Oracle Utilities Customer Care and Billing: Business Process Guide Release 2.3.1

Oracle Utilities Customer Care and Billing
Business Process Guide

Volume 1
Release 2.3.1
E18367-01
September 2010
Oracle Utilities Customer Care and Billing Business Process Guide

E18367-01
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Customer Information
We use the term customer information to reference the demographic, geographic, and financial
objects that form the core of your CIS system. In this section, we describe how to maintain these
objects.
Contents
Understanding The V
Navigating The V Using Control Central
Maintaining The V
Dashboard Portal
Setting Up Bill Print Groups
Landlord Reversion
Using The Premise Replicator
Start / Stop
The Big Picture Of Customer Contacts
Printing Letters
Maintaining Declarations
Understanding The V
The V is the shape of a diagram we use to illustrate the objects that form the core of the system:
Person, Account, Premise, Service Agreement, and Service Point. These objects hold
demographic, geographic, and financial information about your companys customers and
properties. The following diagram illustrates the objects in the V, as well as important objects
related to the V objects (bill, payment, meter, field activity, meter read).
Person
Account
Premise
Bill
Service
Agreement
Service
Point
Meter
12393921
KWH
Payment
Field Activity:
Read Meter
Field
Activity
GE
Model: 12-A
Meter Read
Reading: 10393
Meter
Read
You must intuitively understand the concepts embodied in the V before you can perform the
business processes in the system. In this section, we provide an overview of these objects. In
later sections, we describe how you maintain this information.
Customer Information Business Processes
Contents
Persons
Accounts
Service Agreements (SAs)
Premises
Service Points (SPs)
Putting It All Together
Sample V For A Residential Customer
Sample V For A Commercial Customer With Multiple Premises
How To Set Up Customer Hierarchies
Persons
A person exists for every individual or business with which your company has contact. Besides
customers, persons exist for landlords, contractors, accountants at corporate customers, third
party guarantors, energy distributors, collection agencies, etc.
On a person is maintained demographic information like Name, Mailing Address, Phone
Numbers, Email Address, Life Support Details, etc.
Most persons are linked to at least one account because, without an account, the person cannot
receive a bill. There are rare examples of persons without accounts, for example, collection
agencies that dont receive bills, parent companies that receive statements (as opposed to bills),
etc.
Refer to Maintaining Persons for more information about persons.
Accounts
Accounts are the entities for which bills are created. You must create at least one account for
every customer. The account contains information that controls when bills are created and how
they are formatted.
Every account must reference at least one person because the person contains the customers
demographic information (e.g., names, phone numbers, forms of ID). We refer to this individual
as the main person linked to the account. In addition to the main person, an account may
reference other types of persons, e.g., the billing contact, the third party guarantor of the
accounts debt, persons who receive copies of bills, etc.
Most accounts are linked to at least one service agreement because, without a service
agreement, there is nothing on which a bill can be based. An account without a service
agreement may exist; you just wont be able to do much in the system with such an account.
Refer to Maintaining Accounts for more information about accounts.
Service Agreements (SAs)

Think of a service agreement as a contract between your company and a customer. The service
agreement contains the terms and conditions controlling how the system calculates charges for
the specific service supplied to the customer.
2010 Oracle Proprietary and Confidential
Every account should have at least one service agreement (otherwise, the account has no
financial obligations with your company). There is no limit to the number of service agreements
that may be linked to an account. However, most residential customers have X service
agreements where X is the number of services sold by your company. For example, if your
company sells both electricity and gas, most accounts will have two service agreements.
A separate service agreement is required for every service supplied to every account. Why?
Because a variety of fields may differ for each service agreement:
Obviously, the price of the service is different.
The credit and collection criteria may be different.
The general ledger account to which the resultant revenue and/or receivable are linked is
different.
The sales tax could be different for each good / service / location.
The service point measuring consumption will frequently be different.
The list goes on
Service agreements that bill for premise-based services are linked to one or more premises via
their service points. When you link a service point to a service agreement, you are telling the
system that the service agreements account will pay for the service points service.
Refer to Maintaining Service Agreements for more information.
Premises
A premise is created for every location to which your company supplies service. On a premise is
maintained geographic information like:
The address.
Characteristics that determine tax jurisdictions.
Descriptions of unusual situations associated with a property.
The list goes on
Most premises have at least one service point because, without a service point, there are no
services supplied to the premise. A premise without service points may exist; you just wont be
able to do much in the system with such a premise.
Refer to Maintaining Premises for more information about premises.
Service Points (SPs)

Think of a service point as a specific location at a premise where your company supplies service.
A service point contains information describing the type of service and how it is measured.
A premise should have at least one service point (otherwise, there are no services supplied to the
premise). However, it is permissible for a new premise to exist without service points until you
are ready to physically start service at the premise.
A premise may have many service points. However, most residential premises have X service
points where X is the number of services sold by your company. For example, if your company
sells both electricity and gas, most of your premises will have two service points.
Separate service points are required for every service supplied to a premise. Why? Because a
variety of fields may differ for each service point:
The cycle in which the meter is read.
The network facilities that provide service.
Basic characteristics about the service (e.g., pipe size, take point, amperes, etc.).
When you link a service point to a service agreement, you are telling the system that the service
agreements account will pay for the service points service.
Refer to Service Point - Main Information for information about how to add and update service
points.
The following topics describe the relationship between a service point and the physical devices
that may be installed at the service point.
Contents
Metered versus Item-Based versus Non-Badged Service Points
Service Points With Multiple Items
Metered versus Item-Based versus Non-Badged Service Points

There are three major categories of service points:
Those where consumption is measured (e.g., electricity, gas, water) by a meter. We refer to
these types of service points as metered. A metered service point may have zero or one
meter installed at any instant in time. Over time, a metered service point may have many
meters installed and removed.
Those where consumption is not measured, but where there exists some type of badged (i.e.,
uniquely identified) item that impacts billing and dispatching (e.g., streetlights, a security
camera). We refer to these types of service points as item-based. An item-based service
point may have zero or one badged item installed at any instant in time. Over time, an itembased service point may have many badged items installed and removed.
Those where one or more non-badged items (i.e., items without a unique identity) that have
some impact on billing or dispatching exist. We refer to these types of service points as
unbadged. At a single instant in time, a non-badged service point may have many
unbadged items installed at it. Refer to Service Points With Multiple Items for an illustration
of such a service point.
Multiple unbadged items can also be defined on metered and item-based service points.
Under some billing scenarios, you may define non-badged items on a metered or item-based
service point. For example, assume you have an item-based service point that exists to support
lamp service. Also assume that the rate for lamp service is based on the type of lamp and the
number of feet of electric wire between the pole and the power source. To define the number of
feet of wire, you could create a non-badged item type called WIREFEET and indicate the number
of feet on the item-based service point. On this service point, you can also keep track of the
specific lamp thats installed.
Refer to The Big Picture Of Meters, Items and Equipment for more information about meters and
items. Refer to Meters & The V for more information about installing meters at a service point.
Refer to Items & The V for more information about installing items at a service point.
Service Points With Multiple Items

An example will help explain a single service point with multiple non-badged items. Assume you
have a parking lot with 4 lights, none of which are badged.
A Premise With One Service Point

Where The Service Point Has Multiple Items
Item
Item
Logical
Service Point
Item
bracket
20k
lamp
Item
Item
P
o
l
e
Premise
Item
bracket
10k
lamp
Item
Item
Item
bracket
20k
lamp
P
o
l
e
Item
Item
P
o
l
e
bracket
10k
lamp
Item
P
o
l
e
Parking Lot
ABC Shopping Mall
123 Maple Drive
San Francisco, CA
You can set up the above example with one premise with a single non-badged service point. On
the service point, you create one item for each type of item in the parking lot:
20K lumen lamp
10K lumen lamp
pole
bracket
For each type of item, you indicate the quantity that exist in the parking lot:
20K lumen lamp - 2
10K lumen lamp - 2
pole - 4
bracket - 4
Refer to Service Point - Multiple Items for more information about multi-items on service points.
Putting It All Together

To help you understand the significance of the V, consider a few scenarios:
When a new residential customer starts service, you create both person and account objects
for the new customer. In addition, you also create service agreements and link them to the
appropriate service points. You wont have to create a new premise and service points
because the customer is probably moving into an existing house.
If the residential customer moves within your service territory, you dont have to set up new
person or account objects. You also dont have to set up new premise and service point
objects if the customer is moving into an existing house. You only have to create new service
agreements and link them to the appropriate service points (and the system does most of the
service agreement set up processes for you).
A business with a single location uses the same V objects as does a residential customer.
If the business expands and starts using services at other locations, you simply link new
service agreements to the existing account. You dont have to redefine person or account
information.
Bottom line. A person and an account are needed for every customer. After these exist, future
service requests simply involve stopping existing service agreements and starting new ones. You
typically wont have to add or modify premise or service point information unless new locations
are built.
For more information, refer to Maintaining The V, Navigating The V Using Control Central, The
Big Picture Of Starting Service, and The Big Picture Of Stopping Service.
Sample V For A Residential Customer

The following illustration shows a simple residential customers V objects.
Sample "V" For A Simple Residential Customer

Person
Joe Smith
Account
18 Oak Street
Provo, Utah
USA
Account 19291991
Electric Service Agreement
Service Agreement
Service Agreement
Rate: EC-1
Tax Exempt
...
Electric
Meter
Premise
Service
Point
Electric
Service Point
Water Service Agreement

Rate: RW-23
Contract Rider in effect
...
Water
Meter
Service
Point
Water
Service Point
Sample V For A Commercial Customer With Multiple

Premises
The following illustration shows the V objects for a commercial customer who pays for service at
two premises.
Sample "V" For A Commercial Customer With Two Premises

Person
439 Pine Ave
Provo, Utah
USA
Electric
Meter
Acme, Inc.
Account
Premise
Service
Point
Electric
Service Point
Account 93002483
Service Agreement
Service Agreement
Rate: EC-1
Tax Exempt
...
87 Ord St
Oakland, Utah
USA

Rate: EC-3
Contract Rider in effect
...
Electric
Meter
Premise
Service
Point
Electric
Service Point
Note. The above example shows a separate service agreement per premise. If your rates allow,
you could link both premises to a single service agreement.
How To Set Up Customer Hierarchies

Consider the following customer hierarchy:
The above hierarchy shows a parent company (McDonalds Corporation) with two subsidiaries
and one general manager. Each subsidiary, in turn, has subsidiaries and these subsidiaries can
have their own subsidiaries
You must set up a person for every individual and business in a hierarchy. After the basic
demographic information is defined, you define each person's children using the Person to
Person page.
A script can be used to set up a hierarchy. The demonstration database contains a script that
guides users through the process of setting up a hierarchy. Please speak to your implementation
staff if you'd like to import this script for use in your implementation.
After a hierarchy is set up, the system displays its members in the Person Tree Zone (this is a
zone on the Customer Information Portal). In addition, if the persons in a hierarchy have
accounts, summary information about these accounts is displayed in the Account Summary Zone.
While hierarchies would typically be set up to define parent companies and subsidiaries, you can
use this functionality for many other purposes. For example, a customer relationship manager
could set up a hierarchy containing their "important" customers. To do this, they'd need to create
a "dummy" person for the parent and then link the "important" customers to it. After this hierarchy
is set up, the manager could see a summary of these customers in the Account Summary Zone
whenever they display the "dummy" person.
Navigating The V Using Control Central

Control Central is the name given to the functionality that helps you:
Find a person.
Find an account.
Find a premise.
View information about a person / account / premise.
View alerts and messages about a person / account / premise.
Navigate to pages that contain information related to a person / account / premise.
For more information about the relationships between persons, accounts, and premises, see
Understanding The V.
Contents
Control Central - Main
Control Central - Account Information
Control Central - Customer Information
Control Central - Account Tree
Control Central - Premise Tree
Control Central - Bill/Payment Tree
Control Central - Pay Plan Tree
How To Add A New Customer From Control Central
Finding Who Pays For A Meter
Finding Who Pays For An Item
Control Central - Main

Open Control Central, Main to find a customer and/or a premise.
Automatic transfer to Account Information tab. You are automatically transferred to Control
Central - Account Information when an account / premise is selected on this page.
The contents of this section describe how to use Control Central - Main.
Contents
Search Facilities
Search Options
Wild Cards
Search Results
Search Facilities
The top of Control Central is where you enter the criteria used to find a person, account or
premise.
Multiple search criteria. You can search for a customer using a combination of Name,
Address, City, and Postal Code. When multiple fields are populated, the system searches for
customers that match all such criteria. For example, if you enter a Name of Smith, and a Postal
code of 94114; only customers named Smith with service in postal area 94114 will be displayed.
The following table describes each of the different search methods.
Search Method
Name
10
Description
Use this field to search for a person or account using a persons name. The person
Search Method
Description
may be the main customer on the account or a third party related to the account.
You can enter all or part of the persons name. The name search is not case sensitive.
If you need to add a new customer, use either of the following options:
button. Clicking this button opens the Person - Main page where you
- Click the
can add a new person. Refer to How To Add A New Customer From Control Central
for more information about how to add a new customer (i.e., Person and Account) from
this page.
button. Clicking this button opens the Order - Main page where you
- Click the
can add a new person (and initiate service for the new person). Refer to Order User
Interface Flow for more information about how to add a new customer using an order.
Address
Use this field to search for a premise or account using the first line of a service address.
You can enter all or part of the first line of the address. For example, if youre looking
for 324 Hawthorne Lane, you can enter 324 Haw rather than the entire address.
The address search is not case sensitive.
City
Use this field to search for a premise or account using a city name associated with a
service address.
You can enter all or part of the city name. For example, if youre looking for someone in
San Francisco; you can enter San Fra, San F, San Francisco, etc.
The city search is not case sensitive.
We strongly recommend qualifying a City search with some other information (e.g.,
Name) otherwise the resultant list can be too large to deal with.
Postal
Use this field to search for a premise or account using a postal code associated with a
service address.
You can enter all or part of the postal code. For example, if youre looking for someone
in 94114; you can enter 94114, 9411, etc.
We strongly recommend qualifying a Postal search with some other information (e.g.,
Name) otherwise the resultant list will be too large to deal with.
Account ID
Use this field to search for an account using an account number. After entering this
information, click the search button adjacent to the Account ID entry field (or press
Enter) to search for an account. The Account ID cannot be combined with other
search fields.
You can enter all or part of the account ID. For example, if youre looking for account
1929119291; you can enter 1929119291, 192911, etc.
button. Clicking
If you need to add a new account for an existing person, click the
this button opens the Account - Main page on which a new account can be added.
Phone Format/Number
Use this field to search for an account using one of the telephone numbers linked to
one of the persons linked to the account. The person may be the main customer on the
account or a third party related to the account.
You may enter the phone number in the format indicated or you can enter the
information as a contiguous string of numbers and the system will format this for you.
Wild card searches are not supported. However, you can enter the first few digits of
the phone number and the system will look for all accounts with these digits.
11
Search Method
Description
After entering this information, click the search button (or press Enter) to search for an
account linked to a person with this telephone number. The system displays every
account with the input telephone number in the search results.
Person ID Type/Value
Use these fields to search for a person or account using one of the IDs linked to one of
the persons linked to the account. You must enter both an identifier type and number.
You may enter the persons ID in the format dictated by the identifier type (if any).
Please note that if the ID Number should be formatted (e.g., dashes in an American
social security number), you do not have to enter the dashes. Rather, you can enter
the information as a contiguous value and the system will format this for you.
Wild card searches are not supported. However, you can enter the first few digits of the
ID number and the system will look for all persons and accounts with these digits.
After entering this information, click the search button (or press Enter) to search for a
person / account linked to a person with this ID. The system displays every person with
the input ID in the search results.
Geo ID Type/Value
Use these fields to search for a premise using one of the geographic values linked to
the premise or one of its service points. You must enter both a geographic type and
value.
Wild card searches are not supported. However, you can enter the first few digits of
the geographic value and the system will look for all premises / service points with
these digits.
After entering this information, click the search button (or press Enter) to search for a
premise / service point with this ID. The system displays every premise with the input
ID in the search results.
Meter ID
Control central does not allow you to find a customer using a meter ID. If you know the
meter ID and want to find whos paying for its service, transfer to Meter/Item Search
and display the meter. All customers who have paid for service measured by the
current configuration of the meter will be displayed on this page. You can then use the
various context menu buttons to return to Control Central where details about the
customer are displayed.
Item ID
Control central does not allow you to find a customer using an item ID. If you know the
item ID and want to find whos paying for its service, transfer to Meter/Item Search and
display the item. All customers who have paid for the item will be displayed on this
page. You can then use the various context menu buttons to return to Control Central
where details about the customer are displayed.
Automatic transfer to Account Information tab. If your search criteria result in a single
customer being retrieved, you are automatically transferred to Control Central - Account
Information with that customers information displayed.
Search Options
The Show All Premises search option controls whether you see all of an accounts premises in
the search results. If turned on, every premise linked to an account is shown in the search
results. If turned off, only one premise is shown per account (and this premise is selected at
random).
12
This switch pertains to the following search methods:
Search by name (and all address constituents are left blank)
Search account ID
Search by person phone number
Search by person identifier
This switch does NOT pertain to the following search methods as these are premise-oriented, not
account-oriented:
Search by name when any address constituent is entered
Search by address constituent (when name is blank)
Search by geographic identifier
The benefit of turning this switch off is that an account will be immediately selected when you
enter unique account-oriented search criteria. For example, if you specify an Account ID and
press enter, the system automatically selects the account; you dont have to wait for the search
results to be populated with the multitude of premises linked to the account (and then select one
of the rows). Please note, an alert highlights if the selected account has other premises.
Default note. The first time you open this page, this switch defaults from your user preferences.
When you return to this page, the last value of this switch is defaulted.
Wild Cards
The control central searches against Name, Address, and City support wild cards. The wild card
character is % and represents any number or character. The system always appends a % for
you when you use these search methods. Examples will help clarify this functionality:
If you enter a B, the system searches for B% (and will find all objects that begin with B).
If you enter B%N, the system searches for B%N%. It will find anything that
Starts with a B, and
has zero or more other characters followed by an N.
If you enter %B the system searches for %B%. It will find anything with a B in it, no matter
what it starts and ends with.
Certain wildcard searches can result in lengthy response times. If you use the wildcard
character to prefix your search criteria (e.g., %San Fran), lengthy response times can result.
Why? Because the system will have to look at EVERY customer in the system before it can
return the results.
Search Results
The search results at the bottom of the page contain persons, accounts, and premises that match
your search criteria. The information displayed in this area differs depending on the type of
search you perform. You can perform searches on a customer's name, address, or phone
number.
13
The first X matches are returned. The number of customers that are returned is limited by the
systems memory buffers. If you do not find the account you are looking for in the set of results,
refine your search criteria.
Automatic selection if only one match. You dont have to select the desired person / account /
premise if there is one and only one object that matches your search criteria; the system
automatically selects it and transfers you to Control Central - Account Information.
Use Tab and Enter to select an account. You dont have to use the mouse to select an
account when multiple matches are returned. Instead, the system highlights the first row in the
search results. If this is the customer you want, press enter to select it. If not, press tab until
youve highlighted the desired customer (and then press enter to select it).
Use next and previous buttons to step through a list of customers. When you select an
account from the search results, you are automatically transferred to Control Central - Account
Information. If you want to look at a different account that appeared in the search results, you do
NOT have to return to the Main tab. Rather, you can click the next in list and previous in list
buttons to scroll up and down through the search results (note that there are accelerator keys for
each of these buttons so you dont have to use the mouse to take advantage of this feature).
Control Central - Account Information

Once Control Central - Main has populated an account, you are brought to the Account
Information page to see an overview of the account.
Global context. Selecting an account on control central causes the global context information to
be refreshed. Various zones available on this page use the value in the global context to display
relevant data for the appropriate account, person and premise.
User configurable. Refer to Each User Can Customize Which Zones Appear for information
about how to configure which zones appear.
Description of Page
Navigation hint. The Go To Control Central option on the account context menu navigates to
the Account Information tab page.
A mouse with a roller is useful. This page can extend vertically past the normal desktop
boundary. You will find that a mouse with a roller will facilitate navigating through the page.
The contents of this section describe the zones that are available on this portal page.
14
Contents
Account Activity History Zone
Account Financial History Zone
Alert Zone
Applicable Campaigns Zone
Bill Graph Zone
Billed Consumption Zone
Context Zone
Credit and Collections Info Zone
Customer Information Zone
Field Activity Information Zone
Financial Information Zone
Premise Information Zone
SA Premise List Zone
Service Credit Membership Zone
Timeline Zone - Account Info
Account Activity History Zone

The Account Activity History Zone is a grid that summarizes a variety of account-related
events (in reverse chronological order). Pushing the button adjacent to the information transfers
you to an appropriate page. The following table lists the type of information that may appear in
this zone and the page to which you will be transferred if you push the adjacent button.
Activity Label
What Is Displayed
Drill Down Transfers

You To
Severance Event. One row is displayed for

every Pending and Awaiting Field Activity
Completion severance event linked to the
accounts service agreements.
The severance events description,

status and trigger date (if non-blank).
If the event is dependent on earlier
events, the earlier events type and
status is appended
Severance Process
Events
Severance Process. One row is displayed

for every Inactive severance process linked
to the accounts service agreements.
Inactive processes are displayed (as
opposed to active) because active severance
processes have pending events and pending
events are shown separately.
The severance processs SA type

description, severance process
template description, status and
create date/time
Severance Process Main
Collection Event. One row is displayed for

every Pending collection event linked to the
account.
The collection events description,

status and trigger date (if non-blank)
Collection Process
Events
Collection Process. One row is displayed

for every Inactive collection process linked to
the account. Inactive processes are
displayed (as opposed to active) because
active collection processes have pending
events and pending events are shown
separately.
The collection processs description,

debt class description, status and
create date/time
Collection Process Main
Overdue Event. One row is displayed for

every Pending overdue event linked to the
account.
The overdue events standard

information string (this is dynamic as
it's constructed by an algorithm)
Overdue Process Events
15
Overdue Process. One row is displayed for

every Inactive overdue process linked to the
account. Inactive processes are displayed
(as opposed to active) because active
overdue processes have pending events and
pending events are shown separately.
The overdue processs standard

Overdue Process Main
Cut Event. One row is displayed for every

Pending cut event linked to the account.
The cut events standard information

string (this is dynamic as it's
constructed by an algorithm)
Cut Process Events
Cut Process. One row is displayed for every

Inactive cut process linked to the account.
Inactive processes are displayed (as
opposed to active) because active cut
processes have pending events and pending
events are shown separately.
The cut processs standard

Cut Process Main
Write-off Event. One row is displayed for

every Pending write-off event linked to the
account.
The write-off event description, status

and trigger date (if non-blank)
Write-off Process Events
Write-off Process. One row is displayed for

every Inactive write-off process linked to the
account. Inactive processes are displayed
(as opposed to active) because active writeoff processes have pending events and
pending events are shown separately.
The write-off process templates

description, status and create
date/time
Write-off Process Main
Customer Contact. One row is displayed for

every customer contact associated with the
main customer linked to the account.
The main name of the person

associated with the customer contact,
the customer contacts class and
type, and the customer contacts date
Customer Contact Main
Field Activity. One row is displayed for every

unique non-cancelled field activity linked to
the accounts non-cancelled / non-closed
service agreements.
The field activity type, scheduled

date/time and status
Field Activity Main
Pay Plan. One row is displayed for every

non-cancelled pay plan linked to the account
The pay plans type, status, date, and

amount
Pay Plan Main
Payment Arrangement. One row is

displayed for every non-cancelled payment
arrangement (i.e., service agreement with a
special role of Payment Arrangement) linked
to the account
The service agreements division, SA

type, status, and effective period.
Payment Arrangement
Main
Credit Rating History. One row is displayed

for every credit rating transaction that affects
the accounts credit rating
The effect on the accounts credit

rating, the end date, creation date
and the process that created the
transaction.
Account C&C
Cash Only History. One row is displayed for

every credit rating transaction that affects the
accounts cash-only score
The effect on the accounts cash-only

score, the end date, creation date
and the process that created the
transaction.
Account C&C
16
Case. One row is displayed for every case

associated with the account.
The case's standard information.
Case - Main
Rebate Claim. One row is displayed for

every rebate claim.
The rebate claims description.
Rebate claim portal
Warning! The first 25 rows are displayed when this zone is initially built. If more rows exist, a
Get All button appears. If you click this button, the system retrieves a maximum of 750 rows.
Account Financial History Zone

The Account Financial History Zone lists an accounts financial events in reverse chronological
order. You can use this grid to both view high-level information about these events and to
transfer to the respective page in which an object is maintained.
Approximately a year and half is shown. This zone shows all financial transactions within 20
months of the latest financial transaction. This limitation exists to prevent this zone from
becoming unmanageably long.
The following columns are displayed in the grid:
Arrears Date
This is the date the event starts aging. This column will
be blank if the FT has not started aging yet.
Financial Transaction Type
This column indicates the type of financial event: Bill,

Payment, Bill Cancellation, Pay Cancellation,
Adjustment and Adjustment (Cancel). If the event is
related to an adjustment, the adjustment types
description is displayed instead of Adjustment.
Current Amount
This column shows the financial events effect on the

accounts current balance.
Current Balance
This column shows the accounts current balance after

the financial event.
Payoff Amount
This column shows the financial events effect on the

accounts payoff balance. Payoff Amount will be
dimmed if it is the same as its Current Amount.
Payoff Balance
This column shows the accounts payoff balance after

the financial event. Payoff Balance will be dimmed if it
is the same as its Current Balance.
If you need to see more information about a specific financial transaction, press the go to button
to transfer to the respective page in which the information is maintained.
For information about current and payoff balance, refer to Current Amount versus Payoff Amount.
17
Alert Zone
The Alert Zone is a grid that contains messages highlighting a variety of situations. Clicking on
the hyperlink transfers you to an appropriate page. The following table lists the various alerts that
may appear and the page to which you will be transferred if you click on the hyperlink. The table
below lists alerts in alphabetical order, but it includes a column indicating the order in which the
alert will appear.
You can create additional alert conditions. The following table contains those alerts supported
in the base package. It is possible to highlight additional conditions by plugging-in the
appropriate algorithm(s) on the installation record. Refer to Count Customer Contacts of a Given
Type and Count Pay Plans with a Given Status for examples of such algorithms.
Account alerts are implementation-specific. On Account - Alerts, a user can define accountspecific alerts that should be displayed whenever the account is selected. The Alert Types
control table contains the possible alert messages.
Alert Text
Order
Description

You To
Account alerts
Appears for each user-defined alert

associated with an account.
Account Alert
Account has Multiple

Premises
24
Appears when the account has service

agreements whose service points
reference multiple premises
Control Central Account

Tree
Account SA(s) linked

to Umbrella Agreement
41
Appears when the account has one or

more service agreements linked to a noncanceled terms of service record for an
umbrella agreement that is in effect on the
current date.
Terms of Service - Main
Active Write Off

Process
10
Appears when an account has an active

write off process. Refer to How Are Write
off Processes Cancelled for information
describing when a write-off process is
deactivated.
Write Off Process
Appointment Exists
37
Appears when a premise has a noncanceled, non-completed field activity

thats linked to an appointment.
Appointment
Auto-Pay Active: auto

pay method description
25
Appears when the account has an

automatic payment option effective on the
current date. The auto pay method
description (i.e. Direct Debit or Payment
Advice) appears only if payment advice
functionality is enabled. Refer to Payment
Advices for more information on payment
advice functionality.
Account Auto Pay
Comment Exists On
Account
Appears when a freeform comment has

been entered for the account (on Account -
Account
18
Main)
Field Activity Pending
19
Appears when any of the premises service

points have a pending field activity
Field Activity
Field activity type alert

message
12
Appears when the premise has a service

point with a completed field activity whose
type has been marked with an alert
message (refer to Field Activity Type)
Field Activity
Held Order Exists
32
Appears when the person has a held

order.
Order
Installation dynamic
alerts
42
You can install plug-in algorithms on the

installation record that will create alerts (if
given situations exist). Refer to Count
Customer Contacts of a Given Type and
Count Pay Plans with a Given Status for
examples of such algorithms
Varies by plug-in
Landlord Exists
27
Appears when a landlord is linked to the

premise
Premise
Last Contact: days old user name who added

the contact
Appears when the person has a customer

contact. The "days old" presents how old
the contact is (based on the contact's
date). The word Today is shown if the last
contact was on the current date. The word
Yesterday is shown if the last contact was
on the current date - 1 day. If neither is
applicable, the number of days old is
shown.
Customer Contact
Multiple Financially
Resp
26a
Appears when the account has more than

one financially responsible person linked to
it
Control Central - Account

Tree
Non-cash Deposit
15
Appears when the account has non-cash

deposits effective on the current date
Account - Deposit
n Open Contact(s) for

Person
Appears if there are open customer

contacts associated with the person.
Refer to Customer Contacts Can Be Used
As Case Files for more information.
Customer Contact
Pending Order Exists
31
Appears when the person has a pending

order.
Order
Pending Proposal SA
Exists
36
Appears when the account has a proposal

service agreement in the pending state.
Refer to Proposal SA State Transition for
more information.
Service Agreement
Pending Quote Exists
34
Appears when the account has a pending

quote. Refer to Quote Lifecycle for more
information.
Quote
Pending SA
Relationships
16
Appears when the account has SA

relationships that are pending
SA Relationship
19
Pending Stop
18
Appears when there is a service

agreement in the state of pending stop
linked to the account. Refer to The
Lifecycle Of A Pending Stop Service
Agreement for more information.
Start/Stop
Person is linked to
Multiple Accounts
22
Appears when the person has multiple

accounts. A persons accounts are
maintained on the Account - Person page.
Control Central
n Persons on Account
26c
Appears when the account has multiple

persons linked to it. An accounts persons
are maintained on the Account - Person
page.
Account - Person
Premise has Multiple

Accounts
23
Appears when the premise has service

points that are linked to service
agreements that are linked to different
accounts.
Control Central
Premise has n Child

Premise(s)
40
Appears when the premise is defined as

the parent premise for one or more
premises. Refer to Define Premise
Hierarchy for more information.
Premise Management
Premise is linked to
Parent Premise
39
Appears when the premise defines a

parent premise. Refer to Define Premise
Hierarchy for more information.
Premise
Quotable Proposal SA
Exists
35
Appears when the account has a proposal

service agreement in the quotable state.
Refer to Proposal SA State Transition for
more information.
Service Agreement
Quote Awaiting
Customer Response
Exists
33
Appears when the account has a

complete quote with a quote detail that
references a quotable proposal SA. Refer
to Quote Lifecycle for more information.
Quote
Reactivated SAs Exist
21
Appears when any of the accounts service

agreements exist in the state of
reactivated (i.e., a financial transaction
has been generated after the service
agreement was closed). Refer to The
Lifecycle Of A Service Agreement for more
information.
Service Agreement
SA type alert message
13
Appears when the customer has a service

agreement with an SA type that has been
marked with an alert message (refer to SA
Type - Details)
Service Agreement
Note that if the account in control central

has more than one service agreement,
pressing the drill down button will also
launch the service agreement search
dialog.
20
SA type description and

status of a non-billed
budget service
agreement
14
Appears for every pending start, pending

stop, and active non-billed budget that is
linked to the account.
Non-billed Budget Service

Agreement
Seasonal Address
Exists
38b
Appears if the account has a seasonal

address and there is no seasonal address
active on the current date.
Person - Correspondence
Info
Seasonal Address
Currently Effective
(MM/DD - MM/DD)
38a
Appears if the account has an active

seasonal address that is effective on the
current date. The date range that the
seasonal address is effective is included in
the alert.
Person - Correspondence
Info
Statement Construct
Active
28
Appears if the person has an active

statement construct
Statement Construct
Third Party Guarantor
26b
Appears when the account has a third

party guarantor. An accounts third party
guarantors are maintained on the Account
- Person page.
Control Central - Account

Tree
Legacy Alert Order. Certain system-generated alerts have been converted to algorithms that
may be plugged-in on the installation record. This implies that the order in which these alerts now
appear might differ to the prior system-generated alerts order. If your implementation wishes to
retain the legacy order for these alerts, the Use Legacy Alerts Option Type for the General
System Configuration Feature Configuration must be defined with a value of Y, and the alert
algorithms should not be plugged-in on the installation record. If this option is set, then the alerts
in the following table will be treated as system-generated alerts. These alerts are listed in
alphabetical order, but a column indicating the order in which they will appear is included. Note
that if both the feature option and alert algorithms are configured, these alerts may appear twice
on the Alert Zone.
Alert Text
Order
Description

You To
Cash Only Account
11a
Appears when the accounts cash only

score is equal to or exceeds the cash only
threshold on the CIS installation table.
Refer to How are credit rating transactions
created for information describing how a
cash-only score is affected by various
system and user events.
Account
Collection Process
Active

collection process. Refer to How Are
Collection Processes Cancelled for
information describing when a collection
process is deactivated.
Collection Process
Collection Referral
Active
Appears when the account has active

collection agency referrals.
Collection Agency Referral
Credit rating: NNNN
11b
Appears when the accounts credit rating
Account C & C
21
falls below the credit rating threshold on

the CIS installation table. Refer to How
are credit rating transactions created for
information describing how a customers
credit rating is affected by various system
and user events.
Life Support /
Sensitive Load on
Person
Appears when any of the accounts

persons has life support or sensitive load
information
Person
Life Support /
Sensitive Load on
Premise
Appears when the premise has life support

or sensitive load information
Premise
Pending Start
17
Appears when there is a service

agreement in the state of pending start
linked to the account. Refer to The
Lifecycle Of A Pending Start Service
Agreement for more information.
Start/Stop
Severance Process
Active
Appears when any of the accounts service

agreement has an active severance
process
Severance Process

severance process. Refer to How Are
Severance Processes Cancelled for
information describing when a severance
process is deactivated.
Applicable Campaigns Zone

The Applicable Campaigns Zone lists the campaigns that may be of interest to the customer. If
you press a campaigns Add Order button, you will be transferred to the Order transaction where
you can walk the customer through the campaigns provisions and determine if they are
interested in its goods and services.
Refer to The Big Picture Of Campaign Eligibility for more information.
Bill Graph Zone

The Bill Graph Zone illustrates the ending balance and new charges on each of the customers
historical bills.
Approximately a year and half is shown. This zone shows all bills within 20 months of the
latest bill. This limitation exists to prevent this zone from becoming unmanageably wide.
22
For balance-forward accounts, both ending balances and current charges are shown in the graph.
For open-item accounts, only the current charges are shown in the graph.
The following points describe unique features of this zone:
If you leave the mouse pointer stationary on a bar, summary information about the bill will be
displayed.
If you click on a bar, you will be transferred to the bill page with the respective bill displayed.
Billed Consumption Zone

The Billed Consumption Zone illustrates the amount of consumption on each of the customers
historical bills. Up to three units of measure (UOM) are shown for each bill. The system uses the
graph UOM's defined on the SA types associated with the customer's active service agreements.
If more than three graph UOM's are detected for a customer, the system uses those associated
with the service agreement types with the highest bill print priorities.
The following points describe unique features of this zone:
If you leave the mouse pointer stationary on a bar, summary information about the bill will be
displayed.
If you click on a bar, you will be transferred to the bill page with the respective bill displayed.
Approximately a year and half is shown. This zone shows all bills within 20 months of the
latest bill. This limitation exists to prevent this zone from becoming unmanageably wide.
Context Zone
The Context Zone contains basic information about the Person / Account / Premise on which you
are working.
Person
This part of the context area contains the persons

standard information. Note, this information is formatted
by a plug-in algorithm on the installation record. Refer to
the base packages person information algorithm for an
example. If you prefer different formatting logic, your
system administrator should configure the system
appropriately
Account ID
This part of the context area contains the unique

identifier of the account and the name of its main
customer.
Adjacent to the account ID appears a check digit. This
is for information purposes only and is not needed to
operate the system. Refer to the Description of Page
section under Account Main for a description of how
check digit is calculated.
23
Below Account ID, the accounts Current Balance and

Payoff Balance are displayed. Payoff Balance will be
hidden when its the same as the Current Balance.
Refer to Current Amount versus Payoff Amount for more
information.
Aged Debt Bar
If the accounts Current Balance is greater than zero, a

colored bar is displayed adjacent. This bar provides
information about the age of the accounts debt.
The number of segments that appear in this bar is
dependent on the elements of the customers aged
balance. The following segments may appear:
-
disputed debt (If you handle disputed debt as

described in Disputing Items),
new charges and debt between 0 and X days old

(where X is the accounts customer classs bill due
days),
debt between X to 30 days old,
debt between 31 to 60 days old,
debt older than 60 days
Note. If you hover the mouse pointer over a segment of the bar, the respective amount of debt
will appear. If you click on the arrears bar you will be taken to the Account Financial History
page. Note that information about debt balances by age is not applicable to open-item accounts.
Premise
24
This part of the context area contains the premise

address. Note, the address information is formatted by a
plug-in algorithm on the installation record. Refer to the
base packages premise format algorithm for an
example. If you prefer a different format, your system
administrator should configure the system appropriately
(Start Button)
Push this button if you want to start service for the

account and the service isnt at a premise (e.g., a
deposit). Refer to The Big Picture Of Starting Service for
more information.
(Stop Button)
Push this button if you want to stop service for the

account at the premise. Refer to The Big Picture of
Stopping Service for more information.
Credit and Collections Info Zone

The Credit and Collections Info Zone is a grid that contains a variety of credit & collectionsoriented events. Pushing the button adjacent to the information transfers you to an appropriate
page. The following table lists the type of information that may appear in this zone and the page
to which you will be transferred if you push the adjacent button.
Activity Label
What Is Displayed

You To
Severance Process. One row is displayed

for every Active severance process linked to
the accounts service agreements.
The severance processs description

and create date/time
Severance Process Main
Collection Process. One row is displayed

for every Active collection process linked to
the account.
The collection processs description

Collection Process Main
Write-off Process. One row is displayed for

every Active write-off process linked to the
account.
The write-off processs description

Write-off Process Main
Overdue Process. One row is displayed for

every Active overdue process linked to the
account.
The overdue processs standard

Overdue Process Main
Cut Process. One row is displayed for every

Active cut process linked to the account's
service agreements.
The cut processs standard

Cut Process Main
Pay Plan. One row is displayed for every

Active pay plan linked to the account
The pay plan types description and

create date/time
Pay Plan Main
Payment Arrangement. One row is

displayed for every non-cancelled, non-closed
payment arrangement (i.e., service agreement
with a special role of Payment Arrangement)
linked to the account
The service agreements SA type

description, start date and status
Payment Arrangement
Main
Customer Information Zone

The Customer Information Zone is a grid that contains information about the current person and
account. Pushing the button adjacent to the information transfers you to an appropriate page.
The following table lists the type of information that may appear in this zone and the page to
which you will be transferred if you push the adjacent button.
Note. Rows are suppressed if the related data is blank for the person / account.
Label
Account ID
What Is Displayed

You To
The accounts unique identifier (i.e., account ID) is

displayed
An account context menu has

been provided (allowing you to
25
drill to a variety of accountoriented pages)

Main Customer
The main customers name. Note, the persons

name is formatted by a plug-in algorithm on the
installation record. Refer to the base packages
name format algorithm for an example. If you
prefer different formatting logic, your system
administrator should configure the system
appropriately
A person context menu has

drill to a variety of personoriented pages)
Set Up Date
The accounts setup date
Account Main
CIS Division
The accounts CIS division
Account Main
Customer Class
The accounts customer class
Account Main
Bill Cycle
The accounts bill cycle
Account Main
Current Credit Rating
The accounts current credit rating
Account C&C
Next Credit Review Date
The next date on which the accounts debt will be

reviewed by the account debt monitor. Refer to
When Is An Account's Debt Monitored for more
information.
Account C&C
A separate row is displayed

for each characteristic
linked to the account. Each
rows label is the
characteristic types
description. If the
characteristic is future
dated, the effective date
enclosed in parentheses
prefixes the description.
The characteristics value
Account Characteristic
Auto Pay Source Code
The accounts auto pay source
Account Auto Pay

for each miscellaneous
person linked to the
account. Each rows label
is the person relationship
types description.
The main name of the miscellaneous person
A person context menu has

drill to a variety of personoriented pages)
Budget Plan
The accounts budget plan
Account Budget

for each characteristic
linked to the person. Each
rows label is the
characteristic types
description.
Person Characteristic

for each telephone number
linked to the person. Each
rows label is the phone
The telephone number
Person Main
26
types description.
for each identifier linked to
the person. Each rows
label is the ID types
description.
The person identifier value
Person Main
Email Address
The persons email address
Person - Miscellaneous
Service Provider. A
separate row is displayed
for each service provider
associated with the
accounts service
agreements who does not
have a billing relationship of
It is Us
The service providers name and a description of

the service providers billing relationship
SA Relationship - Main
Warning! This zone does not support data masking. If your implementation masks any of the
information that appears on this zone, you must disable it and implement a zone that will mask
your data appropriately. The demonstration system provides a sample zone that your
implementation can import and then customize if necessary; this zone's code is CI_CIMAP. To
disable the base package zone simply deny access to its associated application service. You
should only grant access to your new Customer Information zone.
Field Activity Information Zone

The Field Activity Information Zone displays the following information about every noncancelled field activity linked to the premises service points.
The field activitys Schedule Date/Time.
FA Information contains a concatenation of information about the premise, service point and
field activity.
If the field activity is linked to a field order, the Field Orders Status is displayed.
You can press the adjacent Go To button to transfer to Field Activity Main.
Financial Information Zone

The Financial Information Zone is a grid that contains financial information related to the
account. Clicking the hyperlink transfers you to the appropriate page. The following table lists
the type of information that appears in this zone and the page to which you are transferred if you
click the adjacent icon.
Note. Rows are suppressed if the related data is blank for the person / account.
27
Label
What Is Displayed

You To
Current Balance
The account's current balance. If the accounts

current balance is greater than zero, a colored bar
is displayed adjacent. This bar provides
information about the age of the accounts debt.
Refer to Context Zone for more information about
this bar.
Clicking on the Arrears Bar or

the hyperlink takes you to
Account Financial History
Main
Payoff Balance
The account's payoff balance. It will only be

displayed if the amount differs from the current
balance.
Not applicable
Last Bill
The date and amount of the accounts last bill along

with its due date.
Bill Main
Last Payment
The date and amount of the accounts last

payment.
Payment Event Main
Previous Bill
The date and amount of the bill prior to the last bill
for the account.
Bill Main
Next Bill Date
The next date on which a bill is scheduled to be

produced for the account (based on the accounts
bill cycles schedule)
Not applicable
Pending Bill Exists
The date of the pending bill. This row only

appears if there is a pending bill associated with
the account
Bill Main
Freezable Bill Segments
If freezable bill segments exist, this row contains

the number of segments and their total amount.
Bill Segment Main
Incomplete Adjustments
If incomplete adjustments exist, this row contains

the number of adjustments and their total amount.
Adjustment Main
Freezable Adjustments
If freezable adjustments exist, this row contains the

number of adjustments and their total amount.
Adjustment Main
Payment(s) Pending
Upload
Appears when the account has a pending payment

staging record (i.e., the account has an external
payment that has not been uploaded into the
system). To prevent payments from being created
and frozen before the actual payment is received,
external payments are not uploaded into the
system until their accounting date is reached.
Payment Upload Staging
Note that the amount displayed represents the

amount tendered for the account, but does not
reflect how the payment may be distributed (i.e.,
the payment may be distributed to other accounts).
For information about payment staging records,
refer to Interfacing Payments from External
Sources.
Incomplete Payment(s)
28
Appears when the account has payments that are

incomplete. This row contains the number of
Payment - Main
payments and their total amount. Note,

incomplete automatic payments that are pending
distribution are not included in this alert as they are
highlighted on the Auto Pay will be distributed on
described below.
Payment(s) with Errors
Appears when the account has payments that are

in error. This row contains the number of
payments and their total amount.
Payment - Main
Freezable Payments)
If freezable payments, this row contains the

number of payments and their total amount.
Payment Event Main
Auto Pay will be created

on
This row shows the date that the next auto pay will
be created. This alert will appear after a bill is
completed for an account on auto pay and when
your installation options Auto Pay Creation
Option is Create on Extract Date. If the
installation option is Create at Bill Completion,
then the Autopay will be created immediately at bill
completion time and no information is displayed
here. Refer to How And When Are Automatic
Payments Created? for more information.
Bill Main
Auto Pay will be

distributed on
This row shows the date that the next auto pay will
be distributed. This alert will appear after a bill is
completed for an account on auto pay and when
your installation options Auto Pay Creation
Option is Create on Extract Date. If the
installation option is Create at Bill Completion,
then the payment for the Autopay will be created
immediately at bill completion time and no
information is displayed here. Refer to How And
When Are Automatic Payments Created? for more
information.
Payment Event Main
Premise Information Zone

The Premise Information Zone is a grid that contains information about the current premise.
Pushing the button adjacent to the information transfers you to an appropriate page. The
following table lists the type of information that may appear in this zone and the page to which
you will be transferred if you push the adjacent button.
Note. Rows are suppressed if the related data is blank for the premise.
Label
Premise Information
What Is Displayed

You To
The premises address. Note, the

address information is formatted by
a plug-in algorithm on the installation
record. Refer to the base packages
premise format algorithm for an
A premise context menu has

drill to a variety of premiseoriented pages)
29
example. If you prefer a different

format, your system administrator
should configure the system
appropriately
CIS Division
The premises CIS division
Premise Main
A separate row is displayed for each

characteristic linked to the premise. The
label in each row is the respective
characteristic types description.
Premise Characteristic
Landlord
The name of the premises landlord
Landlord Agreement
Service Point Information. Note, a

separate row is displayed for each service
point linked to the premise
The service points type and service

cycle (if specified)
A service point context menu

has been provided (allowing
you to drill to a variety of
service point-oriented pages)
Meter Configuration. This row is

displayed if a meter configuration is
currently installed at the service point. If
so, this rows label is indented and
displayed beneath the related service
point.
The meter configurations meter

type, badge number, installation
date, meter configuration type,
number of registers
A meter configuration context

menu has been provided
(allowing you to drill to a variety
of meter configuration-oriented
pages)
Last Meter Read. This row is displayed if

a billable meter read exists for the meter
configuration that is currently installed at
the service point.
The most recent billable meter

reads date and time.
Meter Read Main
Next Meter Read. This row is displayed if

the service point references a service
cycle.
The next scheduled meter read date

and an indication of the service
points service cycle
No drill down is available
Item Information. This row is displayed

if an item is currently installed at the
service point. If so, this rows label is
indented and displayed beneath the
related service point.
The items type, badge number and

status
An item context menu has been

provided (allowing you to drill to
a variety of item-oriented
pages)
SA Premise List Zone

The SA Premise List Zone contains a row for each non-cancelled, non-closed service
agreement linked to the account. The Premise (if any), Current Balance, Payoff Balance, and
SA Information is displayed for each service agreement.
The service agreements appear in the following order:
Service agreements linked to the premise on which youre working appear first.
Next appear service agreements linked to the account that don't have a premise (deposits,
charitable contributions, etc.).
Following this are the remaining service agreements linked to the account.
30
Dimmed Payoff Balance. A service agreements Payoff Balance will be dimmed if it is the
same as its Current Balance. Refer to Current Amount versus Payoff Amount for more
information.
Service Credit Membership Zone

The Service Credit Membership Zone contains a row for each pending and active service credit
membership linked to the account. It will also show any inactive membership that contains a
balance. The Service Credit Membership Type, Membership Status and Balance (if
applicable) are displayed for each membership.
Timeline Zone - Account Info

Timeline zones show when significant events have occurred in the past and when significant
events will occur in the future. For example, a timeline can show when payments and bills have
been received for a customer.
The topics in this section describe the rich functionality available in timeline zones.
Contents
Timelines Zones Are Configured By Your Implementation Team
The Anatomy Of A Timeline Zone
You Can Move Through Time
Timelines Can Have Many Lines
Each Line Shows Events
An Event's Color And Icon Can Convey Information About The Event
An Event's Hover-Text Can Contain Additional Information
Clicking On An Event Shows More Information In The Detail Area
Timelines Zones Are Configured By Your Implementation Team

Your implementation team controls the number and type of timeline zones you see on this page.
Refer to Configuring Timeline Zones for how to add and change timeline zones.
The Anatomy Of A Timeline Zone

The following illustration highlights the various elements in a timeline zone. These elements are
described in the remaining topics.
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Reposition to a
specific month
Click to move
through time
Each line shows

the number of events
A line may have events; each

event shows the day number,
and optionally, an icon
A timeline has 1
or more lines
The more info

area appears
when you click on
an event
Click the info line to navigate to the object
Click to close the

more info area
Click on a BPA Script to

start a business process
You Can Move Through Time

You can click the controls at the top of a timeline zone to change the date-range of the zone's
information:
Go back
1 month
Go back
1 year
Go forward
1 month
Go forward
1 year
Go to
today
The following points describe how to use these controls:
To reposition the timeline to a specific date, selected the desired month and year and click
the search button.
To go back one year, click the double-left arrow.
To go back one month, click the single-left arrow.
To go to today, click the red line (between the arrows).
To go forward one month, click the single-right arrow.
To go forward one year, click the double-right arrow.
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Timelines Can Have Many Lines

