not require an approval process.
Remove hold password

Specify a password to restrict users from changing the status of a billing schedule from On Hold to Active. Available when set to Yes.

You cannot create an invoice for a billing schedule that has a Hold status.

Invoice transaction type

Select the invoice transaction type you want to process.

Customer split

Indicates whether the customer split functionality is used. This functionality allows you to split the invoice for an item among multiple customers.

  • Yes: The customer split functionality is used. When selected, the Customer Splitpage becomes available.
  • No: The customer split functionality is not used.
Sales Order Creation
The sales order settings are the default values on the Advanced Recurring Contract Billing Parameters page.
Consolidate all periods

Select whether the billing periods for which invoices are to be created are consolidated into a single sales document: 

  • Yes: Invoices for multiple billing periods are consolidated into a single sales document. These lines must be for item of the same billing schedule. ClosedView examples.
    Note icon. Note: Consolidating all periods and consolidating by items cannot work together. When this option is set to Yes, lines cannot be consolidated by items.
    Also, this feature is not available for deferrable items.
  • Review the following examples to understand how the periods are consolidated.

  • No: Invoices for multiple billing periods are not consolidated.
Consolidate by customer

Select whether sales documents are consolidated by customer:

  • Yes:  Consolidates invoices by customer ID, document ID, customer reference, project ID, and currency ID when an invoice is created.
  • No: Does not consolidate invoices by customer.
Consolidate by item

Select whether sales documents are consolidated by item:

  • Yes: Consolidates the invoice lines for matching items and project IDs when an invoice is created.
  • No: Does not consolidate invoices by item.

If any items belong to item groups that have a Number of top lines greater than zero on the Item Group Setup page, this option is automatically set to No.

Split by item group

Indicates whether renewal items are also put into item groups for invoice purposes: 

  • Yes: Item groups are used for renewal items.
  • No: Item groups are not used.

This setting is the default value on the Invoice Creator and Sales Order pages.

Posting option

Select the default action for posting the invoice after the sales order is created: 

  • Create sales order: Creates the sales order only. At a later time, you can manually create and post the sales order invoice.
    When a project ID exists for any of the lines, the project ID is attached to the sales order.
  • Show posting invoice form or create invoice proposal: Creates the sales order, and opens the posting invoice page. You can then choose to manually post the invoice or save it and manually post it at a later time.
    When a project ID exists for any of the lines, a project invoice proposal is created for the sales order.
  • Note icon. Note: When this option is selected, the invoice must be manually processed . As a result, you cannot process the sales order within a batch job.

  • Create free text invoice: Creates a free text invoice. Available when Invoice transaction type is Free text invoice.
  • Post invoice automatically: Creates the sales order, and automatically posts the sales order invoice.
    When a project ID exists for any of the lines, a project invoice proposal is created and then posted.
Add billing dates to item description

Select whether to include the billing schedule dates in the item description: 

  • Yes: Includes the date in the item description.
  • No: Does not include the date in the item description.
Exclude zero consumption

Select whether to include the billing schedule lines that are usage items with a zero (0) consumption amount and use the free quantity feature.

  • Yes: Billing schedule lines that have a zero consumption and use the free quantity feature do not appear on the Invoice Creator page. No invoices can be created for these lines.
  • No: Billing schedule lines that have a zero consumption amount appear on the Invoice Creator page.
Support and Renewal
Auto enable support and renewal

Select whether to automatically turn on the support and renewal feature for lines that are manually added or imported to a billing schedule: 

  • Yes: Items that are added to a billing schedule automatically use the support and renewal functionality.
  • No: Items that are added to the billing schedule do not use the support and renewal functionality. You must manually set to use this feature.
Support and renewal level

Select the support or renewal level to use.

Support and renewal levels are created on the Support and Renewal Levels page.

Support and renewal quantity

Select one of the following options: 

  • 1: Adds one support item at the transaction level for the sales order.
  • Invoice Qty: The quantity of the support item and the renewal item is the same as the original line item. The unit price and extended price are calculated accordingly.
Default support start date

Select the support contract start date: 

  • Transaction date: Uses the transaction date as the start date. Default.
  • Beginning of current month:  Uses the 1st of the current month as the start date. If the transaction date is the 1st of any month, then the 1st of the current month is the start date.
  • Beginning of next month: Uses the 1st of the next month as the start date. If the transaction date is on the 1st, the transaction date is used, otherwise the 1st of the following month is used.
  • Rule of 15: If the transaction date is between the 1stand the 15th, uses the 1st of the current month as the start date. If the transaction date is the 16thor later, uses the 1st of the next month as the start date.
Include discount in calculation Select whether to include the discount when calculating the support or renewal amounts.
Support frequency

Select the default support frequency for a billing schedule: Daily, Monthly, Quarterly, Semiannually, or Annually.

Renewal frequency

Select the default renewal frequency for a billing schedule: Daily, Monthly, Quarterly, Semiannually, or Annually.

