Real-time Billing System
The Real-time Billing System allows for real-time processing (where applicable) from immediate updates. It allows you to perform pre-processing edit checks and troubleshooting to reduce error situations.
With the Real-time Billing System you can configure a scheduled billing process for recurring general and rental invoices, for example nightly. Scheduled invoices are processed individually so that if there is an issue for one invoice, the rest can continue to run.
The topics in this section include:
See also:
Security Prerequisites
To use the Real-time General Billing System, navigate to Administration > Settings > Security, and enable these security switches:
| System | Security Switch | Description |
|---|---|---|
| System 505 - Management Central - Utilities | Access to Data Portal Reports | Controls access to the output of the billing runs to the Data Portal. |
| System 602 - Financial Management - General Ledger | Allow Bill Invoice In General Invoicing | Activates the real-time General Billing System. |
| System 840 - Rental Counter | Allow Bill Invoice In Rental Contract | Activates real-time billing for rental contracts. |
| System 994 - Web Admin | Access Batch Jobs |
Gives the user the ability to use the Job Scheduler utility. |
Reports
Real-time Billing reports are posted to the Data Portal, from which you can either run the reports or access the data in Excel format. The raw data is stored in the BILLINGDAT file which can be also accessed via Data Miner or any other reporting tool.
FAQ
Why was this developed?
As part of our modernization efforts, we listened to many dealer requests for real-time invoice processing. This feature replaces the legacy billing runs using modern Java coding which provides system performance gains, immediate roll-back if a problem is detected, and enhanced support features.
Is there a cost for this feature?
No, it is included in your regular IntelliDealer fees.
When will my invoice be processed?
The new billing system is real-time. As such, all accounting, inventory, etc. functions that would have happened in the legacy billing run, now occur as soon as the invoice button is clicked.
What about recurring invoices (i.e. rental contract, general invoices)?
If there are rental contracts or general invoices with recurring invoices, there are jobs that can be scheduled to process these invoices. This may be daily or whatever schedule is desired. See Billing Schedule.
Note: While it is possible to schedule the billing process to run multiple times a day, only the first run of the day processes pending invoices. Currently, the only benefit to scheduling the runs more often than once every 24 hours is to pick up changes to the billing schedule which don't have a last run date set yet.
If I have 10 invoices to be processed by the recurring job, and there is an issue with one invoice, will the whole run fail?
No. One of the key benefits of the new billing system, is that if there is an issue with 1 invoice out of 10, the other 9 will process successfully, and only the one invoice will need to be actioned.
What if I don’t want to use the new billing system? Is it mandatory?
No, it is not mandatory. There are security switches to activate the feature by module, by user, or by user group. Eventually the legacy billing runs will be sunset.
The switches that activate Real-time Billing are:
Does the new billing run system print the same reports as the legacy system? Where can I get the reports?
The data captured by the new billing system is posted to the BILLINGDAT data table. There is a new system feature called the Data Portal which allows the user to print new versions of the reports as well as export the data in an Excel format. See Reports.
What if there is an issue with the invoice I am currently working on when I process it? Will the run crash?
No, the new system will immediately return the issue to you to be rectified, then you can simply try again. If there are no validation issues, the invoice will process in real-time.
Is there any logging in the system of this feature?
Yes, the BILLINGLOG data table captures all events including user, invoice, system, dates/times, run name, etc. If an error occurs, click the error link on the Real-time Billing Queue screen to see the error details.
The customer name on an invoice appears differently in real-time billing than it does in the legacy system. Why is this?
A. In legacy billing, sometimes the customer name in the equipment profile was set to the description entered in the custom accounting for the invoice, but the customer number was correct. This occurred when the account keyed on the custom accounting line was an equipment sale account. In Real-Time Billing, the logic to use the description information was removed. Real-time billing sets the customer name to the Ship To name, if entered, otherwise it uses the customer profile name.