A timeline zone has one or more "lines" that show when significant events have occurred. For
example, you can set up a timeline zone that has two lines: one that shows when payments have
been received from a customer, and another that shows when bills have been sent to the
customer. Your implementation team controls the number and type of lines by configuring the
timeline zone accordingly.
Each Line Shows Events

Each line on a timeline may contain zero or more events where each event shows the date when
the event occurs. For example, the bill line in a timeline has a separate event for every bill sent to
a customer. Each line's description contains the number of events on the line.
Warning! If a line has more events than can fit onto a timeline, the line will show the first "chunk"
of events and a message will appear in the "more info area" explaining that some events have
been truncated. If this happens and the truncated events are in a latter period, you can reposition
the timeline's base period to show the truncated events.
An Event's Color And Icon Can Convey Information About The Event
Your implementation team can configure the timeline so different types of events have different
visual representations. For example, a timeline that shows when meter reads have occurred can
use different colors and/or icons to visually differentiate between estimated and non-estimated
meter reads.
An Event's Hover-Text Can Contain Additional Information

If you hover the mouse over an event, hover text appears. Each type of event can have different
hover text. For example, the hover text for a case shows significant dates in the case's lifecycle
(e.g., when it was created, and when it was closed). Whereas the hover text for a meter read
shows each register reading.
Clicking On An Event Shows More Information In The Detail Area

When you click on an event, additional information appears in the zone's detail area (at the
bottom of the zone). The following information may appear:
The event's common "information string" appears. For example, if you click on a field activity
event, the field activity's information string appears. This information is hyperlinked to allow
for easy access to the transaction on which the object is maintained.
Additional information may appear. For example, if you click on a bill that has been canceled
and rebilled after it was initially sent to the customer, information about the net result of the
changes appears.
BPA scripts that can be executed to perform business processes on the object. For example,
if you click on a bill event, BPA scripts may appear that can guide you through initiating a bill
dispute or canceling the bill. Note, BPA scripts are prefixed with the "wizard's hat" icon.
Control Central - Customer Information

Once Control Central - Main has a person context, you can navigate to this page to view an
overview of the related persons, customer contacts, accounts, premises, and service agreements
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about how to configure which zones appear.
Description of Page
Navigation hint. The Go To Control Central option on the person context menu navigates to
this tab page.
A mouse with a roller is useful. This page can extend vertically past the normal desktop
boundary. You will find that a mouse with a roller will facilitate navigating through the page.
The contents of this section describe the zones that are available on this portal page.
Contents
Person Tree Zone
Active Account Summary Zone
Timeline Zone - Customer Info
Person Tree Zone

The tree in this zone shows a great deal of information including:
All accounts linked to the person in context. Refer to Understanding The V for more
information.
Customer contacts linked to this person.
The hierarchy of parents and children linked this person.
All aliases linked to this person.
You can use this tree to both view high-level information about these objects and to transfer to
the respective page in which an object is maintained.
Active Account Summary Zone

The Active Account Zone lists all accounts related to the person in context. In addition,
accounts linked to this person's children also appear in this zone, and if a child has children, the
grandchildren's accounts are included. In fact, the system will look for accounts up to five levels
deep (meaning that the great, great grandchildren's accounts will be included in this zone).
Only accounts linked to child persons with a financial relationship are shown. When you
set up a customer hierarchy, you can define both subsidiaries and "key contacts" (i.e., individuals
that you contact at a company). As described above, this zone will include accounts related to
these subsidiaries and key contacts. However, you might not want to include the personal
accounts related to the key contacts in this zone. You can control which accounts appear in this
zone when you set up a hierarchy. You do this by turning on the Financial Relationship switch for
those persons whose accounts should be included.
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Account Info
This column contains the standard account information.
Current Balance and Arrears
This column contains the account's current balance. If

the accounts current balance is greater than zero, a
colored bar is displayed in the Arrears column. This bar
provides information about the age of the accounts debt.
Note that information about debt balances by age is not
applicable to open-item accounts. Refer to Context
Zone for more information about this bar.
Last Billed Info
This column contains information about the last

completed bill sent to the account.
Last Contact Info
This column contains information about the last

customer contact associated with the account's main
customer.
Timeline Zone - Customer Info

Your implementation may have configured this page to show one or more timeline zones. Refer
Timeline Zone - Account Info for a description of how to use these zones.
Control Central - Account Tree

Once Control Central - Main has an account context, you can navigate to the Account Tree to
see an overview of the persons, premises, and service agreements linked to the account.
Description of Page
This page is dedicated to a tree that shows the various objects linked to an account. You can use
this tree to both view high-level information about these objects and to transfer to the respective
page in which an object is maintained.
Control Central - Premise Tree

Once Control Central - Main has a premise context, you can navigate to the Premise Tree to see
an overview of the accounts, service points, and service agreements linked to the premise.
Description of Page
This page is dedicated to a tree that shows the various objects linked to a premise. You can use
Control Central - Bill/Payment Tree

Once Control Central - Main has an account context, you can navigate to the Bill/Payment Tree
to see an overview of the financial transactions linked to the account.
Description of Page
This page is dedicated to a tree that shows the account's bills and payments. You can use this
tree to both view high-level information about these objects and to transfer to the respective page
in which an object is maintained.
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For balance-forward accounts, bill nodes contain the balance presented on the respective bill,
and pay nodes contain the amount of the respective payment. However, for open-item accounts,
the tree behaves differently:
The amount on bill nodes is equal to the sum of the current charges, adjustments and
corrections on the bill.
Each bill or payment will contain an indication if all of its financial transactions are fully
matched. If not, the node will become red to highlight that unmatched financial transactions
exist.
If a bill or payment node is expanded, a summary of the match status of its financial
transactions is shown.
Credit and correction notes appear as separate nodes.
Control Central - Pay Plan Tree

Once Control Central - Main has an account context, you can navigate to the Pay Plan Tree to
see an overview of accounts debt and the status of an accounts pay plans.
Description of Page
This page is dedicated to a tree that shows the pay plans linked to an account. It displays both
current and past (expired) pay plans. You can use this tree to both view high-level information
about these objects and to transfer to the respective page in which an object is maintained.
How To Add A New Customer From Control Central

There are three ways to add a new customer from control central:
You can add a new customer by invoking the Person and Account pages from the menu bar.
This is not the recommended approach, as it requires several screen interactions; either of
the following approaches is preferable.
If your team has set up sales and marketing campaigns, you can use the order transaction to
add a new customer. Refer to Order User Interface Flow for more information. Refer to
Sales & Marketing for background information about sales and marketing campaigns.
Adding a Person from Control Central. You navigate as follows:
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You start from Control Central - Main. On this page, you determine if the customer
already has an account. If so, select it and youre done. If not, proceed to step 2.
Click the + button adjacent to the Person button to transfer to Person - Main Information
page (with the name you entered already defaulted). Use the Person pages to record all
relevant information about the new customer. When finished, proceed to step 3.
Enter the customer's names, phone numbers, and IDs. Click Save (or press ALT+S) to
add the person and account. The value of Add Account and Start Service is defaulted
to on and the Customer Class defaults based on the Person Type. This means that
when you click save the following will happen: a new person is added, a new account is
added, the new person is linked to the new account, and you will be automatically
transferred to Start / Stop where you can start service.
Default note. When the system links the person to the account, it defaults the relationship type
from the installation options. A different relationship type can be defined for persons versus
businesses on the installation record.
If you need to tinker with information on the account, transfer to account maintenance (use the
context menu) and make any necessary changes.
Finding Who Pays For A Meter

If you know the customers meter number but you dont know the customer, you have the
following options:
Go to Meter - Main and display the meter. The meters last premise will be displayed on this
page. Use the premises context menu to go to Control Central.
Go to Meter/Item Search and display the meter. All customers who have paid for service
measured by the current configuration of the meter will be displayed on this page. You can
then use the various context menu buttons to toggle to related information.
Finding Who Pays For An Item

If you know the customers item number but you dont know the customer, you have the following
options:
Go to Item - Main and display the item. The items last premise will be displayed on this
page. Use the premises context menu to go to Control Central.
Go to Meter/Item Search and display the item. All customers who have paid for the item will
be displayed on this page. You can then use the various context menu buttons to toggle to
related information.
Maintaining The V
As described in Understanding The V, the V objects are those that form the core of your
business processes. In this section, we describe the pages that maintain these objects.
Start / Stop Also Maintains The V. The Start/Stop Pages also maintain many of the objects
in the V. For example, service agreements are created behind-the-scenes when you start
service for a customer. This means you wont have to use most of the pages described in this
section as part of your day-to-day activities. Rather, they exist in case you need to override what
the system automatically set up for you.
Contents
Maintaining Persons
Maintaining Accounts
Account - SAs For A Debt Class
Using The Account / Person Replicator
Maintaining Service Agreements
Maintaining SA Relationships
Service Provider SA Relationship
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Maintaining Premises
Maintaining Service Points
Maintaining Persons
On the person page, you define demographic information about your customers and every other
individual or business with which your company has contact. The topics in this section describe
the person page.
For more information about persons and their place in the V, refer to Understanding The V.
For more information about how most persons are added, refer to How To Add A New Customer
From Control Central. For more information about how a person is required to set up a customer,
refer to Customer Overview.
Contents
Person - Main Information
Person - Correspondence Information
Person - Characteristics
Person - Persons
Person - Web Self Service
Person - Main Information

The Main page contains core person information like names, telephone numbers, and forms of
identification. Open this page using Customer Information, Person, Main.
Description of Page
Person Information contains basic information about the person. These values only appear
after the person exists in the database. The ID is a system-assigned random number that stays
with a person for the life of the system.
Formatting is performed by a plug-in. The format of Person Information is controlled by a
plug-in algorithm on the installation record. Refer to the base packages person information
algorithm for an example. If you prefer different formatting logic, your system administrator
should configure the system appropriately.
The following information may be recorded about a person:
Person/Business indicates if the entity is a person or a business. Valid values are: Person,
Business. This value controls how the persons primary name is validated.
Life Support / Sensitive Load indicates if the person has life support or sensitive load
equipment. Valid values are: LS/SL (i.e., the person has life support / sensitive load equipment),
None. If the customer has LS/SL equipment, make a note of the type of equipment in the field
provided.
A premise can also have life support / sensitive load information. If the equipment is
physically linked to the premise (e.g., a hospital has life support equipment), you should NOT
specify the life support information on the person. Rather, transfer to Premise - Misc and specify
life support information on the premise.
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Alert and C&C. If the base packages C1-LSSL-PER algorithm is enabled on the installation
record, and life support / sensitive load information is specified, an alert will appear when the
person is displayed on control central. In addition, if a person has life support or sensitive load
equipment, it is possible for a different credit & collection severance process to be kicked off if the
persons account associated has overdue debt. Refer to Designing Your Severance Procedures
for more information.
Person Names are used by Control Central to look for accounts and persons. In addition, a
persons primary name is the addressee on the persons bill unless overridden by the Override
Mailing Name (maintained on the Misc tab). The following fields display:
Use Name Type to indicate if the name is an Alias, Alternate Representation, Doing
Business As, Legal, or Primary name. Note, for new persons, a value of Primary is
defaulted.
Note. The values for the name type field are customizable using the Lookup table. This field
name is NAME_TYPE_FLG.
Use Person Name to define the persons name. Note well, the name is case sensitive.
Alternate representations of a persons name. You would use an Alternate Representation

for a persons name when you have an alternate ways to define the persons primary name.
Alternate representations are typically used in countries that use multiple character sets (e.g., the
Primary name is entered in Chinese, the Alternate Representation is entered in English).
When a person has an alternate name, both the main and alternate names can be used to search
for a person. The Alternate Representation Name Type only appears if you have enabled
alternate names on the installation record. Refer to the description of the Alternate
Representation field under Installation - Main for more information.
Validation is performed by a plug-in. The validation that is applied to Person Name (e.g., a
comma separating the last and first name Smith,Patricia) is controlled by a plug-in algorithm
on the installation record. Refer to the base packages name validation algorithm for an example.
If you prefer different validation logic, your system administrator should configure the system
appropriately.
Person Phone numbers are used by Control Central to look for accounts and persons. The
following fields display:
Phone Type indicates the type of phone number, e.g., Home, Mobile, Business,
Use Phone Number to define the telephone number. Enter the telephone number in the
format described by the Phone Format.
Formatting is performed by a plug-in. The format that is applied to a Phone Number is

controlled by the algorithm that is plugged in on the respective Phone Type. If you prefer a
different format, your system administrator should configure this algorithm appropriately.
Enter the Extension, if any, of the telephone number.
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A Persons IDs have several uses:
They are used by Control Central when you look for a customer / premise based on their ID.
They are used to highlight potential duplicate persons.
Control Central displays a persons primary identification in the search results area to help a
user identify the customer when multiple customers match the search criteria.
Person ID may be required or optional. The person ID usage flag on the installation record
indicates whether at least one id for a person is required or optional.
The following fields are used to define a person's ID(s).
Turn on Primary ID for the piece of ID that is the primary means of identifying the customer.
Indicate the ID Type. The ID Type defaults from the Installation Record based on the
Person Type (Person versus Business).
Enter the identification number in the adjacent fields. Please note that if the ID Number
should be formatted (e.g., dashes in an American social security number), you do not have
to enter the dashes. Rather, you can enter the information as a contiguous value and the
system will format this for you. The format is shown in the adjacent Identifier Format
column.
Formatting is performed by a plug-in. The format that is applied to an ID Number (e.g.,

dashes in an American social security number) is controlled by the algorithm that is plugged in on
the respective ID Type. If you prefer a different format, your system administrator should
configure this algorithm appropriately.
If you want to add an account for the person when you save the person information, turn on Add
Account and Start Service. When this switch is on, you must also define the new accounts
Customer Class. If this information is specified, the system creates a new account and links the
person to the account using the relationship type from the installation options. In addition, you
will be transferred to Start / Stop where you can start service for the newly added account.
Default note. The accounts customer class defaults from the Installation Record based on the
Person Type (Person versus Business).
A message appears in the lower right corner of the page that describes the number of accounts
the person has. You can click the adjacent go to button to transfer to Control Central Customer
Information on which all of a persons accounts appear.
Person - Correspondence Information

This page contains information that may be used to address bills, letters, quotes and statements.
Use Customer Information, Person, Correspondence Info to open this page.
Description of Page
If the person does not want their primary name (defined on the Main page) used on bills, letters,
quotes and / or statements, specify the desired name in Override Mailing Name 1, 2, and 3.
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Specify the Override Mailing Address fields if the person wants their bills, letters, quotes, and /
or statements sent to an address other than their service addresses (for example, a post office
box). In addition, if the person's account doesn't already indicate that the person's mailing
address should be used, you must update this person's account(s). This information resides in
the Address Source field on Account - Person.
Note. Both the Start / Stop and Order transactions allow you to update the person's Override
Mailing Address and their account's address source using a single transaction.
Address isn't everything. In addition to defining the person's Override Mailing Address, there
may be additional tasks you must perform in order to route information to this address. Refer to
the following links for more information: where are bills sent, where are letters sent, where are
quotes sent and where are statements sent.
If you enter an Override Mailing Address:
The Country defaults from your installation options.
The address constituents may differ depending on the Country. Refer to Defining Countries
for more information on the address constituents.
If you have set up postal defaults, the system will default the address constituents when you
tab out of the postal code.
Specify the customers Email Address if you communicate with the customer via Email. In
addition to defining the person's Email Address, you're correspondence routing software must
support sending the information via Email. Refer to the following links for more information:
where are bills sent, where are letters sent, where are quotes sent and where are statements
sent.
Define the Language in which the person prefers their bills and correspondence printed.
Default note. The persons language defaults from Installation Options - Person.
Refer to Customer Language for more information on options for supporting multiple languages
for your customers.
The Seasonal Addresses scroll is only used if the person wants their correspondence sent to an
alternate address during predefined periods. For example, the customer may want their bills sent
to their vacation cottage during the summer. Please be aware of the following:
Seasonal addresses will only be used if the customer's bills, statements, quotes, and / or
letters are routed via the postal service. For example, if you route bills to the customer via
Email, the seasonal address will never be used to route bills to the customer. Refer to the
following links for more information: where are bills sent, where are letters sent, where are
quotes sent and where are statements sent.
You don't have to specify a seasonal address for every part of the year. For example, if the
customer wants their bills sent to their service address except during the summer, you need
only enter a seasonal address for the summer.
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You can enter a seasonal address with or without an Override Mailing Address. If an
Override Mailing Address is not specified, the person's correspondence will be addressed
as per the instructions on the person's account(s). These instructions reside in the Address
Source field on Account - Person.
You can enter multiple seasonal addresses if the customer so desires.
The Seasonal period is defined in the two adjacent fields. The first field contains the day and
month when the season starts; the second field contains the day and month when the season
ends. The day and month should be entered in the format defined in your display profile.
The Status of the address must be Active. You can set the status to Inactive if you want a
seasonal address ignored (alternately, you can just remove the seasonal address).
The Country defaults from your installation options. The address constituents may differ
depending on the Country. Refer to Defining Countries for more information on the address
constituents.
If you have set up postal defaults, the system will default the address constituents when you
tab out of the postal code.
Person - Characteristics
The characteristics page contains information that describes miscellaneous information about the
person. Use Customer Information, Person, Characteristics to open this page.
Description of Page
Note. You can only choose characteristic types defined as permissible on the person record.
Refer to Setting Up Characteristic Types & Their Values for more information.
The following fields display:
Effective Date
Define the date on which the characteristic becomes

effective. The effective date defaults from the
Installation Record.
Characteristic Type
Indicate the type of characteristic.
Characteristic Value
Indicate the value of the characteristic.
Person - Persons
This page is used to define this persons relationship with other persons. For example, if the
person being maintained is a conglomerate, you can define its subsidiaries on this page. Refer to
How To Set Up Customer Hierarchies for more information about hierarchies.
Youre defining child relationships. Its important to understand that the persons being
defined on this pages grid should be thought of as children of the person on the top of the page.
Children may have children. Its possible for one of the children to have children itself (for
example, if you have a situation where a subsidiary of a conglomerate itself has subsidiaries). To
define a childs children, simply display the child person on this page and then define its children.
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Equal relationships. Its possible to link persons where no hierarchy is implied by the
relationship (e.g., spouses). There are two ways to do this: 1) you can nominate one spouse as
the parent and the other as the child or 2) you can define the spousal relationship for both
persons (i.e., you would define Robert Chopin as the husband of Jeanette Chopin, and Jeanette
Chopin as the wife of Robert Chopin). If you choose the latter approach, a recursive relationship
will exist.
Warning! If your organization enters multiple levels of person, we want to point out that we do
not prevent recursive relationships. This means that you could set up a nonsensical situation
where person 2 is a child of person 1 and person 1 is a child of person 2.
Use Customer Information, Person, Persons to open this page.
Description of Page
The grid contains the children associated with the parent person who is defined at the top of
the page. The following fields display:
Child Person
This is the unique identifier of the child person. This

persons main name appears adjacent.
Child Information
An informational message appears to highlight if the

child person itself has children. You can click the
corresponding go to button to view the childs children.
Relationship Type
Indicate the type of relationship between the parent and

the child person.
Start Date
Indicate the date on which this relationship began. This

field defaults from the Installation Record.
End Date
If the relationship expires, indicate the date the

relationship stops.
Financial Relationship
Turn on this switch if the child person has account(s)

and information about these account(s) should be
displayed when the parent person's hierarchy is
displayed in the Active Account Summary Zone.
Person - Web Self Service

This page is used to define information for this person to access account information via your web
self-service application.
Configuring Web Self Service. The system provides sample web self-service functionality.
This functionality may be used as a basis for implementing a full web application for your
organization that is integrated with other web services you offer.
Use Customer Information, Person, Web Self Service to open this page.
Description of Page
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The information on this page is entered by the customer when registering for the web self service
application.
Web User ID. The sample web self service functionality provided by the system defines the
customers web user ID using an entry in the person ID collection defined on the main tab.
The Web Self Service Password chosen by this person through the web application is stored
encrypted and cannot be viewed. Customers should change their password via the web
application.
The Web Self Service Password Hint and Web Self Service Password Answer are defined by
the customer when registering and are used when the customer has forgotten the password.
Note. The values for the password hint field are customizable using the Lookup table. This field
name is WEB_PWD_HINT_FLG.
The Web Self Service Receive Marketing Info Flag indicates whether or not the customer has
chosen to receive marketing information. The possible values are Receives Marketing Info and
Doesnt Receive Marketing Info. This information may be used by your web application to
optionally send marketing information to this customer via email.
Maintaining Accounts
The account record contains information that controls billing and collection processes. You should
only need to use this page if you need to fine-tune the information that the system has set up by
default because:
Most accounts are created when you add a new person or when you complete an order for a
new customer.
Many fields are populated behind-the-scenes as part of the service activation process.
The topics in this section describe the pages on which account related information is maintained.
For more information about accounts and their place in the V, refer to Understanding The V.
Contents
Account - Main Information
Account - Auto Pay
Account - Person Information
Account - Financial Balances
Account - Bill Messages
Account - C&C
Account - Budget
Account - Deposits
Account - Characteristics
Account - Alerts
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Account - Main Information

The Main page contains core account information. Open this page using Customer Information,
Account.
Description of Page
The primary name of the Accounts main customer and the Account ID are displayed on every
tab in this page. These values only appear after the account exists on the database. The
Account ID is a system-assigned random number that stays with an account for life.
Formatting may be performed by a plug-in. The basic information about an account that
appears at the top of this page (and on many other pages in the system) may be formatted by a
plug-in algorithm on the installations record. Refer to the base packages account information
A check digit is displayed adjacent to the account ID. This is for information purposes only, and
is not needed to operate the system. The following points describe how the check digit is
calculated for an Account ID equal to 0011883422.
Calculate the sum of the first and every alternate digit in the account id. A = 14 = 0+1+8+3+2
Calculate the sum of the second and every alternate digit in the Account ID and multiply by 2.
For example, B = 30 = (0 + 1 + 8 + 4 + 2) * 2
Add A and B. For example, C = 44 = 14 + 30
Count the number of digits used to calculate B that are greater than 4. For example, D = 1
since only 8 is greater than 4.
Multiply D by 9. For example, E = 9 = 1 x 9
Subtract E from C. For example, F = 35 = 44 - 9
Subtract the units position of F from 10 to find the check digit. For example, check digit = 5 =
10 5 (5 is subtracted from 10 because F = 35 and there the units position is 5).
Technical note. The above is calculated in the common routine called CIPCACDN.
Set Up Date is the date the account was initially set up. This is purely informational.
Currency Code defines the currency in which the accounts financial transactions are expressed.
All rates and payments associated with this account must be denominated in this currency.
Default note. The currency defaults from the Installation Record and may be overridden here.
Customer Class plays a part in:
If and when a customer is subject to late payment charges.
The accounts default collection class and when the account debt monitor reviews an
account. Refer to The Big Picture of Credit & Collections for more information about how and
when an accounts debt is reviewed.
45
And several other functions. Refer to and Setting Up Customer Classes for more information.
Default note. The customer class defaults from Installation Options - Account (Person Customer
Class) and may be overridden at will.
CIS Division defines the jurisdiction that governs this account. You may only select CIS
Divisions associated with the account's Customer Class. This field is updated behind the
scenes every time a service agreement is activated (the system uses the CIS Division
associated with the service agreements SA type). If you have assigned a CIS Division and do
not want the system to change it when a service agreement is activated, turn on Protect CIS
Division.
CIS Division governs many functions. An accounts CIS Division impacts its subsequent bill
due dates, late payment charge dates, credit & collections review dates, its default budget plan,
the roles assigned to To Do entries, and the calendar of workdays. Refer to Setting Up CIS
Divisions and Setting Up Customer Classes for more information.
Access Group controls which users are allowed to view and update this accounts information
(including bills, service agreements, payments, premises, ). The system defaults this value
from the users default access group. Refer to The Big Picture of Row Security for a complete
description of how account security is implemented in the system.
The optional Account Management Group controls the roles assigned to To Do entries
associated with an account. Refer to Setting Up Account Management Groups for more
information.
Enter a Comment to define unusual information about the account. If this field is populated, an
alert will highlight such in the Alert Zone.
Bill Cycle controls when a bill is produced for an account. This field is updated behind the
scenes every time a service agreement with a service point is activated. The route the system
takes to do this update is as follows:
It looks for all service points linked to the service agreement.
It extracts the service cycle from one of the service points.
Finally, it takes the bill cycle from the service cycle.
While this is a little complicated, it makes sense because it keeps the bill cycle in sync with the
service cycle.
If you have assigned a bill cycle and do not want the system to change the bill cycle when a
service agreement is activated, turn on Protect Bill Cycle.
Mailing Premise ID defines the address on bills for persons who have their bill sent to the
accounts mailing premise. This field may be updated behind the scenes when a service
agreement is activated. The word may is used because the system will only update an
accounts mailing premise if there are no active service agreements currently linked to the
account. Refer to Account - Person Information for more information about how to define where a
person has their correspondence and bills sent.
If you do not want the mailing premise to change when a service agreement is activated, turn on
Protect Mailing Premise.
If you want to stall billing until after some future date, enter the date in Bill After.
46
If user should review the accounts printed bills before they are sent to the customer, enter the
user ID of the individual who reviews the bill in Bill Print Intercept.
The balances shown in the scroll are the total amounts of debt belonging to every debt class
linked to the accounts service agreements. The following information is displayed:
Debt Class is the debt class associated with the accounts service agreement(s).
Current Balance is the amount of debt the customer currently owes.
Payoff Balance is the amount the customer would owe if they wanted to pay off their debt.
To see summary information about the service agreements that contribute to the financial totals
click the go to button adjacent to the respective amount.
Warning! If you do not understand the difference between payoff balance and current balance,
refer to Current Amount versus Payoff Amount.
Account - Auto Pay

The Auto Pay page is used when an account pays their bills automatically (e.g., by direct debit or
credit card).
Refer to How And When Are Automatic Payments Created for more information.
Open Customer Information, Account and navigate to the Auto Pay tab to maintain this
information.
Description of Page
The Account Auto Pay scroll defines the bank account / credit card from which the customers
automatic payments are debited. Multiple auto-pay options may exist if the customer changes
auto-pay options over time. The following fields display:
Start Date is the date on which the automatic payment information comes into affect. The
system creates an automatic payment for any bill produced for this account with a due date
on/after this date and on/before the End Date. If End Date is not specified, this means the
automatic payment option applies indefinitely. You need only specify an End Date if the
customer wants to stop paying automatically.
Auto Pay ID is the unique, system-assigned identifier of the auto-pay record. This value is
assigned after the information is saved on the database and may not be modified.
Use Auto Pay Source Code to define the source of the funds used to satisfy the automatic
payment request. For example, if a customer indicates that they want to use their checking
account to pay their bill, you would specify the Auto Pay Source Code associated with their
bank. The sources description and external source ID (e.g., bank routing number) are
displayed adjacent.
Use Auto Pay Method to specify whether you want the system to process automatic
payments as Direct Debit or Payment Advice. This field is visible only if feature
configuration is set up to support payment advice functionality. Refer to Payment Advices for
more information on the payment advice functionality.
Use External Account ID to define the customers bank account / credit card number.
47
You will be required to define an Expires On date if the Auto Pay Source Code references
a tender type that requires an expiration date (e.g., if the Auto Pay Source is a credit card
company).
Enter the Name of the customer as it appears in the financial institutions system. This name
is routed to the financial institution.
Default note. The Name will default to the primary name of the main customer linked to the
account after you enter a Start Date. This defaulting is only possible for accounts that exist on
the database.
In some locales, customers can define a Maximum Withdrawal Amount to limit the amount
of money that is automatically debited from their account. Refer to How To Implement
Maximum Withdrawal Amounts for more information.
Use Comments to describe anything interesting / unusual about the automatic payment
request.
Account - Person Information

The Account Person page contains information about the person(s) linked to the account.
Note. Both customers and non-customers (e.g. the accounting service that handles the bills of a
commercial customer) can be linked to an account.
When you add an account from Person - Main or from Order - Main the system automatically
links the person to the account, so you typically wont have to open this page. However, if you
need to link multiple persons to an account (e.g., because you need to send a duplicate of the
accounts bill to someone other than the main customer) or change information about a person on
an account, open Customer Information, Account and navigate to the Persons tab.
Description of Page
The Account Persons scroll contains one entry for every person linked to the account. The
Person ID
The unique identifier of the person linked to the account.

The persons name is displayed adjacent.
Main Customer
Turn on this switch if the person is the main customer on

the account. Only one person on an account may be
designated as the main customer.
The significance of the main customer is that its name
will appear adjacent to the account ID throughout the
system.
Financially Responsible
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Turn on this switch if the person is financially responsible

for the accounts debt.
This switch is on and gray if the person is the Main

Customer because the main customer is always
financially responsible. If multiple persons are linked to
the account, you use this switch to indicate which ones
are financially responsible versus those that are linked
for other purposes.
Third Party Guarantor
Turn on this switch if the person is a 3rd party guarantor

of the accounts debt. This switch is off and gray if the
person is the Main Customer.
Relationship Type
Define the relationship between the person and the

account. Refer to Setting Up Account Relationship
Codes for information about setting up relationship
types.
Default note. When the system links the person to the account when you add an account from
Person - Main, it defaults the relationship type from the Installation Record.
Web Access
Indicate whether or not a person linked to this account is

Allowed or Not Allowed to view details of this account
via your web self service application.
Default note. This flag is defaulted to Allowed.

Prefix/Suffix and Pfx/Sfx Name
Use these fields if you need to append additional

information to a customers name when correspondence
or bills are sent to this person. For example, if the
account has declared bankruptcy you might attach
Debtor In Possession to the persons name. Use
Prefix/Suffix to indicate if the Pfx/Sfx Name should be
appended to the front or the back of the customers
name.
Receives Copy of Bill
Turn on this switch if the person receives a copy of the

accounts bills. Turning off this switch grays the
remaining fields. This switch is on and gray if the person
is the Main Customer because the main customer
always receives a copy of the bill.
Refer to The Source Of Bill Routing Information for more information about how the remaining
information is used to format the address of a bill.
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Bill Route Type
Indicate how the bill is sent to the customer. This fields

value defaults from the Installation Record. If the Bill
Route Type you select indicates that bills are routed via
Fax, the persons fax number is displayed adjacent (the
system knows which of a persons phone numbers is a
fax number by the phone type). If the Bill Route Type
you select indicates that bills are routed via Email, the
persons Email address is displayed adjacent. If the Bill
Route Type you select indicates that bills are routed via
the Postal service, you must choose an appropriate
Address Source to define which address should be
used. Refer to Setting Up Bill Route Types for more
information about bill route types.
Bill Format
Indicate if the customer should receive a Detailed or a

Summary bill.
Note. The values for this field are customizable using the Lookup table. The values need to
match the formats supported by your bill print software. This field name is BILL_FORMAT_FLG.
Number of Bill Copies
Indicate how many copies of the bill the person receives.
Customer PO ID
Indicate the purchase order ID the customer wants

printed on their copy of the bill.
Note. Receives Copy of Quote and Quote Route Type only appear if the quotation Contract
Management module is not turned off.
Receives Copy of Quote
Turn on this switch if the person receives a copy of the

accounts quotes. Turning off this switch grays the
remaining fields. This switch is on and gray if the person
is the Main Customer because the main customer
always receives a copy of the accounts quotes.
Refer to Printing Quotes for more information about how the remaining information is used to
format the address of a quote.
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Quote Route Type
Indicate how the quote is sent to the customer. This

fields value defaults from the Installation Record. If the
Quote Route Type you select indicates that quotes are
routed via Fax, the persons fax number is displayed
adjacent (the system knows which of a persons phone
numbers is a fax number by the phone type). If the
Quote Route Type you select indicates that quotes are
routed via Email, the persons Email address is
displayed adjacent. If the Quote Route Type you select
indicates that quotes are routed via the Postal service,
you must choose an appropriate Address Source to
define which address should be used. Refer to Setting
Up Quote Route Types for more information about quote
route types.
Receives Notification
Turn on this switch if the person receives letters (i.e.,

notifications) initiated by collection, severance, write-off,
overdue and cut events. These events will send letters
to the main customer and any other person linked to the
account that Receives Notifications. This switch is on
and gray if the person is the Main Customer because
the main customer always receives notifications. Refer
to Printing Letters for more information about how letters
are produced by the system.
Address Source
If the Bill Route Type or the Quote Route Type you

selected indicates that bills / quotes are routed via the
postal service, you must choose the appropriate
Address Source.
Choose Mailing Premise on Account if bills / quotes
should be sent to the address associated with the
Mailing Premise on the first page. This address is
displayed adjacent.
Choose Person if bills / quotes should be sent to the
persons mailing address. This address is displayed
adjacent.
Choose Account Override if bills / quotes should be
sent to an override address specified below. Typically,
you would only choose this option if the person has
multiple accounts and each accounts bills / quotes
should be sent to a different address. If you choose this
option, the bottom of this page will become populated
with fields that should be used to specify this override
address.
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Override address constituents
If you selected an Address Source of Account

Override, you must enter the address to which bills /
quotes will be sent in the address constituents. The
number and type of address constituents is based on the
Country. These fields will be invisible for other Address
Sources.
Note, the Country defaults from Installation Options System. The City, County and State default based on
the Country and Postal Code if a Postal Default exists
for the postal code.
Account - Financial Balances

The financial balances page is an information-only page that subdivides an accounts debt by
debt class. The balances shown on this page are the total amounts of debt belonging to every
debt class linked to the accounts service agreements.
The source of debt class. An accounts debt comes from its service agreement(s). Every
service agreement has an SA type. Every SA type references a debt class.
Open Customer Information, Account and navigate to the Financial Balances.
Description of Page
The accounts Current Balance displays at the top of the page.
The Debt Class Balances scroll contains one entry for every debt class linked to the accounts
non-closed / non-cancelled service agreements. The following information is displayed for each
debt class.
Debt Class is the debt class associated with the accounts service agreement(s). To see
summary information about the service agreements that contribute to the debt class totals
click the adjacent Go To button.
Payoff balance is only displayed if it differs from current balance.
The Debt Class Arrears shows the age of all amounts that make up the current balance.
The Days Old and Amount information shows the age of the debt classs debt.
Note. Information about debt balances by age is not applicable to open-item accounts.
52
Account - Bill Messages

The Account Message page contains information about the message(s) to appear on an
accounts bills. Both one-time and permanent messages may be defined. This information is
used when the system assembles messages to appear on an accounts bill. Refer to The Source
of Bill Messages for more information about bill messages.
Open Customer Information, Account and navigate to the Bill Messages tab to access this
page.
Description of Page
The following fields are displayed:
Bill Message
The message code and description of the message that

appears on the customers bill.
Bill Message Type
Use Temporary to indicate the message should only be

linked to the next bill produced for the account. Use
Permanent if the message should appear on every bill.
Note, a value of Temporary defaults.
Account - C&C
The Credit Rating page contains the credit rating transactions that impact an accounts credit
rating and cash-only score. To view or modify these transactions, open Customer Information,
Account and navigate to the C&C (credit and collections) tab.
Description of Page
Collection Class controls how the accounts debt is compared against collection criteria to
determine if a collection process should be started. Refer to The Big Picture of Credit &
Collections for more information about how and when an accounts debt is reviewed.
Default note. The Collection Class defaults from the accounts customer class when the
account is first added. It may be overridden at will.
If you need to prevent an account from being reviewed by credit and collections processes (i.e.,
the account debt monitor and the write-off monitor), use Postpone Credit Review Until to define
the future date when these processes can again review the accounts debt.
Last Credit Review Date is the date when the accounts debt was last reviewed by the account
debt monitor (ADM).
Forced ADM review. If you want the ADM to review an accounts debt the next time it runs,
simply change the Credit Review Date to a date in the distant past (e.g., 1/1/1900). The next
time the ADM2 background process runs, itll see that a great deal of time has past since the last
time it reviewed the accounts debt and review it (and then set the Credit Review Date
accordingly).
The accounts Current Credit Rating is displayed. For an explanation of how this number is
derived, see How is an accounts credit rating calculated?.
53
The accounts Current Cash Only Score is displayed. For an explanation of how this number is
derived, see How is an accounts cash-only score calculated?.
The Credit Rating History scroll contains one entry for each credit rating history record
associated with the account. The following fields display:
Start Date
This is the first date the credit rating transaction affects

the accounts credit rating and cash-only score.
End Date
This is the last date the credit rating transaction affects

the accounts credit rating and cash-only score.
The Created On message is formatted using an algorithm on the Installation Options.

Affect Credit Rating By
This is the effect of the credit rating transaction on the

accounts credit score. This should be a negative
number because the lower the score the worse the credit
rating.
An accounts credit rating is equal to the start credit
rating amount defined on the installation record plus the
sum of credit rating demerits that are currently in effect.
When an accounts credit rating is less than the credit
rating threshold defined on the installation record, the
accounts credit rating is displayed as an alert in the
Alert Zone.
Affect Cash-Only Score By
This is the effect of the credit rating transaction on the

accounts cash-only score. The higher the score, the
greater the chance this account will be marked as cashonly. Therefore, a positive number should be used to
make the score go up.
An accounts cash-only score is equal to the start cashonly score defined on the installation record plus the
sum of cash-only points that are currently in effect.
When an accounts cash-only score exceeds the cashonly threshold score defined on the installation record,
the account is flagged as cash-only in the Alert Zone and
on the payment event page.
Comments
Enter comments to clarify the reason(s) for the creation

of the transaction.
Contents
How are credit rating transactions created?
How is credit rating calculated?
What impact does credit rating have in the system?
How is cash-only score calculated?
What impact does cash-only score have in the system?
How are credit rating transactions created?

Credit rating transactions may be created as follows:
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Certain types of collection events add credit rating transactions. The number of credit rating
and cash-only points is defined on the collection event type.
Certain types of severance events add credit rating transactions. The number of credit rating
and cash-only points is defined on the severance event type.
Certain types of write-off events add credit rating transactions. The number of credit rating
and cash-only points is defined on the write-off event type.
If a payment tender is canceled with a cancellation reason that indicates the cancellation was
due to non-sufficient funds, a credit rating transaction is created. The number of credit rating
and cash-only points is defined on the payment cancellation reason code.
You may configure your system to create a credit rating transaction when a pay plan is
broken. To do this, you must plug in an appropriate Broken Algorithm on the pay plan type.
A user may create credit rating transactions at their discretion.
Algorithms may add credit rating transactions. The system provides sample overdue event
and cut event activation algorithms that add credit rating transactions. Refer to C1-OE-CRRT and C1-CE-CR-RT for more information. Some examples of algorithms your
implementation may decide to introduce: the creation of a late payment charge. To do this
you could introduce a new adjustment freeze algorithm.
Created By Flag. The credit rating transaction includes a Created By flag that is customizable
using the Lookup table. This field name is CR_RAT_CRE_BY_FLG. If your implementation uses
algorithms to create credit rating history transactions, you may consider adding appropriate
values to the Created By flag. Also note that the Created By flag includes the value Other, which
may be used by your implementation specific algorithms if you do not want to add a new custom
value.
How is credit rating calculated?

An accounts credit rating is calculated by summing the Affect on Credit Rating from credit rating
transactions effective on the current date. This value is added to the perfect credit rating defined
on the installation record. The result is the customers current credit rating.
What impact does credit rating have in the system?

The following points describe the impact of an accounts credit rating:
An accounts current credit rating is displayed in the Control Central Alert area when its less
than the threshold credit rating defined on the installation record.
An accounts credit rating may affect how the accounts debt is collected. We used the word
may because an accounts credit rating will only affect collection criteria if you set up your
collection processes to do this.
For more information, refer to Designing Your Collection Class Control Overrides.
55
How is cash-only score calculated?

An accounts cash-only score is calculated by summing the Affect on Cash-Only Score from
credit rating transactions effective on the current date. This value is added to the beginning cashonly score defined on the installation record. The result is the customers current cash-only
score.
What impact does cash-only score have in the system?

If an accounts current cash-only score exceeds the cash-only threshold on the installation record,
and the base packages C1-CASH-ACCT algorithm is enabled on the installation record:
The customer is flagged as cash-only in the Control Central Alert area.
If a user attempts to add a payment whose tender type is a cash-equivalent, a warning is

issued.
Account - Budget
The Budget page contains information about all service agreements linked to an account that are
eligible to participate in a budget billing plan. Refer to Budget Billing for more information about
how this information affects the accounts bills.
You are actually changing service agreements. When you change a service agreements
budget amount on this page, you are actually changing the service agreements recurring charge
amount. Refer to Service Agreement Recurring Charge for more information.
Eligible service agreements. Its important to be aware that some service agreements linked to
an account may not be eligible for budget plans. For example, assume you have a customer with
a deposit service agreement and one or more utility service agreements. This customer will be
billed for their deposit regardless of the utility service agreements budget amounts. You define
whether a service agreement may participate in a budget plan on the service agreements SA
type.
Open Customer Information, Account and navigate to the Budget tab to view this information.
Description of Page
The appearance and dialogue of this page differs slightly for an account with a small number of
service agreements (100 or less) versus a large number of service agreements (more than 100).
For an account with a small number of service agreements, the user may click the
Recommend Budget button to generate a New Budget for each service agreement. At that
point the service agreement's budget amount has not been updated. The user may review
the calculated amounts; make desired changes and then click Save to update the budget
amount for the service agreements.
Warning! You must save the page in order for the budget changes to take affect.
56
For an account with a large number of service agreements, the user may click the Calculate
and Apply New Budget button. At that point the system will calculate the recommended
budget and update the Budget Amount on all the eligible service agreements. To change
the budget amount for one or more of the service agreements, the user navigates to the
service agreement page using the drill down button adjacent to the service agreement in
question.
Click Cancel Budget to have the system set the New Budget amount to zero for all the
account's service agreements on budget.
Budget Recommendation. Though this page lists all SAs eligible for a budget, the budget
recommendation only calculates a budget amount for SAs whose start and end date (if any)
includes the budget date. Additionally, the budget date is used to select the rate schedule that is
in effect for an SA if estimating consumption is necessary.
Budget Plan controls how the accounts debt is managed for budget-related purposes.
Specifically, it controls how the recommended budget amount is calculated and how / when the
customers budget is periodically changed.
Default note. Budget plan defaults based on the accounts customer class / division
combination.
Use New Budget Date to define the effective date of any changes to the customers budget
amount (this date is the effective date on the respective service agreements recurring charge
history).
The system displays the sum of the service agreements current budget amounts in Total Budget
Amount.
For accounts with a small number of service agreements, the system displays the sum of the
service agreements new budget amounts in Total New Budget.
The grid that follows contains a row for each service agreement linked to the account that is
eligible to participate in a budget billing plan:
SA Information
This is a concatenation of basic information about the

service agreement.
Last Changed Date
This is the date when the service agreements budget

amount (i.e., recurring charge amount) was last
changed.
Budget Amount
This is the existing budget amount (i.e., recurring charge

amount) for the service agreement.
New Budget
For accounts with a small number of service

agreements, the service agreements budget amount
(i.e., recurring charge amount) will be changed to reflect
this value when the page is changed. The effective date
of the change is defined in New Budget Date.
57
Account - Deposits
The Deposits page contains information about all cash and non-cash deposits linked to an
account.
Cash versus Non-cash Deposits. Non-cash deposits (e.g., letters of credit, surety bonds, 3rd
party deposits) can be added and maintained on this page. Cash deposits are maintained using
service agreements. Refer to Cash Deposits for information about how to add and maintain cash
deposits.
Open Customer Information, Account and navigate to the Deposits tab to view this
information.
Description of Page
The following fields appear in the Deposit Summary:
Cash Deposits On Hand
The total amount of cash deposits currently held for the

account. This value is equal to the sum of the payoff
balances from all service agreements whose SA type
has a special role of Cash Deposit. Refer to Cash
Deposits for information about how to add and maintain
cash deposits.
Cash Deposits Requested
This value is equal to the sum of Total Amount to Bill

from all service agreements whose SA type has a
special role of Cash Deposit. Refer to Cash Deposits
for information about how to add and maintain cash
deposits.
Non-Cash Deposits
The total amount of active non-cash deposits currently

held for the account. This value is equal to the sum of
non-cash deposits displayed in the scroll below (note,
non-cash deposits can be maintained in the same
scroll).
Total Deposits on Hand
This is the sum of cash and non-cash deposits held for

the account.
Turn on Do Not Review or Refund if this account should not be considered by the Deposit
Review background process (this process highlights customers who require an additional deposit)
or by the Deposit Refund background process. Refer to The Big Picture Of Deposits for more
information about these processes.
The Non-Cash Deposit scroll contains an entry for every non-cash deposit linked to the account.
Refer to Non Cash Deposits for more information.
To modify a non-cash deposit, simply move to a field and change its value. To add a new noncash deposit, click the + button and then fill in the information for each field.
Start Date
This is the date the non-cash deposit is effective.
End Date
This is the expiration date of the non-cash deposit.
58
Non Cash Deposit Type
Select the appropriate non-cash deposit type. The value

selected is important as it controls whether the system
requires a Third Party Deposit and whether the system
will create a To Do entry near the expiration date of the
deposit. Refer to Setting Up Non-Cash Deposit Types
Deposit Class
Select the deposit class in which this non-cash deposit

should be included. This value is used when the system
amalgamates an accounts total deposits when checking
if the account holds an adequate deposit (amalgamation
and recommendation happens within a deposit class).
Refer to Deposit Class Controls Everything for more
information about the significance of deposit class.
Deposit Amount
Indicate the amount of the non-cash deposit.
Document Number
Enter the document number, if any, associated with the

non-cash deposit (e.g., the letter of credit number, the
surety bond number, etc.).
Third Party Deposit SA
If a 3rd party has paid the cash deposit for the account,
reference the deposit SA associated with the 3rd party.
Refer to 3rd Party Deposits for more information about
how 3rd party deposits are maintained in the system.
Comments
Enter any free-form comments about the non-cash

deposit.
Account - Characteristics
account. Use Customer Information, Account and navigate to the Characteristics tab to open
this page.
Description of Page
Note. You can only choose characteristic types defined as permissible on the account record.
Effective Date
Indicate the date on which the characteristic value

becomes effective. Note, the effective date defaults to
the accounts setup date (defined on the Main page).
Characteristic Type
59
Account - Alerts
The alerts page contains information that describes various alerts assigned to the account. Use
Customer Information, Account and navigate to the Alerts tab to open this page.
Alerts assigned to an account appear in the Alert Zone. They are used to bring important
information to the attention of any customer service representative who looks at the account. Up
to 60 alerts can display in the Alert Zone.
Description of Page
Alert Type
Indicate the type of alert to show on Control Central.
Start Date
Indicate the date on which the alert starts showing in

Control Central. The current date defaults.
End Date
Indicate the date on which the alert stops showing in

Control Central. You can leave this field blank if the alert
should be effective indefinitely. The date defaults to the
Start Date plus the Alert Types alert period.
Account - SAs For A Debt Class

This is an information-only page that shows an accounts service agreements grouped by debt
class.
The source of debt class. An accounts debt comes from its service agreement(s). Every
service agreement has an SA type. Every SA type references a debt class.
To access this page, drill down on a debt class shown on Customer Information, Account,
Main.
Description of Page
The Account ID and the primary name of the accounts main customer are displayed.
Debt Class is the debt class associated with the accounts service agreement(s).
Note. An account may have service agreements that belong to other debt classes. Navigate to
Account Main Information to see a list of all debt classes associated with an account.
The Service Agreement scroll contains one entry for each service agreement that belongs to the
Debt Class. The following information is displayed for each service agreement.
SA (service agreement) Info is a concatenation of important details about the service

agreement.
Premise defines the service agreements main premise.
Payoff balance is only displayed if it differs from current balance.
60
SA Arrears displays the age of the amounts that make up the current balance.
The Days Old and Arrears Amount information shows the age of the service agreements
debt.
Using The Account / Person Replicator

There are two different ways to use this transaction:
You can make many copies of a given Person / Account combination. This may be required
if your company works with 3rd party agencies who enroll customers on its behalf. In this
situation, the 3rd party agency may receive blocks of pre-allocated account numbers to be
used when they enroll a customer. When a customer signs up, the person information can
be updated with information about the newly enrolled customer.
Perform the following steps if you need to create many copies of a given person and account:
Add a new person and account if you dont already have a customer to serve as your
template.
Use the account / person replicator to create copies of the person and the account as
described below (and make sure to use the Replicate Acct and Person option).
You can create many Accounts for a single Person. This may be required if you have a
customer who wants many separate accounts rather than a single consolidated account.
Perform the following steps if you need to create many copies of a given account for a
specific person:
Select the account that serves as the template account for the person. Note, this account
must be linked to the person who wants the many accounts.
Use the account / person replicator to create copies of the account as described below
(and make sure to use the Replicate Account Only option).
Use Customer Information, Account/Person Replicator to open this page.