Align by item group

Select whether to set the alignment date for a renewal item to be determined by the item group.

  • Yes: The alignment date is set based on the item group.
  • When an item is added to a billing schedule, the alignment date is set to use the same date as the first existing item that belongs to the same item group. This feature works only when the billing frequency is annual.

  • No: Does not set the alignment date for additional items to be the same as existing items. Default.
Align to next unbilled period

Select whether alignment date for a renewal item is determined by the date of the next unbilled period after the renewal starts.

  • Yes: The alignment date is set based on the date of the next unbilled period after a renewal starts.
  • When this option is used with Align by item group, changes to the Alignment date on the Support and Renewal Process page are overridden, and when the invoice is created, the renewal date is recalculated based on the date of the next unbilled period after the renewal starts.

  • No: The alignment date is based on the date of the current renewal period.
Copy serial number

Select whether to copy the item serial number from the initial sales order line is copied to the corresponding billing schedule line:

  • Yes: Copies the item serial number to the corresponding line in the billing schedule.
  • No: Does not copy the item serial number to the billing schedule line.
Escalation
CPI index calculation

Select to determine the method used for the CPI escalation calculation:

  • Prior cpi: Uses the previous CPI index for the escalation calculation.
  • Base cpi:  Uses the base CPI index for the escalation calculation.

For more information about the CPI calculation, see CPI Calculation.

Invoice Creator
Filter by

Select how records are included in the list grid: 

  • Start date: Records that have the billing schedule start date within the specified from/to date range appear in the list grid and are available for processing.
  • End date: Records that have the billing schedule end date within the specified from/to date range appear in the list grid and are available for processing.

This value is the default value on the Invoice Creator page.

Unbilled Revenue
Auto post general journal

Select whether the general journal entries for unbilled revenue amounts are automatically posted: 

  • Yes: Automatically posts the general journal entries for the unbilled revenue amounts.
  • No: Does not post the journal entries for unbilled revenue amounts. You must manually post the journal entries.
Default journal name Specify the default name for the general journal entry for unbilled revenue amounts.
Short-term unbilled method

Select the method you want to be able to use the short-term functionality with the unbilled revenue feature: None (default), Rolling periods, and Fixed year.

When None is selected, the short-term functionality is not used with the unbilled revenue feature.

If you choose Rolling periods or Fixed year, ensure to specify the default short-term unbilled revenue accounts on the Unbilled Revenue Setup.

Termination

The options selected become the default options when terminating a billing schedule or billing schedule line on the Mass Termination Processing or Terminate Schedule Lines pages.

Credit option

When termination a billing schedule or a billing schedule line, select how the credit is applied: 

  • Credit adjustment: Creates a credit adjustment for a billing schedule when a line is terminated. The credit adjustment appears in a future billing period for the billing schedule and automatically adjusts the invoice amount for the next billing period until the credit is finished being applied to the billing schedule.
  • Issue credit: Creates a credit note when a billing schedule or billing schedule line is terminated.
  • No credit: No credit adjustment or note is created upon termination of a billing schedule or billing schedule line. Available only when terminating a billing schedule using the No adjustment option.
One time can terminate with refund

Specify whether One time frequency items will give refund when terminated.

  • Yes: Gives refund when terminated for one time items.
  • No: Does not give refund when terminated for one time items.
Prorate daily

Specify whether the prorate daily rate is used to calculate the refund.

  • Yes: Uses the prorated daily rate to calculate the refund.
  • No: Uses the default calculation method to calculate the refund.
Create deferral for credit

Specify whether a separate deferral schedule is created for the credit amount when a billing schedule is terminated.

  • Yes: Depending on the credit option selected, the following occurs: 
    • If the credit option is Credit Adjustment, the existing deferral schedule is not adjusted. Instead, a separate deferral schedule is created for the credit note. The credit note billing line is updated with the deferral values.
    • If the credit option is Issue Credit, the existing deferral schedule is not adjusted. Instead, a separate deferral schedule is created for the line being terminated.
  • No: When a billing schedule is terminated, the credit adjustment line is added to the existing deferral schedule.

Sequence Number tab

Use this tab to set the default billing schedule number sequence. Before setting up the number sequences, review Generate Number Sequences.

Process

To set up the automatic number for billing schedules, do the following: 

  1. For the Reference you want to set, check that the Number sequence code has a value.
    • If the number sequence code is empty, you must generate the number sequence for the Reference number you want.
      For more information, see the Microsoft Dynamics 365 for Finance and Operations documentation.
    • If the number sequence has a value, continue to the next step.
  2. Select Save.
Field Description
Schedule number

Displays the next number ID for a .

The number sequences are automatically generated and assigned using the number sequence generation wizard. You do not need to change the number sequence unless you want to make manual changes on top of the generated number sequences.

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Buttons

This page contains the following buttons: 

Button Description
Save Saves the changes to the page.

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