Description of Page
Choose the Account that serves as the template account.
Recommendation. Carefully verify that the template account you have chosen is correct before
you save the replicated accounts. After you save the replicated accounts, any corrections could
prove time consuming.
At the top of the page, indicate the Number of accounts and persons to Replicate.
Indicate the Main Person Name Base, which will be used as the main person name for all the
new persons to be created. This field will be protected if you choose a Replicate Type of
Replicate Account Only (as no persons are created).
61
Use Replicate Type to define if you want to create multiple copies of an account for a given
person or if you want to create many new person / account combinations. See the description
that appears above for more information about this field.
After entering the above, click the Replicate button to generate your new accounts and persons.
The grid displays informational messages describing what will happen when you click save. For
example, it will verify how many accounts will be created, the person whose record will be copied,
the name that will be used on all the new persons, etc..
If everything looks clean, click save.
Contents
Information Replicated for New Persons
Information Replicated for New Accounts
Information Replicated for New Persons

Except for the main name, which you indicate in the Main Person Name field, all information for
the main person linked to the account will be copied to the new persons.
Warning! This copy includes the persons identification number. This will result in multiple
persons with the same identification number. You should ensure that the identification number
for your template person is a temporary number. When you sign up your actual customer, be
sure to update the identification number to a valid number for the person.
Information Replicated for New Accounts

Although most information for an account will be copied, not all information will be. The following
points describe the information that is NOT copied on newly replicated accounts:
Mailing premise will be set to blank
Setup Date is set to the current date
Credit Review Date and Postpone Credit Review Until Date will be set to blank
Auto Pay information will not be copied
Credit Rating History will not be copied
Non-cash deposit information will not be copied
Note that all miscellaneous persons linked to the account (i.e., those who are not flagged as Main
Customers) will be linked to the new accounts. With this functionality, for example, you can
create a person for a third party enroller and link this enroller to the template account. This
enroller will then be linked to all the new accounts.
Maintaining Service Agreements

A service agreement contains the terms and conditions controlling how the system calculates
charges for a specific service supplied to a customer. The topics in this section describe the
pages on which service agreement related information is maintained.
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The system creates most service agreements behind the scenes. Most service agreements
are created behind the scenes by the system as part of the Start Service and Order completion
processes. You should only have to access the service agreement pages if you need to fine-tune
what the system defaults. Refer to Start / Stop and Maintaining Orders for the details.
For more information about service agreements and their place in the V, refer to Understanding
The V. For more information about the source of information defaulted onto service
agreements, refer to Setting Up Start Options.
Warning! Take special care when adding a new service agreement to specify the appropriate
Division and SA Type as it will affect how the customer is billed, what rate can be specified, how
overdue debt is collected, and much more. After the service agreement is activated, you may not
change its SA type.
Contents
The Lifecycle Of A Service Agreement
Service Agreement - Main Information
Service Agreement - Rate Info
Service Agreement - SA / SP
Service Agreement - Chars, Qty & Rec. Charges
Service Agreement - Miscellaneous
Service Agreement - Contract Options
Service Agreement - Interval Info
Service Agreement - TOU Contract Values
Service Agreement - Billing Scenarios
The Lifecycle Of A Service Agreement

The following diagram shows the possible lifecycle of a service agreement.
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Service Agreement Lifecycle

Pending Start
Active
Billable States
Pending Stop
Canceled
Stopped
Reactivated
Closed
Pending Start
When you initiate a request to start service, the system

initiates a service agreement in the state of Pending
Start. A pending start service agreement remains in this
state until everything necessary to start service is
defined in the system.
Active
The system automatically changes the state of Pending

Start service agreements to Active when everything
necessary to start service exists in the system. Refer to
Activating Pending Starts for more information. While in
this state, the system bills the service agreements
account for the service.
Pending Stop
When you initiate a request to stop service, the system

progresses the service agreement to the Pending Stop
state. A pending stop service agreement remains in this
state until everything necessary to stop service is
defined in the system.
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Stopped
The system automatically changes the state of Pending

Stop service agreements to Stopped when everything
necessary to stop service exists in the system. Refer to
Finalizing Pending Stops for more information. The
service agreement remains in this state until it is paid in
full.
A service agreement can be automatically stopped
depending on the SA Type configuration of the Stop
Option Flag. Service agreements configured to
automatically stop will be stopped when all SP related
SAs of the account are stopped. For example, if an
account has a cable service and a charitable contribution
service agreement then the charitable contribution
service agreement can be configured to automatically
stop when the cable service agreement is stopped. The
stop date of the charitable contribution will be set equal
to the stop date of the electric SA.
Closed
The system moves a service agreement to the Closed

state when it no longer has a financial balance.
Reactivated
The system moves a service agreement to the

Reactivated state if a financial transaction is created
after a service agreement is Closed (e.g., when a
payment is canceled after the service agreement is
closed). Please be aware that Reactivated service
agreements are processed by the Write Off Monitor.
When the service agreement once again has a zero
balance (e.g., because the customer pays or the debt is
written off), the service agreement returns to the Closed
state.
Cancelled
You may Cancel a service agreement if it shouldnt exist

(because the customer doesnt want service). While
cancellation doesnt physically remove a service
agreement from the database, most queries and trees
suppress information about canceled service
agreements. This means cancellation is a nice way to
logically delete undesired service agreements.
Youll notice in the above diagram that you can cancel
an Active, Pending Stop or Stopped service
agreement. You may only do this if the service
agreements financial transactions and non-billed billable
charges are all cancelled.
You should rarely have to change a service agreements status. Why? Because the system
changes the status behind-the-scenes when various events take place. For example,
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When you request a service start using the Start/Stop page, the system creates a service
agreement in the pending start state.
If you cancel a pending start before service is activated, the system automatically changes
the state of the service agreement to cancelled.
When everything necessary to start service exists, the system automatically changes the
state of the service agreement to active.
When you request a service stop using the Start/Stop page, the system changes the state of
the stopped service agreement to pending stop state.
When everything necessary to stop service exists, the system automatically changes the
state of the service agreement to stopped.
When a final payment is received and the stopped service agreements balance becomes
zero, the system automatically changes the state of the service agreement to closed. The
system can also close a service agreement as part of the write-off processing.
If the payment bounces, the system automatically changes the state of the service agreement
to reactivated. And the system will change it back to closed when the accounts balance
returns to zero.
If a billable charge is interfaced into the system, the system automatically changes the state
of the service agreement to reactivated.
You may need to manually change a service agreements state for the following reasons:
If a service agreement was activated inadvertently, you may cancel it (and therefore logically
remove it from the system) after canceling all of its financial transactions. You do this by
clicking the cancel button on the service agreement page. You may also cancel an incorrect
service agreement if the status transitions to pending stop or stopped before you have a
chance to correct the mistake.
If you dont want to wait for the system to automatically activate a pending start service
agreement, you may push the activate button on the service agreement page. You might do
this in order to create a bill for an impatient customer.
If you dont want to wait for the system to automatically finalize a pending stop service
agreement, you may push the stop button on the service agreement page. You might do this
in order to create a real time final bill for a customer.
If you dont want to wait for the system to automatically close a stopped service agreement,
you may push the close button on the service agreement page.
Sometimes a service agreement is closed or stopped by mistake. You can activate a

stopped, closed, or reactivated service agreement using the Reinstate SA button on the
service agreement page. Using the Reinstate SA button retains the current service's billing
history.
One time invoices (i.e., one-time billable charges) are interesting. One-time invoice service
agreements follow the above lifecycle; its just that they do it quickly. You see, when a one-time
invoice service agreement is created, both its start and stop dates are known (they are the
invoice date). If you followed the above state transition discussion, youll understand that the
system progresses these invoices from pending start to stopped when the service agreement is
activated.
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Contents
Renewing Service Agreements
Expiring Service Agreements
Renewing Service Agreements

Some service agreement types (e.g., non-billed budgets) may allow or require renewal. If
renewal is optional, a renewal date may be specified when the service agreement is created. If
renewal is required, you must specify a renewal date.
The SA renewal background process initiates the renewal for all active service agreements when
the renewal date is reached (i.e., the renewal date is on or before the process date). When a
service agreement is renewed:
The SA renewal algorithm (specified on the SA type) is executed. The SA renewal algorithm
can be used to customize the processing required to renew an SA.
If the SA renewal algorithm is successful, the renewal and expiration date (if calculated by the
renewal algorithm) on the service agreement are updated with the values returned from the
renewal algorithm.
If the renewal process is not successful, a To Do list entry (of type TD-SARN) is created for
the account and service agreement.
Expiring Service Agreements

Service agreements may specify an expiration date. Some service agreement types (e.g., nonbilled budgets) require an expiration date. The SA expiration background process initiates the
request to stop service for all active SAs when the expiration date is reached (i.e. the expiration
date is on or before the process date).
Service Agreement - Main Information

The Main page contains basic service agreement information. Open Customer Information,
Service Agreement to maintain this information.
Description of Page
SA (service agreement) Info and SA ID are displayed on every page. These values only appear
after the service agreement exists on the database. The ID is a system assigned random number
that stays with a service agreement for life. The SA Info is a concatenation of important details
about the service agreement and its account.
Formatting may be performed by a plug-in. The contents of SA Info may be formatted by a
plug-in algorithm on SA Type. Refer to the base packages C1-SAT-INFO for an example. If
such an algorithm is not plugged-in on the SA Type, the system looks for a corresponding
algorithm on the installation record. Refer to the base packages C1-SAI-INFO for an example. If
you prefer different formatting logic, your system administrator should configure the system
appropriately.
SA Status defines the state of the service agreement. The system typically changes the state of
a service agreement behind-the-scenes. If you cant wait for the system, use one of the adjacent
buttons:
Click the Activate SA button to activate a Pending Start service agreement.
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Click the Cancel SA button to cancel a Pending Start or Active, Pending Stop or Stopped
service agreement.
Click the Initiate Stop button to populate the End Date and change the state of the service
agreement to Pending Stop.
Click the Stop SA button to stop a Pending Stop service agreement.
Click the Close SA button to close a Stopped or Reactivated service agreement.
Click the Reinstate SA button to reinstate a Closed, Reactivated, or Stopped service

agreement to an Active service agreement.
Refer to The Lifecycle of a Service Agreement for more information about SA Status.
If the quotation module is not turned off, a real service agreement can be created when a
proposal service agreement is accepted. If the service agreement youve displayed was created
in such a way, information about the Proposal SA will appear beneath SA Status.
Enter the Account ID that is financially responsible for the service agreement. If you change a
service agreements Account ID, you are effectively transferring this service agreement (and its
debt) to the new account.
Indicate the CIS Division and SA Type. These fields are very important as they control
numerous aspects of the service agreements behavior. These fields are gray when the status is
not Pending Start.
For more information about what the SA type controls, refer to Setting Up SA Types.
The Start Date defines when the financial relationship begins. The End Date defines when the
financial relationship terminates. If the end date is blank, the service agreement has not yet been
terminated.
Use Maximum Bill Threshold if you want the system to generate a bill error when a bill segment
is produced in batch that exceeds a given value. These bill errors will appear on the standard
billing queries and To Do lists. If, after reviewing the high value bill segment, a user truly intends
to send the bill out, they should regenerate the bill. Refer to How To Correct A Bill Segment
Thats In Error for more information.
Default note. The value of Maximum Bill Threshold defaults from the service agreements SA
type.
If the SA Type has a special role of Interval, you must enter the Cutoff Time and Start Day
Option that is used by interval pricing and derivation algorithms to determine the start and end
intervals to process. Similarly, if the SA Type has a special role of Bill Determinants Required,
you must enter the Cutoff Time and Start Day Option that is used on a bill determinants usage
request. Refer to Start and End Times for Billing for more information about how these fields are
used.
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The Cutoff Time is entered in legal time. This value defaults from either the start option or
the installation record. Refer to Bill Period and Seasonal Time Shifts for information
describing how this field is used.
For Start Day Option, you may choose Current Day or Previous Day. This value defaults
from either the start option or the installation record.
Use Customer Read to define if the customer reads his or her own meter. Valid values are: Yes,
No.
Turn on Allow Estimates if its OK for the billing process to estimate this service agreements
consumption if a real meter read is missing at billing time. If the SA type does not allow
estimates, this field will be gray.
Consumption estimation. Consumption is only estimated by billing if all of the following points
are true:
a) A real read cannot be found;
b) The service agreement allows estimation;
c) The bill cycle schedule allows estimation (if the bill is produced by the BILLING background
process);
d) The operator allows estimation (if the bill is produced as a result of an ad hoc request);
e) The rate schedule allows estimation;
f) The register is subtractive;
g) The register does not measure peak consumption.
If youve set up the system to use start options, you can have the system default many fields by
copying the terms from a start option when service is started using either Start / Stop or the Order
transaction. The Start Option field contains the last start option whose field values were copied
to the service agreement. If you need to change a service agreements terms by applying a
different start option, you can. Refer to Changing A Start Option for a description of how to do
this.
If the service agreements rate uses premise-based characteristics for taxation and other
purposes, Characteristic Premise ID defines the premise that supplies these characteristics. This
field also defines the premise under which the service agreements bill segments are classified
and is used to identify where the service agreements service is located on various windows. This
field is gray if the service agreements SA type doesnt require a characteristic premise. For more
information about rates and their use of characteristics, refer to Setting Up Bill Factors.
Selecting a characteristic premise. If the service agreement has service points, only premises
associated with these service points may be selected as a Char Premise. If the service
agreement doesnt have service points, any premise may be selected.
Your conversion process will fill in Old Account ID for service agreements that were converted
from your legacy CIS system. The payment upload process uses this field to locate the accounts
for payments that reference a legacy account number.
If the service agreement requires a total amount to bill, the amount is displayed. This field is
typically only used on loan or cash deposit service agreements. It holds either the loan amount or
the desired cash deposit. If you increase this fields value, the customer will be billed for any
difference between the new amount and the total amount billed (and paid for) to date. The label
that appears for this field is defined on the SA type (on the Billing tab). We recommend that the
system be set up so that this label is very specific, for example:
It should be called Cash Deposit Amount if the total amount to bill is for a deposit.
It should be called Loan Amount if the total amount to bill is for a loan.
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Number of Payment Periods only appears for loan SA types. It displays the number of periods
specified when the loan was first activated. (The number of payment periods may have been
subsequently changed on Loan maintenance.)
If the service agreement uses a recurring charge, the current recurring charge amount is
displayed. Transfer to the Service Agreement - Recurring Charge to update this value. This field
is not visible if the service agreements SA type doesnt allow recurring charges. The label that
appears for this field is defined on the SA type (on the Billing tab). We recommend that the
system be set up so that this label is very specific, for example:
It should contain Budget Amount if the recurring charge is for a budget.
It should contain Installment Amount if the recurring charge is used for a deposit being paid
in installments.
It should contain Payment Amount if the recurring charge is used for a loan.
SA Relationship ID contains the ID of the SA Relationship that is associated with a sub service
agreement. This field is only visible on sub service agreements. Refer to Sub Service
Agreements for more information.
CIAC Review Date displays the last date that the Contributions In Aid of Construction (CIAC)
review process ran for this service agreement. This field is only visible if the SA type indicates this
is a CIAC service agreement. Refer to CIAC Segmentation for more information on CIAC.
Deposit Interest Calculated contains the last date the system applied interest. This field is only
visible if the SA type has a special role of Cash Deposit.
The Scheduled Payment Autopay flag determines if the non-billed budget scheduled payments
are excluded from automatic payment or included by automatic payment. If the account is not set
up for automatic payment for the period that covers the non-billed budget, this flag cannot be set.
This field is only visible if the SA has a special role of Non-billed Budget.
The NBB Recommendation Rule displays the description of the non-billed budget
recommendation rule used for this SA. This field is only visible if the SA has a special role of
Non-billed Budget.
Expiration Date contains the date at which the service agreement is set to expire.
Renewal Date contains the date at which the service agreement is to be renewed. Renewal date
is disabled if renewal is not allowed on the SA type.
Debt Class indicates the debt class into which the service agreements current balance is
categorized by credit and collections. A service agreements debt class is defined on its SA type.
Refer to Different Collection Criteria For Different Customers And Different Debt for more
information about debt class.
Current Balance indicates the amount the customer currently owes for the service.
Payoff Balance indicates the amount the customer would owe if they wanted to close the service
agreement. This value is only displayed when it differs from current balance.
Refer to Current Amount versus Payoff Amount for more information.
The Days Old and Arrears Amount information shows how old the current balance is. This
information will be blank if the current balance is a credit.
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This bottom of this page contains a tree that shows the various objects linked to the service
agreement. You can use this tree to both view high-level information about these objects and to
The topics that follow describe miscellaneous features on this page.
Contents
Changing A Start Option
The Impact of Proposal Service Agreements
Changing A Start Option

If the service agreement is in the pending start state, you can use the Start/Stop - Pending SAs
page to change the service agreements SA type and/or start option.
If the service agreement is in the active or pending stop states and if the SA type uses start
options, a button appears on Service Agreement - Main called Apply New Start Option. When
clicked, the Apply New Start Option dialog box opens.
The fields in this dialog box allow you to define a Start Option whose terms should be copied to
the service agreement as of a given effective date (Apply Start Option on). Because most
terms on a service agreement are effective-dated, its important that you understand the following
ramifications of applying a start option (note, we use the word terms to generically reference any
of the fields that can be defaulted from a start option):
Terms are reused if Start Option contains the same value as defined in the service
agreement. For example,
If the Start Option references the same rate as defined in the service agreement, a new
rate record will NOT be created.
If the Start Option references a contract rider thats currently defined in the service
agreement, a new rider will NOT be created.
Terms that support explicit expiration (i.e., those with an end date) are expired if they are not
referenced on the new start option. For example, if the service agreement has a rider that is
not referenced on the new start option, it will be expired.
Note: Interval profiles and TOU maps are expired using the Start Day Option and Cutoff Time in
the new start option and not the existing values for the SA.
Terms that support implicit expiration (i.e., those without an end date) are left unchanged if
they are not referenced on the new start option. For example, a service agreement
characteristic that isnt referenced on the new start option will NOT be modified when a new
start option is applied.
Only start options related to the service agreements SA type can be used. It should be
noted that only start options related to the service agreements SA type can be specified. If the
service agreement is in the pending start state, you can change the service agreements SA
type on the Main tab or via Start/Stop - Pending SAs. If the service agreement is active, you
may not change its SA type.
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When you click OK a warning window will appear that summarizes the changes that will be made
to the service agreement. After confirming what will be changed, click OK to change the service
agreements terms. The Start Option that is shown on the Main tab will now reflect the start
option whose terms were just applied.
The Impact of Proposal Service Agreements

If the quotation module is not turned off, you may display a proposal service agreement on
Service Agreement - Main. This section describes how Service Agreement - Main differs when a
proposal service agreement is displayed.
The SA Status section is replaced with a section that shows the status of the proposal service
agreement (proposal SA).
Proposal SA Status defines the state of the proposal service agreement. The Quote
Maintenance transaction typically changes the status of a proposal SA when users accept,
decline and cancel quote details. If you wish to change the status of a proposal SA independent
of this transaction, you can press one of the adjacent buttons
Click the Activate button to change the status from Pending to Quotable. Note, you can set
up the system to automatically make newly created proposal SAs quotable by plugging in the
appropriate Proposal SA Creation algorithm on the SAs SA type.
Click the Accept button to change the status from Quotable to Accepted. When you accept
a proposal SA, you will be asked to supply the Start Date of the real service agreement that
will be created.
Click the Decline button to change the status from Quotable to Declined. When you decline
a proposal SA, you will be asked to supply a Decline Reason.
Click the Cancel button to change the status from Quotable to Canceled.
Click the Reactivate button to return a Canceled or Declined proposal SA to the Quotable
state.
Refer to Proposal SA State Transition for more information about Proposal SA Status.
If the proposal SA has been declined, the Decline Reason appears beneath Proposal SA
Status. Refer to Accepting / Declining Quote Details for more information.
It the proposal SA was changed after a quote detail was generated using the proposal SAs
terms, a Remark appears beneath Proposal SA Status highlighting such.
Changing A Start Option. You can Apply A New Start Option on pending and quotable proposal
SAs.
If a real service agreement was created when the proposal SA was accepted, Real SA ID
appears and contains the ID of the real service agreement. Refer to Accepting / Declining Quote
Details for more information.
Service Agreement - Rate Info

The rate info page contains the service agreements rate and information needed by the rate to
calculate the service agreements bill segments. This information is only displayed if the service
agreements SA type allows a rate.
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Open Customer Information, Service Agreement and navigate to the Rate Info tab to access
this page.
Description of Page
The Rate grid controls the rate used to calculate the service agreements bill segments. Multiple
rows will only exist if the service agreements Rate changes over time.
A service agreements Rate is populated by the system when service is started. The method
used to populate the initial Rate depends on how service is started and whether you use start
options:
If the service agreements SA type uses start options:
If the Order transaction is used to start service, the rate is populated using the start
option associated with the package that was selected by the user when the order was
completed.
If Start / Stop is used to start service, the rate is populated using the start option selected
by the user when service was initiated.
If the service agreements SA type does not use start options, the SA types default rate is
populated on the service agreement.
Billing selects a single rate from the Rate grid when it calculates a bill segment for the service
agreement. If multiple rates are defined in this grid, the rate is selected based on the service
agreements SA types Rate Selection Date. The following fields display:
Effective Date is the date the rate becomes effective. The service agreements start date
defaults.
Rate Schedule defines the rate used to calculate the service agreements bill segments.
Note, you can only choose rates defined as permissible on the service agreements SA type;
the permissible rates are shown in the adjacent tree.
Possible override. If your service agreement is linked to a terms of service record, it is possible
that the rate used by the system could get overridden by one referenced on the terms of service.
If the rate is overridden by the TOS, the tree on this page indicates the rate source.
The Contract Rider grid contains the contract riders that are in effect for the service agreement.
This information is defaulted when service is started using a start option (using the contract rider
information defined on the start option). You should only have to access this section if you need
to fine-tune what the system defaults.
Billing uses this information when it calculates a bill segment for the service agreement if:
The rate used to calculate the bill segment contains a rate component that references a bill
factor.
The referenced bill factor requires a contract rider to levy the associated charge.
If a Contract Rider does not exist or is not effective, the charge associated with the rate
component is not applied to the customers bill.
To modify a contract rider linked to the service agreement, simply move to a field and change its
value. To remove a contract rider, click the - button. To add a new contract rider, click the +
button and fill in the information for each field. The following fields display:
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Use Start Date to define the date on which the contract rider becomes effective. The service
agreements start date defaults.
Use End Date to define the date on which the contract rider expires. This field need only be
specified if the contract rider expires on an explicit date.
Use Bill Factor to define the type of rider. You may only reference Bill Factors designated
as being applicable for contract riders. Note, the Bill Factors linked to the rate that are
marked with contract rider applicability are shown in the adjacent tree under the Contract
Rider node.
For more information about contract riders, refer to Defining General Bill Factor Information.
The Contract Values grid contains the contract values that are in effect for the service
agreement. This information is defaulted when service is started using the contract value
information defined on the start option used to start service (if any). You should only have to
access this page if you need to fine-tune what the system defaults.
factor.
The referenced bill factor uses a contract value to define the amount charged.
Use Start Date to define the date on which the contract value becomes effective. The
service agreements start date defaults.
Use End Date to define the date on which the contract value expires. This field need only be
specified if the value rider expires on an explicit date.
Use Bill Factor to define the type of value. You may only reference Bill Factors designated
as allowing values in contract terms. Note, the Bill Factors linked to the rate that are marked
as allowing values in contract terms are shown in the adjacent tree under the Contract Value
node.
Use Value to define contract value.
For more information about contract values, refer to Defining General Bill Factor Information.
The Tax Exemptions section contains the taxes from which the service agreement is all or
partially exempt.
factor.
The referenced bill factor can have tax exemptions that limit the amount of the charge.
If the bill factor doesnt have a tax exemption or there are none that are effective during the bill
period, the tax is levied in full. If the service agreement is exempt, the appropriate charge
associated with the tax is calculated. We strongly recommend using the %T substitution
character in the Description on Bill on tax-exemptible rate components so that an appropriate tax
exemption message appears on the customers bill.
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For more information about tax exemptions, refer to Defining General Bill Factor Information.
Use Start Date to define the date on which the tax exemption becomes effective.
Use End Date to define the date on which the tax exemption expires.
Use Bill Factor to define the tax from which the service agreement is exempt. You may only
reference bill factors designated as being tax exemptible. Note, the Bill Factors linked to the
rate that are marked as tax exemptible are shown in the adjacent tree under the Tax
Exemption node.
Use Percent Exempt to define the customer tax exemption percent (e.g., 90 means the
customer is 90% exempt and will only pay 10% of the normal tax rate).
Use Tax Exempt Type to specify the type of exemption.
Use Tax Certification if the customer has a tax exemption certificate.
Rate Information Tree

The tree shows the service agreements permissible rates and the related types of contract riders,
contract values and tax exemptions that are possible given these rates.
The Permissible Rates node displays all the rate schedules associated with the service
agreements SA Type.
The Effective Rate Schedule node indicates the rate schedule currently effective.
The Contract Rider node displays the bill factors linked to the service agreements rate(s) that
may have contract riders defined for them. If you expand a node, you can see the individual
rate component(s) on which the bill factor is specified. If the service agreement has a value
defined for the contract rider that is currently in effect, it is also shown.
The Contract Value node displays all the bill factors linked to the service agreements rate(s)
that may have contract values defined for them. If you expand a node, you can see the
individual rate component(s) on which the bill factor is specified. If the service agreement has
a contract value defined that is currently in effect, it is also shown.
The Tax Exemption node displays all the bill factors linked to the service agreements rate(s)
that may have tax exemptions defined for them. If you expand a node, you can see the
individual rate component(s) on which the bill factor is specified. If the service agreement
has a tax exemption defined for the bill factor that is currently in effect, it is also shown.
If the service agreement is currently linked to a terms of service record for an effective umbrella
agreement, additional information is displayed in the tree.
The Permissible Rates node displays the rate source value associated with the service
agreements SA Type.
If the terms of service record linked to the service agreement has a template SA and the rate
source is Check TOS First, then SA, the Effective Rate Schedule node displays the rate
schedule for the template SA. An additional node indicating whether the rate source is the
template SA or the current SA is displayed below.
The Contract Rider, Contract Value and Tax Exemption nodes include the terms of service
usage value from the bill factor.
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Refer to Rate Terms Overridden By Terms Of Service for more information.
Service Agreement - SA / SP
The SA / SP page contains the service points that are linked to the service agreement. This
information is only displayed if the service agreements SA type allows service points.
This information is updated by the system when service is started. You should only have to
Warning! You must understand the V very well before attempting to maintain this information.
Refer to Understanding The V for more information.
Use Customer Information, Service Agreement and navigate to the SA/SP tab to open this
page.
Description of Page
Billing uses SA / SP information to amalgamate consumption when it calculates a bill segment for
the service agreement. The following fields are displayed:
Service Point ID
The identity of the service point. The type and location

of the service point is displayed adjacent. This field is
gray after the service point is committed to the database.
Meter/Item Info
The meter / item that is currently installed at the service

point is displayed. Refer to Installing and Removing A
Meter and Installing and Removing An Item for more
information.
How to Use (SP)
Indicates how billing uses the consumption associated

with the service point. This field is gray for item-type
service points. Valid values are: Add, Check, Subtract.
Add service points have their consumption added to the
total amount of consumption billed under a service
agreement. Subtract service points have their
consumption subtracted from the total amount of
consumption billed under a service agreement. Check
service points are ignored by billing.
Use Percent
Indicates the percentage of this service points

consumption that is billed under the service agreement.
This field is gray for item-type service points.
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Start Date/Time
The date and time the service points consumption starts

being billed under the service agreement. The service
agreements start date defaults. If the SA Type has a
special role of Bill Determinants Required, the system
sets this date based on the service agreements start
date, the service agreements start day option and cutoff
time, and the SA Types initial start date option to reflect
the earliest possible date/time that usage may be
requested for the SA.
Start Meter Read
The meter read that records the register values, as they

appeared when the service point was linked to the
service agreement. The meter readings date and time
are displayed adjacent. This field is disabled for itemtype service points.
Note. Only meter reads that have been marked as Use on Bill may be specified.
Stop Date/Time
The date and time the service points consumption stops

being billed under the service agreement. If the SA Type
has a special role of Bill Determinants Required, the
system sets this date based on the service agreements
stop date and the service agreements start day option
and cutoff time to reflect the latest possible date/time
that usage may be requested for the SA.
Stop Meter Read
The meter read that records the register values as they

appeared when the service point was unlinked from the
service agreement. The meter readings date and time
are displayed adjacent. This field is disabled for itemtype service points.
Note. Only meter reads that have been marked as Use on Bill may be specified.
The Field Activity grid contains the list of field activities that have been generated in respect of
this SA / SP. Refer to Field Activities to Start Service, Field Activities to Stop Service and The Big
Picture Of Severance Events for more information.
Field Activity
The unique ID of any field activity associated with

starting, stopping, investigating, or severing the service
at the service point.
Field Activity Type
Indicates why the field activity is linked to the SA/SP.

Valid values are Start Activity, Stop Activity,
Severance Activity, or Service Activity.
The Characteristics grid contains characteristics that are only applicable for a given SA / SP
combination. These are typically only used for obscure SA/SP relationships for which unusual
pricing terms or interval billing options have been set up.
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Note. You can only choose characteristic types defined as permissible on the SA/SP record.
Effective Date

becomes effective. The service agreements start date
defaults.
Characteristic Type
Service Agreement - Chars, Qty & Rec. Charges

This page contains the Characteristics, Contract Quantities and Recurring Charges that are in
effect for the service agreement.
Use Customer Information, Service Agreement and navigate to the Chars, Qty & Rec.
Charges tab to open this page.
Description of Page
The Characteristics grid contains information that describes miscellaneous information about the
service agreement. This information is defaulted when service is started using the characteristics
defined on the start option used to start service (if any). You should only have to access this
section if you need to fine-tune what the system defaults.
Note. You can only choose characteristic types defined as permissible on the service agreement
record. Refer to Setting Up Characteristic Types & Their Values for more information.
Effective Date

becomes effective. The service agreements start date
defaults.
Characteristic Type
The Contract Quantity grid contains the contract quantities that are in effect for the service
agreement. This information is defaulted when service is started using the contract quantities
defined on the start option used to start service (if any). You should only have to access this
section if you need to fine-tune what the system defaults.
Billing may use this information when it calculates a bill segment for the service agreement if the
rate has SQ (service quantity) rules or register rules. Refer to Defining Measured Quantity
Manipulation Rules for more information.
Effective Date
The date this quantity becomes effective. The service

Contract Quantity Type
The type of contract quantity.
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Contract Quantity
The contract quantity.
The Recurring Charge section contains effective-dated information that defines the recurring
charge amount used to calculate the service agreements bill segments. This information is only
displayed if the service agreements SA type allows a recurring charge amount.
A service agreements recurring charge amount history is updated by the system behind-thescenes as part of the Start Service process. The budget recalculation process can also update
this information. You should only have to access this section if you need to change a service
agreements recurring charge amount on some future date.
Billing uses recurring charge information to select the appropriate recurring charge when it
calculates a bill segment for the service agreement. To modify a recurring charge, simply move
to a field and change its value. To change the recurring charge amount effective on a given date,
click the + button to insert a row, then fill in the information for each field. The following fields
display:
Effective Date
The date the charge becomes effective. The service

Recurring charge changes during a bill period. Only one recurring charge will be used on any
bill segment. The system selects the recurring charge value effective on the end date of the bill
segment.
Recurring Charge Amount
The recurring charge amount.
Service Agreement - Miscellaneous

The miscellaneous page contains information that describes miscellaneous information about the
service agreement. Use Customer Information, Service Agreement, Misc to open this page.
Description of Page
Start Requested By displays the information entered in the Requested By field on the Start Stop
page when this SA was started.
Stop Requested By displays the information entered in the Requested By field on the Start Stop
page when this SA was stopped.
Select the SIC Code associated with the customer. This is typically only used for commercial
and industrial customers.
Enter a Business Activity associated with the customer. This can be used to further define what
types of activities are served by this contract.
The bill message grid contains information about the message(s) to appear on a service
agreements bill segments. Both one-time and permanent messages may be defined. This
information is used when the system assembles messages to appear on an accounts bill (as part
of bill completion). Refer to The Source Of Bill Messages for more information. The following
fields are displayed:
For Bill Message Code, select a message code to appear on the customers bill.
For Bill Message Type, use Temporary to indicate the message should only be linked to the
next bill produced for the account. Use Permanent if the message should appear on every
bill. Note, a value of Temporary defaults.
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The terms and conditions (T&C) grid contains the service agreements T&Cs. This information is
defaulted when service is started using a start option (using the T&C information defined on the
start option). You should only need to change this information if you need to fine-tune the
defaults. Refer to Legal Terms and Conditions May Be Specified on Service Agreements for
more information. The following fields display:
Use Start Date to define the date on which the T&C becomes effective. The service
Use End Date to define the date on which the T&C expires. This field need only be specified
if the T&C expires on an explicit date.
Use Terms and Conditions to define the type of T&C.
Service Agreement - Contract Options

The contract options page contains the contract options and contract option events for interval
billing service agreements. Refer to Contract Option Background Topics for more information.
This tab may not appear. This tab is suppressed if the interval billing Complex Billing module
is turned off.
Open this page using Customer Information, Service Agreement and then navigate to the
Contract Options tab.
Description of Page
The Contract Option collection contains effective-dated information that defines the contract
options linked to the service agreement. The following information may be defined for each
contract option:
Contract Option Id
This is the id of the contract option to link to the service

agreement. The SA Contract Option ID is displayed
adjacent. This is the unique identifier of the SA /
contract option record.
Effective Date/Time
This is the date and time that the contract option is in

effect for the service agreement.
Expiration Date/Time
This is the date and time that the contract option is no

longer in effect for the service agreement.
The Override Events Collection contains information about the override events for a shared
contract option. Refer to SA May Override a Shared Event for more information.
If a contract option event for a shared contract option should not be applicable to this service
agreement, enter the Contract Option Event ID, the Override Date/Time that the override is
effective and the Status. The status value of Active means that the override is in effect. The
status value of Inactive cancels the override, meaning that the event is applicable to this service
agreement.
If seasonal time shift records are linked to both the base time zone and to the time zone on the
service agreements characteristic premise, the Seasonal Time Shift associated with the time
zone on the characteristic premise is displayed. Refer to Time Zone and Time Changes for more
information.
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The Seasonal Time Shift Remark indicates whether the data is displayed and should be entered
in legal time or standard time. Refer to Interval Time Display for more information. If the data is
displayed in legal time use the Show in Standard button to toggle to standard time. If the data is
displayed in standard time use the Show in Legal button to toggle to legal time.
Service Agreement - Interval Info

The interval info page contains various collections needed by an interval service agreement. This
information may be used by validation and derivation algorithms or may be used by interval and
time of use pricing algorithms. Refer to Interval Billing for more information.
This tab may not appear. This tab is suppressed if the interval billing Complex Billing module
is turned off.
Open this page using Customer Information, Service Agreement and then navigate to the
Interval Info tab.
Description of Page
The tree at the bottom of this page shows information about interval profiles and TOU maps that
are referenced in the rate components linked to one of the service agreements rates.
A node will display for each Interval Profile Relationship Type, which is priced directly, i.e., it
is referenced on a rate component with an RC Type of Interval Pricing. When this node is
expanded, information about every Interval Pricing rate component, which references this
relationship type is displayed.
A node will display for each TOU Map Relationship Type and Interval Profile Relationship
Type, which are referenced on a rate component with an RC Type of TOU Pricing. When
this node is expanded, information about every TOU Pricing rate component, which
references these relationship type is displayed.
A node will display for each Interval Profile Relationship Type, which is referenced on a rate
component with a generic RC Type of Calculation Algorithm. When this node is expanded,
information about every Calculation Algorithm rate component, which references this
A node will display for each TOU Map Relationship Type, which is referenced on a rate
component with a generic RC Type of Calculation Algorithm. When this node is expanded,
information about every Calculation Algorithm rate component, which references this
The Interval Profile collection contains effective-dated information that defines the interval
profiles linked to the service agreement. Refer to Interval Pricing Background Topics for more
information.
To link an interval profile to a service agreement, enter the Interval Profile Relationship Type that
defines the role that this interval profile will serve for the service agreement. Choose the Interval
Profile Id for the profile that you wish to link to this service agreement. This profile may be
Common or SA Owned.
If the profile does not exist yet, then you must create it. Refer to How to Link Common Profiles to
a Service Agreement and How to Link SA Owned Profiles to a Service Agreement for more
information.
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The Start Date/Time indicates the date and time that this profile is linked to the service
agreement for this profile relationship type.
The End Date/Time indicates the date and time that this profile is no longer linked to the service
agreement for this profile relationship type.
The Status values are Active and Inactive. By default, all records are active. The system will
use the start date/time and end date/time to ensure that it processes the correct profile for the SA
and Profile Relationship Type for the correct time period. No two profiles may be active for the
same SA, Profile Relationship Type and overlapping time period. A user may change the status
of a record to Inactive. The system will not change this status.
If data for this profile is derived using a creation algorithm on the interval profiles profile type,
then the Derivation Algorithm and the Creation Priority for the interval profile type are
displayed.
Refer to Setting Up Interval Profile Types for more information about linking data creation
algorithms to an interval profile type.
The Derive Interval Data button will be enabled when the service agreement is in a billable
status. Use this button to create profile data through data derivation. Clicking this button opens
the Derive Interval Data dialog box.
In the resulting dialog box, turn on Force Derivation and enter a Force Derivation Start Date if
you wish the system to re-derive data for a period that may have already been derived.
Note. Not all algorithms will necessarily support force derivation. It depends on whether or not
the algorithm can detect changes in the source data.
Enter the Cutoff Date to indicate to the system until what date to generate data for.
After clicking Process, the system will execute any Interval Data Creation derivation algorithm
linked to the profile type of an SA Owned profile where this SA is the owner. The algorithms are
executed in creation priority order.
Note. You can design your control tables so that the appropriate common and SA-owned
profiles are linked to the service agreement at start time. Refer to Designing Your Interval Billing
Start Options for more information about designing and setting up these start options.
The TOU Map collection contains effective-dated information that defines the TOU maps linked to
the service agreement. Refer to Time of Use Mapping Background Topics for more information.
To link a TOU map to a service agreement, enter the TOU Relationship Type that defines the
role that this TOU map will serve for the service agreement. Choose the TOU Map ID for the
map that you wish to link to the service agreement. This map may be Common or SA Owned.
The Start Date/Time indicates the date and time that this TOU map is linked to the service
agreement for this TOU map relationship type.
The End Date/Time indicates the date and time that this TOU map is no longer linked to the
service agreement for this TOU map relationship type.
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The Status values are Active and Inactive. By default, all records are active. The system will
use the start date/time and end date/time to ensure that it processes the correct map for the SA
and Map Relationship Type for the correct time period. No two maps may be active for the same
SA, Map Relationship Type and overlapping time period. A user may change the status of a
record to Inactive. The system will not change this status.
If data for this map may be created using a creation algorithm on the TOU maps map type, then
the Derivation Algorithm and the Creation Priority for the TOU map type are displayed.
The Derive TOU Data button will be enabled when the service agreement is in a billable status.
Use this button to automatically create TOU map data. Clicking this button opens the Derive
Interval Data dialog box.
In the resulting dialog box, turn on Force Derivation and enter a Force Derivation Start Date if
you wish the system to re-derive data for a period that may have already been derived.
Note. Not all algorithms will necessarily support force derivation. It depends on whether or not
the algorithm can detect changes in the source data.
Enter the Cutoff Date to indicate to the system until what date to generate data for.
After clicking Process, the system will execute any TOU Data Creation algorithm linked to the
TOU map type of an SA Owned profile where this SA is the owner. The algorithms are executed
in creation priority order.
Note. You can design your control tables so that the appropriate common and SA owned TOU
maps are linked to the service agreement at start time. Refer to Designing Your Interval Billing
Start Options for more information about designing and setting up these start options.
If seasonal time shift records are linked to both the base time zone and to the time zone on the
service agreements characteristic premise, the Seasonal Time Shift associated with the time
zone on the characteristic premise is displayed. Refer to Time Zone and Time Changes for more
information.
The Seasonal Time Shift Remark indicates whether the data is displayed and should be entered
in legal time or standard time. Refer to Interval Time Display for more information. If the data is
displayed in legal time use the Show in Standard button to toggle to standard time. If the data is
displayed in standard time use the Show in Legal button to toggle to legal time.
Service Agreement - TOU Contract Values

This page enables you to define customer specific time of use values. Refer to Customer
Specific TOU Values for more information.
Open this page using Customer Information, Service Agreement, TOU Contract Values.
Description of Page
The service agreement may contain a collection of TOU contract values, which change over time.
Choose the Bill Factor that defines the type of value. You may only reference bill factors
designated as TOU bill factor types and where the value may be in contract terms.
Indicate the TOU Group that corresponds with the TOU group on the service agreements TOU
Map. Once entered, the collection of TOU codes linked to this TOU group will display.
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For a given TOU contract value entry, the Start Date and End Date indicate when these TOU
values are effective.
For each Time of Use code, enter the appropriate Value.
TOU Contract Values Tree

The tree shows bill factors linked to the service agreements rate that may have TOU contract
values defined for them.
Service Agreement - Billing Scenarios

This tab may not appear. This tab is suppressed if the quotation Contract Management
module is turned off.
This page allows you to define a proposal service agreements billing scenarios. Refer to
Proposal SAs Contain Billing Scenarios for more information.
Open this page using Customer Information, Service Agreement, Billing Scenarios.
Description of Page
This page is protected if the service agreement being displayed is not a proposal service
agreement.
When a quote is generated for a proposal SA, the system creates a simulated bill segment for
each billing scenario linked to the proposal SA. Each simulated bill segment shows the prospect
how much their bill would be if the pricing terms on the proposal SA were applied to the billing
scenarios consumption in the related time period.
You should not have to enter this information from scratch. You can set up the system to
automatically generate billing scenarios when a proposal SA is created. Refer to Proposal SAs
Contain Billing Scenarios for the details.
The following information is defined for each billing scenario:
Start Date and End Date define the simulated bill segments period.
The grid contains the consumption that will be priced during this period:
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Unit of Measure is the unit of measure of the service quantity.
TOU is the time-of-use code of the service quantity.
SQI is the service quantity identifier of the service quantity.
Initial Service Quantity is the initial quantity passed to the rate (and massaged by the
rates SQ rules).
Service Point ID is used if your rate uses register rules that require characteristic values
from the service point or premise. For example, the register rule that converts CCF to
therms uses a bill factor to store the conversion factor. This bill factor may have been
configured to use characteristics on the service point / premise (e.g., the conversion
factor may differ based on the storage location associated with the service point).
Interval service agreements and template consumption. Refer to Proposal SAs And Interval
Consumption for a description of how interval consumption is defined on a proposal SA.
Maintaining SA Relationships
The SA Relationship page contains information about a specific relationship between a service
provider and a customer.
Warning! The following page looks deceptively simple. Its not. Refer to The Big Picture of SA
Relationships and Service Providers for more information.
Open Customer Information, SA Relationship to maintain this information.
Description of Page
The SA Relationship Info is a concatenation of important information about the SA relationship
record. The SA Rel ID is a system-assigned random number that stays with a SA relationship
record for life. This value is assigned when the record is added to the database.
SA Relationship Status defines the state of the SA relationship. The buttons beneath the status
are used to change the state:
Click the Activate SA Rel button to activate a Pending SA relationship. This button is only
enabled when the status of the SA relationship is Pending.
Click the Cancel SA Rel button to Cancel an Active or Pending SA relationship. This
button is only enabled when the status of the SA relationship is Active or Pending.
Automatic SA Relationship creation and activation. The system automatically creates and
activates required SA Relationships when the Activate SA background process sees that there
are required SA relationships for the master SA Type.
Account ID is the account associated with the Service Agreement ID. This field is protected
after the SA relationship has been added to the database.
Use Service Agreement to define the master service agreement ID that has a relationship. This
field is protected after the SA relationship has been added to the database.
Premise is a display-only field that shows the Service Agreements characteristic premise (i.e.,
the primary premise associated with the service agreement).
Use SA Relationship Type to define the type of relationship. This field is only enabled if:
a Service Agreement ID is specified, and
the status of the SA Relationship is not Cancelled, and
all sub SAs in the grid at the bottom of the page (if any) are Cancelled.
Enter the Effective Date of the relationship. This field is only enabled if:
a SA Rel Type is specified, and
the status of the SA Relationship is not Cancelled.
Usage defines how this relationship is used. The following options are available:
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Relationship With SPr. Use this option if this relationship is used to define a relationship
between a customer and a service provider.
Expire SA Relationship. Use this option if this relationship expires any prior relationship
between a customer and a service provider and there is no relationship with a service
provider going forward.
The Service Provider associated with this relationship is the one who provides the related
service, if any. You can only choose service providers who are linked to the master service
agreements SA type and the above SA Rel Type. This field is only enabled if:
Usage is Relationship with SPr, and
the status of the SA Relationship is not Cancelled, and
all sub SAs in the grid at the bottom of the page (if any) are Cancelled.
If the Service Provider reads the customers meter (as defined on the service providers record),
the customers override Read Cycle should be defined. This field is only enabled if:
a Service Provider is specified, and
the Service Provider has the ability to override the service points service cycle, and
the status of the SA Relationship is not Cancelled
The Account Number in Providers CIS is the customers ID in the service providers system.
This field is only enabled if:
the status of the SA Relationship is not Cancelled.
The Create Sub SA button is used to create Sub Service Agreements for a service provider for
which your organization provides billing services. This button will be gray if:
you do not provide billing services for the service provider (i.e., the service provider doesnt
have a billing relationship of Its Us or We Bill For Them), or
if the SA relationships Status is not active, or
if the status of the master Service Agreement is not Active, Pending Start or Pending
Stop.
The grid at the bottom contains the sub service agreements (if any) that exist when your
organization provides billing service for the Service Provider. You can click the Go To button on
a row to transfer to the sub service agreement. Refer to Sub Service Agreements for more
information. Note: you can click the Create Sub SA button to create sub service agreements for
a service provider.
Automatic sub SA creation. The system will automatically create sub service agreements for
you. It does this when the Analyze SA Relationships background process (known by the batch
control ID of ANLYZSAR) sees that a new SA relationship has been activated.
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Service Provider SA Relationship

Use this page to manage a service providers SA relationships and customers. You can view a
given service providers SA relationships of a given type that is in effect on a specified date. You
can expire existing relationships or add new relationships. This page is particularly useful for
managing negotiated terms.
Open Customer Information - Service Provider SA Relationship to view this information.
Description of Page
Enter the Service Provider and SA Relationship Type of the SA relationships that should be
displayed.
Enter an Effective Date. This date filters the results so that only those SA relationships that are
in effect on this date are shown.
Use SA Filter to restrict the SA relationships that are shown in the grid based on criteria of the
related master service agreement. The following options are available:
Address. Use this option to restrict SA relationships to those whose service agreements are
linked to service points associated with a given Address, City and/or Postal code. Note,
you can specify any combination of these fields.
All. Use this option if you do not wish to restrict SA relationships based on service
agreement attributes.
Geographic Type. Use this option to restrict SA relationships to those whose service
agreements are linked to premises or service points associated with a given Geo Type and
Value.
SA Type. Use this option to restrict SA relationships to those whose service agreements are
linked to a given CIS Division and SA Type.
Dont forget to click the search button after changing the filters.
The Select All / Clear All buttons are used to select / unselect the SA relationships in the results
grid. These buttons are enabled if there is at least one SA relationship in the results grid.
The grid that follows contains a line for each SA relationship that has a status of pending or active
that meets the search criteria. Canceled SA relationships are not shown. If an SA relationship
has more than one sub-SA, additional lines are used to show the additional sub-SA information.
The following information appears in the grid:
Select box. Use this checkbox to select SA relationships that you want to expire using the
Expire SA Relationship(s) button.
Click the go to button to transfer to the Account Main page where you can perform
maintenance functions on the account listed under Account Information.
The Account ID column shows the account of the master SA linked to the SA relationship.
The Account Information column shows information about the account identified by the
account ID.
Click the go to button to transfer to the Premise Main page where you can perform
maintenance functions on the premise listed under Premise Information.
The Premise Information column shows information about the premise of the service point
linked to the master SA of the SA relationship. If the master SA is linked to multiple service
points, one is selected at random.
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The Premise ID column shows the ID of the premise whose premise information is shown.
Click the go to button to transfer to the Service Agreement Main page where you can
perform maintenance on the service agreement listed under SA Information.
The SA Information column shows information about the master SA that the SA relationship
is linked to.
The SA ID column shows the ID of the master SA that the SA relationship is linked to.
Click the go to button to transfer to the Service Agreement Main page where you can
perform maintenance on the service agreement listed under Sub SA Information.
The Sub SA Information column shows information about the sub SA linked to the SA
relationship.
The Sub SA ID column shows the ID of the sub SA linked to the SA relationship.
Click the go to button to transfer to the SA relationship page where you can perform
maintenance functions on the SA relationship listed under SA Relationship Information.
The SA Relationship Information column shows information about the SA relationship

meeting the search criteria.
The SA Relationship ID column shows the ID of the SA relationship meeting the search
criteria.
Following the grid is a section with action buttons that allow you to add or expire relationships for
the given service provider:
Press the Expire SA Relationship(s) button to expire the SA relationships that you have
selected with the checkbox. You will be asked to confirm the date that you want the selected
SA relationships to expire. Each selected SA relationship is expired by creating a new SA
relationship without a service provider, i.e., its Usage is to Expire SA Relationship. This
new SA relationship will be effective the day after the expiration date you specify. This is
because an SA relationship that expires on a given day is deemed to be effective until the
end of that day.
Note that you can only expire SA relationships where the SA type and SA relationship type
allow gaps in the relationship.
Press the Add SA Relationship button to add a new SA relationship for the service provider
and SA relationship type entered above. Enter the effective date for the new SA relationship
and the service agreement that the new SA relationship is for. After confirmation, a new SA
relationship is added in a pending status. Note that if there is an existing SA relationship with
the same effective date whose Usage is Expire SA, this relationship is replaced by a new SA
relationship with the given service provider.
Maintaining Premises
The premise record contains geographic information about your service addresses.
The following methods list the various ways in which premises can be created:
A premise can be added via the premise replicator.
A premise can be added when an order is completed.
A premise can be added using this transaction.
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The topics in this section describe the premise maintenance transaction.

For more information about premises and their place in the V, refer to Understanding The V.
For more information about the relationships between premises, service points, meters and items,
refer to An Illustration Of A Premise.
Contents
Premise - Main Information
Premise - Characteristics
Premise - Miscellaneous
Premise - Geographic Data
Premise - Alternate Address
Premise - Main Information

The Premise page contains basic premise information. Open Customer Information, Premise
and navigate to the Main tab to maintain this information.
Description of Page
Basic information about the Premise and the premises unique identifier (i.e., the Premise ID) are
displayed on every page. These values only appear after the premise exists on the database.
The ID is a system assigned random number that stays with a premise for life.
Formatting is performed by a plug-in. The basic information about a premise that appears at
the top of this page (and on many other pages in the system) is controlled by a plug-in algorithm
on the installation record. Refer to the base packages premise format algorithm for an example.
If you prefer a different format, your system administrator should configure the system
appropriately.
Indicate the Premise Type to categorize the type of premise.
The addresss constituent fields vary based on the Country. Please refer to the Country page for
more information.
Default note. A premises state, city, county, division, characteristics, trend area and
geographic data default from your postal default information. Refer to Setting Up Premise &
Service Point Postal Defaults for more information. If you change the premise's postal code, the
system will default geographic values based on the new postal code.
Use CIS Division to define the jurisdiction in which the premise is located. This defaults based
on the Country and the Postal Code, but can be overridden here.
Indicate whether the address is a valid Mailing Address. Premises that are valid mailing
addresses may be specified as the mailing premise on an account. Refer to Account - Person
Information for more information.
Use Landlord Agreement to define the landlord agreement that covers the premise, if any.
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Landlord reversion. When you specify a landlord agreement on a premise, you are telling the
system that service associated with the premises service points should be reverted to the
landlords account when a tenant stops service. The system uses this information during the stop
service process to automatically create pending start service agreement(s) for the landlord.
Managing a large number of premises for the same landlord If the premise management
module is not turned off, the premise management page helps you to manage the premises
linked to the landlord.
If the premise management module is not turned off, you may reference a Parent Premise to
include this premise in a premise hierarchy.
At the bottom of this page is a tree that shows the various objects linked to the premise. You can
use this tree to both view high-level information about these objects and to transfer to the
respective page in which an object is maintained.
Premise - Characteristics
The Characteristics page contains information that controls taxation and other rate options that
differ based on geography. Use Customer Information, Premise and navigate to the
Characteristics tab to open this page.
Description of Page
Many charges that appear on bills associated with consumption at this premise are controlled by
the premises characteristic values (e.g., the taxing city defines the city tax percent applied to the
premises consumption). Refer to An Illustration Of A Bill Factor And Its Characteristics for more
information.
Characteristics also matter if your rates were set up to convert measured consumption into some
other unit of measure before charges can be calculated (e.g., converting a cubic foot of gas to its
therm value). Refer to Setting Up Register Rules for more information.
Note. You can only choose characteristic types defined as permissible on the premise record.
Effective Date
Indicate the effective date of the characteristic type and

value. The effective date defaults from the Installation
Record when you are adding a new premise. The
effective date defaults to the current date when you are
changing an existing premise.
Characteristic Type
Default note. A premises characteristics default from your postal default information. Refer to
Setting Up Premise & Service Point Postal Defaults for more information. If you change the
premise's postal code, the system will default geographic values based on the new postal code.
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Premise - Miscellaneous
The Miscellaneous page contains information meter read controls and life support information
related to the premise. Use Customer Information, Premise and navigate to the Misc tab to
open this page.
Description of Page
Turn on OK to Enter if the meter is located in the interior of the premise and your company has
permission to enter.
Indicate a MR Warning if a specific warning should be downloaded to the person who reads the
meter.
Indicate a MR Instruction if specific instructions should be downloaded to the person who reads
the meter. Meter read instructions and warnings are downloaded as part of the meter read
download.
Use Instruction Details to provide more detailed instructions to the individual who reads meters
at this premise.
Turn on Key at Premise if the meter is secured in a locked area and your company has the key.
If this field is turned on, you may also specify the Key ID.
Specify the Trend Area in which the premise is located. A premises trend area plays an
important role in how consumption at the premise is estimated for high / low and missing read
purposes.
Default note. A premises trend area defaults from your postal default information. Refer to
Setting Up Premise & Service Point Postal Defaults for more information.
Indicate if the premise has life support or sensitive load equipment. Valid values are: LS/SL (i.e.,
the premise has life support / sensitive load equipment), None. If a value of LS/SL has been
selected, define the type of equipment in LS / SL Description.
A person can also have life support / sensitive load information. If the equipment is
personal (i.e., it travels with the person as they move from premise to premise), you should NOT
specify the life support information on the premise. Rather, transfer to Person - Main and specify
life support information on the person.
Alert and C&C. If the base packages C1-LSSL-PREM algorithm is enabled on the installation
record, and life support / sensitive load information is specified, an alert will appear when the
premise is displayed on control central. In addition, if a premise has life support or sensitive load
equipment, it is possible for a different credit & collection severance process to be kicked off if the
account associated with the premise has overdue debt. Refer to Designing Your Severance
Procedures for more information.
Premise - Geographic Data

The Geographic Data page contains information that defines where the premise is located. Use
Customer Information, Premise and navigate to the Geographic Data tab to open this page.
Description of Page
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Enter the Time Zone in which the premise is located. This value defaults from your postal
defaults. Please note that Time Zone is only relevant for interval billing customers. Refer to
Time Zone and Time Changes for more information.
The geographic information is used by Control Central to look for premises. The following fields
display:
Geographic Type
Indicate the type of geographic data.
Geographic Value
Specify the coordinate value. If the entered value must

be in a specific format, a description of the required
format is displayed adjacent. For example, if you see
the format 99A 99A 99 9, you must enter 2 numbers,
followed by a letter, followed by a space, followed by 2
numbers, followed by a letter, followed by a space,
followed by 2 numbers, followed by a space, followed by
a single number.
Formatting is performed by a plug-in. The format that is applied to a Geographic Value is

controlled by the algorithm that is plugged in on the respective Geographic Type. If you prefer a
different format, your system administrator should configure this algorithm appropriately. Note,
algorithms of this type will NOT convert the input value into the relevant format (i.e., you must
enter the information in the exact format dictated by the algorithm).
Default note. A premises geographic data defaults from your postal default information. Refer
to Setting Up Premise & Service Point Postal Defaults for more information. If you change the
premise's postal code, the system will default geographic values based on the new postal code.
Premise - Alternate Address

This tab only appears if you have enabled alternate addresses on the installation record. Refer to
the description of the Alternate Representation field under Installation - Main for more
information.
This page is used when you have an alternate way to define a premises address. This is
typically used in countries that use multiple character sets (e.g., the Main address is entered in
Chinese, the Alternate Address is entered in English). When a premise has an alternate
address, both the main and alternate addresses can be used to search for a premise.
Open Customer Information, Premise and navigate to the Alternate Address tab to maintain
this information.
Description of Page
The remaining fields on the page are used to define the premises alternate address.
The addresss constituent fields vary based on the Country. Country is always protected on this
page because a premises alternate address must be located in the same country as its main
address. Please refer to the Country page for more information about address constituents.
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Default note. An alternate addresss state, city and county default from your postal default
information. Refer to Setting Up Premise & Service Point Postal Defaults for more information.
The Swap Main / Alt Address button becomes enabled when youve entered an Alternate
Address. When clicked, the contents of the address on the Main tab are swapped with the
Alternate Address.
Maintaining Service Points

Service point records contain information describing the services supplied to a premise.
The following methods list the various ways in which service points can be created:
A service point can be added when a premise is created using the premise replicator.
A service point can be added when an order is completed.
A service point can be added using this transaction.
The topics in this section describe the pages on which service point related information is
maintained.
For more information about service points and their place in the V, refer to Understanding The
V. For more information about the relationships between premises, service points, meters and
items, refer to An Illustration Of A Premise.
Contents
Service Point - Main Information
Service Point - Facilities
Service Point - Characteristics
Service Point - SP Type Info
Service Point - Geographic Information
Service Point - Multiple Items
Service Point - Device History
Service Point - Equipment
Service Point - Operations Area
Service Point - SP/SA
Service Point - Field Info
Service Point - SP Route Configuration
Service Point - Main Information

This page contains basic service point information. Use Customer Information, Service Point to
open this page.
Description of Page
Service Point information and SP ID are displayed on every page. These values only appear
after the service point exists on the database. The ID is a system assigned random number that
stays with a service point for life. The Service Point information is a concatenation of important
details about the service point and its premise.
Enter the Premise ID of the premise at which the service point is located.
Indicate the SP Type. A service points SP type controls the following:
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It defines the type of service delivered at the SP.
It defines the service point as metered or item-based.
It plays a part in how consumption at the service point is estimated for high / low and missing
read purposes.
It defines characteristics that are the same for all of its service points.
It defines the type of field activities that may be performed at its service points.
It defines the type of meters that may be installed at its service points.
It defines the type of service agreements that may pay for service at its service points.
It defines the types of equipment that may be linked to its service points.
Refer to Setting Up Service Point Types for more information about SP types.
Use the Service Point Status to indicate if the service point is In Service or Abolished. SP
status controls whether the service point can be linked to new service agreements.
Note. The values for the SP status field are customizable using the Lookup table. This field
name is SP_STATUS_FLG.
If the Service Point Status is In Service, the Abolished Date is gray; otherwise, it contains the
date the service point was abolished.
Specify the Install Date. This is the date of the installation of the service point at the premise. It
is not the date of installation of any meters or other physical device(s) at the service point.
Use the Service Point Source Status to define whether the service point is connected to the
source of power. Valid values are: Connected and Disconnected. If the source status is
disconnected, use Disconnect Location to specify where service was severed. Source status
impacts the type of field activity created for the service point under various circumstances. For
example, if a customer wants to start service at a service point that is disconnected, a field
activity that reconnects the service point would be generated. Refer to Setting Up Field Activity
Type Profiles for more information about automated field activity generation.
Use Location to define where the service point is located on the premise. If needed, Location
Details may be used to clarify the location at the premise.
If the SP Type uses a service route, specify the Service Cycle, Service Route, and Service
Cycle / Route Sequence to define the logical position of the service point in the meter readers
route.
At the bottom of this page is a tree that shows the various objects linked to a service point. You
can use this tree to both view high-level information about these objects and to transfer to the
respective page in which an object is maintained.
Service Point - Facilities

This page contains miscellaneous information about a service point. Use Customer
Information, Service Point and navigate to the Facilities tab to open this page.
Description of Page
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Designate the facility hierarchy that supplies service to the service point using the Facility
Levels. The prompts that appear in front of the facility levels differ depending on the type of
service (the type of service is defined on the service points SP type).
Use the Description to specify anything special about the service point.
Service Point - Characteristics

service point. Use Customer Information, Service Point, Characteristics to open this page.
Description of Page
Service point characteristics are purely informational. The following fields are displayed:
Effective Date
Indicate the effective date of the characteristic type and

value. The service points install date defaults.
Characteristic Type
Default note. A service points characteristics default from your postal default information. Refer
to Setting Up Premise & Service Point Postal Defaults for more information.
Service Point - SP Type Info

The SP type info page is an information only page that shows the characteristics the service point
inherits from its SP type. Use Customer Information, Service Point and navigate to the SP
Type Info tab to open this page.
Description of Page
This page shows the characteristics the service point inherits from its SP type. No fields on this
page may be modified.
Service Point - Geographic Information

The Geo page contains geographic information that defines where the service point is located.
Use Customer Information, Service Point and navigate to the Geo tab to open this page.
Description of Page
The following fields are displayed:
Geographic Type
Indicate the type of geographic data.
Geographic Value
Specify the coordinate value. If the entered value must

be in a specific format, a description of the required
format is displayed adjacent. For example, if you see
the format 99A 99A 99 9, you must enter 2 numbers,
followed by a letter, followed by a space, followed by 2
numbers, followed by a letter, followed by a space,
followed by 2 numbers, followed by a space, followed by
a single number.
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If the geographic type has a required format, you must

enter the geographic value in the respective format; the
system will NOT convert the input value into the relevant
format.
Default note. A service points geographic data defaults from your postal default information.
Refer to Setting Up Premise & Service Point Postal Defaults for more information.
Service Point - Multiple Items

The multi-item page is used to define the non-badged items that exist at the service point. Refer
to Service Points With Multiple Items for more information about when to set up this information
for a service point.
Use Customer Information, Service Point and navigate to the Multi-Item tab to open this page.
Description of Page
Billing accumulates all unbadged items linked to a service point and levies a charge for each type
of item based on information in the service agreements rate.
The collection of items at a service point is effective dated and therefore when you modify this
information, you must differentiate between:
Correcting how the collection of items looked historically by changing existing data.
Adding another collection of items to reflect how the items look after field work has taken
place.
Removing Multi-items from a Service Point. If you want to remove all multi-items from a
service point, add a multi-item collection that doesnt include any items. The effective date should
be the date the multi-items were removed from the service point (i.e. no longer applicable to the
rate).
Define the Effective Date of the collection of items.
Item Type
Indicate the type of item, its description is displayed

adjacent.
Item Count
Indicate how many of the given type of item exist at the

service point.
Service Point - Device History

The device history page is an information only page that shows the meters or items that have
been installed at the service point. Use Customer Information, Service Point and navigate to
the Device History tab to open this page.
Description of Page
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This page shows the history of meters / items that have been installed at this service point. No
fields on this page may be modified. Refer to Installing and Removing A Meter and Installing and
Removing An Item for more information.
Service Point - Equipment

The equipment page contains the equipment that is linked to the service point. Use Customer
Information, Service Point, Equipment to open this page. Refer to Equipment May Be
Associated With Service Points for more information.
Description of Page
Equipment ID
Indicate the unique equipment identifier. When a piece

of equipment is entered, its Badge Number and
Equipment Type description are displayed adjacent.
Note. This is actually the ID of an item as an item must be set up for each piece of equipment
that can be linked to a service point. Only items with an item type defined on the service points
SP types equipment collection may be defined (in other words, the valid types of equipment are
defined on the service points SP type).
Equipment Count
This field should be 1 except when you are using an item

to define a generic piece of equipment. If you use an
item to define a generic piece of equipment, you can
indicate the number of such generic pieces of equipment
that are associated with this service point.
Install Date
Define the date that the equipment was installed at the

service point.
Removal Date
Define the date that the equipment was removed from

the service point.
Comment
Use comments to explain anything unusual about the

piece of equipment.
Service Point - Operations Area

The Op Area page is used to define the operation area that is assigned to field activities
associated with this premise. A different operation area can be associated with different
categories of field activities (identified by a field activitys field activity types field service
classification). Use Customer Information, Service Point, Op Areas to open this page.
Description of Page
Field Service Class
Indicate the field service classification.
Operation Area
Specify the operation area that manages field activities

associated with the field service classification.
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Default note. A service points operations areas default from your postal default information.
Refer to Setting Up Premise & Service Point Postal Defaults for more information.
Service Point - SP/SA

The SP / SA page contains the service agreements that are linked to the service point.
This information is updated by the system when service is started. You should only have to
Warning! You must understand the V very well before attempting to maintain this information.
Refer to Understanding The V for more information.
Use Customer Information, Service Point and navigate to the SP/SA tab to open this page.
Description of Page
Billing uses SP / SA information to amalgamate consumption when it calculates a bill segment for
a service agreement. To modify information for a service agreement linked to the service point,
simply move to a field and change its value. To add a new service agreement, click +, then fill in
the information for each field.
This page works exactly the same as the Service Agreement - SA / SP page except for the field
described below:
Service Agreement
The identity of the service agreement. The division and

type of the service agreement is displayed adjacent.
This field is gray after the service agreement is
committed to the database.
For a detailed description of the remaining fields on this page, refer to Service Agreement - SA /
SP.
Service Point - Field Info

The Field Info page allows the user to override premise field information on a specific service
point. It also shows the corresponding premise field information.
Use Customer Information, Service Point and navigate to the Field Info tab to open this page
Description of Page
To override premise field information on a specific service point, set Override Premise Field
Information to Yes. If the value is set to No, the premise information may not be overridden.
Turn on OK to Enter if the meter is located in the interior of the premise and your company has
permission to enter.
Indicate a MR Warning if a specific warning should be downloaded to the person who reads the
meter.
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Indicate a MR Instruction if specific instructions should be downloaded to the person who reads
the meter. Meter read instructions and warnings are downloaded as part of the meter read
download.
Use Instruction Details to provide more detailed instructions to the individual who reads meters
at this premise.
Turn on Key at Premise if the meter is secured in a locked area and your company has the key.
If this field is turned on, you may also specify the Key ID.
Service Point - SP Route Configuration

The SP Route Configuration page contains the effective dated route configurations for the
Service Point.
This tab may not appear. This tab page only appears if the service points SP Type allows
multiple route usage.
Description of Page
Define the Effective Date of the collection of Service Routes.
Use Comments to explain anything unusual about the service point.
The Service Routes grid contains a row for each unique Service Cycle/Route:
Specify the Service Cycle in which the service point resides.
Use External Route Reference to indicate how this service point is referenced in an external
system, if applicable.
Enter the Service Cycle/Route Sequence to define service points relative position within the
route.
Refer to Designing Cycles for Metered Services and Designing Cycles for Waste Collection
Services for information on designing service cycles.
Dashboard Portal
The Dashboard is a portal that always appears on the Oracle Utilities Customer Care and Billing
desktop. Its zones contain tools and data that are useful regardless of the object being displayed.
about a user can configure which zones appear.
Global context. The system automatically refreshes the values saved in global context with
information about the object that appears in Object Display Area. Various zones available in the
dashboard portal have been designed to display data related to a person id, account id or
premise id, which are populated by the base global context algorithm C1-GLBL-CTXT.
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The contents of this section describe the zones that are available on this portal.
Other zones exist. The zones described below are unique to Oracle Utilities Customer Care and
Billing. Please see Core Dashboard Zones for a description of other zones that can appear on
the dashboard.
Contents
Current Context Zone
Customer Contact Zone
Financial Information Dashboard Zone
Alert Dashboard Zone
Current Context Zone

The Current Context Zone contains basic information about the customer on which you are
working.
A maximum of three rows may appear:
The first row contains a person context menu and the persons name. You can click on the
persons name to transfer to the Person Main page. Note, the persons name is formatted
by a plug-in algorithm on the installation record. Refer to the base packages name format
The second row contains an account context menu and the accounts:
ID and check digit
The primary name of the main customer
Customer class
The last row contains a premise context menu and the premises address and premise type.
Note, the address information is formatted by a plug-in algorithm on the installation record.
Refer to the base packages premise format algorithm for an example. If you prefer a
different format, your system administrator should configure the system appropriately.
Customer Contact Zone

The Customer Contact Zone has three purposes:
It shows the age of the Last customer contact associated with the person displayed in the
Current Context zone. The word Today is shown if the last contact was on the current date.
The word Yesterday is shown if the last contact was on the current date - 1 day. If neither is
applicable, the number of days old is shown.
It shows the name of the person who added this contact.
It greatly simplifies the addition of a new customer contact. To add a new contact, simply
select the Type of customer contact, enter a brief Comment, and press the Add Contact
button.
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After the contact is added, the date / time of the new contact will be displayed in the Last
area. You can use the Go To button to drill into the newly added contact where you can
setup reminders or indicate the contact should remain open until future resolution.
Financial Information Dashboard Zone

The Financial Zone that appears on the dashboard contains the same information that is
described in the Financial Information Zone on the account information portal.
Alert Dashboard Zone

The Alert Zone that appears on the dashboard contains the same information that is described in
the Alert Zone on the account information portal.
Setting Up Bill Print Groups

Bill print groups allow you to categorize an accounts service agreements into groups for bill print
purposes.
Bill print groups are optional. Typically, only accounts with many SAs will use bill print groups
because the standard bill print priority is sufficient for accounts with a limited number of SAs.
Refer to SA Type - Billing for more information about the standard bill print priority.
Lets use an example to clarify the bill print group concept. Consider a local governments
account. This account would have many service agreements (some for the police department,
others for the court system, others for the department of public works, etc.).
If you dont create a bill print group for this customer, their bill segments will be printed in the
order dictated by each segments service agreements SA types bill print priority. If you create a
bill print group for this customer, you can define the customers desired categories (e.g., police,
courts, DPW, etc.) and then link each of the accounts SAs to the appropriate category.
Nomenclature. We refer to the categories under a bill print group as subgroups. A bill print
group can have an unlimited number of subgroups. When you create a subgroup, you define its
relative bill print priority and the associated verbiage to print on the bill (assuming you print
information about the subgroup on the bill).
Wed like to highlight the following characteristics of bill print groups:
A bill print group is associated with a specific account. If multiple customers have the exact
categorization preferences, you will have to set up multiple bill print groups.
Over time, a customer could have many bill print groups. This would happen if a customers
bill categorization preferences change over time. Wed like to stress that while an account
can have multiple bill print groups, only one will be used by the bill print process (the one
effective on the bill date).
Bill print groups only affect printed bills. Bill print groups do not affect the order in which
service agreements appear on the bill maintenance transaction.
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If new service agreements are added after a bill print group is set up for an account, they will
not be linked to a subgroup. If you neglect to link the new service agreements to one of the
bill print groups subgroups they will be printed under the default subgroup (every bill print
group must have one default subgroup to cater for this situation).
Important! While the system supports the definition of bill print groups and the categorization of
an accounts service agreements into the various subgroups, the base packages bill print extract
does NOT take advantage of this information.
The topics in this section describe how to set up a bill print group and how to link an accounts
service agreements to its subgroups.
Contents
Bill Print Group - Main
Bill Print Group - SA Sub Group
Bill Print Group - Main

Open Customer Information, Bill Print Group to maintain an accounts bill print group and
subgroups. After defining this information, transfer to the SA Sub Group tab to link the accounts
service agreements to the subgroups.
Description of Page
The Bill Print Group ID is displayed on every page. This value only appears after the bill print
group exists on the database. The ID is a system-assigned random number that stays with a bill
print group for life.
Enter the Account ID associated with the bill print group.
Use Effective Date to define when the bill print group is effective for the account. This date is
important as it allows a customer to change their preferences over time. For example, if the
customer wants to change the number of subgroups on a given date, you would simply add a
new bill print group effective on this date and then define the new subgroups (and link each
service agreement to one of the subgroups).
Use Status to define if the bill print group is Active or Inactive. You would only use the Inactive
value if the bill print group is no longer needed (as there is no delete action on this transaction).
Enter a brief Description of the bill print group.
Use Comments to describe anything special about the bill print group.
The grid contains the bill print groups subgroups. The following information should be defined for
each subgroup:
Bill Print Sub Group. This is the unique identifier of the bill print subgroup.
Sub Group Bill Print Priority. This is the relative print priority of the subgroup in respect of
the other subgroups.
Use as Default. Turn on this switch for the default sub group. A bill print group must have
one and only one default subgroup. The default group is used by the bill print process if it
detects a service agreement that is not linked to a subgroup (it links this service agreement to
the default subgroup).
Sub Group Description. This is a brief description of the subgroup.
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Description on Bill. This is the verbiage that will print on the bill (assuming you print
something on your bills for the subgroup).
After defining the bill print groups subgroups, navigate to the SA Sub Group tab to link the
accounts service agreements to the subgroups.
Bill Print Group - SA Sub Group

This page is used to link the accounts service agreements to one of the bill print groups
subgroups.
Open Customer Information, Bill Print Group and navigate to the SA Sub Group page to
maintain this information.
Description of Page
The Bill Print Groups ID, Account ID and Effective Date are displayed at the top of the page.
The filters control the service agreements that appear in the SAs in Bill Print Group grid. The
following points describe the various options:
Use the SA Filter to define the types of service agreements that appear in the grid. The
following options are available:
Address. Use this option to restrict service agreements to those linked to service points
associated with a given Address, City and/or Postal code. Note, you can specify any
combination of these fields.
All. Use this option if you do not wish to restrict service agreements based on service
Bill Print Sub Group. Use this option to restrict service agreements to those that are
linked to a given Bill Print Sub Group.
Geographic Type. Use this option to restrict service agreements to those linked to
service points associated with a given Geo Type and Value.
SA Type. Use this option to restrict service agreements to those linked to a given CIS
Division and SA Type.
Use Status Filter to restrict the service agreements based on their status. The following
options are available:
All. This option shows all service agreements regardless of status.
Refer to Service Agreement Lifecycle for the various status values.
The SAs in Bill Print Group contains an entry for every non-cancelled service agreement linked
to the account that is linked to one of the bill print groups subgroups. The following information
appears in the grid:
Use Bill Print Sub Group to define the subgroup associated with the service agreement.
Use Sequence when there is more than one service agreement in the subgroup. The
sequence controls the order in which the service agreement's financial information appears
on the bill.
The SA Information column provides a brief description of the service agreement.
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The Service Agreement column contains the unique identifier of the service agreement.
The Premise Information column contains the characteristic premise associated with the bill
segments service agreement.
The next set of filters control the service agreements that appear in the SAs Not in Bill Print
Group grid. The following points describe the various options:
Use the SA Filter to define the types of service agreements that appear in the grid. The
Address. Use this option to restrict service agreements to those linked to service points
associated with a given Address, City and/or Postal code. Note, you can specify any
combination of these fields.
Geographic Type. Use this option to restrict service agreements to those linked to
service points associated with a given Geo Type and Value.
SA Type. Use this option to restrict service agreements to those linked to a given CIS
Use Status Filter to restrict the service agreements based on their status. The following
All. This option shows all service agreements regardless of status.
Refer to Service Agreement Lifecycle for the various status values.
The SAs Not in Bill Print Group contains an entry for every non-cancelled service agreement
linked to the account that is NOT linked to one of the bill print groups subgroups. The following
information appears in the grid:
Use Bill Print Sub Group to define the subgroup associated with the service agreement.
Use Sequence when there is more than one service agreement in the subgroup. The
sequence controls the order in which the service agreement's financial information appears
on the bill.
The SA Information column provides a brief description of the service agreement.
The Service Agreement column contains the unique identifier of the service agreement.
The Premise Information column contains the characteristic premise associated with the bill
Landlord Reversion
Landlord reversion occurs when a landlord would like to have service reverted to his/her name
when a tenant moves out. The landlord defines his/her reversion preferences using a landlord
agreement.
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A landlords preferences can differ for each type of service. For example, you can indicate
that a specific landlord always wants electric and gas service reverted to his/her account
when a tenant stops service. However, they do not want water service to revert.
A landlords preferences can also be seasonal. For example, you can indicate water service
should only revert to the landlords account during the winter.
The account to use for the reversion of service is defined on the landlord agreement.
Assuming that you have plugged-in a landlord reversion algorithm on SA type, the system uses
the information defined on landlord agreement to create a pending start service agreement(s) for
the landlord when service for the existing tenant is stopped.
The following examples illustrate how your organization's landlord reversion algorithm might
handle various scenarios for a premise that defines a landlord agreement that indicates service
should be reverted:
When the existing customer calls to stop service and no new customer is scheduled to move
in, a pending start service agreement is created for the landlord.
When a new customer calls in to start service
If the start date matches the outgoing customer's start date, the pending start service
agreement for the landlord is canceled
If the start date is earlier than the outgoing customer's stop date, the pending start
service agreement for the landlord is canceled and the stop date of the outgoing
customer is changed to match the new date
If the start date is later than the outgoing customer's stop date, the pending start service
agreement for the landlord is updated with a stop date that matches the new customer's
start date
If changes are made to start or stop dates for the tenants' service agreements, a service
agreement for the landlord may need to be created or canceled
If the change in dates causes a gap in service that did not exist before, a landlord service
agreement is created to cover the gap
If the change in dates means that the tenants are now starting and stopping on the same
date (and there used to be a gap), a landlord service agreement is canceled
If the new customer cancels their pending stop, a landlord service agreement is created (if
one did not exist) or the landlord SA's stop date is removed (if the new customer's start date
resulted in a gap that was being covered by the landlord.
Setting Up Landlord Agreements

The landlord agreement page is used to maintain a landlords service reversion preferences.
A landlord could have many landlord agreements. A landlord will have at least one landlord
agreement. However, if the landlord has different service reversion preferences for different
properties, you can create multiple landlord agreements - one for each set of preferences. After a
landlords reversion preferences have been defined, link the landlord agreement record to the
respective premises.
Use Customer Information, Landlord Agreement to open this page.
Description of Page
105
Landlord and Landlord ID only appear after the landlord is added to the database. Landlord ID
is a system-assigned random number that stays with the landlord agreement for life. Landlord is
the description of the landlord agreement.
If the premise management module is not turned off, a message is displayed indicating the
number of premises linked to this landlord. Clicking the hyperlink message text transfers you to
the premise management page, which helps you to manage the premises linked to the landlord.
Enter a Description of the landlord agreement.
Use Account ID to define the account to use when service is reverted to the landlord. This
should be one of the landlords accounts.
The grid that follows contains one row for each type of service to be reverted to the landlords
account. Any service point whose service type is not referenced in this scroll will NOT revert to
the landlords account when a tenant stops service. For each row define the following:
Service Type defines the type of service point that will revert to the landlords account when
a tenant stops service. Note, a service point inherits its service type from its SP Type.
Turn on Seasonal if the service should only revert to the landlords account during a specific
season of the year. When turned on, you must define the Start Month/Day and the End
Month/Day of the effective season.
Note. The month and day must be entered in the format MM/DD. For example, if a season starts
on March 1, you must enter the value as 03/01.
Using The Premise Replicator

You use the premise replicator to create many copies of a premise and its service points.
Perform the following steps to replicate a premise:
Add a premise.
Add one or more service points to the premise.
Use the premise replicator to create copies of the premise and its service points.
The topics in this section describe how to use the premise replicator.
Contents
Premise Replicator - Main Information
Premise Replicator - Premise
Premise Replicator - Premise SPs
Premise Replicator - Main Information

You use this page to create many copies of a given premise and its service points.
Warning! The system warns you if you attempt to create. However, this is just a warning as you
may want to generate similar premises and then update them with, for example, a unique
apartment number on Premise - Main Information.
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Use Customer Information, Premise Replicator to open this page.

Description of Page
Choose the Premise that serves as the template premise.
Recommendation. Carefully verify the template premise using the other pages in this page
before you save the replicated premises. After you save the replicated premises, any corrections
could prove time consuming.
The two sections at the top of the page determine the number of replica premises to be created
and the address information that will be set up for each premise. The left section is used to
define how the system will create the part of the address that is different for each replica premise.
The right section defines the parts of the address that will be the same for each replica premise.
In the left section:
Use the Replicate option to control how the position of the replicated number in the first address
line:
Choose Street Number if the replicated number should prefix the Base value in the first
address line of the premise. For example, if you have a Start # of 1020 and a Base value of
Main St and you choose the Street Number option, the first replicated premise will be 1020
Main St.
Choose Apartment Number if the replicated number should suffix the Base value in the first
address line of the premise. For example, if you have a Start # of 1020 and a Base value of
101 Main St, Apt. and you choose the Apartment Number option, the first replicated
premise will be 101 Main St, Apt. 1020.
Indicate the Number Of Premises you wish to create.

Use Base to define the information that will appear at the end of the first address line on each of
the replicated premises. Use Start # to define the number assigned to the first copy of the
premise. Use Increment to define the value to increment successive numbers by. The first and
last address lines to be created by the replicator are displayed below.
For example, if the first address you want to create is 101 Derby St, and the last address is 199
Derby and you want to do the odd numbered side of the street, youd enter the following
parameters:
Number of Premises would be 50
Address Suffix would be Derby St
Start From would be 101
Increment by would be 2
The right section displays the rest of the address information that will be copied onto each
replicated premise. This information is defaulted from the template premise that you selected.
The Address 1 field is not shown because you define the information to be entered there in the
previous section, as explained above. The remaining fields, however, may be edited if so
desired.
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After entering the parameters, click the Replicate button to generate your new premises. You
can use the sections at the bottom of the page to view the premises that will be created when you
click save. The left section will show how Address Line 1 will look on the first 10 premises. If you
are creating more than 10 premises, the right section will show how Address Line 1 will look on
the last 10 premises. If everything looks clean, click save.
Premise Replicator - Premise

The Premise page is a display only page provided to let you confirm that the premise you
selected on the add dialog is the one to be used as the template by the replicator. Use
Customer Information, Premise Replicator, Premise to open this page.
Description of Page
This is a display only page that displays key information about the premise being replicated.
Premise Replicator - Premise SPs

This is a display only page provided to let you confirm that the premise you selected on the add
dialog is the one to be used as the template by the replicator. Use Customer Information,
Premise Replicator, Premise SPs to open this page.
Description of Page
This is a display only page that displays the details about the template premises service points.
Start / Stop
The topics in this section describe how to start and stop service.
Order or Start / Stop? Please see Order versus Start / Stop for a discussion of the pros and
cons of using the order transaction versus the start / stop transaction to start service.
Contents
The Big Picture Of Starting Service
The Big Picture Of Stopping Service
Start/Stop Maintenance
The Big Picture Of Starting Service

Almost all requests to start service involve a conversation between a customer and a customer
service representative (CSR). During this conversation, the following is defined:
WHO will pay for the service (i.e., the account).
WHERE the service is consumed (i.e., the premise). Note, this is only required for premiseoriented services.
WHEN the service is requested (i.e., the start date).
WHAT TYPE of service is desired (i.e., the service agreement and service points).
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HOW MUCH will be paid for the service (i.e., the rate and contract riders).
After the conversation is complete, one or more service agreements in the state of pending start
will exist. If the service agreement uses service points, field activities may also be created.
In this section, we provide background information about the start process. For information about
the page used to start service, refer to Start Stop Maintenance.
Contents
The Lifecycle Of A Pending Start Service Agreement
Starting Service & Field Activities
Activating Pending Starts
What Happens After A SA Is Started?
The Lifecycle Of A Pending Start Service Agreement

When you request a new service for a customer, a pending start service agreement is created.
The following diagram illustrates the lifecycle of a typical pending start service agreement:
Event
Objects Created / Updated
Process
1-Dec-2000
Customer calls
requesting service on
15-Dec-1998
Start Service
Page
creates
service
agreement
SP 1: Electric Service Point

Start read: blank
the field activity is linked to the pending
start service agreement
field activity(ies)
are created
behind the
scenes
15-Dec-2000
Field work is done
and the field activity is
completed
Service Agree: Electric, Resid

Status: Pending Start
Field Order
Completion
Process
Service
Activation
Process
completes
field order
and field
activities
links start read
to SA and
activates SA
Field Act: Electric Service Point

Activity Type: Read Meter
Status: Pending
Step 1: Read meter

Status: Completed
Step 1: Read meter

Status: Active
Start read: 15-Dec-1998, 0000
updates the
account's bill
cycle and
mailing premise
Account: 1391919201
Bill Cycle: 05
Mailing Premise: 20 Oak St.
The above diagram is referenced in the topics that follow.
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Starting Service & Field Activities

When you initiate a request to start service, the system creates a service agreement in the state
of pending start. If the service agreement is service point-oriented, pending field activities
necessary to start will be created at some point prior to the service agreement being activated.
The question is when? The contents of this section provide information about when they are
created and what types of activities are created.
When you enable the Control Central alert algorithm, C1-PEND-STRT, an alert displays when
there is a pending start service agreement linked to the account. This algorithm is plugged-in on
the installation record.
Contents
What Type Of Start Field Activities Are Created
When Start Field Activities Are Created
How To Start Service Using A Scheduled Meter Read
What Type Of Start Field Activities Are Created

The type of the service point (e.g., electric residential, gas industrial) and the state of service
(e.g., disconnected / no meter, connected / meter installed) at the service point dictate the type of
field activity. For example, if the service point doesnt currently have a meter, the new field
activity should request a meter installation. Whereas if theres already a meter installed, but its
turned off, the type of field activity should be to turn on the meter.
If youve set up your system properly, the system creates the appropriate field activity given the
type and state of the service point; you shouldnt have to be aware of field activities.
In addition to being linked to the service points, these field activities are also linked to the service
agreement / service point relationship so that the system can automatically activate the service
agreement when the field activities are complete.
Back-to-Back. We use the term back-to-back to describe the situation when a single field
activity supports both the stop and start service requests. The fieldwork algorithm delivered with
the base package sets up a back-to-back situation by default when it is aware of both the start
AND stop customers at a premise.
For more information about the field activities associated with your SP types, refer to Setting Up
Field Activity Type Profiles. Refer to The System Activates Most Service Agreements BehindThe-Scenes for information about how the system monitors field activities linked to a service
agreement. Refer to The Lifecycle Of Field Activities And Field Orders for information about how
field activities are dispatched and completed.
When Start Field Activities Are Created

Field activities will be created when the pending start service agreement is created if the
following conditions are true:
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The Create Field Activity Start Stop switch is enabled on the installation record. Refer to
Installation Options - Main for more information.
The appropriate create fieldwork creation algorithm is defined on the service agreements SA
type. Refer to SA Type - Algorithms for more information.
If the Create Field Activity Start Stop switch is NOT enabled on the installation record, field
activities will NOT be created when the pending start is saved. Rather, a background process
(referred to by the batch ID of PSASPM) creates the field activities shortly before the start date.
The number of days before the start date on which field activities will be created is defined on the
service agreements SA types fieldwork creation algorithm.
A fail safe. If any person or process attempts to activate a pending start service agreement and
neither of the above events has taken place, field activities will be created when the user attempts
to activate the pending start. The creation of the field activities will prevent the service
agreement from being activated as described under The System Activates Most Service
Agreements Behind The Scenes.
You must set up the algorithm! Field activities will only be created if you have defined the
appropriate field work creation algorithm on the service agreements SA type. The algorithm that
is supplied with the base package checks if the service agreement / service point already has a
start read or a start field activity, if so, field activities will not be created (the field work has already
been initiated).
How To Start Service Using A Scheduled Meter Read

Another option exists for starting service when all that is required is a meter reading. If the
requested start date is close to a scheduled meter read date, you can forego a special trip into
the field to get the reading. The system can use the scheduled meter read as long as it is close
enough to the start date (you can determine how close enough is defined using a parameter on
the batch process described below).
If the start date does not exactly match the date that the meter was read, it will prorate the
reading, store it as a meter read of type system prorated, and will link it to the SA/SP so that the
service agreement can be started. A special batch process (called FANRMRCO) exists to
perform the analysis of whether or not a reading is available and if its date is close enough (the
number of days is an input parameter to the process). It performs the proration as well and
creates the special meter reads.
Refer to Background Processes for more information on this process.
To use scheduled reads to start service, you need to set up and use a special field activity type:
Meter Read Near Cycle it will not be eligible for dispatch and its only step type is read meter.
The base package supplied field activity creation algorithm accepts this field activity type as an
input parameter. Start (and stop) events are then created with field activities that use this field
activity type. The batch process mentioned above looks for field activities of this type and tries to
use a scheduled meter read to complete them.
Note: if FANRMRCO cannot find a reading in the specified time period, it will cancel the special
field activity and create a normal activity according to the field activity profile. If it finds a peak
demand type reading or a consumption type reading, it posts a To Do entry. The type of To Do
entry is defined as a parameter of the batch process.
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Activating Pending Starts

When you initiate a request to start service, the system initiates a service agreement in the state
of pending start. A pending start service agreement remains in this state until everything
necessary to start service is defined in the system. At that time, the service agreement can be
activated.
Contents
What Is Necessary To Start Service?
The System Activates Most Service Agreements Behind-The-Scenes
What Happens At Activation Time?
What Is Necessary To Start Service?

The service agreements SA type defines what is necessary to start service:
For SA types that have service points, all field activities linked to the service point must be
complete before the service agreement can be activated. If field activities are linked to the
service agreement, the system automatically links the appropriate billable read to the service
point as its start read when the field activity is complete. (The completed field activity should
have a read linked to it. If it is billable, it is used as the start read.)
For SA types that dont have service points (e.g., charitable donations, deposits, one-time
charges), everything necessary to activate the service agreement is defined when you initiate
the request to start service. These types of service agreements can be activated
immediately.
Warning! If the completed field activity linked to the SA / SP doesnt have an associated read
(for whatever reason), the system still activates the service agreement but leaves the SA/SP
without a starting read. It does this because it relies on billing to create a bill segment error the
first time it attempts to bill the service agreement.
Warning! If a service agreement has required SA relationship types (e.g., if an energy supply
service agreement must have a SA relationship defining the distribution company), the system
activates the service agreement even when these required relationships are not defined. It does
this because it counts on billing to create a bill segment error the first time it attempts to bill the
service agreement (billing creates an error bill segment for a service agreement if it does not
have its required SA relationships defined).
The System Activates Most Service Agreements Behind-The-Scenes

Service agreements are activated by one of the following methods:
The SA activation background process (referred to by the batch control ID of SAACT)

automatically activates pending start service agreements once it detects that everything
necessary to start service is defined in the system. This is the most common method for
activating service agreements. This process runs as often as your organization desires (but it
should run at least daily).
Sub SAs are not handled by the SA activation background process. If your organization
uses the SA relationship functionality and you have service providers that necessitate sub service
agreements, you should be aware that the SA activation background process only activates
normal and master SAs; sub SAs are activated by the analyze SA relationships background
process (described in the next bullet point).
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If your organization uses the SA relationship functionality and you have service providers that
necessitate sub service agreements, the analyze SA relationships background process
(referred to by the batch control ID of ANLYZSAR) automatically activates pending start sub
SAs if their master SA is active.
You can automatically activate a service agreement when its created if you plug-in an SA
creation algorithm of type SACR-AT on the SA type. Because everything necessary to start
service must be defined in the system before a service agreement can be activated, this
method only works for SA types that dont have service points (e.g., charitable donations,
deposits, one-time charges, etc.). If this algorithm is not plugged in on an SA type, service
agreements of that type are activated by the SA activation background process or manually.
You can activate a service agreement manually (assuming everything thats necessary to
activate service is in place). Simply open Service Agreement - Main and click the Activate
SA button. This is only necessary if you do not want to wait until the SA activation
background process next runs.
What Happens At Activation Time?

When a service agreement is activated, the following takes place:
If the service agreement has start-oriented field activities linked to its service points, billable
read(s) from the field activity(s) are linked to the service agreements service points as their
start reads. If there are no associated billable reads, the system still starts the service
agreement knowing that billing will generate an error when the service agreement is billed.
The service agreements state is changed from pending start to active.
If the accounts bill cycle is not protected and the service agreement has a metered service
point, the bill cycle will be changed to reflect the service points service cycles bill cycle.
If the accounts mailing premise is not protected and the service agreement has a service
point whose premise is a mailing premise, the mailing premise is changed to reflect the
service points premise.
If the accounts division is not protected, the division is changed to reflect the service
agreements SA types division.
If there is a start adjustment defined on the service agreements start option, an adjustment is
levied.
The main customers billing address is changed to reflect the value specified on the
Start/Stop page (and this may involve changing the main customers override mailing address
on their person record).
What Happens After A SA Is Started?

Refer to The Lifecycle Of A Service Agreement for more information about a service agreements
lifecycle.
The Big Picture Of Stopping Service

To stop service you must define:
WHO pays for the service (i.e., the account).
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WHEN service should stop (i.e., the stop start date).
WHAT services to stop (i.e., the premise or specific service agreements).
After the above is defined in the system, the state of one or more service agreements will be
changed to pending stop. If the service agreement uses service points, field activities may also
be created.
In this section, we provide background information about the stop process. For information about
the page used to stop service, refer to Start Stop Maintenance.
Contents
The Lifecycle Of A Pending Stop Service Agreement
Stopping Service & Field Activities
Finalizing Pending Stops
What Happens After A Service Agreement Is Stopped?
The Lifecycle Of A Pending Stop Service Agreement

When you request to stop service for a customer, the status of an existing service agreement
becomes pending stop. The following diagram illustrates the lifecycle of a typical pending stop
service agreement:
114
Event
Process
1-Mar-1999
Customer calls
requesting service
termination on 1April-1999
Start/Stop
Service Page
updates
service
agreement

Stop read: blank
the field activity is linked to the pending
stop service agreement
field activity(ies)
are created
behind the
scenes
1-Apr-1999
Field work is done
and the field activity is
completed

Status: Pending Stop
Field Order
Completion
Process
Service
Finalization
Process
completes
field order
and field
activities
links stop read
to SA and
finalizes SA

Status: Pending
Step 1: Read meter

Status: Completed
Step 1: Read meter

Status: Stopped
Stop read: 1-Apr-1999, 3829
updates the
account's bill
cycle
Account: 1391919201
Bill Cycle: 05
The above diagram is referenced in the topics that follow.
Stopping Service & Field Activities

When you initiate a request to stop service, the system changes the service agreement to the
state of pending stop. If the service agreement is service point-oriented, pending field activities
necessary to stop will be created at some point prior to the service agreement being stopped.
The question is when? The contents of this section provide information about when they are
created and what types of activities are created.
Contents
What Type Of Stop Field Activities Are Created
When Stop Field Activities Are Created
How To Stop Service Using A Scheduled Meter Read
What Type Of Stop Field Activities Are Created

The type of the service point (e.g., electric residential, gas industrial) and the state of service
(e.g., disconnected / no meter, connected / meter installed) at the service point dictate the type of
field activity. For example, an industrial electric meter may require a different type of field activity
to stop service than does a residential gas meter.
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If youve set up your system properly, the system creates the appropriate field activity given the
type and state of the service point; you shouldnt have to be aware of field activities.
In addition to being linked to the service points, these field activities are also linked to the service
agreement / service point relationship so that the system can automatically stop the service
agreement when the field activities are complete.
Back-to-Back. We use the term back-to-back to describe the situation when a single field
activity supports both the stop and start service requests. The fieldwork algorithm delivered with
the base package sets up a back-to-back situation by default when it is aware of both the start
and stop customers at a premise.
For more information about the field activities associated with your SP types, refer to Setting Up
Field Activity Type Profiles. Refer to The System Finalizes Most Service Agreements BehindThe-Scenes for information about how the system monitors field activities linked to a service
agreement. Refer to The Lifecycle Of Field Activities And Field Orders for information about how
field activities are dispatched and completed.
When Stop Field Activities Are Created

Field activities will be created when the pending stop service agreement is recorded when the
following conditions are true:
The Create Field Activity Start Stop switch is enabled on the installation record. Refer to
Installation Options - System for more information.
The appropriate create fieldwork creation algorithm is defined on the service agreements SA
type. Refer to SA Type - Algorithms for more information.
If the Create Field Activity Start Stop switch is NOT enabled on the installation record, field
activities will NOT be created when the pending stop is saved. Rather, a background process
(referred to by the batch ID of PSASPM) creates the field activities shortly before the stop date.
The number of days before the stop date on which field activities will be created is defined on the
service agreements SA types fieldwork creation algorithm.
More information about the Create Field Activity Start Stop switch on the installation
record. When this switch is on (and the user doesnt override it), pending field activities will be
created when a start or stop is recorded (as opposed to shortly before the start / stop date). You
might want to turn this switch off if its possible for the state of the service point (or its meter /
item) to change between the time service is requested and the actual service date. Why?
Because the state of the SP and its meter / item affects the type of field activity that is created.
For example, if a customer wants to start service and there is no meter at the metered service
point, an install meter field activity is created. However, if by the time the install date comes
around, a meter has been installed by some other means; this field activity is inappropriate. This
is why if you might want to set up the system to wait until shortly before the service date to create
the field activity (i.e., it reduces the likelihood that an inappropriate field activity is created).
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A fail safe. If any person or process attempts to finalize a pending stop service agreement and
neither of the above events has taken place, field activities will be created when the user attempts
to finalize the pending stop. The creation of the field activities will prevent the service
agreement from being stopped as described under The System Finalizes Most Service
Agreements Behind The Scenes.
You must set up the algorithm! Field activities will only be created if you have defined the
appropriate field work creation algorithm on the service agreements SA type. The algorithm that
is supplied with the base package checks if the service agreement / service point already has a
stop read or a stop field activity, if so, field activities will not be created (the field work has already
been initiated).
How To Stop Service Using A Scheduled Meter Read

Another option exists for stopping service when all that is required is a meter reading. If the
requested stop date is close to a scheduled meter read date, you can forego a special trip into the
field to get the reading. Refer to How To Start Service Using A Scheduled Meter Read for more
information; the stop service option works in the same way and uses the same field activity type.
Finalizing Pending Stops

When you initiate a request to stop service, the system changes the service agreements state to
pending stop. A pending stop service agreement remains in this state until everything
necessary to stop service is defined in the system. At that time, the system automatically
changes the state of the service agreement to stopped, and at that time the service agreement
can be final billed.
So, how does the system know that everything necessary is in the system? In this section we
provide the answer and explain the many other things that may take place at pending stop
finalization.
Contents
The System Finalizes Most Service Agreements Behind-The-Scenes
What Happens At Finalization Time?
The System Finalizes Most Service Agreements Behind-The-Scenes

The SA activation background process (referred to by the batch control code SAACT) finalizes a
pending stop service agreement when everything necessary is in place. The service
agreements SA Type defines whats necessary:
For SA Types that dont have service points (e.g., charitable donations, deposits, third party
billing), everything necessary to finalize the service agreement is defined when you initiate
the request to stop service. These types of service agreements can be finalized immediately.
For SA Types that have service points, all field activities linked to the service point must be
complete. If field activities are linked to the service agreement, the system will automatically
link the appropriate billable read to the service point as its stop read when the field activity is
complete.
Warning! If the completed field activity linked to the SA / SP doesnt have an associated read
(for whatever reason), the system still stops the service agreement but leaves the SA/SP without
a stop read. It does this because it counts on billing to create a bill segment error when it
attempts to final bill the service agreement.
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When the SA activation background process detects that everything necessary to stop service is
in place, it automatically stops the service agreement. This process runs as often as your
organization desires (but it should run at least daily).
Sub SAs are not handled by the SA activation background process. If your organization
uses the SA relationship functionality and you have service providers that necessitate sub service
agreements, you should be aware that the SA activation background process only stops normal
and master SAs; sub SAs are stopped by the analyze SA relationships background process.
You can stop a service agreement real-time (assuming everything thats necessary to stop
service is in place). Simply open Service Agreement - Main and click the Stop button.
What Happens At Finalization Time?

When a service agreement is finalized, the following takes place:
If the service agreement has stop-oriented field activities linked to its service points, billable
read(s) from the field activity(s) are linked to the service agreements service points as their
stop reads. If there are no associated billable reads, the system still stops the service
agreement knowing that billing will generate an error when the service agreement is billed.
Note, you can see the field activities that are linked to a service agreement using Service
Agreement - Service Point.
If the service agreements SA type has a SA Stop algorithm, the algorithm is executed.
If the service agreement is for a non-billed budget (i.e., the SA type has a special role of Nonbilled Budget), the system removes all covered SAs from the non-billed budget. Refer to
Stopping Non-billed Budgets for more information.
If the service agreement is covered by a non-billed budget, the SA is removed from the nonbilled budget. Refer to Stopping a Covered SA for more information.
When the last active service agreement covered by a non-billed budget is stopped, the nonbilled budget will be stopped (i.e., its state will be changed from active to pending stop).
The service agreements state will be changed from pending stop to stopped.
If the service agreement has an active severance process, the process and its severance
events will be canceled.
If the service agreement is linked to an active collection process, the service agreement is
removed from the collection process. If the collection process has no other active service
agreements, it is canceled.
When the last service agreement linked to an account is stopped, the accounts bill cycle will
be changed so that the account will be final billed when billing next executes. The system
selects the latest open bill cycle where the Freeze and Complete switch value matches the
value of the Freeze and Complete switch of the accounts current bill cycle. In addition, the
account's protect bill cycle flag is set to No so that the next time this account starts service,
its bill cycle will be set based on the new service point's service cycle.
The main customers billing address will be changed to reflect the value specified on the
Start/Stop page (and this may involve changing the main customers override mailing address
on their person record).
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If the service agreement is for a deposit (i.e., the SA type has a special role of Cash
Deposit), the system calculates interest through the stop date. In addition, the SA's current
balance is synchronized with its payoff balance (using the sync adjustment code defined on
the service agreements SA type).
When the last active service agreement governed by a deposit class is stopped, all active
deposit service agreements governed by the same deposit class will be stopped (i.e., their
state will be changed from active to pending stop). These pending stop deposit service
agreement will then be stopped (as per the above points).
When a service agreement is stopped, the system automatically cancels the budget. Refer to
Canceling A Budget for more information.
What Happens After A Service Agreement Is Stopped?

Refer to The Lifecycle Of A Service Agreement for more information about a service agreements
lifecycle.
Start/Stop Maintenance
You use the start/stop page to both start and stop service.
This page handles a variety of scenarios, including:
Starting some or all services at a premise. Note, the system will automatically stop the
existing customer when you indicate a new customer is starting.
Stopping some or all services at a premise. Note, the system will automatically revert service
to a landlords account when you indicate a tenant is stopping.
Starting non-premise-oriented services.
Stopping non-premise-oriented services.
Changing the mailing address associated with the accounts main customer.
Refer to The Big Picture Of Starting Service for more information about starting service. Refer to
The Big Picture Of Stopping Service for more information about stopping service.
The topics in the section describe the start/stop page in detail.
Contents
Start/Stop - Main
Start/Stop - Start Confirmation
Start/Stop - Stop Confirmation
Start/Stop - Address/Phone
Start/Stop - Pending SA
Start/Stop - Pending Field Activity
How To
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Start/Stop - Main
The Description of Page section that appears below simply describes the fields on this page.
Refer to How To for a description of how to perform common start/stop functions.
Use Customer Information, Start Stop to open this page.
Description of Page
The Account ID and the primary name of the Accounts main customer are displayed at the top
of the page.
If the total number of pending start / stops for the account does not exceed the start stop details
threshold defined in Installation Options, the grid contains an entry for every Pending Start and
Pending Stop service agreement linked to the Account ID.
If information appears on the right portion of the grid, that means that reciprocal relationships
exist. The following points describe potential reciprocal relationships:
A reciprocal will be shown for a Pending Start service agreement if the Pending Start
service agreement has at least one service point and if another service agreement is found
that satisfies the following criteria:
The status of the service agreement is not Canceled or Active,
The service agreement is linked to all of the Pending Start service agreements service
points (and all SA/SP records have the same stop date as defined on the qualifying
service agreement).
The service agreements stop date is on/before the start date.
The service agreements SA type has a service type that is the same as the Pending
Start service agreements service type.
Note: if multiple service agreements meet the above criteria, the latest qualifying service
agreement is shown as the reciprocal.
A reciprocal will be shown for a Pending Stop service agreement if the Pending Stop
service agreement has at least one service point and if another service agreement is found
that satisfies the following criteria:
The status of the service agreement is not Canceled
The service agreement is linked to all of the Pending Stop service agreements service
points (and they all have the same start date as defined on the qualifying service
agreement).
The service agreements start date is on/after the stop date.
The service agreements SA type has a service type that is the same as the Pending
Stop service agreements service type.
Note: if multiple service agreements meet the above criteria, the earliest qualifying service
agreement is shown as the reciprocal.
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Note. If multiple reciprocals exist for a given SA, none of the reciprocals will be shown. In this
situation, an appropriate message is displayed highlighting this situation. The existence of
multiple reciprocals is rare, but it could happen, for example, if multiple customers are paying for
a service points service (where one customer pays for 60% of the metered consumption and the
other pays for the remaining 40%).
The following columns appear in the grid:
Drill Down (button)
Click this button to drill down into details of the pending

start / stop SA. This button transfers you to the Pending
SA tab.
Action
An icon will be displayed to highlight if the associated SA

is a pending start or a pending stop. The
icon
appears if the SA is a pending start. The

icon
appears if the SA is a pending stop. If there is a
reciprocal SA for the pending start, the
icon appears
adjacent; clicking it will cause the SA grid to scroll to the
left (so that you can see the pending stop). If there is a
reciprocal SA for the pending stop, the
icon appears
adjacent; clicking it will cause the SA grid to scroll to the
left (so that you can see the pending start).
Date
This is the start date for pending start service

agreements and the stop date for pending stop service
agreements.
Cancel
Turn on this switch if you wish to cancel the pending

start / stop.
Field activities will be cancelled too. If you cancel a pending start / stop that has field
activities, the field activities will also be cancelled. Refer to Starting Service & Field Activities for
the details about how the system automatically creates the field activities to support start service
requests. Refer to Stopping Service & Field Activities for the details about how the system
creates the field activities to support stop service requests.
System-generated reciprocals will be cancelled too. If you cancel a pending start / stop that
has a SYSTEM-GENERATED reciprocal SA, the reciprocal will also be cancelled.
Premise Information
If a characteristic premise is linked to the service

agreement, summary information about the pending start
/ stop SA's characteristic premise is displayed.
SA Information
Summary information about the pending start / stop SA

is displayed.
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Action
If this column is blank, then there is no reciprocal

start/stop for the service agreement whose details
appear to the left. If this column is not blank, then the
information that appears to the right describes the
reciprocal SA of the SA to the left. If a reciprocal SA
exists, two icons will always appear: if a
combination appears, the SA to the left is a pending stop
(and clicking the
icon will cause the pending stop to
appear); if a
combination appears, the SA to the
left is a pending start (and clicking the

cause the pending start to appear).
icon will
Date

agreements.
Cancel

start / stop.
Field activities will be cancelled too. If you cancel a pending start / stop that has field
activities, the field activities will also be cancelled. Refer to Starting Service & Field Activities for
the details about how the system automatically creates the field activities to support start service
requests. Refer to Stopping Service & Field Activities for the details about how the system
creates the field activities to support stop service requests.
System-generated reciprocals will be cancelled too. If you cancel a pending start / stop that
has a SYSTEM-GENERATED reciprocal SA, the reciprocal will also be cancelled.
Account Info
The name of the main customer associated with the

reciprocals service agreements account is displayed.
Premise Information
Summary information about the pending start / stop

premise is displayed.
SA Information

is displayed.
If the total number of pending start / stops for the account exceeds the start stop details threshold
defined in Installation Options, the Total number of Pending Starts and Total number of
Pending Stops is displayed together with a grid containing a summary of the pending start and
pending stops.
The grid contains an entry for every group of Pending Start / Pending Stop service agreement
linked to the Account ID with the same pending start / pending stop date, action, premise, and
CIS division/SA Type.
The following columns appear in the grid:
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Date

agreements.
Action
An icon will be displayed to highlight if the associated

SA(s) are pending start or pending stop. The
icon
appears if the SA(s) are a pending start. The

icon
appears if the SA(s) are a pending stop. Click on the
icon to navigate to the Start Stop - Pending SA tab
where the associated pending start / pending stop
service agreements will be displayed.
Premise Information

CIS Division / SA Type
This is the CIS division and service agreement type of

the pending start / pending stop service agreements.
Total
This is the total number of service agreements with the

same Date, Action, Premise, and CIS Division / SA
Type.
Following the Pending Start / Pending Stop grid are two sections; one is used to start service,
the other is used to stop service.
The following points describe the fields in the start service section (refer to How To for a
description of how to perform common start functions).
Use Start Date to define the date on which you want service to commence.
Use Start Method to define what you want to start. Valid values are:
Start Premise SPs. Use this method if you want to start selected services at a premise.
This method allows you to control the display of the service agreements to be started,
providing a manageable view when there are many service agreements to be started at a
premise.
Start a Premise. Use this method if you want to start services at a premise.
Start a SA. Use this method if you want to start a non-premise-oriented service (e.g., a
deposit, a charitable contribution, a one-time charge).
If you have selected the Start Premise SPs or Start a Premise option, use Address and
City to select the premise. Refer to Control Central - Main for suggestions in respect of how
to use these fields. The selected address and premise ID appear below the selection.
If you have selected the Start a SA option, use CIS Division and SA Type to define the type
of service agreement you wish to start.
CIS Division / SA Type as it will affect how the customer is billed, what rate can be specified, how
overdue debt is collected, and much more. After the service agreement is activated, you may not
change its SA type.
Use Requested by to define who requested the stop (e.g., Customer, Jane Smith).
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Click the Start button to start service. When you click this button, the Start Confirmation
page appears.
The following points describe the fields in the stop service section (refer to How To for a
description of how to perform common stop functions).
Use Stop Date to define the date on which you want service to stop.
Use Stop Method to define what you want to stop. Valid values are:
Stop Selected SAs. Use this method if you want to stop selected service agreements
Stop a Premise. Use this method if you want to stop ALL services at a premise.
Stop a SA. Use this method if you want to stop a specific SA.
Stop all Active SAs. Use this method if you want to stop ALL service agreements linked
to the account.
If you have selected the Stop a Premise option, choose the Premise ID. You can optionally
choose a specific premise if you selected the Stop Selected SAs option.
If you have selected the Stop a SA option, choose the SA ID.
Use Requested by to define who requested the stop (e.g., Customer, Jane Smith).
Click the Stop button to stop service.
Start/Stop - Start Confirmation

The Start SA Confirmation page appears after a user clicks the Start button on Start/Stop - Main.
This page presents a summary of the service agreement(s) that will be created if the Start button
on this page is clicked. Refer to How To for a description of how to perform common start
functions.
Description of Page
The Account ID and the primary name of the accounts main customer are displayed at the top of
the page.
The Start Date is the date on which the service is scheduled to start.
Start Requested By contains the name of the person who requested the start.
The SAs to Start scroll contains an entry for every service agreement that will be created if you
click the Start button. If you do not want a service agreement to be created, click the button (or
turn off Start this SA). If youd like to start a non-premise oriented service agreement, click the +
button. The following fields appear on this page:
Start this SA
Turn this switch on if you want this type of service

agreement to be created. Turn this switch off if you do
not want this type of service agreement to be created.
If you used a Start Method of Start a SA on the
Start/Stop page, this switch will be turned on by default.
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If you used a Start Method of Start a Premise (or Start

Premise SPs) and this is the first customer at a premise,
this switch will be turned on for all service agreements
that appear in the scroll. However, if there was a
previous customer at the premise, this switch is only
turned on for those types of service agreements used by
the previous customer (we assume the new customer
only wants the services used by the previous customer).
Service agreements that are possible, but were not used
by the previous customer, will appear in the scroll with
this switch turned off.
These fields define the type of service agreement that

will be created. If you change the CIS Division, you
must change the SA Type to reflect one of the services
that the division manages.
If the SA is linked to a service point, the SA types are
restricted based on the type(s) of service points (SP) the
system has associated with the service agreement (as
indicated in the message box). If there are no SPs, only
SA types that dont use SPs are displayed. If there is a
single SP, only SA types valid for the related SP Type
are displayed. If there are multiple SPs, only SA types
valid for all related SP Types are displayed.
Default Note. If the service is linked to a service point, the SA Type defaults based on the SP
Type. Refer to SP Type - SA Type for more information.
Start Option
Some SA Types have start options. A start option

defines the rate and contract terms defaulted on the
service agreement. This field will be gray if the SA type
does not use start options.
Total Amount to Bill
Use this field if the service agreement is supposed to bill

a given amount over its lifetime. This is typically used
for deposit service agreements to define the amount of
the deposit that should be billed. If the deposit is billed
in installments, the installment amount is specified in the
next field. This field is gray if the respective SA type
doesnt use the Total Amount to Bill option.
This button is only appears if the SA type has a special
role of Cash Deposit and references a deposit class.
When clicked, the system attempts to calculate a
recommended deposit amount by calling the
recommended deposit amount algorithm that is plugged
in on the SA types deposit class.
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Customer Read
Use this value to define if the customer reads his or her

own meter. Valid values are Yes and No. This field
does not appear for some SA types.
Allow Estimates
Turn on this switch if its OK for the system to estimate

this service agreements consumption if a real meter
read is missing at billing time. If the SA type does not
allow estimates, this does not appear.
Recurring Charge Amount
This fields label is dynamic based on the content of the

Recurring Charge Amount Label on the respective SA
Type. This field is gray if the respective SA type doesnt
use the Recurring Charge option. This field is typically
used only for the following types of service agreements:
Service agreements on a levelized payment plan.

This field contains the amount charged each month
for the service regardless of the actual amount
owed.
Merchandise service agreements on an installment

plan. This field contains the installment amount.
Deposit service agreements on an installment plan.

This field contains the installment amount.
Charitable contribution service agreement. This field

contains the contribution amount.
Default note. The recurring charge amount defaults based on the Start Option.
SIC Code
Select the SIC code associated with the customer. This

is typically used only for commercial and industrial
customers.
Business Activity
Enter a description of the business activity at the location

where this service is being started.
SA Information
This is a display-only area that provides information

about the specific pending start SA. For example,
information about the service points linked to the SA will
be displayed for SP-oriented service agreements.
Messages
This is a display-only area that that provides information

about the accounts start / stop situation in general. For
example, if there are multiple accounts paying for
service at the premise an appropriate message will be
displayed.
When you click the Start button, the system performs the following for every service:
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A service agreement is created effective on the start date.
If a start option is specified, the service agreements rate and contract terms are populated
using information on the option. If a start option is not specified, the service agreements rate
is populated with the SA types default rate.
Service points are linked to the service agreement (if the service agreement is service pointoriented). The SA/SP start date for each service point is the same as the SAs start date.
If you use a Start Method of Start Premise SPs on Start/Stop - Main, the SAs to Start are
displayed in a grid; you can control the service agreements that appear using filter options. You
may want to use the filter if you have a premise with a large number of service agreements to
start.
Premise Info displays summary information about the premise at which services are to be
started.
The section beneath Premise Info provides you with options that control which service
agreements appear in the grid. The following points describe the various options:
Use the SP Type Filter to restrict the service agreements that appear in the grid based on
the SP type of the service points that will be linked to the service agreement. The following
point type.
Specific SP Type. Use this option to restrict service agreements to those that will be
linked to service points of a specific SP Type.
Use the Geographic Type Filter to restrict the service agreements that appear in the grid
based on a geographic type and value of the service points that will be linked to the service
agreement. The following options are available:
All. Use this option if you do not wish to restrict service agreements based on a
geographic type and value.
<Geographic Type>. Use this option to restrict service agreements to those that will be
linked to service points associated with the selected geographic type and Geographic
Value.
Select whether to Include or Exclude service agreements that are linked to service points
where Service Exists Already. These service agreements are those that would be not be
started by default. Refer to the description of the Start this SA checkbox for more
information on service agreements that would be not be started by default.
The Select All / Clear All buttons are used to select service agreements to start. These buttons
are enabled if at least one service agreement is displayed in the grid.
30 service agreements at a time. Clicking Select All selects the first 30 service agreements in
the grid. If more than 30 service agreements exist, you must select and start them in batches.
The grid that displays contains the SAs to Start that match your filter criteria. Click on the
drill down button to open the Start SA Confirmation Details page.
The fields in the grid on the Start SA Confirmation page and on the Start SA Confirmation Details
page are as described above for the SAs to Start scroll. Differences are highlighted here:
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SP Info
This is summary information about the service point at

which service is to be started.
SP Identifier
The service point's SP type's identifying geographic type

and value. Refer to Setting Up Service Point Types. Up
to three geo types and values are displayed in the SAs
to Start grid.
Click the Start button on the Start SA Confirmation page to start the selected SAs. Click on the
Close button to return to the main page - any changes made on this page since the last time you
clicked Start are discarded.
Start/Stop - Stop Confirmation

If you choose the stop method of Stop Selected SAs, the Stop SA Confirmation page appears
after a user clicks the Stop button on Start/Stop - Main. This page presents a summary of the
service agreement(s) that will be stopped if the Stop button on this page is clicked. Refer to How
To for a description of how to perform common start stop functions.
Description of Page
The Account ID and the primary name of the accounts main customer are displayed at the top of
the page.
The Stop Date is the date on which the service is scheduled to stop.
Requested By contains the name of the person who requested the stop.
The section beneath Requested By provides you with options that control which service
agreements appear in the grid. The following points describe the various options:
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Use the Premise Filter to restrict the service agreements to those that are linked to a specific
characteristic premise. The following options are available:
All. Use this option if you do not wish to restrict service agreements based on premise.
No Premise. Use this option to restrict service agreements to those that do not have a
characteristic premise.
Specific Premise. Use this option to restrict service agreements to those with a
characteristic premise of Premise ID.
Use the SA Type Filter to restrict service agreements to those of a given SA Type.
All. Use this option if you do not wish to restrict service agreements based on SA Type.
Specific SA Type. Use this option to restrict service agreements to those of a given CIS
based on the geographic type and value of the service points that are linked to the service
linked to service points / premises associated with the selected geographic type and
Geographic Value.
The Select All / Clear All buttons are used to select service agreements to stop. These buttons
are enabled if at least one service agreement is displayed in the grid.
the grid. If more than 30 service agreements exist, you must select and stop them in batches.
The grid that follows contains the service agreements to stop that match your filter criteria. The
following information appears in the grid:
Select Box
Use this checkbox to select service agreements that you

want to stop.
Premise Information
Summary information about the pending stop premise is

displayed.
SA Information
Summary information about the pending stop SA is

displayed.
SP Identifier
The service point's SP type's identifying geographic type

and value. Refer to Setting Up Service Point Types. Up
to three geo types and values are displayed.
Click the Stop button on the Stop SA Confirmation page to stop the selected SAs. Click on the
Close button to return to the main page - any changes made on this page since the last time you
clicked Stop are discarded.
Start/Stop - Address/Phone
Open Customer Information, Start Stop, Address/Phone to change basic information about a
customer while you are starting or stopping service.
A subset of person and account information. This page features a subset of person and
account fields that typically change when a customer moves. You can always use the Person or
Account transactions to change this information.
This information is held in limbo. The information on this page will only be updated on the
respective person / account when the first service agreement linked to the account is activated or
stopped (i.e., this information is held in limbo until the pending start / pending stop is activated /
stopped).
Main customer information. The information on this page is associated with the accounts main
customer (as defined on Account Person Information). If you need to change information about
any other person linked to the account, you must transfer to Account Person Information and
make the changes there.
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Use Bill Route Type to indicate how the bill is sent to the customer. If the Bill Route Type you
select indicates that bills are routed via fax, make sure you specify a fax number in the
Telephone Numbers below (note, the system knows which of a persons phone numbers is a fax
number by the phone type). If the Bill Route Type you select indicates that bills are routed via
Email, make sure to specify the persons Email Address below. If the Bill Route Type you
selected indicates that bills are routed via the postal service, select the appropriate Address
Source. This field is protected if bills are routed via email or fax. You have the following options:
Choose Mailing Premise on Account if bills should be sent to the accounts mailing
premise. This address is displayed below.
Choose Person if bills should be sent to the persons mailing address. This address is
displayed below.
Choose Account Override if bills should be sent to the account persons override address.
This address is displayed below. Typically, you would only choose this option if the person
has multiple accounts and each accounts bills should be sent to a different address.
If the Address Source is Person or Account Override, the respective address fields are
displayed and may be changed. If the Address Source is Mailing Premise on Account, the
accounts mailing premise is displayed and cannot be modified. Refer to Premise Main
Information for information about these fields.
Default note. If you switch the Bill Route Type from a non-postal to postal routed, the Address
Source defaults to the bill address source defined on the account (if one exists) or Mailing
Premise on Account if bill address source is not specified for the main customer.
Refer to Setting Up Bill Route Types for more information about bill route types.
Specify the customers Email Address. This can be used to route bills to the customer via email
(if your bill routing software supports this function).
Telephone Numbers are used by Control Central to look for accounts and persons. If the
person has more than 20 phone numbers, the first 20 will be shown as display only with a
message indicating that more phone numbers exist until you save your start or stop. Once the
start or stop has been saved, you are able to modify the phone number collection.
Phone Type indicates the type of phone number, e.g., Home, Mobile, Business,
Use Phone Number to define the telephone number. Enter the telephone number in the
format described by the Phone Format.
Formatting is performed by a plug-in. The format that is applied to a Phone Number is

controlled by the algorithm that is plugged in on the respective Phone Type. If you prefer a
different format, your system administrator should configure this algorithm appropriately.
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Enter the Extension, if any, of the telephone number.
Start/Stop - Pending SA
If you need to change additional information about the pending start or stop SAs, navigate to the
Pending SA tab. Alternatively, you can click the Drill Down button on the SA grid of the Main
tab.
Description of Page
If the total number of pending start / stops for the account does not exceed the start stop details
threshold defined in Installation Options, an entry appears in the scroll for each entry in the SA
grid on the main page. Use the Pending Start/Stop SA navigation arrow buttons to select the
pending SA you want to review or modify. This page is split between the primary SA on the top,
and the reciprocal SA on the bottom. The following fields are available.
Primary SA:
SA Info

is displayed.
Cancel

start / stop.
Date

agreements.
Reason
This column indicates if the pending start / stop is

System Generated or Customer Requested. Systemgenerated starts are created when a tenant stops
service at a premise covered by a landlord agreement.
System-generated stops are created when a customer
requests a start at a premise where the existing
customer hadnt already requested a stop.

will be created. These fields will be gray if the service
agreement is pending stop.
If you change the CIS Division, you must change the SA
Type to reflect one of the services that the division
manages.
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Start Option

does not use start options or if the service agreement is
pending stop.
Premise

Reciprocal SA:
SA Info

is displayed.
Cancel

start / stop.
Date

agreements.
Reason
This column indicates if the pending start / stop is

System Generated or Customer Requested. Systemgenerated starts are created when a tenant stops
service at a premise covered by a landlord agreement.
System-generated stops are created when a customer
requests a start at a premise where the existing
customer hadnt already requested a stop.

will be created or stopped. This field will be gray if the
service agreement is pending stop.
If you change the CIS Division, you must change the SA
Type to reflect one of the services that the division
manages.
Start Option
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does not use start options or if the service agreement is
pending stop.
Premise

Account
The name of the main customer associated with the

reciprocals service agreements account is displayed.
defined in Installation Options, the pending start / stop SAs and their reciprocal SAs are displayed
in a grid; you can control the service agreements that appear using filter options.
The section beneath Account provides you with options that control which service agreements
appear in the grid. The following points describe the various options:
Use the SA Action Filter to restrict the service agreements that appear in the grid to pending
starts or pending stops. The following options are available:
All. Use this option if you do not wish to restrict service agreements based on SA Action.
Start. Use this option to restrict service agreements to pending starts.
Stop. Use this option to restrict service agreements to pending stops.
Use the date filter to restrict service agreements to those that will start or stop between the
From Date and the To Date.
Use the Premise Filter to restrict the service agreements to those that are linked to a specific
characteristic premise. The following options are available:
All. Use this option if you do not wish to restrict service agreements based on premise.
No Premise. Use this option to restrict service agreements to those that do not have a
characteristic premise.
Specific Premise. Use this option to restrict service agreements to those with a
characteristic premise of Premise ID.
Use the SA Type Filter to restrict service agreements to those of a given SA Type.
All. Use this option if you do not wish to restrict service agreements based on SA Type.
Specific SA Type. Use this option to restrict service agreements to those of a given CIS
based on the geographic type and value of the service points that are linked to the service
linked to service points / premises associated with the selected geographic type and
Geographic Value.
The Select All / Clear All buttons are used to select service agreements if you plan on issuing
any of the mass update actions at the bottom of the page. These buttons are enabled if at least
one service agreement is displayed in the grid.
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the grid. If more than 30 service agreements exist, you must select and start them in batches.
The grid that displays contains the service agreements that match your search criteria. Click on
the drill down button to open the Pending SA Details page.
Please refer to the Pending Start/Stop SA scroll for a description of the fields in the pending
start/stop SA grid on the Pending SA tab and on the Pending SA Details page. Additional fields
are described here:
Pending SAs Grid:
Select box. Use this checkbox to select service agreements for mass update.
The Action icons highlight if the associated SA is a pending start or a pending stop and if
there are reciprocal SAs. Refer to the action icon on Start Stop - Main.
Mass Update Buttons:

Use the Cancel Selected button to cancel the selected pending start / stops together with any
associated reciprocal pending start / stops. This button is enabled if you have selected one or
more pending SAs.
Use the Change Start/Stop Date button to change the start / stop date for the selected pending
start / stop service agreements. If a selected start / stop has a reciprocal SA, its start / stop date
is also changed. This button is enabled if you have selected one or more pending SAs.
Start/Stop - Pending Field Activity

When you start / stop service point-oriented service, field activities are typically created. You can
view every non-cancelled, non-complete field activity linked to the accounts service agreements
on the Pending Field Activity page.
Note. The field activities are NOT limited to those associated with starting / stopping service. So,
if a customer has a pending cut for non payment field activity, it would also appear on this page.
Description of Page
An entry appears in the scroll for every Pending and Held field activity linked to the accounts
service agreements. The information in the Field Activity column contains a summary of the
field activity and its service point. The information in the How Used column describes the
purpose of the field activity (e.g., Start Activity, Stop Activity, Severance Activity).
defined in Installation Options, you can control the field activities that appear using filter options.
The section beneath Account provides you with options that control which field activities appear
in the grid. The following points describe the various options:
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Use the Schedule Date filter to restrict the field activities that appear in the grid to those that
are scheduled between. The following options are available:
All. Use this option if you do not wish to restrict field activities to a specific schedule
date.
Specific Date. Use this option to restrict the field activities to those with a schedule date
between the From Date and the To Date.
Use the Premise Filter to restrict the field activities to those that are linked to service points
at a specific premise. The following options are available:
All. Use this option if you do not wish to restrict field activities based on premise.
Specific Premise. Use this option to restrict field activities to those linked to a service
point at the given Premise ID.
Use the SP Type Filter to restrict field activities to those that are linked to service points of a
given SP Type.
All. Use this option if you do not wish to restrict field activities based on SP Type.
Specific SA Type. Use this option to restrict field activities to those of a given SP Type.
Use the Geographic Type Filter to restrict the field activities that appear in the grid based on
the geographic type and value of the service points that are linked to the service agreement.
The following options are available:
All. Use this option if you do not wish to restrict field activities based on a geographic
type and value.
<Geographic Type>. Use this option to restrict field activities to those that are linked to
service points / premises associated with the selected geographic type and Geographic
Value.
How To
The topics in this section describe how to perform common start/stop functions.
Contents
How To Start Service At A Premise
How To Stop Service At A Premise
How To Start A Deposit
How To Start A Charitable Contribution
How To Start A One-Time Charge Service Agreement
How To Start Service When Multiple Service Points Measure Consumption
How To Start Service At A Premise

The following instructions specifically reference the Start a Premise Start Method. You can also
use the Start Method Start Premise's SPs and its corresponding user interface.
You navigate through the pages as follows:
Use Control Central - Main to look for the customer. If the customer exists, click the Start
Service button to transfer to Start/Stop. If the customer doesnt exist, add a new
person/account by following the instructions under How To Add A New Customer From
Control Central.
Specify the Start Date, Start Method (Start a Premise), and select a premise (by entering
the premise Address and clicking the search button).
Click the Start button to review the various service agreements that will be created.
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Service agreements are created. Each row in the scroll is associated with a service agreement.
When you close the page, the system creates new service agreements in the state of pending
start.
If youre starting service at a premise, the system automatically populates the Start
Confirmation page with information about every service agreement to be created. To do this,
we make a basic assumption - the customer wants every service at the premise. If this
assumption is incorrect, simply remove the service agreement from the scroll (by turning off
the Start this SA switch) before closing the page.
Automatically stop the existing customer. If theres a customer currently paying for service at
the premise, the system automatically sets up the stop information for the existing customer. The
stop date of the existing customer is the start date of the new customer. If you dont want to stop
the existing customer, simply indicate such in the scroll.
CIS Division and SA Type as it will affect how the customer is billed, what rate can be specified,
how overdue debt is collected, and much more. After the service agreement is activated, you
may not change its CIS Division / SA type.
Refer to Starting Service & Field Activities for the details about how the system automatically
creates the field activities to support start service requests.
How To Stop Service At A Premise

The following instructions specifically reference the Stop a Premise Stop Method. You can also
use the Stop Method Start Selected SAs and its corresponding user interface.
Use Control Central - Main to find the customer. Click the Stop Service button to transfer to
Start/Stop.
Specify the Stop Date, Stop Method (Stop a Premise), and select a Premise (the premise
will have been pre-selected for you if you drilled down from Control Central).
Click the Stop button to stop service at the premise.
When you click the stop button, the system changes the status of each service agreement to
pending stop and sets the stop date accordingly. If we stopped a service agreement that we
shouldnt have, simply cancel the stop by checking the Cancel column in the grid (and save
the page)
Landlord reversion. If you stop service at a premise that references a landlord agreement, the
system will automatically create pending start service agreements for the landlord for those
service types covered by the landlord agreement.
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Refer to Stopping Service & Field Activities for the details about how the system creates the field
activities to support stop service requests.
How To Start A Deposit

Charging a customer for a deposit involves creating a service agreement. Deposit service
agreements are just like other service agreements in many ways:
The system bills the customer for the deposit using information on the service agreement.
The customer pays for the billed amount.
If the customer doesnt pay, credit & collections starts a collection process to encourage the
customer to pay.
Deposit service agreements differ from regular service agreements in the following ways:
Deposit service agreements typically dont cause a receivable account to be affected when
the deposit is billed. It is only when the deposit is paid that a financial transaction occurs
(debit cash, credit deposit payable).
Deposit service agreements have a credit balance when the billed amount is paid (the
deposit paid by the customer is a liability of your company - it owes the customer this money).
Deposit service agreements may be billed in installments or in a lump sum.
Creating a deposit service agreement involves the following steps:
Select the account on Control Central and open Start/Stop.
Enter a Start Date and Start Method of Start a Premise.
Indicate the premise that the deposit service agreement will cover using the Address and
click the Start button.
After you click the Start button, the Start Confirmation page will appear:
Choose an appropriate CIS Division / SA Type for the deposit service agreement.
If Start Options have been created for the CIS Division / SA Type, you need only select
the appropriate option and close the page. The system will use the information on the
start option to populate the service agreements billing parameters (e.g., the total deposit
due, the installment amount, etc.).
If Start Options have not been created for the CIS Division / SA Type, you must define
the total amount of the deposit and the installment amount, if any. You define the total
amount of the deposit in Total Amount To Bill. You can have the system recommend a
deposit amount by pushing the
that appears adjacent to this field.
If you allow the customer to pay the deposit in installments, define the Installment
Amount (the prompt for this field is defined on the SA type and therefore will differ
depending on how youve set up the system). After defining this information, close the
page. The system will use the information you entered to create a deposit service
agreement.
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Note. The above information related to starting a deposit assumes that the deposit SA Type is
set up as a premise-based service. If your company does not associate a deposit with a specific
premise, you will need to set up your SA Type for the deposit accordingly. Then, you will need to
use a Start Method of Start a SA.
How To Start A Charitable Contribution

If a customer elects to contribute money to a charitable organization, you must create a service
agreement. Charitable contribution service agreements are just like other service agreements in
many ways:
The system bills the customer for the elected contribution amount using information on the
service agreement.
The customer pays the billed amount.
If the customer doesnt pay, credit & collections may start a collection process to encourage
the customer to pay (depending upon how the charitable contributions debt class has been
set up on your system).
Charitable contribution service agreements differ from regular service agreements in the following
ways:
Charitable contribution service agreements typically dont cause a receivable account to be

affected when the charitable contribution is billed. It is only when the charitable contribution
is paid that a financial transaction occurs (debit cash, credit charitable contribution payable).
Charitable contribution service agreements have no balance when the billed amount is paid
because the money is being forwarded to a charity.
Creating a charitable contribution service agreement involves the following steps:
Enter a Start Date and Start Method of Start a SA.
Indicate the CIS Division / SA Type of the charitable contribution agreement and click the
Start button.
After you click the Start button, the Start Confirmation page will appear:
If Start Options have been created for the CIS Division / SA Type, you need only select
the appropriate option and close the page. The system will use the information on the
start option to populate the service agreements billing parameters (i.e., the charitable
contribution amount to be periodically billed).
If Start Options have not been created for the CIS Division / SA Type, you must define
the charitable contribution amount (the prompt for this field is defined on the SA type and
therefore will differ depending on how youve set up the system). After defining this
information, close the page. The system will use the information you entered to create a
charitable contribution service agreement.
How To Start A One-Time Charge Service Agreement

You create a one-time charge (i.e., billable charge) whenever a customer should be charged for a
service that occurs outside the normal course of business. For example, you would create a
billable charge to charge a contractor for the repair of a ruptured gas line.
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A billable charge must reference a service agreement. This service agreement behaves just like
any other service agreement:
Bill segments are created for the service agreement. Whenever billing is performed for
an account with billable charge service agreements, the system creates a bill segment for
each unbilled billable charges.
Payments are distributed to the service agreement. Payments made by an account are
distributed to its billable charge service agreements just like any other service agreement.
Overdue debt is monitored. The credit and collections process monitors billable charge
service agreements for overdue debt and responds accordingly when overdue debt is
detected.
Therefore, in order to levy a one-time charge, the customer must have a billable charge service
agreement. If one already exists (because of a previous billable charge), you dont have to create
a new service agreement. Rather, transfer to the Billable Charge page and add a billable charge
for the service agreement. If the customer doesnt already have billable charge service
agreement, create one by performing the following steps:
Enter a Start Date and Start Method of Start a SA.
Indicate the CIS Division / SA Type of the billable charge service agreement and click the
Start button.
After you click the Start button, the Start Confirmation page will appear. Simply close the
confirmation page to save the agreement.
After the billable charge service agreement has been created, add a billable charge to it (the
easiest way is to use the SA context menu). Refer to Maintaining Billable Charges for more
information.
How To Start Service When Multiple Service Points Measure Consumption

When you start service at a premise, the system automatically links service points to service
agreements in the same manner as existed for the previous customer. So, if the previous
customer amalgamated consumption of three service points and billed this under a single service
agreement, the system will create the same configuration for the new customer.
This works fine when the unusual service point configurations have already been set up for the
previous customer. However, it doesnt work when the premise is new. So, if you have a new
premise that has multiple service points whose consumption needs to be amalgamated under a
single service agreement, do the following:
Start service for only one of the service points to be linked to the service agreement. When
you start service, the system creates a service agreement, links the service point to it, and
links a field activity to the service point.
For every service point that wasnt linked to the service agreement:
Create a field activity to start service at the service point.
Link the service point to the pending service agreement and link the field activity to the
service point on the service agreement. Both of these tasks are done on Service
Agreement - SA / SP.
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Thats it. The activation process will automatically activate the service agreement when the
fieldwork is complete on all of its service points.
The Big Picture Of Customer Contacts

Customer contacts are used to record when and why a customer contacted your company. This
information is used for both audit and statistical purposes. The topics in this section provide
details about how customer contacts are created and used in the system.
Contents
Customer Contacts Are Associated With Persons, NOT Accounts
How Customer Contacts Are Created
Customer Contacts Are Used To Trigger Letters
A Customer Contact May Trigger Reminders
Customer Contacts Can Be Used As Case Files
Maintaining Customer Contacts
Customer Contacts Are Associated With Persons, NOT

Accounts
Customer contacts are associated with a Person, not with an Account. To associate a customer
contact record with an account, you must select a person related to that account. Unless you
have specific reasons to do otherwise, the main customer is usually your best choice.
How Customer Contacts Are Created

You can add a Customer Contact at any time using either of the following methods:
Use the customer contact maintenance page.
Use the Customer Contact Zone on the dashboard.
In addition to manually adding customer contacts, your implementation team can set up plug-in
algorithms that create customer contacts when certain events transpire. For example, you can
plug-in an algorithm on the customer class object that creates a customer contact whenever an
order is completed. Because the number and type of plug-ins can be customized for your
implementation, we cannot provide a concise list of all such algorithms.
In addition to the above, a variety of events can trigger the creation of a customer contact. Refer
to Customer Contacts Are Used To Trigger Letters for the details.
Customer Contacts Are Used To Trigger Letters

In order to send a letter to a customer, a customer contact must be created for the customer.
These types of customer contacts reference a customer contact type that, in turn, references a
letter template. The letter template controls the type of information that is merged into the form
letter and how the letter is physically produced. Refer to Printing Letters for more information
about letter templates and how letters are physically produced.
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Customer contacts that trigger letters can be produced by any of the method described under
How Customer Contacts Are Created. While a user can create this type of customer contact
(e.g., if a customer requests a form to sign-up for automatic payment), the primary sources of
customer contacts that trigger letters are via system events and algorithms. Besides algorithms,
the following system events may generate customer contacts automatically:
Collection events. When a customer falls in arrears, the system creates a collection
process. A collection process is a series of events meant to encourage the customer to pay
their outstanding debt. A classic collection event is one that creates a customer contact that,
in turn, causes a letter to be sent to the customer requesting payment. Refer to The Big
Picture Of Collection Events for more information.
Severance events. The last event in a collection process typically creates a severance
process for each service agreement thats in arrears. A severance process is a series of
events that leads to service being severed. A classic severance event is one that creates a
customer contact that, in turn, causes a letter to be sent to the customer warning of
impending cutoff (or telling them theyve been cutoff and the terms necessary to reinstate
service). Refer to The Big Picture Of Severance Events for more information.
Write-off events. After a customer has been final billed, a write-off process will be created.
A write-off process is a series of events that leads to the debt being written off. A classic
write-off event is one that creates a customer contact that, in turn, causes a letter to be sent
to the customer informing them of that their debt has been referred to a collection agency.
Refer to The Big Picture Of Write Off Events for more information.
Your implementation team can introduce plug-in algorithms to create a customer contact when
certain events take place. If the created customer contact references a letter template, a letter
will be triggered. Because the number and type of plug-ins can be customized for your
implementation, we cannot provide a concise list of all such algorithms.
A Customer Contact May Trigger Reminders

If you want the system to remind you (via a To Do entry) about a customer-related issue, you can
set up a reminder on a customer contact. To do this, follow these steps:
Determine if you need a new customer contact or if you can reuse one that already exists. If
you need a new customer contact, use any of the online methods described under How
Customer Contacts Are Created.
Add an entry to the customer contacts log. This log entry should be set up as follows:
If the To Do entry should be addressed to a specific user, choose a Reminder type of

Send to User and enter the users User ID.
If the To Do entry should be addressed to a group of users, choose a Reminder type of

Send to Role and enter the user groups To Do Role.
Use Trigger Date to define the latest date on which the To Do entry should be created.
The reason we indicated this should be the latest date is because the background
process thats responsible for creating these To Do entries has a parameter called lead
time. This parameter is used to define the number of days before the Trigger Date that
the To Do entry should be created. Note, the batch control ID of TD-CCCB is used to
refer to this background process.
A To Do entry will then be created on a future date.
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Customer Contacts Can Be Used As Case Files

If a customer calls with a complaint (e.g., they suspect their bill is too high), you can start a case
file for the complaint by creating a customer contact. This customer contact should be marked as
open.
Alerts. Customer contacts that are marked as being open cause an alert to appear when the
customer is displayed on control central.
Over time, as you work on the case, you can add entries to the customer contacts log to describe
your progress.
You can use the customer contacts reminder functionality to remind you to check out the case on
a future date (or dates).
When the case is resolved, you simply turn off the customer contacts open indicator and add an
appropriate entry to the log describing the resolution.
Maintaining Customer Contacts

Customer contacts are used to record when and why a customer contacted your company. This
information is used for both audit and statistical purposes. The topics in this section describe how
to maintain customer contacts. Refer to The Big Picture Of Customer Contacts for background
information about customer contacts.
Contents
Customer Contact - Main
Customer Contact - Log
Customer Contact - Characteristics
Customer Contact - Main

Open Customer Information, Customer Contact to maintain a customer contact.
The dashboard. A zone exists in the dashboard that can be used to easily create new customer
contacts.
Description of Page
Enter the Person ID of the person associated with the customer contact.
Select a Preferred Contact Method to indicate how the person prefers to be contacted. The
Email. If this method is selected, the Contact Person's email address appears adjacent.
Fax. If this method is selected, the Contact Person's fax number appears (the system knows
which of a persons phone numbers is a fax number by the phone type).
Not Applicable. If the person doesn't want to be contacted (or the contact method is
unusual), use this option. You might want to consider describing the situation in the Contact
Instructions.
Phone. If this method is selected, the Contact Person's phone number appears.
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Postal. If this method is selected, the Contact Person's address appears. Refer to Where
Does The Address Come From for a description of which address the system displays.
SMS. If this method is selected, the Contact Person's short message service (SMS)
information displays.
Turn on the Open switch if the event that necessitated the contact hasnt been resolved. For
example, if a customer calls with a high bill complaint and you cant resolve it immediately, you
would turn on the Open switch and enter an appropriate entry in the Log. Refer to Customer
Contacts Can Be Used As Case Files for more information.
Enter the Contact Date and Contact Time.
Default note. The current date and time are defaulted.
The User ID of the user who created the contact is displayed adjacent to Contact Date / Time.
Every customer contact has a Contact Type that classifies the record for reporting purposes.
Every contact type, in turn, references a Contact Class. The class categorizes customer
contacts into larger groupings for reporting purposes.
Adding a customer contact may cause a letter to be generated. You can set up a customer
contact type to generate a form letter whenever a customer contact of this type is added. In fact,
this is the only way to generate a letter in the system. Refer to Customer Contacts Are Used To
Trigger Letters for more information.
Use Comments to describe the contact.
If the customer contact was created by a collection event, a severance event or a write-off event
or is referenced by a field activity step, the Related Records contains information about the
associated record.
If a letter template is associated with the customer contact type / class:
Letter Information describes the status of the letter (i.e., whether it has been printed or not).
If the letter has been printed and you want to reprint, please turn on the reprint switch (this
will cause the letter to be reprinted the next time the letter print background process
executes).
If your implementation team has plugged-in an Online Letter Image algorithm on Installation
Options - Algorithms, the Display Letter button appears. When clicked, the image of the
letter is rendered in a PDF and displayed in an Adobe reader. Refer to Technical
Implementation Of Online Letter Production for a technical description of how letter images
are produced.
The grid that follows contains a diary of past (and future) events related to the customer contact.
Refer to A Customer Contact May Trigger Reminders and Customer Contacts Can Be Used As
Case Files for more information about when you would use this log.
There are two ways to add a row to the log:
You can click the + button to add a new row.
You can navigate to the Log tab and insert a new row into the scroll.
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Regardless of the method used to add a log entry, the following information appears on a log
entry:
Create Date / Time is the date and time when the log entry was created.
Created by identifies the user that created the log entry.
Use Comments to describe the reason for the log entry. If you have lengthy comments, we
recommend navigating to the Log tab (by clicking the adjacent Go To button) as there is a
larger input field on this page.
The remaining fields are only used if you want the system to remind you about this customer
contact on a future date. If you enter these fields, the system will create a To Do entry to
remind you about the customer contact.
If the To Do entry should be addressed to a specific user, choose a Reminder type of

Send to User and enter the users User ID.

Send to Role and enter the user groups To Do Role.
Use Trigger Date to define the latest date on which the To Do entry should be created.
The reason we indicated this should be the latest date is because the background
process thats responsible for creating these To Do entries has a parameter called lead
time. This parameter is used to define the number of days before the Trigger Date that
the To Do entry should be created. Note, the batch control ID of TD-CCCB is used to
refer to this background process.
Multiple reminders. You can set up multiple reminders on a customer contact. For example,
you can indicate that you want to be reminded every Monday for the next 4 weeks to check on
the issue that caused a given customer contact to arise. Youd do this be entering 4 log entries
where each as the desired Trigger Date.
Customer Contact - Log

The log contains a diary of past (and future) events related to the customer contact. Open
Customer Information, Customer Contact and navigate to the Log tab to maintain a customer
contacts log. Note, you can also maintain this information on the Main tab.
Refer to A Customer Contact May Trigger Reminders and Customer Contacts Can Be Used As
Case Files for more information about when you would use this log.
Description of Page
Date / Time is a display-only field that contains the date and time when the log entry was created.
Log ID is the system-assigned, unique identifier of the log entry.
Created by is a display-only field that contains the ID and name of the user who created the log
entry.
Use Comments to describe the reason for the log entry.
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The remaining fields are only used if you want the system to remind you about this customer
contact on a future date. If you enter these fields, the system will create a To Do entry to remind
you about the customer contact.
If the To Do entry should be addressed to a specific user, choose a Reminder type of Send
to User and enter the users ID in Send To.

Send to Role and enter the user groups To Do Role in Send To.
Use Trigger Date to define the latest date on which the To Do entry should be created. The
reason we indicated this should be the latest date is because the background process thats
responsible for creating these To Do entries has a parameter called lead time. This
parameter is used to define the number of days before the Trigger Date that the To Do entry
should be created. Note, the batch control ID of TD-CCCB is used to refer to this
background process.
Customer Contact - Characteristics

Open Customer Information, Customer Contact and navigate to the Characteristic tab to
maintain a customer contacts characteristics.
Note. We do not anticipate a great deal of use for characteristics on customer contacts. The
primary purpose of catering for characteristics on this object is to allow a customer contact that
triggers a letter to be able to extract information from any object in the system. For example, if
you have an algorithm / background process that wants to generate a letter in respect of a given
premise, you could create a customer contact and reference the premise as a characteristic
value. Then, when the information is extracted for the letter, the extract algorithm could extract
fields from the premise to merge onto the letter.
Description of Page
Note. You can only choose characteristic types defined as permissible on a customer contact.
Refer to Setting Up Characteristic Types & Their Values for more information about characteristic
types. In addition, the characteristic type must also be defined as valid for the customer contacts
type. Refer to Setting Up Customer Contact Types for more information about customer contact
type.
Characteristic Type
Printing Letters
As described under Customer Contacts Are Used To Trigger Letters, you must create a customer
contact whenever you want to send a letter to a customer. The contents of this section describe
the technical implementation of letter production.
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Contents
Letter Templates Control The Information Merged Onto Letters
BI Publisher and Crystal Reports Versus DOC 1
Where Does The Address Come From?
Technical Implementation Of Online Letter Images
Technical Implementation Of Batch Letter Production
Reproducing The Letter Print Flat File
How To Reprint A Specific Letter
The Doc 1 Records
The Word Records
Letter Templates Control The Information Merged Onto

Letters
Customer contacts that trigger letters reference a customer contact type that, in turn, references a
letter template. The letter template controls the following:
It contains an algorithm that is responsible for extracting the information merged onto your
letters. Specifically, algorithms of this type create the flat file records that are passed to
your letter print software. Algorithms of this type are called under the following scenarios:
The background process that builds the flat file thats passed to your letter print software
calls these algorithms to construct the flat file records for each letter.
If your letter print software has the ability to construct a real-time image of a letter (in a
PDF), you can plug-in an Online Letter Image algorithm on the Installation Record. This
type of algorithm will call the letters letter templates extract algorithm to extract the
information that is merged onto the letter. Refer to Technical Implementation Of Online
Letter Image for the details.
You can create letters online using an external reporting tool such as BI Publisher or Crystal
reports. Refer to Letter Print - BI Publisher and Crystal Sample Welcome Letters CI_LTRGN_ENG REPORT for more information about the sample template.
Refer to The Doc 1 Records for examples of the record layouts passed to the Doc 1 print
software.
It contains the ID of the background process that builds the flat file thats passed to your letter
print software. The base package example of this process (known by the batch control ID of
LTRPRT) simply calls each customer contacts letter templates extract algorithm to format
the information placed onto the flat file.
BI Publisher and Crystal Reports Versus DOC 1

Using BI Publisher and Crystal Reports as your external reporting tool to display an online letter
image differs from using DOC 1 printing software as follows:
An extract file is not required when using BI Publisher or Crystal Reports. The sample
reports provided to use with these external report tools do not have to extract information
from another object to merge into a letter.
Generating letters in batch is not supported yet.
Refer to Letter Print - BI Publisher and Crystal Sample Welcome Letters - CI_LTRGN_ENG
REPORT for more information.
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Where Does The Address Come From?

The following points describes the source of a letters address:
For letters generated as a result of collection events, severance events, write-off events and
overdue events, the address is extracted as follows:
The respective Account Person record is retrieved for the letter recipient (note, the
account ID is retrieved from the related collection / severance / write-off / overdue
process).
If the person has a seasonal address effective on the business date, the letter's address
is the respective seasonal address.
If the address source is Mailing Premise on Account, the letters address is the
accounts mailing premise.
If the address source is Account Override, the letters address is the override address
on the respective Account Person record.
If the address source is Person, the letters address is the persons mailing address.
If the address source is not defined, the persons mailing address is used.
If an address was not populated as a result of the above, the letter is not produced and a
warning is issued by the background process responsible for creating the letter extract
file.
For all other types of letters, the address is extracted as follows:
If the letter's person has a seasonal address effective on the business date, the letter's
address is the respective seasonal address.
If the letters person has a mailing address, it is used.
Otherwise, the system checks if the letters person has at least one account where the
person is the main customer and the account has at least one active service agreement.
If so, the logic described above is executed for the first such account found.
If an address was not populated as a result of the above, the letter is not produced and a
warning is issued by the background process responsible for creating the letter extract
file.
Technical Implementation Of Online Letter Images

Users can view an image of any letter that is sent to a customer if you set up the following:
Plug-in an Online Letter Image construction algorithm on the Installation Record. Refer to
ONLD-LT for an example of such an algorithm. Note, if your letter print software is not
capable of producing a PDF containing an image of a letter, users will not be able to view
images of letters.
Plug-in the appropriate extract algorithm on each letter template. Algorithms of this type
format the records that contain the customer information that is passed to your printing
software.
When you plug-in these algorithms, a button appears on Customer Contact - Main for customer
contacts whose customer contact type references a letter template. When a user clicks this
button, the following takes place:
The installation records Online Letter Image construction algorithm is executed.
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This algorithm calls the customer contacts letter templates extract algorithm. This algorithm
constructs the information thats merged onto the letter and returns it to the Online Letter
Image algorithm. This algorithm, in turn, passes it to your letter print software.
Your letter print software renders an image of the letter in a PDF and returns it to the Online
Letter Image algorithm.
And finally, the Online Letter Image algorithm displays the PDF in a separate Adobe
session.
Technical Implementation Of Batch Letter Production

The batch process that extracts letter information (known by the batch control ID of LTRPRT)
reads all customer contact records in a given run number that are marked with its batch control
ID. For each customer contact, it creates numerous records on a flat file. These records contain
the customer information that is merged onto your letters.
The information that is placed on each record is controlled by the customer contacts letter
templates extraction algorithm. Refer to Letter Templates Control The Information On Letters for
more information.
The records on the flat file can be constructed in either the Doc 1 format (to be used by the Doc 1
software), or in MS Words field delimited format. The format thats used is controlled by a
parameter supplied to the LTRPRT background process.
The Doc1 flat file is created with multiple records of various record types for every customer
contact record.
The Word flat file is created with one record for every customer contact record processed.
Each of the fields is delimited by a special character (e.g. ~).
Alternate print / routing methods. If you require different print formats, you must create new
letter extract algorithms and plug them in on your letter template.
Reproducing The Letter Print Flat File

You can reproduce the flat file containing the information sent to your printing software at any
time. Simply request the respective extract batch process and specify the run number associated
with the historic run.
How To Reprint A Specific Letter

If you need to reprint a specific letter, navigate to Customer Contact - Main and turn on the
Reprint switch (and save the customer contact). Alternatively, if your implementation has
enabled the online creation of letter images, you can also click the Display Letter button on this
page and then print the resultant PDF on your local printer.
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The Doc 1 Records

Alternate print / routing methods. This section describes the format of letter extract records
that are constructed by base-package algorithms that are passed to the Doc 1 software (which
actually produces the letters). If you require different print formats, you must create new letter
extract algorithms and plug them in on your letter templates.
Alternate letter print flat file format. The algorithms responsible for creating the letter extract
records can produce the output in either Doc1 format (described below) or in Word format (see
The Word Records). The Doc1 flat file is created with multiple records of various record types for
every customer contact record processed. The Word flat file is created with one record for every
customer contact record processed. These algorithms extract the same fields for both formats.
However, the Word flat file has all fields for a letter compressed into one record; where each field
is delimited by a tilde (~). You control which format is used by the parameters you supply to the
respective background processes that call these algorithms. For Doc 1 format, set FIELDDELIM-SW=N and CNTL-REC-SW=Y. For Word format, set FIELD-DELIM-SW=Y and CNTLREC-SW=N.
Numerous types of records are interfaced to the Doc 1 letter print software. However, they all
share a common structure:
The first 4 bytes are called the Printer Key. This field is a record type used by the Doc 1
letter template.
The next 26 bytes are called the Sort Key. This field is used to ensure the various records
used to construct a printed letter appear in the correct order in the interface file.
The next 12 bytes are called the Mailing Key.
The next 3 bytes are a filler that is available for future use.
The remaining bytes contain the Letter Information that appears on the printed letter. The
type of information differs for each type of record.
The topics in this section describe each component.

Contents
Printer Keys (Record Types)
Sort Key
Mailing Key
Letter Information

The following table defines each printer key (i.e., record type) on the letter extract flat file.
Record
Type
0010
Description
Global extract information
Notes
Required. 1 per flat file.
1000
Letter record
Required. 1 per letter.
1100
Mailing Information
Required. 1 per letter.
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Note
Record types 1200 through 1600 only exist if the letter was triggered
as a result of a collection event, a severance event, a write-off event,
a workflow event or an overdue process event, respectively. These
record types are mutually exclusive and it is possible for none to exist
(meaning that the letter was triggered by a user-created customer
contact and therefore has no extract merge information).
1200
Collection Process/Event
Optional. 0 or 1 record will

exist see Note above.
1300
Severance Process/Event

1400
Write-off Process/Event

1500
Workflow Process/Event

1600
Overdue Process/Event

9990
End of Letter record
Required. 1 per letter

(dummy).
Sort Key
The letter print records need to be sorted in the right sequence in order for DOC1 to process
them. The following is a description of the portion of each record that is responsible for
performing this task.
The following table defines the structure of the sort key that appears on each letter print record.
Please note that different components are filled in for each printer key.
Field Name
Format
LTR_TMPL_CD
A12
CC_ID
A10
CC Record Group
A2
Source/Value/Description
This field forces the letters records into the correct order. Values:
10 General Letter information
20 Mailing information
30 Credit and Collections information
40 Workflow information
99 End Letter
C&C Record Group
A2
This field forces the subordinate records into the correct order. Values:
10 Collection Process/Event information
30 Severance Process/Event information
40 Write Off Process/Event information
50 Overdue Process/Event information
Mailing Key
Mailing key contains the postal code.
150
Letter Information
The topics in this section describe the information that appears on each letter extract record type.
Contents
Global Information Record
Letter Record
Mailing Information Record
Collection Process / Event Record
Severance Process / Event Record
Write Off Process / Event Record
Workflow Process / Event Record
Overdue Process / Event Record
End of Letter Record
Definition of Address Subrecord

This is a header record that contains information about the extract run as a whole.
Note. Please be aware that if you do not sort your extract file by CIS Sort Key after it is
produced, this record will physically be the last record on the extract file. Also note that this
record will only be produced by the various letter extract processes if you supply the appropriate
parameter value (CNTL-REC-SW=Y). Refer to Extract Processes for more information about the
letter extract programs.
Field Name
Format
Print Key
A4
0010
CIS Sort Key
A26
This is blank for this record type only.
CIS Mailing Key
A15
This is blank for this record type only.
BATCH_CD
A8
CI_BATCH_INST / The CIS Batch Process that called the Letter

Extract COBOL routine
BATCH_NBR
N10
CI_BATCH_INST / A sequence number for serial instances of a

Batch Process over time
BATCH_RERUN_NBR
N10
CI_BATCH_INST / The number of times a particular batch has

been re-run since its initial run
Letter Count [Artificial]
N10
Total number of letters in this extract
Date/Time [Artificial]
A26
System time of extraction.
CC Id Start [Artificial]
A10
The lowest CC ID in a particular thread in the extract
CC Id End [Artificial]
A10
The highest CC ID in a particular thread in the extract
BATCH_THREAD_NBR
N10
CI_BATCH_THD / Identifies a thread distinctly within a group of

threads
Thread Count [Artificial]
N10
Total number of threads in the extract run
Letter Record
One record is produced for every letter to be printed.
151
Field Name
Format
Print Key
A4
1000
CIS Sort Key
A26
CIS Mailing Key
A15
CC_ID
A10
CI_CC / System-assigned identifier for a Customer Contact.
PER_ID
A10
CI_CC / System-assigned identifier for the Person who will receive

the letter.
CC_DT
D10
CI_CC / The date of the Customer Contact.
CC_TM
T15
CI_CC / The time of the Customer Contact.
CC_CL_CD
A4
CI_CC / The category of contact.
CC_TYPE_CD
A12
CI_CC / The type of contact within the category.
LTR_TMPL_CD
A12
CI_CC / The template of the letter.
LTR_DT
D10
From the current system date/time the date to print on the letter.
Mailing Information Record

One record is produced for every letter to be printed.
Field Name
Format
Print Key
A4
1100
CIS Sort Key
A26
CIS Mailing Key
A15
ENTITY_NAME1
A64
If an override mailing name has been specified on the CI_PER row,

this field contains the first line of the persons override mailing name
(OVRD_MAIL_NAME1). Otherwise, the persons primary name is
used (ENTITY_NAME).
ENTITY_NAME2
A64

this field contains the 2nd line of the persons override mailing name
(OVRD_MAIL_NAME2). Otherwise, this field is blank.
ENTITY_NAME3
A64

this field contains the 3rd line of the persons override mailing name
(OVRD_MAIL_NAME3). Otherwise, this field is blank.
ADDRESS_SBR
A361
See below for the fields. Refer to Where Does The Address Come
From? for the source of the address information.
Collection Process / Event Record

This record contains information about the collection process and event that triggered the letter.
If the letter was not triggered by a collection event, this record will not be created. So, there will
be at most one collection event record for a letter.
Field Name
Format
Print Key
A4
CIS Sort Key
A26
CIS Mailing Key
A15
152
1200
Field Name
Format
COLL_PROC_ID
A10
CI_COLL_EVT_CC / Collection process that triggered the letter.
EVT_SEQ
N3
CI_COLL_EVT_CC / Collection event that triggered the letter.
ACCT_ID
N10
CI_COLL_PROC / Account being collected on.
COLL_CL_CNTL_CD
C20
CI_COLL_PROC / Collection class control of the collection process.
DEBT_CL_CD
C4
CI_COLL_CL_CNTL / Class of debt being collected.
DESCR
C30
CI_DEBT_CL.DESCR / Description of the debt class.
CRE_DTTM
DT26
CI_COLL_PROC / Date/time that the collection process was created.
COLL_ARS_DT
D10
CI_COLL_PROC / Debt date for which this collection process was

created.
AMOUNT_AMT
N13.2
Amount still owed for the collection process. This is the amount the
customer must pay to have the collection process canceled. This is
calculated by the same routine used by the Collection Process
Monitor.
CURRENCY_CD
C3
CI_COLL_PROC / Currency for the amount.
Severance Process / Event Record

This record contains information about the severance process and event that triggered the letter.
If the letter was not triggered by a severance event, this record will not be created. So, there will
be at most one severance event record for a letter.
Field Name
Format
Print Key
A4
CIS Sort Key
A26
CIS Mailing Key
A15
SEV_PROC_ID
A10
CI_SEV_EVT_CC / Severance process that triggered the letter.
EVT_SEQ
N3
CI_SEV_EVT_CC / Severance event that triggered the letter.
SA_ID
A10
CI_SEV_PROC / SA being severed.
ACCT_ID
A10
CI_SA / SAs account.
MULTI_PREM_SW
A1
Y or N. This is set to Y if the SA is currently linked to multiple

premises through its SA/SP, otherwise to N.
BUSINESS_UNIT
A5
CI_SA / Business unit of the SA.
SA_TYPE_CD
A4
CI_SA / Type of SA.
SA_TYPE_DESCR
A30
CI_SA_TYPE.DESCR / Description of the SA type.
CRE_DTTM
DT26
CI_SEV_PROC / Date/time that the collection process was created.
SEV_ARS_DT
D10
CI_SEV_PROC / Debt date for which this severance process was

created.
AMOUNT_AMT
N13.2
Amount still owed for the severance process. This is amount the
customer must pay to have the severance process canceled. This is
calculated by the same routine used by the Severance Process
Monitor.
CURRENCY_CD
C3
CI_SEV_PROC / Currency for the amount.
1300
153
Field Name
Format
ADDRESS_SBR
Address Subrecord.
CI_PREM / The address of the characteristic premise for the SA.
This is assumed to be the premise that will be cut.
Write Off Process / Event Record

This record contains information about the write off process and event that triggered the letter. If
the letter was not triggered by a write-off event, this record will not be created. So, there will be at
most one write-off event record for a letter.
Field Name
Format
Print Key
A4
1400
CIS Sort Key
A26
CIS Mailing Key
A15
WO_PROC_ID
A10
CI_WO_EVT_CC / Write Off Event that triggered the letter.
EVT_SEQ
N3
ACCT_ID
N10
CI_WO_PROC / Account whose SAs are being written off.
WO_CNTL_CD
C20
CI_WO_PROC / WO control code of the write off process.
WO_DEBT_CL_CD
C4
CI_WO_CNTL / Write Off debt class of the SAs being written off.
DESCR
C30
CI_WO_DEBT_CL.DESCR / Description of the write off debt class.
CRE_DTTM
DT26
CI_WO_PROC / Date/time that the write off process was created.
WO_BALANCE
N13.2
Amount still owed on the SAs linked to the write off process. This is
calculated by the same routine that creates an agency referral,
(Determine Referral Amount routine (CIPLWRAN)).
CURRENCY_CD
C3
Workflow Process / Event Record

This record contains information about the workflow process and event that triggered the letter. If
the letter was not triggered by a workflow event, this record will not be created. So, there will be
at most one workflow event record for a letter.
Field Name
Format
Print Key
A4
CIS Sort Key
A26
CIS Mailing Key
A15
WF_PROC_ID
A10
CI_WF_EVT / Workflow Event whose event context is the customer

contact being processed.
EVT_SEQ
N3
CI_WF_EVT / / Workflow Event whose event context is the

customer contact being processed.
WF_PP_CD
A12
CI_WF_PROC / Workflow process profile of the workflow process.
NT_UP_XTYPE_CD
A30
CI_WF_PROC / Notification Upload Type that caused the creation

of this process.
DESCR50
A50
CI_NT_UP_XTYPE/ Description of the notification upload type.
154
1500
Field Name
Format
CRE_DTTM
DT26
CI_WF_PROC / Date/time that the workflow process was created.
CTXT_VAL_ACCT
A50
CI_WF_PROC_CTXT /Context value where the value of the context

flag is ACCT.
CTXT_VAL_MSA
A50

flag is MSA.
CTXT_VAL_SPR
A50
CI_WF_PROC_CTXT /CTXT_VAL where the value of the context

flag is SPR.
SPR_DESCR50
A50
CI_SPR/DESCR50.
CTXT_VAL_SP
A50

flag is SP.
CTXT_VAL_XACC
A50

flag is XACC.
Overdue Process / Event Record

This record contains information about the overdue process and event that triggered the letter. If
the letter was not triggered by an overdue event, this record will not be created. So, there will be
at most one overdue event record for a letter.
Refer to the sample overdue process event extract algorithm for information about the fields
below whose source is Extract Algorithm.
Field Name
Format
Print Key
A4
1600
CIS Sort Key
A26
CIS Mailing Key
A15
OD_PROC_ID
A10
CI_OD_PROC_LOG / Overdue process that triggered the letter.
OD_EVT_SEQ
N3
CI_OD_PROC_LOG / Overdue event that triggered the letter.
ACCT_ID
N10
CI_OD_PROC / Account being collected on.
OD_PROC_TEMPL_CD
A12
CI_OD_PROC / Overdue process template.
DESCR
C30
CI_OD_PROC_TEMPL / Description of the overdue process

template.
CRE_DTTM
DT26
CI_OD_PROC / Date/time that the overdue process was created.
Original Unpaid Amt
N13.2
Extract Algorithm / Amount owed on all objects being collected by

the overdue process when the overdue process was created.
Unpaid Amt
N13.2
Extract Algorithm / Amount still owed on all objected being

collected by the overdue process.
CURRENCY_CD
C3
CI_OD_PROC / Currency for the amount.
Info String 1
Extract Algorithm / Info about object 1 being collected
Info String 2
Info String 3
Info String 4
Info String 5
155
End of Letter Record

Field Name
Format
Print Key
A4
CIS Sort Key
A26
CIS Mailing Key
A15
9990
Definition of Address Subrecord

Used in mailing address and service address, total length = 361 bytes
Field Name
Format
COUNTRY
A3
ADDRESS1
A64
ADDRESS2
A64
ADDRESS3
A64
ADDRESS4
A64
CITY
A30
NUM1
A6
NUM2
A4
HOUSE_TYPE
A2
COUNTY
A30
STATE
A6
POSTAL
A12
GEO_CODE
A11
IN_CITY_LIMIT
A1
Description
The Word Records

Alternate print / routing methods. This section describes the format of letter extract records
that are constructed by base-package algorithms that are passed to Word, the software that
actually produces the letters. If you require different print formats, you must create new letter
extract algorithms and plug them in on your letter templates.
Alternate letter print flat file format. The algorithms responsible for creating the letter extract
records can produce the output in either Doc1 format (see The Doc 1 Records) or in Word format
(see below). The Doc1 flat file is created with multiple records of various record types for every
customer contact record processed. The Word flat file is created with one record for every
customer contact record processed. These algorithms extract the same fields for both formats.
However, the Word flat file has all fields for a letter compressed into one record; where each field
is delimited by a tilde (~). You control which format is used by the parameters you supply to the
respective background processes that call these algorithms. For Doc 1 format, set FIELDDELIM-SW=N and CNTL-REC-SW=Y. For Word format, set FIELD-DELIM-SW=Y and CNTLREC-SW=N.
156
One record is produced for every letter to be printed. The fields on each record are delimited with
a tilde (~). The following table shows the format of the fields:
Field Name
Maximum
Size
POSTAL
A12
ENTITY_NAME1
A64
CI_PER_NAME1 / Primary name of the person on the Customer

Contact record.
ENTITY_NAME2
A64

Contact record.
ENTITY_NAME3
A64

Contact record.
COUNTRY
A3
The next group of fields (COUNTRY through IN_CITY_LIMIT)

contain the letters address.
ADDRESS1
A64
ADDRESS2
A64
ADDRESS3
A64
ADDRESS4
A64
CITY
A30
NUM1
A6
NUM2
A4
HOUSE_TYPE
A2
COUNTY
A30
STATE
A6
POSTAL
A12
GEO_CODE
A11
IN_CITY_LIMIT
A1
CC_ID
A10
CI_CC / System-assigned identifier for a Customer Contact.
PER_ID
A10
CI_CC / System-assigned identifier for the Person who will receive

the letter.
CC_DT
See Note
CI_CC / The date of the Customer Contact formatted as <month>

DD, YYYY.
CC_TM
T15
CI_CC / The time of the Customer Contact.
CC_CL_CD
A4
CI_CC / The category of contact.
CC_TYPE_CD
A12
CI_CC / The type of contact within the category.
LTR_TMPL_CD
A12
CI_CC / The template of the letter.
LTR_DT
See Note
From the current system date/time the date to print on the letter
formatted as <month> DD, YYYY.
Certain types of letters may have additional fields. The topics that follow describe the additional
fields that suffix the above fields:
157
Contents
Additional Fields For A Collection Process / Event Letter
Additional Fields For A Severance Process / Event Letter
Additional Fields For A Write Off Process / Event Letter
Additional Fields For A Workflow Process / Event Letter
Additional Fields For An Overdue Process / Event Letter
Additional Fields For A Collection Process / Event Letter

The following table describes additional fields that suffix letter extract records associated with a
collection event.
Field Name
Maximum
Size
COLL_PROC_ID
A10
CI_COLL_EVT_CC / Collection process that triggered the letter.
EVT_SEQ
N3
CI_COLL_EVT_CC / Collection event that triggered the letter.
ACCT_ID
N10
CI_COLL_PROC / Account being collected on.
COLL_CL_CNTL_CD
C20
CI_COLL_PROC / Collection class control of the collection process.
DEBT_CL_CD
C4
CI_COLL_CL_CNTL / Class of debt being collected.
DESCR
C30
CI_DEBT_CL.DESCR / Description of the debt class.
CRE_DTTM
DT26
CI_COLL_PROC / Date/time that the collection process was created.
COLL_ARS_DT
See Note
CI_COLL_PROC / Debt date for which this collection process was

created formatted as <month> DD, YYYY.
AMOUNT_AMT
N13.2
Amount still owed for the collection process. This is the amount the
customer must pay to have the collection process canceled. This is
calculated by the same routine used by the Collection Process
Monitor.
CURRENCY_CD
C3
Additional Fields For A Severance Process / Event Letter

severance event.
Field Name
Format
SEV_PROC_ID
A10
CI_SEV_EVT_CC / Severance process that triggered the letter.
EVT_SEQ
N3
CI_SEV_EVT_CC / Severance event that triggered the letter.
SA_ID
A10
CI_SEV_PROC / SA being severed.
ACCT_ID
A10
CI_SA / SAs account.
MULTI_PREM_SW
A1
Y or N. This is set to Y if the SA is currently linked to multiple

premises through its SA/SP, otherwise to N.
BUSINESS_UNIT
A5
CI_SA / Business unit of the SA.
SA_TYPE_CD
A4
CI_SA / Type of SA.
SA_TYPE_DESCR
A30
CI_SA_TYPE.DESCR / Description of the SA type.
CRE_DTTM
DT26
CI_SEV_PROC / Date/time that the collection process was created.
SEV_ARS_DT
See Note
CI_SEV_PROC / Debt date for which this severance process was
158
Field Name
Format
created formatted as <month> DD, YYYY.
AMOUNT_AMT
N13.2
Amount still owed for the severance process. This is amount the
customer must pay to have the severance process canceled. This is
calculated by the same routine used by the Severance Process
Monitor.
CURRENCY_CD
C3
CI_SEV_PROC / Currency for the amount.
ADDRESS_SBR
Address Subrecord.
CI_PREM / The address of the characteristic premise for the SA.
This is assumed to be the premise that will be cut.
Additional Fields For A Write Off Process / Event Letter

write-off event.
Field Name
Format
WO_PROC_ID
A10
EVT_SEQ
N3
ACCT_ID
N10
CI_WO_PROC / Account whose SAs are being written off.
WO_CNTL_CD
C20
CI_WO_PROC / WO control code of the write off process.
WO_DEBT_CL_CD
C4
CI_WO_CNTL / Write Off debt class of the SAs being written off.
DESCR
C30
CI_WO_DEBT_CL.DESCR / Description of the write off debt class.
CRE_DTTM
DT26
CI_WO_PROC / Date/time that the write off process was created.
WO_BALANCE
N13.2
Amount still owed on the SAs linked to the write off process. This is
calculated by the same routine that creates an agency referral,
(Determine Referral Amount routine (CIPLWRAN)).
CURRENCY_CD
C3
Additional Fields For A Workflow Process / Event Letter

workflow event.
Field Name
Format
WF_PROC_ID
A10
CI_WF_EVT / Workflow Event whose event context is the customer

contact being processed.
EVT_SEQ
N3
CI_WF_EVT / / Workflow Event whose event context is the

customer contact being processed.
WF_PP_CD
A12
CI_WF_PROC / Workflow process profile of the workflow process.
NT_UP_XTYPE_CD
A30
CI_WF_PROC / Notification Upload Type that caused the creation

of this process.
DESCR50
A50
CI_NT_UP_XTYPE/ Description of the notification upload type.
CRE_DTTM
DT26
CI_WF_PROC / Date/time that the workflow process was created.
CTXT_VAL_ACCT
A50
159
Field Name
Format
flag is ACCT.
CTXT_VAL_MSA
A50

flag is MSA.
CTXT_VAL_SPR
A50

flag is SPR.
SPR_DESCR50
A50
CI_SPR/DESCR50.
CTXT_VAL_SP
A50

flag is SP.
CTXT_VAL_XACC
A50

flag is XACC.
Additional Fields For An Overdue Process / Event Letter

The following table describes additional fields that suffix letter extract records associated with an
overdue event.
Field Name
Format
OD_PROC_ID
A10
CI_OD_PROC_LOG / Overdue process that triggered the letter.
OD_EVT_SEQ
N3
CI_OD_PROC_LOG / Overdue event that triggered the letter.
ACCT_ID
N10
CI_OD_PROC / Account being collected on.
OD_PROC_TEMPL_CD
A12
CI_OD_PROC / Overdue process template.
DESCR
C30
CI_OD_PROC_TEMPL / Description of the overdue process

template.
CRE_DTTM
See Note.
CI_OD_PROC / Date/time that the overdue process was created

formatted as <month> DD, YYYY.
Original Unpaid Amt
N13.2
Extract Algorithm / Amount owed on all objects being collected by

the overdue process when the overdue process was created.
Unpaid Amt
N13.2
Extract Algorithm / Amount still owed on all objected being

collected by the overdue process.
CURRENCY_CD
C3
CI_OD_PROC / Currency for the amount.
Info String 1
Info String 2
Info String 3
Info String 4
Info String 5
Maintaining Declarations
The declaration page allows you to define a declaration percentage for a combination of account,
premise, service type, declaration type and date range. The declaration may be used by
algorithms to adjust certain calculations in the system. For example you may give certain
customers a reduced VAT rate. The declaration is used to indicate the reduced rate for the
qualifying customer.
160
Open Customer Information, Declaration to add or update a declaration.

Applicable for UK market. This page is intended for the United Kingdom market. Other
markets may disregard this transaction.
Description of Page
The Declaration Info is a concatenation of important information about the declaration record.
The Declaration ID is a system-assigned random number that uniquely identifies this record.
Use Account ID to indicate the account for this declaration.
Use Premise ID to indicate the premise for this declaration.
The Service Type controls the service agreements covered by this declaration. All service
agreements for this account and premise whose service point is for this service type are covered.
Use the Declaration Type to indicate the type of declaration. The system includes the
declaration types CCL Relief and Reduced Rate VAT.
Note. The values for this field are customizable using the Lookup table. This field name is
DCL_TYPE_FLG.
Enter the Start Date and End Date to indicate the effective period of this declaration. The start
date defaults to the current date.
Enter the Declaration Percentage.
If this declaration is related to an external document, indicate the Document Reference.
This bottom of this page contains a tree that shows information about all the declarations linked to
this account. You can use this tree to both view high-level information about these objects and to
161
Meter Management
In addition to meters, the system also supports the definition and installation of non-metered
devices. We use the term item to reference these non-metered devices. In this section, we
describe how you set up and install both types of devices at service points.
Contents
Background Topics
Gaining Access To The V Using Meter/Item Search
Maintaining Meters
Maintaining Meter Configurations
Maintaining Items
Installing / Removing A Meter
Installing / Removing An Item
Testing A Device
Device Test Selection
Meter Replicator
Item Replicator
Usage Requests
Background Topics
The topics in this section provide background information about a variety of meter and item
related issues.
Contents
Meters versus Items versus Equipment
Meters & The V
Items & The V
Meters versus Items versus Equipment

Refer to The Big Picture of Meters, Items and Equipment for the details.
Meters & The V

The V. The V is the nickname given to the demographic and geographic information that
forms the heart of your CIS system. This section assumes you are familiar with the V. If you
arent, refer to Understanding The V.
Over time, a meter may be installed at many service points and a service point may have many
meters installed at it (but at any instant in time, only one meter may be installed at a service
point).
Meter Management Business Processes
The meter installed at a service point measures the consumption used at a service point. Its quite
possible for a single meters consumption to be billed on multiple service agreements because its
service point may be linked to multiple service agreements. This is necessary, for example, when
water consumption is used to bill both water and sewage service agreements. Another example
might be when electric consumption is used to bill both transportation and energy service
agreements.
The following illustration will help you visualize the relationship between a meter and the V.
Person
Account
Premise
Service
Agreement
Service
Point
Meter
12393921
KWH
GE
Model: 12-A
Meter Read
Reading: 10393
Meter
Read
Items & The V

The V. The V is the nickname given to the demographic and geographic information that
forms the heart of your CIS system. This section assumes you are familiar with the V. If you
arent, refer to Understanding The V.
If there are charges in your rates based on the number and type of items installed at a service
point (e.g., lamp charges), you must use either of the following techniques:
If the item is badged (i.e., uniquely identified), you would set up an item and link it to an itembased service point. An item-based service point may have zero or one item installed at any
instant in time. Over time, an item-based service point may have many badged items
installed and removed. Refer to Installing / Removing An Item for more information.
If the item does not have a unique identifier, you do NOT have to set up phony items for it.
Rather, you can use the systems multi-item functionality and simply define the number of
each TYPE of item that is installed at a service point. Refer to Service Points With Multiple
Items for an illustration of such a service point.
Note. Another way to think of an item is something that does NOT measure consumption, but
impacts billing in some way. Examples include streetlights, light poles, and security cameras.
Person
Account
Premise
Service
Agreement
Service
Point
Item
lamp
9281
Warning! The above example illustrated a service point that has a single item installed at it at
any one point in time. We use the term badged item to reference the thing that can be installed
at such a service point (because it has a unique ID that appears on a badge). In addition to
badged items, you can install an unlimited number of non-badged items at any type of service
point. Refer to Service Points (SPs) for more information.
Gaining Access To The V Using Meter/Item

Search
The topics in this section describe the Meter/Item Search page.
Meter/Item Search - Main

Definition of a device. In the following discussion, we refer to meters and items
interchangeably using the term device.
This page contains functionality that helps you:
Find where a device is installed and who pays for the device.
Find the devices associated with a person, account, premise or service point.
Navigate to pages that contain information related to a device, its service point, its account(s)
and its service agreement(s). For example,
After finding the meters related to account 1929210192, you could navigate to the page
where a meter read is added for one of the meters.
After finding the account that pays for lamp BY10291, you could navigate to Control
Central to view summary information about the customer.
Etc.
For more information about the relationships between devices and your customers and
premises, refer to Understanding The V, Meters and The V, and Items and The V.
To look for a device or the customer associated with a device, open Meter, Meter/Item Search.
Description of Page
The top half of the page is where you enter criteria used to search for a device.
In Search Type, you define the type of devices that you want to search for. You have the
following options:
All
This value means that you want to search for meters

AND items. Youd use this, for example, if you wanted
to search for all meters and items linked to a given
customer. This is the default value.
Meter
This value means that you want to search for meters

(and exclude items).
Item
This value means that you want to search for items (and
exclude meters).
After defining the appropriate Search Type, you then define how to search for the device. The
following search methods are available:
Closed service agreements are ignored. When the system displays a devices Account and
Service Agreement Information, it ignores closed service agreements. This means that if a
device is installed at a service point that is only linked to closed service agreements, no Account
or Service Agreement Information will be displayed for the device.
Search Method
Person Name
Description
Use this field to search for the devices associated with an account using a persons
name. The person may be the main customer on the account or a third party related to
the account.
You can enter all or part of the persons name. If the person is a business, enter all or
part of the business name. If the person is a human, you must enter the name in the
format Last,First (e.g., Walton,Richard).
The name search is not case sensitive.
This search method cannot be combined with other search methods.
Search Method
Description
Please be aware that only persons whose accounts have devices installed will appear
in the search results at the bottom of the page.
Also note, ALL devices that were ever installed at a persons account(s) are displayed,
even if the device has been subsequently replaced.
Account ID
Use this field to search for the devices associated with a given account ID.
You can enter all or part of the account ID.
Please be aware that only accounts that have devices installed will appear in the
search results at the bottom of the page.
Also note, ALL devices that were ever installed at an account are displayed, even if the
device has been subsequently replaced.
SA ID
Use this field to search for the devices associated with a given service agreement ID.
You can enter all or part of the SA ID.
Please be aware that only service agreements that have devices installed will appear in
the search results at the bottom of the page.
Also note, ALL devices that were ever installed a service agreement are displayed,
even if the device has been subsequently replaced.
SP ID
Use this field to search for the devices associated with a given service point ID.
You can enter all or part of the SP ID.
Please be aware that only service points that have devices installed will appear in the
Also note, ALL devices that were ever installed a service point are displayed, even if
the device has been subsequently replaced.
Premise ID
Use this field to search for the devices associated with a given premise ID.
You can enter all or part of the premise ID.
Please be aware that only premises that have devices installed will appear in the
Also note, ALL devices that were ever installed at a premise are displayed, even if the
Address
Use this field to search for the devices installed at a premise using the first line of a
service address.
You can enter all or part of the first line of the address. For example, if youre looking
for 324 Hawthorne Lane, you can enter 324 Haw rather than the entire address.
The address search is not case sensitive.
Address may be combined with the City and Postal search methods. Otherwise, this
search method cannot be combined with other search methods.
Search Method
Description
Also note, ALL devices that were ever installed at the premise are displayed, even if the
City
Use this field to search for the devices installed at a premise using a city name
associated with a service address.
You can enter all or part of the city name. For example, if youre looking for someone
in San Francisco; you can enter San Fra, San F, San Francisco, etc.
The city search is not case sensitive.
We strongly recommend qualifying a City search with and Address or Postal code,
otherwise the resultant list can be too large to deal with. Otherwise, this search method
cannot be combined with other search methods.
Postal
Use this field to search for the devices installed at a premise using a postal code
associated with a service address.
You can enter all or part of the postal code.
The postal code search is case sensitive.
We strongly recommend qualifying a Postal search with and Address or City,
otherwise the resultant list can be too large to deal with. Otherwise, this search method
cannot be combined with other search methods.
Badge Number
Use this field to find where a device is installed and who pays for the device by entering
the devices badge number.
You can enter all or part of the devices badge number.
This search option is case sensitive.
Also note,
SP Geo Type / Value
For meters, only customers associated with the latest configuration of the meter
are displayed.
For items, all customers associated with the item are displayed.
Use this field to search for the devices installed at a service point by using one of the
service points Geo Types / Values. Refer to Service Point Geographic Information
for more information about Geo Types / Values.
If you use this method, you must define a SP Geo Type, however you can enter all or
part of the Geo Value.
Search Method
Description
Please be aware that only service points that have devices installed will appear in the
Also note, ALL devices that were ever installed at the service point are displayed, even
if the device has been subsequently replaced.
Meter ID Type / Number
Use this field to find where a meter is installed and who pays for the meter by entering
one of the meters alternate IDs. Refer to Meter Meter ID for more information about
Meter ID Types / Numbers.
If you use this method, you must define a Meter ID Type, however you can enter all or
part of the Number.
Also note, only customers associated with the latest configuration of the meter are
displayed.
The system shows the results of your search request in the grid at the bottom of the page. The
following information appears in the grid:
Use the context menus to navigate elsewhere. Please be aware that the context menus that
prefix each cell provide a simple means to navigate to pages related to the meters / service points
/ accounts / service agreements.
Meter / Item Information
This contains a concatenation of important information

about the device. This information includes (but is not
necessarily limited to) the devices type, badge number,
serial number, and status.
SP Information

about the service point at which the device is installed.
This information includes (but is not necessarily limited
to) the service points type, service cycle, premise
address, and premise type. If the meter has never been
installed at a service point, this column will be blank.
Account Information

about the account who pays for the device. This
information includes (but is not necessarily limited to) the
name of the main customer linked to the account, the
customer class, and account ID. If the meter has never
been installed at a service point or the service point is
not linked to a service agreement, this column will be
blank.
SA Information

about the service agreement that is linked to the device.
This information includes (but is not necessarily limited
to) the division / SA type, start option, status, and
effective period. If the meter has never been installed at
a service point or the service point is not linked to a
service agreement, this column will be blank.
Blank column
This column contains a go to button that will transfer

you to the SA / SP page where you can see details
about this service points relationship to the service
agreement.
Geographic Value
This column only appears if you have used the SP Geo

Type/Value search option. It will contain the geographic
value associated with the service point.
Meter ID Number
This column only appears if you have used the Meter ID

Type / Number search option. It will contain the meter
ID number associated with the meter.
Maintaining Meters
Meter records contain information about your meters. The topics in this section describe the
pages on which meter-related information is maintained.
After you have set up the core meter information, navigate to Maintaining Meter Configurations to
define how the meters registers are configured.
If you need to create several copies of a given meter and its configuration, navigate to Meter
Replicator - Main Information.
Contents
Meter - Main Information
Meter - Meter ID
Meter - Characteristics
Meter - SP Installation History
Meter - Equipment
Meter - Location History
Meter - Meter Tree
Meter - Main Information

The Main page contains core meter information. Open this page using Meter, Meter.
Description of Page
The following meter information is displayed at the top of the page:
Meter Info
The description of the meter type concatenated with the

meters badge number and status.
Meter ID
This is a system-assigned random number that stays

with a meter for life. This value only appears after the
meter exists on the database.
Premise ID
The unique identifier of the premise at which the meter is

installed (or was last installed).
Who pays for service? Use the Premise Context Menu to navigate to Control Central to see
information about the customer linked to the current/last service point at which the meter is/was
installed.
Service Point
Information about the service point at which the meter is

installed (or was last installed).
Install Date
The date the meter was installed at its last location.
Removal Date
The date the meter was removed from its last location.
The remaining fields are maintained on the remainder of this page.

The Badge Number is the identifier stamped on the meter. This is NOT the manufacturers serial
number. Rather, its the number on the badge that typically appears on the face of the meter.
This number is what most operators use to identify the meter.
Duplicate Badge Numbers. If the meters meter type allows duplicate badge numbers, multiple
meters of a given meter type may have the same badge number. Otherwise, duplicate badge
numbers are not allowed for a given meter type.
Indicate the Meter Type. This field is very important as it defines the type of service associated
with this meter. It also defines characteristics common to all meters of a given type and the type
of equipment that can be linked to the meter.
Use the Meter Status to indicate if the meter is Active, Ordered, or Retired.
Note. The values for the meter status field are customizable using the Lookup table. This field
name is MTR_STATUS_FLG.
Define the meters Manufacturer and Model.
Enter the manufacturers Serial Number.
Use Date Received to define the date on which the meter was received from the manufacturer.
Use Date Retired to define the date when the meter is retired from service. This field is gray
when the meter status is Active or Ordered.
Use Retire Reason to define why the meter was retired from service. This field is gray when the
meter status is Active or Ordered.
Use Comments to describe unusual characteristics of the meter.
The Meter Configuration scroll/grid combination contains an overview of the meters

configurations and each configurations registers. This information is not modifiable on this page.
To modify this information, use the Meter Configuration context menu to transfer to the Meter
Configuration page. Refer to Meter Configuration Maintenance for a description of the fields in
the scroll and grid.
Meter - Meter ID
A meter may have alternate IDs other than its badge number. If it does, each alternate form of
ID is defined using the Meter, Meter, Meter ID page.
Description of Page
To modify a meter ID, simply move to a field and change its value. To add a new alternate form
of identity, click + to insert a row, then fill in the information for each field. The following fields
display:
Meter ID Type
Indicate the type of meter ID.
Meter ID Number
Indicate the alternate meter id.
Where Used
The data on this page is used by the meter read upload process to identify the meter
configuration that is being read. Refer to Uploading Meter Reads for more information.
Meter - Characteristics
meter. Use Meter, Meter, Characteristics to open this page.
Description of Page
Meter Info is a concatenation of the meters meter type and badge number.
Meter ID is the system-assigned random number that stays with a meter for life. This value only
appears after the item exists on the database.
To modify a characteristic, simply move to a field and change its value. To add a new
characteristic, click the + button to insert a row, then fill in the information for each field. The
Effective Date

becomes effective. The meters date received defaults.
Characteristic Type
Default note. If the meters meter type has required characteristics, the respective characteristic
types will default in the above grid.
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Meter - SP Installation History

The SP Installation History is an information-only page that shows the history of service points at
which the meter has been installed. Use Meter, Meter, SP Installation History to open this
page.
This page shows the history of the service points at which the meter has been installed. No fields
on this page may be modified.
Meter - Equipment
The equipment page contains the equipment that is linked to the meter. Use Meter, Meter,
Equipment to open this page. Refer to Equipment May Be Associated With Meters for more
information.
Description of Page
To modify a piece of equipment, simply move to a field and change its value. To add a new piece
of equipment, press + to insert a row, then fill in the information for each field. The following
fields display:
Equipment ID
Indicate the unique identifier of the equipment.
Note. This is actually the unique ID of an item as an item must be set up for each piece of
equipment that can be linked to a meter. Only items with an item type defined on the meters
meter types equipment collection may be defined (in other words, the valid types of equipment
are defined on the meters meter type).
Badge Number
This is a display-only field that contains the equipments

badge number.
Equipment Type
This is a display-only field that contains a description of

the equipments item type.
Equipment Count

that are associated with this meter.
Install Date

meter.
Removal Date

the meter.
Comment
Enter a comment to explain anything unusual about the

piece of equipment.
Meter - Location History

The meter location history page has two purposes:
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You can view the history of the service points and stock locations at which a meter has been
located.
You can change a meters current stock location if it is not installed at a service point.
Its important to be aware that location history is only recorded when the meters meter type
indicates that its location is tracked. Refer to The Big Picture of Asset Inventory for further
information.
Use Meter, Meter, Location History to open this page.
Description of Page
The rows in the grid show where the meter has been located over its lifetime. The following types
of rows may be displayed:
When a meter is installed at a service point, a stock location history record is created with a
Location History Type of SP Install.
Location Date/Time is the time of installation. This may not be modified.
Location is the service point at which the meter is installed. This may not be modified.
When a meter is removed from a service point, a stock location history record is created with
a Location History Type of SP Removal.
Location Date/Time is the time of removal. This may not be modified.
Location is a stock location. This value is defaulted based on the service points postal
defaults. You may change this Location if the defaulted value is incorrect.
When a new meter is added, you must create a location history record to define the stock
location at which the meter is stored.
Enter the Date/Time the meter was received.
The Location History Type is defaulted to Stock.
Use Location to define the stock location where the item is being stored.
If a meter is transferred from one stock location to another, you must create a location history
record as described above.
To create a new location history record, click the + button to insert a row, then fill in the
information for each field.
Note. Location history may have gaps. A meter's Stock Location History Is Created Behind
the Scenes and is only created if stock location is being tracked.
Meter - Meter Tree

The meter tree page contains high-level information about various objects linked to the meter.
Use Meter, Meter, Meter Tree to open this page.
Description of Page
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This page is dedicated to a tree that shows the various objects linked to the meter. You can use
Maintaining Meter Configurations

A meters registers are defined in respect of an effective-dated meter configuration. When you
reconfigure a meters registers, you add a new configuration with an effective date equal to the
reconfiguration date. Whenever you add a configuration, you must specify how all of the registers
look on the configuration date; you dont just specify those registers that have changed.
Every meter must have at least one configuration, otherwise the system doesnt know what it
measures and meter reads cannot be specified for the meter. A meter without meter reads cannot
be billed (or linked to a service agreement!).
A meter configuration has one or more registers. The number is dependent on how many things
are measured. For example, if you have a meter that measures kilowatt-hours and kilovoltamperes, its configuration will have two registers.
For more information about meter configurations, refer to The Structure of a Meter.
Contents
Changing A Configuration
Meter Configuration Maintenance
Validating Register Constants
Changing A Configuration
Because meter configurations are effective-dated, you have to deal with the difference between
correcting an incorrect configuration and introducing a new configuration.
You correct a configuration if you entered some part of the information about the
configuration in error (e.g. a five-digit register is recorded as having four digits).
You introduce a new configuration when you reconfigure the meter. All of the existing
information was accurate at the time it was entered, but now something about the meters
configuration has changed. The historical information is retained intact, and the new
configuration has its own unique identity on the system.
You are allowed to correct an historical configuration, but be careful. You see, meter reads
reference a configuration and its registers. If you change an historical registers unit of measure,
you are changing the unit of measure of all of the meter reads associated with this register - past
and future. This system allows you to do this, just be aware of what youre doing.
You cannot introduce a configuration while the meter is installed at a service point (i.e., the
effective date of the configuration cannot overlap with the effective date period of any SP
Installation History). Think about it, you cant reconfigure the meter while its measuring
consumption. To reconfigure a meter after its been installed at a service point:
Remove the meter from the service point using SP / Meter Installation. To do this, youll be
required to specify a meter read showing how the registers looked when the meter was
removed (and you can do this from this page).
13
Next, add a new meter configuration using Meter Configuration Maintenance effective on the
reconfiguration date. Specify how the registers look after reconfiguration on the new
configuration.
If you need to reinstall the meter at the service point, return to SP / Meter Installation and add
a new installation. To do this, youll be required to specify a meter read showing how the
registers look at installation time (and you can do this from this page). As you know, the
registers are typically reset at installation, but we havent made this assumption in the
system.
Field activities simplify life. Rather than remembering the steps necessary to perform a meter
reconfiguration on an installed meter, you should have a field activity type set up with the three
steps. If such an activity type exists, you simply create a field activity referencing this type and
when you complete it, you can do the 3 steps all at once.
Meter Configuration Maintenance

All meters must have an initial configuration that should be effective as of the date the meter was
received. If you reconfigure the meter in the future, you must add a new effective-dated
configuration to reflect how the meter is configured.
Warning! Do not attempt to maintain a meter configuration unless you are familiar with the
concepts discussed in Changing A Configuration.
Contents
Meter Configuration - Main Information
Meter Configuration - Meter Configuration Tree
Meter Configuration - Main Information

Open Meter, Meter Configuration to maintain a meters configuration.
Please be aware that the information maintained on meter configurations associated with interval
meters is slightly different than that for regular meters. The topics in this section describe how
this page behaves for both types of meters.
Contents
Regular (Non Interval) Meter Configuration Maintenance
Interval Meter Configuration Maintenance
Regular (Non Interval) Meter Configuration Maintenance

The following discussion describes how the Meter Configuration page behaves for regular (non
interval) meters.
Note. A meter is viewed as being an interval meter if its meter type indicates interval registers
are allowed.
Description of Page
The following meter configuration information is displayed at the top of the page:
14
Meter Configuration
The description of the meter type concatenated with the

meters badge number, the meter configuration effective
date, the description of the meter configuration type and
the number of registers.
Meter Configuration ID
This is a system-generated unique identifier for the

meter configuration. This value is assigned when the
meter configuration is added to the database.
Meter ID
The system-generated unique identifier for the meter.
Effective Date / Time
Defines the date and time the configuration becomes

effective.
Meter Configuration Type
Controls the types of registers that may be defined on

this meter configuration. When you select a meter
configuration type, the system defaults these attributes
in the register grid. Refer to Setting Up Meter
Configuration Types for more information.
The Registers accordion contains information about the meter configurations registers. To
modify existing register information, click on the registers summary bar and then move to a field
and change its value. To add a new register, click the + button in the accordion to insert a row
then fill in the information for each field. The following fields display:
Sequence defines the relative physical position of the register with respect to the other
registers, if any.
Use Unit of Measure (UOM) to define the unit of measure in which the register is calibrated.
Use Time of Use (TOU) to define the time-of-use code, if any, that specifies a particular time
of day during which the register measures consumption.
Register Constant is used to derive billable consumption. Measured consumption is

multiplied by this number to derive billable consumption.
Use Consumptive/Subtractive to define how the system calculates consumption from the
registers meter reads. For Subtractive registers, the system has to subtract the previous
read from the current read. For Consumptive registers, the dial reading indicates how much
was consumed and no subtraction is necessary.
Most of your registers will be set to Subtractive unless you sell electricity. For most electric
meters, kWh registers will be set to Subtractive, and KW meters will be set to Consumptive.
Use How To Use to control how billing uses the consumption from the register. Use
Additive if billing adds the registers consumption to other registers consumption (with the
same UOM and TOU value). Use Subtractive if billing subtracts the registers consumption
from other registers consumption (with the same UOM and TOU value). Use Peak if billing
compares this registers consumption against other registers consumption (with the same
UOM and TOU value) and uses the higher consumption value. Use Check if billing ignores
the consumption associated with this register.
Most of your registers will be set to Additive unless you sell electricity. On electric meters,
kWh registers will be set to Additive, KW meters will be set to Peak.
15
Use Digits Left/Right to define the number of digits to the left and right of decimal place.
This information is used to validate meter readings to ensure they do not exceed the dials
capacity.
Full Scale is typically only specified on demand meters (but can be specified on any type). It
is downloaded to the meter reading devices so they can warn the reader if the resulting
consumption is close to or exceeds the registers maximum capacity.
Read Out Type defines how the readings are displayed on the register.
Protocol defines how the register is read.
Tolerance is typically only specified on demand meters (but can be specified on any type). It
is downloaded to the meter reading devices so they can warn the reader if the resulting
consumption is close to or exceeds the tolerance of the register.
Channel ID is used to record an external id that may exist for the register.
Register ID is the unique system-assigned identifier of the register. This value is allocated
when the register is added to the database. Note, the adjacent context menu is disabled for
non-interval registers.
Characteristics
The Characteristics collection on the Meter Configuration page contains information that
describes miscellaneous information about the meter configuration.
Characteristic Type
Sequence
Controls the order in which characteristics of the same

type are displayed.
Interval Meter Configuration Maintenance

The following discussion describes how the Meter Configuration page behaves for interval
meters.
Note. A meter is viewed as being an interval meter if its meter type indicates interval registers
are allowed.
Description of Page
This section only highlights the fields that are different from regular (non interval) meter
configurations.
Use the Complete Data Sets button if you have Pending datasets for the interval registers linked
to the meter configuration and you would like the system to Complete them. When this button is
clicked, all validation algorithms defined on the registers Interval Register Types will be
executed. If no errors are detected from the interval register types validation algorithms OR if
none of the interval register types contains validation algorithms, the pending data sets will be
marked as complete. Refer to Validation of Register Data for more information about the
validation algorithms.
16
The Registers accordion contains information about the meter configurations registers. The
following fields are unique to interval registers or have special behavior for interval registers:
Turn on Interval if this register can have interval datasets associated with it.
Use Interval Register Type to define the interval register type that controls business rules
associated with an interval registers datasets. This field is disabled if Interval is turned off.
Use Time of Use (TOU) to define the time-of-use code if any, that specifies a particular time
of day during which the register measures consumption. This field is disabled if Interval is
turned on.
Channel ID is used to specify an external id for the register. It can be used, for example, to
store the MV-90 channel ID suffix related to a specific register for interval meters.
Meter Configuration - Meter Configuration Tree

Open Meter, Meter Configuration and navigate to the Meter Configuration Tree tab to view a
meter configurations tree.
Description of Page
At the top of the page is a summary description of the Meter Configuration. At the right is the
system-generated unique Meter Configuration ID for the meter.
This page displays a tree view of registers linked to the Meter Configuration. The root node
displays the ID of the meter configuration along with its standard description.
The register nodes contained in the tree view are hyperlinks that navigate to the Registers
accordion on the Meter Configuration - Main Information page.
If any non-interval registers are associated with the meter configuration, a node is displayed
for each register.
If any interval registers are associated with the meter configuration, a node is displayed for
each register. Expanding this node displays information about data sets linked to the interval
register.
The Pending Data Sets node displays if any of the data sets linked to the register are
pending. Expanding this node displays each pending data set.
The Error Data Sets node displays if any of the data sets linked to the register are in
error. Expanding this node displays each error data set.
The Data Created Through node displays the date of the latest complete interval as of
the current date. Expanding this node displays the last 10 complete data sets.
Validating Register Constants

You can validate the register constants of all installed electric meters, by service cycle (the
service cycle of the service points in which the meters are installed). This allows you to check
and confirm, in mass, the entered constants for all meters.
This background process (known by the batch control ID of REGCNST) selects all electric service
points on the input service cycle. It uses CT (current transformer) and PT (potential transformer)
equipment linked to SP to calculate register constant using the formula:
Calculated Register Constant = Product of all CT, PT ratios * Dial Constant
17
If the calculated register constant doesnt match to the actual register constant, a To Do entry is
created.
In order for the process to know how to find the correct equipment and the correct ratios, control
tables need to be set up appropriately and parameters for the background processes need to be
defined accordingly.
Equipment is set up through the use of Items. You will define an Item Type to be used for CT
equipment and another to be used for PT equipment.
The CT Ratio will need to be defined using a Characteristic Type for the CT Item.
The PT Ratio will need to be defined using a Characteristic Type for the PT Item.
The Dial Constant will need to be defined using a Characteristic Type for the Meter.
In order for the background process to work correctly, the following input parameters will need to
be populated:
Service Cycle
Item Type to identify the CT Equipment
Item Type to identify the PT Equipment
Characteristic Type to identify the CT Ratio
Characteristic Type to identify the PT Ratio
Characteristic Type to identify the Dial Constant
To Do Type and To Do Role
Refer to Register Constant Validation Process for more information.
Maintaining Items
Item records contain information describing badged items that exist at service points. Item
records are also used to describe equipment that is linked to meters, service points, and other
items.
Refer to Equipment versus Badged Items for more information.
The topics in this section describe the pages on which item-related information is maintained.
Contents
Item - Main Information
Item - Characteristics
Item - SP Installation History
Item - Equipment
Item - Location History
18
Item - Main Information

The Main page contains core item information. To open this page, use Meter, Item.
Description of Page
The following item information is displayed at the top of the page:
Item Info
A concatenation of the items item type, badge number

and status.
Item ID

with an item for life. This value only appears after the
item exists on the database.
Premise ID
The unique identifier of the premise at which the item is

installed.
Service Point
Information about the service point at which the item is

installed.
Install Date
The date the item was installed at its current location.
Removal Date
The date the item was removed from its last location.

Use Badge Number to define the identifier stamped on the item. This is NOT the manufacturers
serial number. Rather, its the number on the badge that typically appears on the face of the
item. This number is what most operators use to identify the item.
Indicate the Item Type. This field is important as it defines the type of service associated with
this item. It also defines characteristics common to all items of a given type and the type of
equipment that can be linked to the item.
Use the Item Status to indicate if the item is Active, Ordered, or Retired.
Define the items Manufacturer and Model.
Enter manufacturers Serial Number.
Use Date Received to define the date on which the item was received from the manufacturer.
Use Date Retired to define the date when the item is retired from service. This field is gray when
the item status is Active or Ordered.
Use Retire Reason to define why the item was retired from service. This field is gray when the
item status is Active or Ordered.
Enter any comments about the item in the Comments.
The tree at the bottom of the page is only relevant for items used to define pieces of equipment
as it contains the following information:
Every service point to which a piece of equipment is linked
Every meter to which a piece of equipment is linked
Every item to which a piece of equipment is linked
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Item - Characteristics
item. Use Maintain Items, Item, Characteristics to open this page.
Description of Page
Item Info is a concatenation of the items item type, badge number and status.
Item ID is the system-assigned random number that stays with an item for life. This value only
appears after the item exists on the database.
Effective Date

becomes effective. The items date received defaults.
Characteristic Type
Default note. If the items item type has required characteristics, the respective characteristic
types will default in the above grid.
Item - SP Installation History

The SP Installation History is an information-only page that shows the history of service points at
which the item has been installed. Use Item, Item, SP Installation History to open this page.
This page shows the history of the service points at which the item has been installed. No fields
Item - Equipment
The equipment page contains the equipment that is linked to the item. Use Meter, Item,
Equipment to open this page. Refer to Equipment May Be Associated With Other Items for more
information.
Description of Page
To modify a piece of equipment, simply move to a field and change its value. To add a new piece
of equipment, click + to insert a row, then fill in the information for each field. The following fields
display:
Equipment ID
Indicate the unique identifier of the equipment.
Note. This is actually the unique ID of an item as an item must be set up for each piece of
equipment that can be linked to an item. Only items with an item type defined on the items item
types equipment collection may be defined (in other words, the valid types of equipment are
defined on the items item type).
20
Badge Number
This is a display-only field that contains the equipments

badge number.
Equipment Type
This is a display-only field that contains a description of

the equipments item type.
Equipment Count

that are associated with this item.
Install Date

item.
Removal Date

the item.
Comments
Use comments to explain anything unusual about the

piece of equipment.
Item - Location History

The item location history page has two purposes:
You can view the history of the service points and stock locations at which an item has been
located.
You can change an items current stock location if it is not installed at a service point.
Its important to be aware that location history is only recorded when the items item type
indicates that its location is tracked. Refer to The Big Picture of Asset Inventory for further
information.
Use Meter, Item, Location History to open this page.
Description of Page
The rows in the grid show where the item has been located over its lifetime. The following types
of rows may be displayed:
When an item is installed at a service point, a stock location history record is created with a
Location History Type of SP Install.
Location Date/Time is the time of installation. This may not be modified.
Location is the service point at which the meter is installed. This may not be modified.
When an item is removed from a service point, a stock location history record is created with
a Location History Type of SP Removal.
Location Date/Time is the time of removal. This may not be modified.
Location is a stock location. This value is defaulted based on the service points postal
defaults. You may change this Location if the defaulted value is incorrect.
When a new item is added, you must create a location history record to define the stock
location at which the item is stored.
21
Enter the Date/Time the item was received.
The Location History Type is defaulted to Stock.
Use Location to define the stock location where the item is being stored.
If an item is transferred from one stock location to another, you must create a location history
record as described above.
To create a new location history record, click the + button to insert a row, then fill in the
information for each field.
Note. Location history may have gaps. An item's Stock Location History Is Created Behind
the Scenes and is only created if stock location is being tracked.
Installing / Removing A Meter

The installation of a meter is a small part of the process of starting / stopping service. This
process begins when a customer requests service at a metered service point that is, at present,
without service. It continues with the creation of a field activity required to connect service.
When the system is advised of the results of the field activity, it creates a SP / Meter history
record (which you can see on this page).
The removal of a meter from a service point involves an exactly analogous process where you
use the SP / Meter Installation page to indicate when the meter was removed (and the dial
readings at that time).
The remainder of this section is limited to a discussion about how to use the SP / Meter
Installation page.
For more information about starting / stopping service, refer to The Big Picture Of Starting
Service and The Big Picture Of Stopping Service. For more information about how the results of
a field activity are advised to the system, refer to How Does A Field Order Get Completed?. For
more information about setting up field activity types to install and remove meters from service
points, refer to Setting Up Field Activity Types.
Contents
SP / Meter Installation
SP Meter Installation History
SP / Meter Installation
The system automatically updates the information on this page when field activities that affect a
meters installation status (i.e., installs, removes, on/offs) are completed via Field Activity Upload
Staging. You should only have to change the information on this page when you need to finetune what the system sets up by default.
Open Meter, SP/Meter Installation to update a meters installation information.
Description of Page
The following information is displayed at the top of the page:
22
SP/Meter History
This is a concatenation of meter and service point

information. This information only appears after the
SP/item history record exists on the database.
SP/Meter History ID

with a SP/meter history record for life. This value only
appears after the SP/meter history record exists on the
database.

Service Point ID is the ID of the service point at which the meter is installed.
SP Type Restrictions. The service points SP Type controls whether or not a meter can be
installed at the service point, and if so, what type of meter can be installed. Refer to Setting Up
Service Point Types for more information.
Meter Configuration ID indirectly identifies the meter that is installed at the service point. A
configuration may be associated with exactly one meter at any given point in time. Therefore,
identifying the configuration also identifies the meter. Adjacent to the configuration ID is summary
information about the configuration and the meter with which it is currently associated. This
information consists of the description of the meter type of the meter, the meters badge number,
the effective date and time of the configuration, and the number of registers.
Use the Installation information to define the readings on the meters register(s) when the meter
is installed. To do this you must:
Enter the installation Meter Read ID that shows how the meters register(s) look at
installation time. If you need to view or modify the read, click the context menu and transfer
to the meter read.
The installation date and time of the meter is the installation meter reads date/time.
Use Meter On/Off Status to define if the meter is turned on or off when its INITIALLY
installed. Valid values are On and Off. This status does not affect billing in any way. It is
purely informational.
Override the Installation Constant (i.e., set it to a value other than 1), if equipment is linked
to this service point that affects the calculation of the constant used to manipulate the meters
consumption at billing time. Its important to be aware that this value is multiplied by the
meters registers respective constants when billing determines the amount of consumption
associated with a meter. Typically, only large industrial service points will have a value other
than 1. Note that when you want to change the installation constant for a service point you
must perform an office exchange. This means that you should remove the current meter
and reinstall it. On the new install, specify the new installation constant this way billing will
recognize the new constant and adjust the billable quantities correctly.
Default note. The Installation Constant defaults to a value of 1 for the first meter configuration
installed at a service point. The installation constant for subsequent meter configurations is
defaulted to the value of the latest meter configurations installation constant.
23
Warning! Entering a meter configuration and install meter read is an important part of installing a
meter at a service point. However, if the installation was done in order to activate a service
agreement, you also must reference the install meter read as the start read on the respective
service agreement / service point linkage. The system sets this linkage up for you if: a) the meter
installation is done as part of a field activity, and b) the field activity is linked to the service
agreement / service point linkage as its start activity. Refer to Starting Service & Field Activities
Use the Removal information to define the readings on the meters registers when the meter is
removed. To do this you must:
Enter the removal Meter Read ID that shows how the meters register(s) look at removal
time. If you need to view or modify the read, click the context menu and transfer to the meter
read.
The removal date and time of the meter is the removal meter reads date/time.
Warning! Entering a removal meter read is an important part of removing a meter. However, if
the removal was done in order to stop service, you must also reference the removal meter read
as the stop read on the respective service agreement / service point linkage. The system sets
this linkage up for you if: a) the meter removal is done as part of a field activity, and b) the field
activity is linked to the service agreement / service point linkage as its stop activity. Refer to
Starting Service & Field Activities for more information.
Stock Location only appears if the meters meter type tracks location. Enter the stock
location where the meter is stored upon removal. Refer to The Big Picture Of Asset Inventory
The Meter On/Off History grid contains the history of when the meter has been turned on and off
while its installed at a service point.
When a meters on/off status changes, insert a new entry into the grid by clicking the + button.
Then,
Enter the On/Off Meter Read ID that shows how the meters dials look when the status is
changed. When this field is populated, the meter Read Date/Time appears adjacent to it.
Use Meter On/Off Status to define if the meter is turned on or off. Valid values are On and
Off.
A unique Sequence number is given to each entry after the information is saved.
Warning! The on/off status does not affect billing in any way. So, for example, if you turn a
meter off and never expire the service agreement / service point link, the meter will still be
amalgamated by billing (although its consumption should be zero). This is intentional as many
meters are turned off as part of the credit and collections process when a customer is delinquent
(but the service point is still linked to the service agreement in case the customer pays up).
SP Meter Installation History

The SP installation history page is an information-only page that shows the meters that have
been installed at the service point. Use Meter, SP / Meter Installation, SP Installation History
to open this page.
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Description of Page
This page shows the history of the meters that have been installed at the service point. No fields
Installing / Removing An Item

The installation of an item is a small part of the process of starting / stopping service. This
process begins when a customer requests service at an item-based service point without an item.
It continues with the creation of a field activity to connect service. When the system is advised of
the results of the field activity, it creates a SP / Item history record (which you can see on this
page).
The removal of an item from a service point involves an exact analogy where you use the SP /
Item Installation page to indicate when the item was removed.
The remainder of this section is limited to a discussion about how to use the SP / Item Installation
page.
For more information about starting / stopping service, refer to The Big Picture Of Starting
Service and The Big Picture Of Stopping Service. For more information about how the results of
a field activity are advised to the system, refer to How Does A Field Order Get Completed?. For
more information about setting up field activity types to install and remove meters from service
points, refer to Setting Up Field Activity Types.
Contents
SP / Item Installation
SP Item Installation History
SP / Item Installation
The system automatically updates the information on this page when field activities that affect an
items installation status (i.e., installs, removes, on/offs) are completed via Field Activity Upload
Staging. You should only have to change the information on this page when you need to finetune what the system sets up by default.
Open Meter, SP/Item Installation to update a meters installation information.
Description of Page
The following information is displayed at the top of the page:
SP/Item History
This is a concatenation of service point AND item

information. This information only appears after the
SP/item history record exists on the database.
SP/Item History ID

with a SP/item history record for life. This value only
appears after the SP/item history record exists on the
database.
Enter the ID of the Service Point at which the item is installed. Summary information about the
service point is displayed adjacent to the service point ID.
25
SP Type Restrictions. The service points SP Type controls whether or not an item can be
installed at the service point, and if so, what type of item can be installed. Refer to Setting Up
Service Point Types for more information.
Item ID identifies the item that is installed at the service point. Summary information about the
item is displayed adjacent to the item ID.
Use the Installation information to define when the item is installed. To do this you must:
Enter the Installation Date/Time showing when the item is installed at the service point.
Use Item On/Off Status to define if the item is turned on or off when its INITIALLY installed.
Valid values are On and Off. This status does not affect billing in any way - it is purely
informational.
Use the Removal information to define when the item is removed from the service point. To do
this you must:
Enter the Removal Date/Time showing when the item is removed from the service point.
Stock Location only appears if the items item type tracks location. Enter the stock location
where the item is stored upon removal. Refer to The Big Picture Of Asset Inventory for more
information.
The Item On/Off History grid contains the history of when the item has been turned on and off
while its installed at the service point. When an items on/off status changes, insert a new entry
button. Then,
into the grid by clicking the
Use Event Date / Time to define when the status changed.
Use Item On/Off Status to define if the item is turned on or off. Valid values are On and Off.
Warning! The on/off status does not affect billing in any way. So, for example, if you turn an
item off and never expire the service agreement / service point link, the item will still be
amalgamated by billing. This is intentional as items can be turned off as part of the credit and
collections process when a customer is delinquent (but the service point is still linked to the
service agreement in case the customer pays up).
Only lamps use on/off status. This grid is only applicable to items that can be switched on and
off (e.g., a lamp with a photovoltaic eye can be switched on and off by installing or removing the
eye). If the type of item does not possess such a property, set the status to on.
SP Item Installation History

The SP installation history page is an information-only page that shows the items that have been
installed at the service point. Use Meter, SP / Item Installation, SP Installation History to open
this page.
Description of Page
This page shows the history of the items that have been installed at the service point. No fields
26
Testing A Device
Device tests record the results of the periodic tests used to determine the accuracy of your
meters and item. The topics in this section describe how to record the results of a meter or item
test.
Refer to The Big Picture Of Device Testing for more information.
Contents
The Lifecycle Of A Device Test
Device Test - Main
Device Test - Characteristics
Device Test - Components
The Lifecycle Of A Device Test

The following diagram shows the possible lifecycle of a device test.
Device Test Lifecycle

In Progress
Passed
Error
Failed
Canceled
In Progress
The system creates a device test in the state of In

Progress.
Passed
The system automatically changes the state of an In

Progress device test to Passed when an operator
indicates such on the device test page. Note, if the
device tests test type has a validation algorithm, the test
must pass the validation rules embodied in the algorithm
before the test will become Passed. If the device tests
test type does not use a validation algorithm, the test is
assumed to pass when the operator indicates such.
27
Failed
The system automatically changes the state of a device

test to Failed when an operator indicates such on the
device test page. Note, if the device tests test type has
a validation algorithm and the user indicates the test has
passed, the system will change the test to Failed if the
test fails the algorithm.
Error
If the device tests test type has a validation algorithm

and the user indicates the test has passed, the system
will change the test to Error if a problem is encountered
while the validation algorithm executes.
Canceled
You may Cancel a device test if it shouldnt exist.
Device Test - Main

The Main page contains core device test information. Open this page using Meters, Device
Test, Main.
Description of Page
The top portion of every page in this page contains the following information:
Device Test is a concatenation of summary information about this device test. It is composed the
devices badge number, the test date, and the tests status.
Device Test ID is the unique system-generated identifier for this device test.
The remaining fields on the page are described below:
Use Device Test Type to define the type of test that was conducted.
Use Test Start Date/Time to define when the test was started.
Use Test Stop Date/Time to define when the test was completed.
Define the Meter ID on which the test was performed. This field will be gray if the Device Test
Type is used for items.
Note. You can only select a meter whose meter type indicates this Device Test Type can be
performed for it.
Define the Item ID on which the test was performed. This field will be gray if the Device Test
Type is used for meters.
Note. You can only select an item whose item type indicates this Device Test Type can be
performed for it.
Indicate who performed the test:
If the test was performed by a 3rd party service provider, enter the testers Service Provider
ID.
If the test was performed by a user, enter the persons User ID.
28
Use Comments to describe anything unusual about the test.

If the device tests status is Failed or Error, a Message will be displayed describing why.
Test Status defines the state of the device test. The buttons beneath the status are used to
change the state of the device test:
Click the Validate button to indicate a test should become Passed. When this button is
clicked, one of two things will happen:
If the Device Test Type has a validation algorithm, the algorithm will be called and the
status could become Passed, Failed or Error.
If the Device Test Type doesnt have a validation algorithm, the status will become
Passed.
Click the Fail Test button to indicate the tests status should be Failed.
Click the Cancel button to indicate the test is Canceled.
Device Test - Characteristics

The characteristics page contains device test results. Use Meters, Device Test, Characteristics
to open this page.
Default note. When a device test is first created, all required characteristics will be defaulted
(the operator need only specify their respective characteristic values).
Description of Page
characteristic, click + to insert a row, then fill in the information for each field. The following fields
display:
Characteristic Type
Sequence

type are displayed.
Where Used
The data on this page may be used during the execution of the device tests test types validation
algorithm. Refer to Device Test Validation for more information.
29
Device Test - Components

The test components page contains test components associated with the device test (refer to A
Device Test Records Test Results for examples of how and when test components are used to
record test results). Use Meters, Device Test, Components to open this page.
Default note. When a device test is first created, all test component types defined on the device
test type will be defaulted.
Description of Page
The Device Test Component scroll controls the display of the test components involved in the
device test. The fields that appear in the outer scroll are as follows:
Test Component Type
The test component type controls the type of test results

that are entered. Note well, only test component types
defined as permissible on the device test type may be
specified.
Sequence
This field along with the Device Test ID uniquely identify

this record.
Register ID
This field is only used if the Test Component Type

indicates that a register must be specified. This is
typically only done with the component test involves the
testing of a specific register.
The grid contains fields used to capture the test results. The number and the type of test results
is controlled by the respective Test Component Type.
Where Used
The data on this page may be used during the execution of the device tests test types validation
algorithm. Refer to Device Test Validation for more information.
Device Test Selection

The device test selection page will generate field activities to test meters and items. Open this
page using Meters, Device Test Selection.
Description of Page
To generate field activities to test you meters / items, follow these steps:
30
Add a Device Test Selection record (see the field description below for information about the
fields)
Click the Complete button to have the system generate the field activities. The generated
field activities will appear in the grid at the bottom on the screen.
If, after reviewing the field activities, you decide not to perform the tests, you can cancel the
field activities by clicking the Cancel button. Its important to note that the system will only
cancel Pending activities that are allowed to be canceled automatically.
The remainder of this selection describes the fields associated with a Device Test Selection.
Enter a Description of the selection event.
Select a Selection Algorithm that will select meters or items for testing. Refer to Field Activities
And Device Testing for more information.
Use Qty to Select to define the number of meters or items for which you want field activities
generated.
Define the field Activity Type to be assigned to the generated field activities.
Define the Scheduled Date to be assigned to the generated field activities.
The Create Date/Time of the test selection is displayed.
Status defines the state of the device test selection. The buttons beneath the status are used to
change the state of the device test selection:
Click the Complete button to have the system select the devices to test and to generate the
related field activities. The status will change to Complete.
Click the Cancel button to indicate the test selection is Canceled.
The resultant field activities are displayed in the grid that follows.
Meter Replicator
When a pallet of new meters arrives in your meter shop, you can use the meter replicator to
quickly create many copies of a given meter and its configuration. The individual copies may then
be edited as needed.
Perform the following steps to create multiple copies of a meter:
Add a meter using Meter - Main Information.
Add a meter configuration using Meter Configuration Maintenance.
Use the meter replicator page to create copies of the meter and its configuration.
The topics in this section describe how to use the meter replicator. Note that there is also an Item
Replicator in the case where you need to replicate other devices.
Contents
Meter Replicator - Main Information
Meter Replicator - Meter
Meter Replicator - Meter Configuration
31
Meter Replicator - Main Information

You use this page to create many copies of a given meter. Use Meter, Meter Replicator, Main
to open this page.
Description of Page
Define the Meter ID that is to serve as your template meter.
Recommendation. Carefully verify the template meter using the other tabs in this page before
you save the replicated meters. After you save the replicated meters, any corrections could
prove time-consuming.
Indicate the Number of Meters to Replicate.
If the meters meter type tracks location, a meter history location will be created during
replication. Use Stock Location to define the initial meter stock location to be used in the
location history. Refer to The Big Picture Of Asset Inventory for more information.
Use Badge Prefix to define the prefix of the badge numbers assigned to the meters. Use Start
From to define the suffix of the badge number assigned to the first copy of the meter. Use
Increment by to define the value to increment successive badge numbers by. The first and last
badge numbers to be created by the replicator are displayed adjacent.
For example, if the first badge number you want to create is E99-1021 and the last badge number
is E99-1077 youd enter the following parameters:
Number of Meters would be 57
Badge Prefix would be E99-10
Use Serial Prefix to define the prefix of the serial number assigned to the meters. Use Start
From to define the suffix of the serial number assigned to the first copy of the meter. Use
Increment by to define the value to increment successive serial numbers by. The first and last
serial numbers to be created by the replicator are displayed adjacent.
For example, if the first serial number you want to create is GE9101-1000-001 and the last serial
number is GE9101-1000-057 youd enter the following parameters:
Number of Meters would be 9
Serial prefix would be GE9101-1000-0
After entering the parameters, click Replicate to generate your new meters. You can use the
frames at the bottom of the page to view the meters that will be created when you click save. The
left frame will show how Badge and Serial Numbers will look on the first 10 meters. If you are
creating more than 10 meters, the right frame will show how Badge and Serial Numbers will look
on the last 10 meters. If everything looks clean, click the save button.
32
Meter Replicator - Meter

The Meter page is a display-only page provided to let you confirm that the meter you selected is
the one to be used as the template by the replicator. Use Meter, Meter Replicator, Meter to
open this page.
Some equipment may not be copied. Equipment that is linked to the template meter will NOT
be replicated on the replicated meters if the equipment references an item type that does NOT
permit multiple equipment assignments. Refer to The Big Picture of Meters, Items and
Equipment for more information about equipment linked to meters.
Description of Page
This is a display-only page that displays information about the registers linked to the meter
identified in the add dialog. Refer to Meter Main Information for a description of the fields.
Meter Replicator - Meter Configuration

The Meter Configuration page is a display-only page provided to let you confirm that the meter
you selected is the one to be used as the template by the replicator. Use Meter, Meter
Replicator, Meter Configuration to open this page.
Description of Page
This is a display-only page that displays the characteristics linked to the meter identified in the
add dialog. Refer to Meter Configuration Maintenance for a description of the fields.
Item Replicator
When you receive a set of new badged items or equipment, you can use the item replicator to
quickly create many copies of a given item. The individual copies may then be edited as needed.
Perform the following steps to create multiple copies of an item:
Add a meter using Item Maintenance
Use the item replicator page to create copies of the item.
The topics in this section describe how to use the item replicator.
Contents
Item Replicator - Main Information
Item Replicator - Item
Item Replicator - Main Information

You use this page to create many copies of a given item. Use Meter, Item Replicator, Main to
open this page.
Description of Page
Define the Item ID that is to serve as your template item.
33
Recommendation. Carefully verify the template item using the other tab in this page before you
save the replicated items. After you save the replicated items, any corrections could prove timeconsuming.
Indicate the Number of Items to Replicate.
If the items item type tracks location, an item history location will be created during replication.
Use Stock Location to define the initial item stock location to be used in the location history.
Refer to The Big Picture Of Asset Inventory for more information.
Use Badge Prefix to define the prefix of the badge numbers assigned to the items. Use Start
From to define the suffix of the badge number assigned to the first copy of the item. Use
Increment by to define the value to increment successive badge numbers by. The first and last
badge numbers to be created by the replicator are displayed adjacent.
For example, if the first badge number you want to create is E99-1021 and the last badge number
is E99-1077 youd enter the following parameters:
Number of Items would be 57
Badge Prefix would be E99-10
Use Serial Prefix to define the prefix of the serial number assigned to the items. Use Start From
to define the suffix of the serial number assigned to the first copy of the item. Use Increment by
to define the value to increment successive serial numbers by. The first and last serial numbers
to be created by the replicator are displayed adjacent.
For example, if the first serial number you want to create is GE9101-1000-001 and the last serial
number is GE9101-1000-057 youd enter the following parameters:
Number of Items would be 9
Serial prefix would be GE9101-1000-0
After entering the parameters, click Replicate to generate your new items. You can use the
frames at the bottom of the page to view the items that will be created when you click save. The
left frame will show how Badge and Serial Numbers will look on the first 10 items. If you are
creating more than 10 items, the right frame will show how Badge and Serial Numbers will look
on the last 10 items. If everything looks clean, click the save button.
Item Replicator - Item

The Item page is a display-only page provided to let you confirm that the item you selected is the
one to be used as the template by the replicator. Use Meter, Item Replicator, Item to open this
page.
34
Some equipment may not be copied. Equipment that is linked to the template item will NOT be
replicated on the replicated items if the equipment references an item type that does NOT permit
multiple equipment assignments. Refer to The Big Picture of Meters, Items and Equipment for
more information about equipment linked to items.
Description of Page
This is a display-only page that displays information about the registers linked to the item
identified in the add dialog. Refer to Item - Main Information for a description of the fields.
Usage Requests
Note: The information in this section applies to the integration with Oracle Utilities Meter Data
Management.
Usage records are created when bill determinants are requested from Oracle Utilities Meter Data
Management during billing. The consumption information is then used to create a bill segment for
the associated service agreement.
The topics in this section describe how to search for and maintain usage records.
Contents
Usage Query
Usage - Main
Usage - Log
Usage Query
The Usage Query page is a standard query portal used to search for an existing usage record.
Use Meter, Usage Search to open this page. When you select a usage record, the maintenance
portal opens and displays the associated information for the usage record.
Usage - Main
This portal appears when a usage record is selected from the Usage Query portal or the Bill
Segment - Usage page.
The topics in this section describe the base-package zones that appear on this portal.
Contents
Actions
Usage
Actions
This is a standard actions zone.
Usage
The Usage zone displays information for the selected billing segment. Please see the zone's help
text for information about this zone's fields.
35
Usage - Log
The usage log page contains an entry for every recorded event during the lifecycle of the usage
request. There are two general types of log entries:
Automatic entries. The system automatically creates an entry in the log when usage is
requested or there is a status change or when a related entity is created. This also includes
any implementation-specific log entries. Users cannot modify or delete these log entries.
Manual entries. Users can add manual entries to record significant events at their
discretion.
36
Meter Reading
In this section, we describe how to manage the cyclical reading of your metered service points
and how to add and change ad hoc meter reads.
For more information about meters, refer to Meter Management.
Contents
Background Topics
Meter Read Maintenance
Setting Up Trends
Renumber Service Route Sequences
Service Route Transfer
Read History
Downloading Meter Reads
Uploading Meter Reads
TD-HILO - To Do for Meter Read High/Low Errors
Review High / Low
Background Topics
The topics in this section provide background information about a variety of meter reading issues.
Contents
The Cyclical Meter Read Process
Managing Metered Service Routes
High / Low Checks
Meter Reads and Billing
The Cyclical Meter Read Process

Most meter reads are recorded in the field by meter readers using handheld devices. These
meter reads are uploaded into the system for use by billing. In this section, we provide an
overview of how this cyclical process works:
Every metered service point references a service cycle, route, and sequence within the route.
The service cycle controls WHEN the service points meter is read.
A service cycle typically contains many routes. A route is a logical group of service
points whose meters can be read by a meter reader on a given day.
A service points sequence defines the order within a route that the service point is read.
Every service cycle has a service cycle schedule that defines the dates on which the routes
within a cycle are read.
Shortly before the scheduled meter read date, the system creates a download file containing
information to be sent to your handheld software. This download file contains information
about every register on every meter in every route in the cycle being downloaded.
Meter Reading Business Processes
Overriding a route within a specific schedule. Rather than downloading all routes within a
cycle, you can set up the system so that only specific routes are downloaded on any given date.
This is a very powerful feature. You can use it, for example, to estimate specific cycles every
other month or indicate the customer reads the meter every third month. Refer to Designing
Service Cycles, Routes, And Schedules for more information.
Your handheld software distributes this information to the handheld devices and then your
meter readers do their job. When they finish, the resultant meter reads are uploaded into the
system.
Billing recalculates consumption. While the system calculates consumption when a read is
added to the system in order to compare it to high / low values, this consumption is not used by
billing. Rather, billing recalculates consumption in case something changes between the time the
read is stored and the customer is billed for the consumption (e.g., the registers constant is
changed, the dial reading is changed due to digit transposition in the field, etc.)
For more information about the how to control when a cycle is read, refer to Setting Up Service
Cycle Schedules.
Managing Metered Service Routes

A service cycle typically contains many routes. A route is a logical group of service points
whose meters can be read by a meter reader on a given day.
Field Code Changed
Refer to Renumber Service Route Sequences and Service Route Transfer for more information
about changing the service points in a route. Refer to Service Point - Main Information for more
information about how to change a specific service points cycle, route, and sequence.
High / Low Checks

Regardless of the source (upload or online), whenever a meter read is added, the system checks
that the meter reads consumption is reasonable. This check is performed by comparing the
actual read to high and low read values. The actual high and low read values are calculated by
the Meter Read High Low Limits algorithm specified on the installation options.
The base package is supplied with a sample algorithm type (HILO-FACTBL) that uses the High
Low Factor table to derive the high and low limits for a register read as follows:
Estimate consumption using the estimation algorithm specified for the trend area.
Calculate the high and low usage amounts using the high and low usage factors for the unit
of measure and read type:
Field Code Changed
The low usage amount is calculated by multiplying estimated consumption by the low
usage factor.
The high usage amount is calculated by multiplying estimated consumption by the high
usage factor.
Determine the high and low read values using the high and low usage amounts and the
previous read value.
When a meter readings consumption is outside of the high / low boundaries, it is flagged
accordingly. However, billing still uses the reading unless an operator explicitly disallows the
reading.
Refer to Review High / Low for more information about reviewing readings that failed high / low
checks.
Disallowing Readings. You can disallow billing from using a read by unchecking Use On Bill
on the Meter Read page.
Meter Reads and Billing

When its time to create a bill for a customer, the system looks for an appropriate meter read for
each metered service point on or around the scheduled meter read date. If a single read is
found, billing uses it to calculate consumption. However, challenges exist if either of the following
two situations occurs:
When multiple meter reads exist on or around the scheduled meter read date.
When no reads exist.
Sorting out multiple reads is easy. Every read contains a read type. Each read type has an
associated priority code. If multiple reads exist, billing uses the read with the highest priority. If
multiple reads of the highest priority exist, one is selected at random.
For more information about read types and their billing selection priority, refer to the Description
of Page under Meter Read - Main.
Sorting out the situation when no reads exist isnt so easy. When no reads exist, billing
generates an estimated read (derived by estimating consumption) if all of the following conditions
are true:
The initiator of the bill allows estimation.
If a bill is created as a result of a bill cycle schedule, the bill cycle schedule must have an
estimation date on or after the current date.
If a bill is created real time from one of the bill pages, the requesting operator must
specifically allow estimation.
The service agreement allows estimation.
If estimation is allowed, the billing process estimates consumption as of the scheduled meter read
date using the same algorithm used for the purpose of high / low checks.
Whenever billing estimates consumption, it creates a meter read to represent the estimated
consumption. You can see this meter read on the meter read queries.
For more information about estimated consumption, refer to The Theory Behind Consumption
Estimation.
Meter Read Maintenance

The topics in this section describe how to add or update a Meter read.
Contents
Meter Read - Main
Meter Read - Characteristics
Correcting Reads Versus Entering New Reads
Meter Read Remark Exceptions
Meter Read - Main

To add or update a meter read, open Meter Read, Meter Read, Main.
There are 4 ways to add meter reads. You can add meter reads using any of the following
methods: A) open Meter Read, Meter Read, Main, B) add the read using the Meter Read Upload
Staging page, C) populate the Meter Read Upload Staging using SQL, and D) you can add a
reading using Field Activity Upload Staging. Both options B and C rely on the subsequent
execution of the Meter Read Upload Background Processes to create the reads in the system.
Description of Page
Meter Read is a concatenation of summary information about the meter read.
Meter Read ID is the system-generated unique identifier for the meter read.
Enter the Meter Configuration ID of the meter that was read. Adjacent to the ID is summary
information about the configuration. This field is protected if the meter read is used on an
SP/Meter Installation history record.
Premise is a display-only field that shows the information about the premise at which the meter
configuration was installed when it was read.
Enter the Read Date/Time. This field is protected if the meter read is used on an SP/Meter
Installation history record.
Turn off Use On Bill if the meter read should not be used by billing. Youd typically turn this off if
a meter failed high / low checks and you dont want billing to use it to calculate a customers
consumption.
Use Meter Read Source to define the source (e.g., the reader, the reading agency, etc.) of the
read. If the read was uploaded with the reader id, Meter Reader is displayed.
The Reread Meter button can be pressed to create a field activity to reread the meter (note, the
field activity type is defined on the field activity type profile associated with the service point at
which the meter configuration is currently installed). This button is disabled if the meter
configuration is not currently installed at a service point. If there is a Pending reread field activity
for the service point, information about the field activity is displayed adjacent. If multiple such
field activities exist, information about the earliest activity is displayed.
The scroll that follows contains one row for every register linked to the meter configuration. You
cannot insert or remove entries in this scroll because a reading must be entered for every one of
the configurations registers.
Note. Register reads may not be entered for interval registers. Refer to The Big Picture of Raw
Data Collection and Aggregation for more information.
The remaining fields are entered for each register.
Sequence is a display-only field that controls the order in which a register is read.
Register Information consists of the unit of measure, time of day (if any), the format of the
register, and the register's constant.
Use Read Type to define WHO made the read and HOW the read was made. The value of this
field is important because it affects which meter read will be used by billing if multiple reads exist
during a billing period. The following table lists the read types and describes how a read with this
value typically enters the system.
Read Type
Description
Billing Force
Meter reads with this value are entered by a billing administrator who wants to force
billing to bill a customer for a given amount of consumption.
Verified
Meter reads with this value are recorded by a meter reader using a handheld
device. The handheld device deems a read as verified if the meter reader typed
the same dial reading in twice. Some organizations have their handhelds
programmed to require the double entry of dial readings when the entered value is
outside normative values (i.e., the resultant consumption fails high / low checks).
Regular
Meter reads with this value are recorded by a meter reader using a handheld
device. See the description for verified above for the difference between a
regular and a verified reading.
Customer Read
Meter reads with this value are made by a customer.
System Prorate
Meter reads with this value are created by the system automatically when prorating
normal cycle-based reads for use with an off-cycle start service or stop service.
Office Estimate
Meter reads with this value are informed guesses of consumption. These would be
used when there was no real reading (i.e., a regular or verified reading), and the
system was not allowed to estimate consumption (for whatever reason). This value
is rarely used.
Service Provider Estimate
Meter reads with this value are estimates of consumption made by a 3rd party
service provider, such as an MDMA, the distribution company, or an energy supply
company.
System Estimate
Meter reads with this value are created by the billing process when a reading
cannot be found and the service agreement allows estimation.
No Read
Meter reads with this value are entered to indicate that a read was purposefully not
performed (for whatever reason - mad dog, nasty rose bush, deep snow, etc.). A
read with this value is not a read at all, its just an audit trail.
Default note. If the meter configuration has multiple registers, the read type defined for the first
register will be defaulted on the remaining registers when you add a new meter read. You can
always override this defaulting.
The Message column highlights the following:
The resultant usage. For subtractive registers, this is the difference between this read and
the prior read. For consumptive registers, this is the register reading.
The valid usage. This is the range of usage that won't trigger a high / low failure. These
values are not shown if the read was not subject to high / low checks when it was added.
The valid readings. This is the range of readings that won't trigger a high / low failure.
These values are not shown if the read was not subject to high / low checks when it was
added. Note, these values are only calculated for subtractive registers as the valid usage is
the same as the valid readings for consumptive registers.
The message column is red for those readings that have failed high / low checks.
Refer to High / Low Checks for more information.
Register Reading contains the dial reading.
The Previous Reading Information column contains information about the read that precedes
this read (note, meter reads where Use on Bill is turned off are ignored). The reading's read
type, read date, and register reading are displayed.
The Review High / Low switch indicates if this register read has been flagged for consideration
by the high / low review background process (TD-HILO). If a register read has been checked,
you may reset the switch so that the register read is no longer considered for the high / low
review background process.
Marking a Read for High / Low Review. Only the system can mark a register read for high / low
review. Refer to High / Low Checks for more information.
Register ID is the unique identifier of the register. This information is shown for informational
purposes.
Register Reading Id is the unique identifier of the register read. This information is shown for
informational purposes.
The Meter Reader Remark grid is used to define anomalies associated with the reading. For
example, you can indicate if a read wasnt possible because there was a dangerous situation at
the premise.
The Meter Read Remark Status is only relevant if a Meter Read Remark code has algorithms
associated with it. Algorithms are associated with meter read remarks if additional activities
should occur after a meter read with such a remark is added. For example, you could create a
field activity if a seals broken remark is specified on a meter read. The execution of the
algorithm is performed by a background process called MRRA (meter read remark algorithm
activator). The Meter Read Remark Status indicates whether the algorithm has been executed:
When you add a remark that has an algorithm, the status will be Pending. It will remain in
this state until the MRRA process next runs.
When the MRRA process next runs, if the system is successful in executing the algorithm,
the status of the meter read remark will become Complete. If the system is not successful in
executing the algorithm, the status becomes Error.
Remarks that are in error. Meter reads that contain meter read remarks whose algorithms
could not be successfully executed by the MRRA background process are written to the Meter
Read Remark Exception table. To correct errors, you may have to delete and re-add the meter
reads remark code if the error is impossible to fix (e.g., if the remark causes a customer contact
to be generated and there is no customer at the meters premise).
Refer to Meter Reader Remarks for more information.
Meter Read - Characteristics

To update meter read characteristics, open Meter Read, Meter Read and navigate to the
Characteristics tab.
Description of Page
The Characteristics collection contains information that describes miscellaneous information
about the meter read.
Characteristic Type
Sequence

type are displayed.
Correcting Reads Versus Entering New Reads

Assume that a read was performed in the field and the dial reading was entered incorrectly (e.g.,
digit transposition). You have two choices, you can modify the uploaded read, or you can enter a
new read with a higher priority read code. We prefer the latter approach so that a proper audit
exists, but both options work; its up to you.
Meter Read Remark Exceptions

If a meter read has a remark code that has algorithms associated with it, the system activates the
algorithms each time the MRRA (meter read remark algorithm activator) background process is
executed. If errors occur during the activation of the algorithms, a record is written to the meter
read remark exception table with a message indicating the nature of the severe error.
To view the messages associated with the exception records, schedule the TD-MRRER
background process. This process generates a To Do entry for every record in the meter read
remark exception table.
After correcting the cause of the error, drill into the meter read page. Then change the status of
the remark from Error to Pending. When the MRRA process next runs, it will attempt to execute
the remarks algorithm again.
Note. You may have to delete or change the meter reads remark code if the error is impossible
to fix (e.g., if the remark causes a customer contact to be generated and there is no customer at
the meters premise).
Setting Up Trends
Warning! You must thoroughly understand the information discussed in Estimating Using Trends
before you can understand trends.
Trend information is used to estimate consumption. A separate trend is maintained for every
combination of trend area, trend class, unit of measure and time of use code. Each trend
maintains a separate record for each day on which consumption was measured. This section
deals with the issues associated with the maintenance of trend information.
Contents
Trends Are Updated Behind-The-Scenes
Maintaining Trends
No Trends At Startup
Trends Are Updated Behind-The-Scenes

The consumption associated with certain register reads is updated on a trend record by the
TREND background process when the following conditions are true:
The registers read type must be Customer, Regular or Verified.
If the register is subtractive, the readings resultant consumption cant exceed the threshold
capacity of the register. Note, a registers threshold capacity equals X times the registers
maximum capacity (where X is the rollover threshold factor defined on Installation Options Billing).
If the register read was entered online, the resultant consumption cant be outside of the high
/ low boundaries.
If the register read was uploaded by the MUP2 background process and the reading was
marked for high / low checks, the resultant consumption cant be outside of the high / low
boundaries
Warning! The above points mean that if you do not subject your uploaded meter reads to high /
low checks AND the resultant consumption does not exceed the threshold capacity of the register
AND the read type is Customer, Regular or Verified, then the trend table will be updated with
the register reads consumption.
The specific trend affected by a register read is identified by the following:
The registers meters service points premise defines the trend area.
The registers meters service points SP type defines the trend class.
The register defines the unit of measure and time of use codes.
The meter read date defines the trend date.
Important! The system only updates trends with a read type of Customer, Regular or Verified.
The system ignores other types of reads when it builds trend information. Refer to Meter Read Main for more information about read type.
In addition to updating the trend data, the trend process can create To Do entries for any service
point without an active service agreement where significant usage is detected. Refer to the Trend
Process for more information.
Maintaining Trends
All trend data is updated by the system and should not require modification. However, if you
need to view or change this information, open Meter Read, Trend.
Description of Page
A separate trend is maintained for every combination of Trend Area, Trend Class, Unit of
Measure and Time of Use code. The Unit of Measures Measures Peak Qty is displayed
adjacent. Each trend contains a separate record for each day on which consumption was
measured.
Load functionality. If you enter this page in add mode (i.e., you do not select a trend using the
search dialog) and you enter a combination of Trend Area, Trend Class, Unit of Measure and
Time of Use code that already has trend information, a button will appear adjacent to Trend
Area. This button is called Load and, if clicked, will cause the information in the following grid
to become populated with the respective trend information.
Use the Read Date to indicate the starting point for the display of the trend data. Keep in mind
that the data is displayed in reverse chronological order.
Read Date
The date on which the consumption information was

recorded in the system.
Thread Nbr
The system-generated identifier for a group of trend

consumption records (rows) used to calculate a trend
estimate. Simply enter a value of 1 if you are entering a
trend.
Total Service Quantity
The total amount of consumption recorded on the read

date.
Number of Units
For non-peak units of measure (e.g., CCF, therm, kWh),

this contains the number of days in which the total
service quantity was consumed. For peak units of
measure (e.g., KW, KVAR), this contains the number of
meter reads.
Number of Reads
The total number of reads whose consumption was

recorded on the trend.
Average Consumption
This equals the total service quantity divided by the

number of units.
No Trends At Startup
Once youve been in production for about one billing period, there should be enough systemgenerated trend data (depending on the estimation algorithm and how the trend areas/classes
are configured) to generate statistically accurate consumption estimates. However, before this
time, you will have little or no trend data and therefore the system will not be able to accurately
estimate consumption (and therefore high / low validation will not operate).
If you can live with this, then you dont have to set up trends because the system will
automatically build them as meter reads are recorded in the system. However, if you opt for this
approach, you must turn off high / low validation on your uploaded register reads during the first
few months of production. If you fail to do this, every register read will fail high / low validation
and reads that fail high / low checks are not trended. To turn off high / low validation populate the
uploaded register reads REVIEW_HILO_SW with a value of N.
If you cant live with this, then youll have to populate the trend data manually. To do this, create
trend records for every combination of trend area, trend class, unit of measure and time of use
code. For each trend, enter the following:
Thread Nbr
Enter 1.
Read Date
Set this to the day preceding your production date.
Total Service Quantity
For peak units of measure (e.g., KW, KVAR), this will be

the average peak amount of consumption associated
with registers belonging to this trend. For non-peak units
of measure (e.g., CCF, kWh), this will be the average
daily consumption associated with registers belonging to
this trend.
Number of Units
Enter 1.
Number of Reads
Enter 1.
10
Note. You do not have to change the trend classes to indicate only one read is needed. This is
because, if the system cannot find enough trends to satisfy the number of reads required by the
trend class, it will use as many as exist. For example, consider a trend class that needs 10,000
reads to form a statistically significant sample for estimation, but at estimation time there is only
one trend and this trend contains the results from only one read. In this situation, the system will
use the consumption information on the single trend to calculate estimated consumption.
Warning! Make sure that your manually entered trend information is accurate and well tested.
The quality of the trend information impacts your estimation results (depending on your estimation
algorithm) and this in turn impacts the bills you send your customers.
Renumber Service Route Sequences

All metered service points reference the service cycle and route in which they are read. Besides
referencing the specific cycle and route, every service point has a meter read sequence that
defines its relative position in the route (where sequence 5 is read before sequence 10). If you
need to insert a service point between two existing service points but theres no gap between the
service points sequences, open Meter Read, Renumber Service Route Sequences to
renumber the sequences in a given cycle and route.
Refer to The Cyclical Meter Read Process for more information about cycles and routes.
Description of Page
Use the search button to select the Service Cycle and Service Route whose service points are
to be resequenced. When the page opens, you are shown all of the service points in the cycle
and route, ordered by current sequence number.
Use the Sequence Range From and To fields to display service points in the grid within a
sequence range.
Use the Sequence column in the grid to manually change a service points sequence number.
You can manually change sequence numbers of up to 150 service points at a time. Click the
save button to apply your changes. Service points with duplicate sequence numbers are
highlighted in the Remarks column.
To resequence all service points within the route, enter the value from which the system should
Start Sequencing From and the amount to Increment Sequences by and then click
Renumber. Good values to enter would be 5 and 5 respectively. If you specified values in the
Sequence Range From fields, only the service points whose sequences fall within the specified
range are renumbered.
Service Route Transfer

The topics in this section describe how to transfer a group of service points from one route to
another.
Contents
Service Route Transfer - Main
11
Service Route Transfer - Transfer To
Service Route Transfer - Main

If you need to transfer a group of service points from one route to another, open Meter Read,
Service Route Transfer, Main.
Refer to The Cyclical Meter Read Process for more information about service cycles and routes.
Description of Page
This pages dialog is idiosyncratic. Follow the instructions below to transfer service points from
one route to another:
Use the search button to select the Service Cycle and Service Route that contains the
service points to be transferred. Upon return from the search, you are shown all of the
service points in the input cycle and route in the Transfer From grid.
In the Transfer From section at the top of the page, enter the sequence number of the first
service point to be transferred in Sequence From. Enter the sequence number of the last
service point to be transferred in Sequence To.
In the Transfer To area that follows, enter the Service Cycle and Service Route into which
the service points are to be transferred. Enter the sequence number to be assigned to the
first service point when it is transferred to the new route using Start Sequencing From.
Enter the value by which to increment the sequence number of successive service points
using Increment by.
Click the save button to re-sequence the service points. The re-sequenced service points are
shown on the Transfer To tab.
When theres no room. If the transfer to route doesnt have enough space between its
sequences to insert the desired service points, navigate to Renumber Service Route Sequences
and renumber the route by a value large enough to make space. Then, return to this page and
transfer the service points into the route.
When a service points service cycle is updated using this transaction, and the accounts bill cycle
is not protected, the system automatically updates the accounts bill cycle to be in sync with the
service cycle.
Service Route Transfer - Transfer To

The Transfer To tab is only populated after you have transferred service points from one
cycle/route to another. It shows all service points in the transfer to cycle and route specified on
the Main tab.
Description of Page
No information on this page may be modified. The grid only contains information after you have
transferred service points from one cycle/route to another. Refer to Meter Read Route Transfer
Main for instructions describing how to transfer service points from one route to another.
12
Read History
This page shows the history of a register's reads. Open this page using Meter Read, Read
History.
Description of Page
Register ID identifies the register whose reads are shown in the grid.
How to scroll through a meter's registers. If a Meter has multiple registers, use the meter's
context menu and choose Go to Read History to be presented with a list of all of the meter's
registers. Then select the first register. You can then use the Next (Alt-N) and Previous (Alt-P)
buttons to scroll through the meter's registers.
Filter by controls the reads that appear in the grid:
If you want to restrict the history to reads that are eligible to appear on a bill, choose Billable
Reads Only. This is the default value.
If you want to see all reads linked to the register, choose All.
If you want to restrict the history to reads that are NOT eligible to appear on a bill, choose
Non-Billable Reads Only.
The remaining points describe the columns in the grid.

Read Date/Time is the date and time of the meter read.
The Read Difference column shows the difference between this read and the previous read.
Warning! The value of Read Difference does NOT take into account constants; it is purely the
difference between the respective read and the previous read. Refer to Bill History for a query
that shows the history of billed consumption.
The Message column highlights the following:
The resultant usage. For subtractive registers, this is the difference between this read and
the prior read. For consumptive registers, this is the register reading.
The valid usage. This is the range of usage that won't trigger a high / low failure. These
values are not shown if the read was not subject to high / low checks when it was added.
The valid readings. This is the range of readings that won't trigger a high / low failure.
These values are not shown if the read was not subject to high / low checks when it was
added. Note, these values are only calculated for subtractive registers as the valid usage is
the same as the valid readings for consumptive registers.
The Message column is red for those readings that have failed high / low checks.
Refer to High / Low Checks for more information.
The High/Low Failed column is checked if the read was not within the boundaries of the
estimated high and low read values calculated by the system at the time the read was validated.
Refer to Meter Read - Main for the definition of all other columns.
13
Downloading Meter Reads

A service cycle typically contains many routes. A route is a logical group of service points
whose meters can be read by a meter reader on a given day.
Warning! If your company supplies electric service and uses MV90s, you will need to take
advantage of notional routes. A notional routes service points are never actually read by a
human. Rather, the service points consumption is fed to the system by a sophisticated device
(e.g., an MV90). These service points still need to be linked to a route because billing is
dependent on the routes cycle to determine the expected meter read date. You would assign a
notional route a route type that is not processed by the service cycle. Refer to Setting Up
Service Route Types for more information.
A Service cycle has a schedule indicating when its service point should be read. Each entry in
the schedule contains two dates:
Scheduled selection date. This is the date the system selects the service points in the
cycle for download to your handheld software.
Scheduled work date. This is the date the meter is expected to be read.
On the scheduled selection date, the system creates a download file containing information to be
sent to your handheld software. This download file contains information about every register on
every meter in the routes being downloaded.
Your handheld software distributes this information to the handheld devices and then your meter
readers do their job. When they finish, the resultant meter reads are uploaded into the system for
subsequent use by billing.
Note. Rather than downloading all routes within a cycle, you can set up the system so that only
specific routes are downloaded on any given date. This is a very powerful feature. You can use
it, for example, to estimate specific cycles every other month or indicate the customer reads the
meter every third month. Refer to Designing Service Cycles, Routes, And Schedules for more
information.
Meter Read Download Processes

The following diagram illustrates the processes involved in the creation of the flat file that is
interfaced to your meter reading software.
14
Process: MSR
Create MR Schedule Routes
MR Sched
Routes
Process: MDS
Create Download Staging
MR
Download
Staging
Process: MDL
Create Download Flat File
Flat file to be
interfaced to
MR
software
Contents
MSR - Create Service Schedule Routes
MDS - Create Download Staging
MDL - Create Download Flat File
MSR - Create Service Schedule Routes

This process looks for all service cycle schedules with a scheduled selection date on or before
the supplied business date whose routes havent been generated. For each record found, the
process creates MR schedule route records for every route in the cycle.
MDS - Create Download Staging

This process looks for all MR schedule route records with a schedule type of Download and a
status of Pending. For each record found, the system creates a MR download staging record for
the meter linked to every service point in the route.
Download staging records get marked with a batch control ID & run number when theyre created
by the MDS process.
The batch control ID comes from the service points routes route type. This ID corresponds
with a specific meter read download method. The system comes with a single meter read
download program (MDL - Create Download Flat File). If you require different flat file formats
or different routing methods, you will need to create additional programs. Refer to Setting Up
Meter Read Extracts for instructions describing how to add another process.
The run number is the batch control IDs current run number.
MDL - Create Download Flat File

This process reads all download staging records marked with a given batch control ID & run
number and creates the flat file thats passed to the meter read software.
15
This process is rerunnable. You can reproduce the flat file at any time. Simply request this job
and specify the run number associated with the historic run.
If you require different flat file formats or different routing methods, you will need to create
additional versions of this program. Refer to Setting Up Meter Read Extracts for instructions
describing how to add another process.
Uploading Meter Reads

This section describes how the system uploads meter reads from an external source.
Contents
Meter Read Upload Background Processes
MRUP-PRG - Purge Meter Read Upload Objects
MR Upload Staging
MR Upload Exception
Meter Read Upload Background Processes

The following diagram illustrates the processes involved in the uploading of meter reads into the
system.
Process: X
Populate Upload Staging
Flat file
containing
real meter
reads
Process: MUP1
Populate Meter Config
MR
Upload
Staging
Process: MUP2
Create Meter Read
Meter
Read &
Reg Reads
The topics in this section describe how these processes work.

Contents
Process X - Populate MR Upload Staging
16
MUP1 - Populate Meter Configuration

MUP2 - Create Meter Read
Process X - Populate MR Upload Staging

Process X refers to the mechanism used by your organization to populate the various staging
tables (shown in the orange section of the following ERD).
Meter
Configuration
MR
Upload
Upload
Characteristic
Upload
Register
Read
Upload
Remark
The topics in this section describe each of these tables.

Contents
Meter Read Upload Staging
Upload Register Read
Upload Read Remark
Upload Read Characteristics
Meter Read Upload Staging

You must create an upload staging record for each meter that was read. The name of this table
is CI_MR_STAGE_UP. The following table describes each column on this table.
Column Name
Lengt
h
Reqd
Data
Type
MR_STAGE_UP_ID
12
A/N
This is the unique identifier of the meter read upload

staging record. This key is a sequential number so you
can use a database function to assign the value when
populating the table.
BADGE_NBR
30
A/N
If specified, this must correspond with a badge number

on one of your meters. See the MTR_CONFIG_ID
note below for how this field can be used. Also see the
note under MTR_ID_NBR if you plan to use the
meters alternate IDs rather than the badge number to
identify the meter being read.
MTR_CONFIG_ID
10
See
A/N
This must correspond with a meter configuration
Comments
17
note
number on one of your meters. You may leave this

column blank if BADGE_NBR or MTR_ID_TYPE_CD /
MTR_ID_NBR is populated.
READ_DTTM
15
DateTi
me
The date and time of the meter read.
MR_UP_STATUS_FLG
A/N
This must be set to P for Pending.
MR_ID
12
Leave this column blank. It will be assigned by the

system when it creates a meter read record.
MR_SOURCE_CD
12
A/N
The source of the meter read.
GEO_TYPE_CD
A/N
See the description of the GEO_VAL field.
GEO_VAL
50
A/N
This field along with GEO_TYPE_CD are used to

uniquely identify the service point at which the meter
read takes places. These fields are only necessary if
you have duplicate BADGE_NBRs and you have
uniquely identified your service points (with a unique
GEO_TYPE_CD and GEO-VAL e.g., a universal id).
Its important to note that you must also specify the
BADGE_NBR along with the GEO_TYPE_CD and
GEO_VAL.
MTR_ID_TYPE_CD
A/N
See the description of the MTR_ID_NBR field.
MTR_ID_NBR
30
A/N
This field along with MTR_ID_TYPE_CD are used to

uniquely identify the meter being read. These fields are
only necessary if you do not use the meters
BADGE_NBRs or the meters MTR_CONFIG_ID to
identify the meter.
If specified, this must correspond with a meter ID type /
value associated with one of your meters.
USE_ON_BILL_SW
A/N
Indicates if the read can be used on a bill. Valid values

are Y or N. Note, if the register reads
REVIEW_HILO_SW is Y and if the register read fails
high/low review, the USE_ON_BILL_SW may be set to
N if the Use High/Low Failures on Bill is turned on in
the installation record.
Upload Register Read

You must create an upload register read record for each meter that was read. The name of this
table is CI_RR_STAGE_UP. The following table describes each column on this table.
Column Name
Lengt
h
Reqd
Data
Type
Comments
MR_STAGE_UP_ID
12
A/N
This must correspond with the prime key of the related

CI_MR_STAGE_UP record.
READ_SEQ
This must correspond with a sequence number on the

meter configurations register.
READ_TYPE_FLG
A/N
Set this to 20 if the meter was not read.

Set this to 60 if the meter read was performed, but not
18
verified.
Set this to 70 if the meter read was performed and
verified.
UOM_CD
A/N
This must correspond with the unit of measure code on

the register associated with this READ_SEQ. Refer to
Setting Up Unit Of Measure Codes for more
information.
TOU_CD
See
note
A/N
If specified, this must correspond with the time of use

code on the register associated with this READ_SEQ.
Refer to Setting Up Time Of Use Codes for more
information.
REG_READING
9.6
This is the registers reading.
REVIEW_HILO_SW
A/N
Indicates if the register reading should be subject to

high / low review. Valid values are Y or N.
Upload Read Remark

You must create a meter read remark upload staging record for each remark that you would like
to link to the meter read. The name of this table is CI_MRR_STAGE_UP. The following table
describes each column on this table.
Column Name
Lengt
h
Reqd
Data
Type
Comments
MR_STAGE_UP_ID
12
A/N

READER_REM_CD
A/N
This must correspond with a meter read remark code.

Refer to Setting Up Meter Read Remarks for more
information.
Upload Read Characteristics

You must create a meter read characteristic upload staging record for each characteristic that you
want to link to the meter read. The name of this table is CI_MR_STGUP_CHAR. The following
table describes each column on this table.
Column Name
Lengt
h
Reqd
Data
Type
MR_STAGE_UP_ID
12
A/N

CHAR_TYPE_CD
A/N
This must correspond with a characteristic type that is

defined as valid for meter read upload staging. Refer
to Setting Up Characteristic Types & Their Values for
more information
SEQ_NUM
This should be set to 1 unless you have multiple values

for a given meter read upload staging and
characteristic type.
ADHOC_CHAR_VAL
254
A/N
Populate this field if your characteristic type is ad-hoc

or file location.
CHAR_VAL
16
A/N
Populate this field if your characteristic type is
Comments
19
predefined
CHAR_VAL_FK1 CHAR_VAL_FK5
50
(each)
A/N
Populate these fields if your characteristic type is a

foreign key reference. Up to five columns of 50 bytes
each are provided to accommodate compound keys.

This process populates the meter configuration ID on all MR upload staging records that dont
have a meter configuration ID.
Note. You dont have to know the meter configuration in order to interface a read into the
system. Rather, you can specify a SP Geo Type and Value and/or a Meter Id Type and Value
and/or the meters badge number on the Upload Register Read record. MUP1 will search the
system for each (in that order) until a unique match is found.
Any errors detected during this process are written to the MR Upload Exception table. You can
fix errors using MR Upload Staging page (dont forget to change the records status back to
Pending).

This process creates a meter read and register read for all MR upload records in the Pending
state.
Any errors detected during this process are written to the MR Upload Exception table. You can
fix errors using MR Upload Staging page (dont forget to change the records status back to
Pending).
If a meter read fails high / low checks, the meter read will still be created, but it will be marked for
review by the review meter reads for high / low background process (TD-HILO).
In addition, whether a meter read that fails high / low is marked as usable on a bill is controlled by
a switch on the installation record.
MRUP-PRG - Purge Meter Read Upload Objects

Completed meter read upload staging objects should be periodically purged from the system by
executing the MRUP-PRG background process. This background process allows you to purge all
Completed meter read upload staging objects older than a given number of days.
We want to stress that there is no system constraint as to the number of Completed meter read
upload objects that may exist. You can retain these objects for as long as you desire. However
we recommend that you periodically purge Completed meter read upload objects as they exist
only to satisfy auditing and reporting needs.
MR Upload Staging
The Meter Read Upload Staging page has three purposes:
You can view historical meter read upload records.
You can correct meter read upload records that are in error.
You can add new meter read upload records to be uploaded by the meter read upload
20
process.
Contents
MR Upload Staging - Main
MR Upload Staging - Remarks
MR Upload Staging - Characteristics
MR Upload Staging - Main

To view the details of a meter read upload record, open Meter Read, MR Upload Staging.
Description of Page
MR Upload Staging ID is the system-generated unique identifier of the staging record.
The Meter ID Type Code identifies what type of Meter ID is listed in the upload record. This
along with the Meter ID Number will help the system to identify the correct meter.
The Badge Number is the meters badge number.
The Meter ID Number acts as an alternative identifier for the meter in case the badge number is
not known or not unique. This along with the Meter ID Type Code will help the system to identify
the correct meter.
Read Date / Time are just that.
Use on Bill is used to indicate whether or not the uploaded meter read may be used by billing.
Upload Status shows the state of the meter read upload record. Potential values are: Pending,
Complete, Error. Set the value to Pending for any record that should be processed the next
time the meter read upload process runs.
Meter Read ID is the system-assigned, unique identifier of the related meter read. This value is
populated after the meter read upload process creates a meter read for the meter read upload
record.
Use Meter Read Source to define the source (e.g., the reader, the reading agency, etc.) of the
read.
Meter Configuration ID is the meter configuration that was read. If this field is left blank, it will
be populated by MUP1 - Populate Meter Configuration during the meter read upload process (the
system uses the Badge Number to do this).
Use Meter Reader for the ID of the person that read the meter.
If the read is interfaced from an external meter read agency, you can use Geographic Type and
Geographic Value to identify the service point at which the read took place. If this value is
specified, the system will look for a service point with the given type and value that has a meter
currently installed at it with the specified Badge Nbr. This facility is useful if you have duplicate
badge numbers but have uniquely identified your service points (e.g., with a universal ID).
The scroll that follows contains the register reading(s). The following information is displayed.
Read Sequence
This must correspond with a sequence number on the

meter configurations register.
21
Read Type
Use this field to define WHO made the read and HOW
the read was made. The value of this field is important
because it affects which meter read will be used by
billing if multiple reads exist during a billing period.
Refer to the Description of Page under Meter Read Main for the list of valid values.
Unit Of Measure
This must correspond with the unit of measure code on

the register. Refer to Meter Configuration Maintenance
Time of Use
If specified, this must correspond with the time of use

code on the register. Refer to Meter Configuration
Maintenance for more information.
Register Reading
This is the registers reading.
Hi/Low Review
Indicates if the register reading should be subject to high

/ low review.
MR Upload Staging - Remarks

To view remarks associated with a meter read upload record, open Meter Read, MR Upload
Staging, Remarks.
Description of Page
The Meter Reader Remark grid is used to record anomalies associated with the reading.
MR Upload Staging - Characteristics

To maintain meter upload characteristics, open Meter Read, MR Upload Staging,
Characteristics.
Description of Page
MR Upload Staging ID is the system-generated unique identifier of the staging record.
about meter upload staging.
Characteristic Type
Sequence

type are displayed.
MR Upload Exception
If errors are detected during the meter read upload process, a record is written to the MR upload
exception table with a message indicating the nature of the severe error.
22
To view the messages associated with the exception records, schedule the TD-MRUPL
background process. This process generates a To Do entry for every record in the MR upload
exception table.
You can fix this error using the MR Upload Staging page and change the status of the remark
from Error to Pending. When the meter read upload process next runs, it attempts to upload this
record again.
TD-HILO - To Do for Meter Read High/Low

Errors
This process creates To Do entries for each meter read that has at least one register read that
failed high / low using the To Do Type TD-HILO.
The process first attempts to complete old To Do entries. If the NO-OF-DAYS parameter is
populated, all Open entries of this To Do Type whose create date is before the business date
minus this input parameter value are completed.
For each register read linked to the meter read that has review high / low set to Y, the process
attempts to classify the reading as "very low", "low", "high" or "very high".
Determine the reading's consumption
If the register is subtractive, retrieve the previous reading and calculate the difference
between the register reading and the previous reading (taking into account rollover).
Otherwise, the reading is the consumption.
Calculate the following
Low limit consumption = the difference between the previous reading and the low limit on the
current reading.
High limit consumption = the difference between the previous reading and the high limit on
the current reading.
Contents
Low / Very Low
High / Very High
Set Use On Bill
Multiple Register Priority
Create ToDo Entry
Low / Very Low

If the reading's consumption is less than the low limit consumption, compute the low percentage =
((Low limit consumption - Reading's consumption) / Low limit consumption) * 100, round
to the nearest integer.
If the low percentage is less than or equal to the input VERY-LOW-PERCENTAGE-CUTOFF, the
reading is considered "very low", otherwise it is considered "low".
23
High / Very High

If the reading's consumption is greater than the high limit consumption, compute the high
percentage =
((Reading's consumption - High limit consumption) / High limit consumption) * 100, round
to the nearest integer
If the high percentage is greater than or equal to the input VERY-HIGH-PERCENTAGE-CUTOFF,
the reading is considered "very high", otherwise it is considered "high".
Set Use On Bill

The parameters USE-ON-BILL-VERY-LOW-READS, USE-ON-BILL-LOW-READS, USE-ONBILL-VERY-HIGH-READS and USE-ON-BILL-HIGH-READS indicate how to set the Use On Bill
flag for the meter read based on the classification of the register readings.
If ANY of the register reads that failed high / low should not be used on bill according to the
appropriate input parameter flag, then the meter reads Use On Bill flag is set to N. It is only set to
Y if all register reads can be used on a bill based on the input parameters.
Multiple Register Priority

If there are multiple register readings for the meter read that failed high low and the readings
have different classifications of "very low", "low", "high" or "very high", determine the "worst"
register read based on the value of MULTIPLE-REGISTERS-PRIORITY. The register read
considered the "worst" is the one used to create the To Do entry.
The value of this parameter indicates how to prioritize multiple registers with different
classifications. The first byte indicates the priority of "very low" reads, the second byte indicates
the priority of "low" reads, the third byte indicates the priority of "high" reads and the fourth byte
indicates the priority of "very high" reads. Use the numbers 1, 2, 3 and 4, where 1 is the worst
type of reading (i.e., the one that needs the most attention). For example, if you would like to
review reads in the following order
Very low
Very high
Low
High
Set the value of MULTIPLE-REGISTERS-PRIORITY to 1342.
Create ToDo Entry

Create a To Do entry for the "worst" register read linked to the meter read (determined in the
previous section). The To Do type is set to TD-HILO. This section describes the sort fields
because they are a bit unusual.
If the reading is less than the low limit:
If the low percentage is <= VERY-LOW-PERCENTAGE-CUTOFF, create a sort field

where:
24
Sort sequence number = 1 (associated with the "very low percentage" sort field)
Sort key value = low percentage (calculated above)
If the low percentage is > VERY-LOW-PERCENTAGE-CUTOFF, create a sort field

where:
Sort sequence number = 2 (associated with the "between low and very low
percentage" sort field)
Sort key value = low percentage
Calculate the low amount. This value is a positive number and equals the low limit's
consumption - read's consumption
Sort sequence number = 3 (associated with "low amount" sort field)
Sort key value = low amount
If the reading is greater than the high limit:
If the high percentage is >= VERY-HIGH-PERCENTAGE-CUTOFF, create a sort field

where:
Sort sequence number = 4 (associated with the "very high percentage" sort field)
Sort key value = high percentage (calculated above)
If the high percentage is < VERY-HIGH-PERCENTAGE-CUTOFF, create a sort field

where:
Sort sequence number = 5 (associated with the "between high and very high
percentage" sort field)
Sort key value = high percentage
Calculate the high amount. This value is a positive number and equals the read's
consumption high limit's consumption
Sort sequence number = 6 (associated with "high amount" sort field)
Sort key value = high amount
Sort sequence 7 equals the low or high amount
Sort sequence 8 equals the bill date on/after the current date that linked to a bill cycle
associated with accounts linked to the reading's meter configuration's non-abolished service
points' non-canceled / non-closed service agreements.
Conditional Sort Fields. The creation of certain sort fields for the entry is conditional. This is
unusual, as we have never suppressed a sort field before (i.e., every To Do entry of a given type
has referenced every sort field). However, this allows the user to only view certain To Do entries
on To Do List when choosing certain sort fields.
Review High / Low

In order to review register reads that failed high / low checks when they were uploaded to the
system, you must run an appropriate background process that creates To Do entries. The
system supplies the background process TD-HILO. If this process doesn't satisfy your
implementation's business requirements, you may create your own.
25
Warning! Register reads entered online that fail high / low checks are not marked for high / low
review because we assume the user who entered the read was apprised of the failure when the
read was initially entered. This means that only reads that failed high / low checks during the
meter read upload background process are marked for high / low review.
When reviewing a To Do entry for a register read that has failed high / low, you may choose to do
one of the following:
Update the value of Use on Bill on the meter read page. If a read fails high / low checks
during the meter read upload, the system sets the Use On Bill switch as per the value defined
on Installation Options. A user investigating a high / low error may choose to override the
default value.
Request that the meter be read again. On the meter read page a Reread Meter button is
available if you want to generate a field activity to reread the meter. The field activity type is
defined on the meters service points SP types field activity type profile.
Determine that the reading is ok and nothing else should be done.
In any case, in order to ensure that the register read does not appear on a To Do entry again,
update the Review High / Low switch on the meter read page to unchecked when completing
your review.
26
Field Orders
In this section, we describe how to manage the fieldwork that takes place at your premises
service points.
Contents
The Big Picture Of Field Orders
Field Order Maintenance
Field Activity Maintenance
Group Premise FAs (Field Activities)
Field Order Search
Dispatch Field Activities
Downloading Field Orders
Uploading Field Order Completion Information
Outage Calls
Outage Information
The Big Picture Of Field Orders

The topics in this section provide background information about a variety of field order issues.
Contents
An Illustration Of A Field Order And Its Field Activities
An Illustration Of The Entities Involved In Field Order Dispatch
Field Activity Type Controls What Is Done In The Field
The Lifecycle Of Field Activities And Field Orders
Dispatch Field Activities Automatically
The Daily Tasks Of A Dispatcher
How To Handle Unusual Situations
Printing Field Orders
An Illustration Of A Field Order And Its Field Activities

Refer to An Example Of A Field Order for an overview of the field order objects.
An Illustration Of The Entities Involved In Field Order

Dispatch
Refer to An Example Of The Entities Involved In Field Order Dispatch for an overview of the
objects involved in the dispatch of field orders.
Field Order Business Processes
Field Activity Type Controls What Is Done In The Field

For information about field activity types, refer to Designing Your Field Activity Profiles & Types.
For more information about field activity completion, refer to How Does A Field Order Get
Completed?.
The Lifecycle Of Field Activities And Field Orders

The following diagram illustrates the lifecycle of a typical field activity and its field order.
Event
Panel
SP: Electric Service Point

Activity Type: Turn On Meter
Status: Pending
1-Dec-1998
Customer calls
requesting service on
15-Dec-1998
13-Dec-1998
The field work
preprocessor runs
and creates FA's
shortly before the
start date
Step 1: Turn on meter
Start/Stop SA/
SP PreProcessor
14-Dec-1998
Dispatcher creates
field order, links
activities to it and
dispatches field order
Dispatch Field
Activities Query
SP: Gas Service Point

creates
field activities Status: Pending
creates
field order,
links field
activities to it,
and
dispatches
field order
Field Order: 14 Oak Street

Status: Dispatched
Status: Pending

Status: Pending
15-Dec-1998
Field work is done
16-Dec-1998
Operator completes
the order and its
activities
Field Order
Upload Staging
Page
completes
field order
and field
activities
Field Order: 14 Oak Street

Status: Completed
Status: Completed

Status: Completed
The above diagram is referenced in the following topics.

Contents
How Are Field Activities Created?
How Are Field Orders Created And Dispatched?

How Does A Field Order Get Routed To A Field Crew?
How Does A Field Order Get Completed?
What Happens After A Field Activity Is Completed?
How To Schedule Appointments
How Are Field Activities Created?

Field activities are created as follows:
Starting or stopping service indirectly causes field activities to be created to perform the
fieldwork necessary to connect or disconnect service. Refer to Starting Service & Field
Activities for more information about how field activities are created to start and stop service.
Note, if you use the Order transaction to start service, field activities will also be created in
the same manner described under the Starting Service & Field Activities discussion.
The activation of a severance event with fieldwork causes field activities to be generated to
disconnect or reconnect service. For more information about severance events and field
activities, refer to The Big Picture Of Severance Events.
When an operator indicates that a reread should be done for a meter read that fails high/low,
a field activity is created. For more information about this process, refer to Review High /
Low.
An algorithm may be designed to generate a field activity. For example, perhaps the
activation algorithm for a workflow event creates a field activity. Or perhaps a field activity is
created as a result of a meter read remark algorithm.
An operator may create a field activity at their discretion. This is done for ad hoc service
investigation orders. For more information about creating an ad hoc field activity, refer to
Field Activity Maintenance.
In the above diagram, the event that takes place on 13-Dec-98 shows two field activities created
to start service for a customer on 15-Dec-98. Notice that the activities are not linked to a field
order when theyre first created. Why? Because field activities exist in a state of limbo awaiting
dispatch. At dispatch time, a field order is created and one or more field activities are linked to it.
Creating a field activity before a field order may seem counter-intuitive to you. If so, consider that
a field activity is created to perform work at a service point ON SOME FUTURE DATE. Close to
the date, a dispatcher will look at all field activities to be performed by a given dispatch group at a
premise and group them together under a field order.
How Are Field Orders Created And Dispatched?

The illustration above shows that on 14-Dec-98, a field order is created using the Dispatch Field
Activities transaction. This transaction is one of several ways in which a field order can be
created. The following point describe every possible way in which a field order can be created:
The Dispatch Field Activities page allows a user to create (and dispatch) field orders for
pending field activities.
The Group Premise Field Activities page allows a user to create (and dispatch) field orders
for field activities at a premise.
The Automatic Dispatch background process automatically creates field orders for field
activities.
A user may create a field order and link field activities to it using the Field Order page.
After a field order is created, its ready to be downloaded to the crew who does the work. Refer to
How Does A Field Order Get Routed To A Field Crew for the details.
How Does A Field Order Get Routed To A Field Crew?

Refer to Downloading Field Orders for a description of how field orders are routed to field crews.
How Does A Field Order Get Completed?

When fieldwork is performed at a service point, the system must be told what happened. We
refer to the process of telling the system what happened in the field as field order completion.
Between dispatched and completed states. If you want, you can indicate a field orders
fieldwork is done before you actually complete the field order. You do this by changing the field
orders status from dispatched to work done, not recorded. You dont have to do this; its really
a question of whether you care about this intermittent state.
You cant complete a field order until all of its non-optional activities are either Complete or
Canceled. To complete a field activity, you update the system to reflect what happened in
respect of the activitys steps. After which, you must have each step reference the object that
was updated or created. For example, if a step initiated the installation of a meter at a service
point, you must add a new SP/Meter Installation History record and the step should then
reference the new SP/Meter Installation History record.
You may wonder why a step needs to reference the object that was updated or created. The
reason is a little complex, but its important you understand the following points:
After you complete a field activity that is linked to a pending start service agreement, the
system automatically activates the service agreement. As part of the activation, if the service
point is metered, the system extracts any read that was entered to complete the field activity
and uses this as the initial read for the service point. The system extracts the meter read by
looking for reads linked to the activitys step(s). Reads may be linked directly (via a reference
to a meter read), or indirectly (via a reference to SP/Meter History). If the step doesnt
reference a meter read, the system cannot automatically activate the related service
agreement when the field activity is completed.
An analogous process occurs for field activities linked to pending stop service agreements.
The major difference is that the system uses any read linked to the field activity as the service
agreement / service points final read.
Steps on field activities that are not linked to pending start or stop service agreements exist
purely for audit purposes.
The following diagram may help understand the relationship between an activitys read and the
service agreement(s) that use the read to start or stop service.
Service Agreements, Field Activities and Service Agreement Activation
Service Agreement

For Mary Smith
18 Oak Street
Provo, Utah
USA
Rate: EC-1
Tax Exempt
1
2
Premise
Electric
Meter
11111
Electric Service Point
Meter Read
2
Meter Read - Meter 11111 - 1-Dec-1999
Register 1: 10201 KWH
Register 2: 0 KW
Field Activity
Step
Field Activity - Reconnect Electric Service

Step 1: Read Meter
When a CSR starts service, the system links the service point to the service
agreement.
Shortly before the start date, a background process generates a field activity to start
service. This field activity is linked to the pending start service agreement and to
the service point in question.
A meter read is created to complete the field activity. This new read is linked to the
field activity so that step 4 can take place.
After the field activity is completed, the system links the activity's meter read to the
service agreement as its initial read and activates the service agreement.
The next thing you may be wondering about is how to reference the updated or created object on
a step? There are three ways to do this:
You can enter completion details on the field activity page. Refer to Field Activity
Maintenance for more information.
An operator can enter completion details on the field activity upload staging pages. Refer to
Field Activity Upload Staging for the page used to do this. This is the easiest way to
complete a field activity.
You can have your interface team insert rows onto the field activity upload staging tables and
let the field activity upload background process complete the activities and orders for you.
Refer to Uploading Field Order Completion Information for more information about the batch
completion process.
Completing most field activities is straightforward because the steps performed in the field
correspond to the steps on the field activity. Complications arise if a field crew is unable to
perform an activitys steps because of any number of reasons (e.g., a field activity instructs a
meter to be installed but theres already a meter at the service point). When what took place in
the field differs from what was instructed to take place the operator may either:
Change the activity type on the activity to reflect what happened.
Cancel the existing field activity and add a new one with the appropriate activity type.
Warning! If a field activity is linked to a service agreement or a severance event, and what took
place in the field isnt consistent with the field activitys steps, we recommend changing the
activity type rather than canceling the field activity and adding a new one. Why? Because the
object to which a field activity is linked continually checks if the field activity is complete to see if it
can take the next logical step in its lifecycle. If you add a new field activity, youll need to link it to
the same object(s) that the original activity was linked. This is a cumbersome process (but
possible). Its much easier to simply change the activitys activity type.
What Happens After A Field Activity Is Completed?

After you complete a field activity that is linked to a pending start service agreement, the system
automatically activates the service agreement. As part of the activation, if the service point is
metered, the system will extract any read that was entered to complete the field activity and use
this as the service agreement / service points initial read.
An analogous process occurs for field activities linked to pending stop service agreements. The
major difference is that we use any read linked to the field activity as the service agreement /
service points final read.
After a field activity that is linked to a severance event is completed, the severance event
becomes complete. This, in turn, triggers the activation of the next event.
For more information about field activities linked to pending starts, refer to Starting Service &
Field Activities. For more information about field activities linked to pending stops, refer to
Stopping Service & Field Activities. For more information about what happens when a field
activity that is linked to a pending start or pending stop service agreement is completed, refer to
The System Activates Most Service Agreements Behind-The-Scenes and The System Finalizes
Most Service Agreements Behind-The-Scenes. For more information about severance events
and field activities, refer to The Big Picture Of Severance Events.
How To Schedule Appointments

Refer to The Big Picture of Appointments for information about how appointments can be
scheduled for field activities.
Dispatch Field Activities Automatically

For large volumes of field activities, it can be useful for the dispatching and extraction of field
activities and field orders to be automated.
Dispatching refers to the processes of grouping field activities into related groups by premise and
date, etc. The automatic dispatch job (FOD) selects all pending field activities that:
are not yet connected yet to a FO,
have a dispatch group,
are linked to dispatchable FA Type
have a schedule date <= todays date + a specified dispatch ahead days AND have a priority
= a specified priority (if specified).
The selected field activities are grouped by premise, dispatch group (or alternate dispatch group
from the dispatch group table), and date. A field order is created and the grouped field activities
are linked to it. The field order will be dispatched on the designated date.
For example, imagine the following field activities:
Field
Activity
Dispatch Group
Primary
Dispatch Group Alternate
GSR1
TM1
GSR2
GSR1
TM1
TM2
TM2
MT
MT
MT
For this set of field activities, the process will group FA 1 and FA 2 based on GSR1, FA 3 and FA
4 based on TM2 and FA 5 will have its own FO.
The rules are:
Look at the primary dispatch group and try to find a match in the primary or alternate for the
other field activities.
If no match is found, look at the alternate dispatch group and try and match with the primary
or alternate for the other field activities.
If no match is found after step 1 and 2, a separate field order must be created.
Refer to Process What's Ready Processes for more information on the batch process.
The Daily Tasks Of A Dispatcher

In this section, we describe how a dispatcher performs his/her daily tasks.
Contents
Dispatching Field Activities
Marking Field Orders As Being Worked
Look For Orders That Have Slipped Through The Cracks
Dispatching Field Activities

Late in the day, you should review field activities that are scheduled for the next day. A special
query exists, Dispatch Field Activities, that shows you all pending field activities that are not
linked to field order. From this query, you can define which field activities should be dispatched.
The system then creates and dispatches a field order for each unique combination of premise
and dispatch group on the selected field activities.
Refer to How Are Field Orders Created And Dispatched for other ways to dispatch field activities.
Marking Field Orders As Being Worked

If your organization is told about field orders that have been worked during the day, you can
change the status of such field orders to work done, not recorded. You use Field Order - Main
Information to do this.
Look For Orders That Have Slipped Through The Cracks

Occasionally, you should use the Field Order Search to check if any field orders have been
pended by operator for too long. You see, if a user appends a field order, at some point they
need to either cancel it or dispatch it. If they dont, the order will sit in limbo forever.
You should also use this query to check for work done, not recorded orders in case someone
forgot to complete them.
How To Handle Unusual Situations

In this section, we describe how to handle unusual situations.
Contents
Tidying Up Field Orders That Were Not Worked
Hold A Field Activity
Canceling A Field Activity
Tidying Up Field Orders That Were Not Worked

Sometimes unforeseen events occur and a crew cant work all of their field orders. When this
happens, you have two options:
You can leave the field order in the state of dispatched and give it to the same crew to do
the next day.
You can change the state of the field order to pended by operator, reassign the field order
to another dispatch group or representative, and then change the status back to dispatched.
This will cause the field order to be dispatched a second time. You use Field Order - Main
Information to do this.
Hold A Field Activity

Sometimes you might want to hold a field activity that was automatically generated by the
start/stop/severance processes. Holding an activity prevents it from appearing on the Field
Activity Dispatch query (and therefore it shouldnt get dispatched).
At some point in the future, you should either cancel the activity (if you dont want it done) or
reset the activity to pending.
Canceling A Field Activity

You should cancel a field activity if it shouldnt be (or wasnt) done.
There are situations when a field activity may be canceled automatically by another process in
the system, for example:
If a field activity is created by start/stop and the start/stop is canceled, the resulting field
activity is also canceled
If a field activity is created by a severance event or cut event and the severance or cut event
is canceled, the field activity is also canceled
The processes that attempt to cancel a field activity when a related record is canceled do not
continue with the cancel under the following conditions:
The field activity is already linked to a field order (and is therefore considered dispatched to
the field)
The field activity has been dispatched to an external system and the FA's intermediate status
is one that does not allow auto-cancellation.
Printing Field Orders

The contents of this section describe the technical implementation of field order production.
Contents
Dispatch Groups Control The Information Merged Onto Field Orders
Technical Implementation Of Online Field Order Image
Technical Implementation Of Batch Field Order Production
Reproducing The Field Order Print Flat File
How To Reprint A Specific Field Order
Who Gets A Copy Of A Field Order?
The Doc 1 Records
Dispatch Groups Control The Information Merged Onto Field Orders

Every field order references a dispatch group. The dispatch group controls the following field
order print functions:
field orders. Algorithms of this type are called under the following scenarios:
The background process that interacts with your field order print software calls these
algorithms.
If your field order print software has the ability to construct a real-time image of a field
order, you can plug-in an Online Field Order Image algorithm on the Installation Record.
This type of algorithm will call the field orders dispatch group extract algorithm to extract
the information that is merged onto the field order. Refer to Technical Implementation Of
Online Field order Image for the details.
It contains the ID of the background process responsible for interacting with your field order
print software in batch.
Technical Implementation Of Online Field Order Image

Users can view an image of any field order if you setup the following:
Plug-in an Online Field Order Image construction algorithm on the Installation Record.
Plug-in the appropriate extract algorithm on each dispatch group.
10
The system provides algorithms that interact with print software that renders an image of the field
order in a PDF. The following points describe what takes place when clicking Display Field
Order when these sample algorithms are used.
The sample Online Field Order Image algorithm ONFD-FO is executed.
This algorithm calls the field orders dispatch groups extract algorithm. The sample field
order extract algorithm FOEX-OX constructs the information thats merged onto the field
order and returns it to the Online Field Order Image algorithm. This algorithm, in turn,
passes it to your field order print software.
software.
Your field order print software renders an image of the field order in a PDF and returns it to
the Online Field Order Image algorithm. Note that the client must have Adobe Acrobat
Reader installed to view PDF files.
And finally, the Online Field Order Image algorithm displays the PDF in a separate Adobe
session.
The system provides algorithms that interact with BI Publisher or Crystal Reports to render an
online image of your field order. The following points describe what takes place when clicking
Display Field Order when these sample algorithms are used.
The sample Online Field Order Image algorithm C1-ONFD-CR is executed.
This algorithm calls the field orders dispatch groups extract algorithm. The sample field
order extract algorithm C1-FOEX-CR is supplied for displaying field orders via BI Publisher or
Crystal. This is not actually extracting data because when you use BI Publisher or Crystal
reports, the report itself is responsible for extracting and formatting the data. The base
product algorithm supplied returns the appropriate report code to the Online Field Order
Image algorithm, which in turn returns the report code to the field order page.
A user exit on the field order page invokes BI Publisher or Crystal and displays the field order
in a separate browser session.
Refer to Field Order Print in BI Publisher or Crystal for examples of the data extracted for the
report.
Technical Implementation Of Batch Field Order Production

A batch process extracts field order information reads all field orders in a given run number that
are marked with its batch control ID.
The base package example of this process (known by the batch control ID of FODL) simply calls
the extract algorithm on the dispatch group to format the information placed onto the flat file.
Refer to Dispatch Groups Control The Information On Field Orders for more information on the
base processing.
The base package also supplies a batch field order production (known by the batch control ID of
DSGPFODL) specifically used to print field orders via Crystal reports. This process invokes every
distinct extract algorithm found on dispatch groups referring to this batch control id. The extract
algorithms are responsible for building the information needed to schedule the report to run in
Crystal and submitting the report to be scheduled.
11
If your software doesn't support online field order images. The algorithm that formats field
order extract records that's plugged in on dispatch group serves two purposes: 1) it interacts with
the online field order image algorithm plugged into to the installation record to support online
images of a field order, and 2) it interacts with the background process to support printing your
field orders in batch. If your field order print software does not support the rendering of field order
images real time, there is no need to create an extract algorithm. Rather, you should simply
develop your own download process that works with your field order print software to print field
orders in batch (and then specify this batch process on your dispatch group).
Reproducing The Field Order Print Flat File

If you use the method of extracting to a flat file, you can reproduce the flat file at any time. Simply
request the FODL process and specify the run number associated with the historic run.
How To Reprint A Specific Field Order

If you need to reprint a specific field order, navigate to Field Order Main Information and change
the orders status to Dispatched.
If your implementation has enabled the online creation of field order images, you can also click
the Display Field Order button on this page and then print the resultant online image on your
local printer.
Who Gets A Copy Of A Field Order?

Refer to The Lifecycle Of Field Activities And Field Orders for more information.
The Doc 1 Records

Alternate print / routing methods. This section describes the format of field order extract
records that are constructed by base-package algorithms that are passed to the Doc 1 software
(which actually produces the field orders). If you require different print formats, you must create
new extract algorithms and plug them in on your dispatch groups.
Numerous types of records are interfaced to the Doc 1 field order print software. However, they
all share a common structure:
The first 4 bytes are called the Printer Key. This field is a record type used by the Doc 1
field order template.
used to construct a printed field order appear in the correct order in the interface file.
The remaining bytes contain the Field Order Information that appears on the printed field
order. The type of information differs for each type of record.

Contents
12
Sort Key
Field Order Information

The following table defines each printer key (i.e., record type) on the field order print flat file.
Recor
d Type
0010
0100
2000
Description
Notes
Field Order record
Required. 1 per field

order.
Service Point record
Required. N per FO.
2200
Item record
1 per SP.
2400
Meter record
1 per SP.
2450
Register record
N per SP.
2490
End Meter record
1 per SP (dummy).
2600
SP/Multi-item record
1 per SP.
2620
Multi-item Detail record
N per SP.
2690
End SP/Multi-item record
1 per SP (dummy).
3000
Field Activity record
Required, Occurs N.
3100
Field Activity Credit & Collections record
1 per FA.
3200
Field Activity Step record
Required, Occurs N.
3410
Enter Meter Badge No
1 per FA Step (dummy).
3430
Enter Item Badge No
3450
Enter Cust. Contact Info
3470
Enter Reconfig. Register
3490
Enter Discon. Loc. Info
3510
Enter Register Read
3530
Enter Multi Item Info
3550
Enter TO Statistics Info
3570
Enter Misc Changes Info
3999
Generic (placeholder)
6100
6200
6300
9990
End Field Activity Step record

End of Field Activity record
End of Service Point record
End of Field Order record
Required. 1 per FA Step

(dummy).
Required. 1 per FA
(dummy).
Required. 1 per SP
(dummy).
Required. 1 per FO
(dummy).
13
Sort Key
The field order print records need to be sorted in the right sequence in order for DOC1 to process
them. The following is a description of the portion of each record that is responsible for
performing this task.
Note that the first ten fields in the Sort Key DISP_GRP_CD through FO_ID are all from the
CIS database records. For each Field Order in an extract run, there will be a block of records of
indeterminate size in which the values of these first ten fields will be identical. These ten fields
see to it that each block is sorted correctly within the extract as a whole. It is the task of the last
six fields to make certain that the records in a particular Field Orders block are sorted correctly
within the block. Most of these six are artificial, but two are from the CIS database, where they
serve a similar function.
The precise mechanics of the Sort Key (in particular the three-in-one Sequence Number field)
may be difficult to envision. A look at the Order of Record Types section above may help to make
it clearer. Within a given Field Order (FO) block there are several sub-groups. Not only must
each sub-group as a whole be in the proper sequence within the FO block, but each record in a
sub-group must be in the proper sequence within the sub-group. These sub-groups are Service
Point (one or more per FO with one or more Field Activities at each SP), Meter (a Meter and its
Registers), Multi-Item (a Multi-Item record and its Detail Lines), and Field Activity (a Field Activity
record and its various Steps).
The following table defines the structure of the sort key that appears on each field order print
record. Please note that different components are filled in for each printer key.
Field Name
Format
DISP_GRP_CD
A8
CI_FO / Dispatch Group code
REP_CD
A8
CI_FO / Representative code
STATE
A6
CI_PREM / State of the Premise address
CITY
A30
CI_PREM / City of the Premise address
POSTAL
A12
CI_PREM / Postal Code of the Premise address
ADDRESS1
A64
CI_PREM / 1st line of the Premise street address
PREM_ID
A10
CI_FO / System-assigned identifier for the Premise
SCHED_DT
D10
CI_FO / Scheduled date of the Field Order
SCHED_TM
T15
CI_FO / Scheduled time of the Field Order
FO_ID
A10
CI_FO_STG_DWN / System-assigned identifier of the Field Order
FO Group [Artificial]
N2
This field forces the Service Point record group(s) into a position
subordinate to the Field Order. Values:
10 Field Order
30 SP
90 End Field Order
SP Sequence
[Artificial]
N2
If there is more than one Service Point on a particular FO, this field
forces them into an arbitrary sequence. Each SP is then followed by its
device and Field Activity record group(s).
SP Group [Artificial]
N2
This field forces the device (meter, item or multi-item) and Field Activity
record groups into a position subordinate to the Service Point. Values :
10 SP
14
Field Name
Format
20 Item
30 Meter
35 End Meter
40 Multi-Item
45 End Multi-Item
50 FA
60 End SP
Sequence Number
N3
This field serves the same purpose in three distinct areas:
READ_SEQ
Register Sequence (within a Meter record) (CI_REG)
[Artificial]
Item Sequence (within a Multi-Item record)
[Artificial]
FA Sequence (within a Service Point)

In each instance, it forces the subordinate records into the correct order
within, respectively, the Meter, Multi-item and Service Point record subgroups.
STEP_SEQ_NBR
N3
CI_FA_STEP
In addition to the natural values from the CIS database, there are two
artificial values that serve to force a particular record into its proper
place within the FA sub-group:
000 Credit & Collections record
999 End FA record
FA Step Group
[Artificial]
N2
Each FA Step will have one or more FA Step (action) records. This field
is to force these records into an arbitrary sequence within the FA subgroup. Values :
10 Enter Meter Badge Number
20 Enter Item Badge Number
30 Enter Customer Contact
40 Enter Reconfigure Register
50 Enter Disconnect Location
60 Enter Register Reading
70 Enter Multi-item
80 Enter Trouble Order Statistics
90 Enter Changes
98 Generic (placeholder)
99 End FA Step
Field Order Information

The topics in this section describe the information that appears on each field order print record.
Contents
15
Field Order Record

SP Record
Item Record
Meter Record
Register Record
End Meter Record
SP/Multi-Item Record
Multi-Item Detail Line Record
End SP/Multi-Item Step Record
Field Activity Record
Credit and Collection Record
Field Activity Step Record
Field Activity Step (Enter Meter Badge Number) Record
Field Activity Step (Enter Item Badge Number) Record
Field Activity Step (Enter Customer Contact) Record
Field Activity Step (Enter Reconfigure Register) Record
Field Activity Step (Enter Disconnect Location) Record
Field Activity Step (Enter Register Read) Record
Field Activity Step (Enter Multi-Item) Record
Field Activity Step (Enter TO Stat) Record
Field Activity Step (Enter Changes) Record
Field Activity Step (Generic) Record
End Field Activity Step Record
End Field Activity Record
End SP Record
End Field Order Record
Definition of Address Subrecord (Sbr)

produced, this record will physically be the last record on the extract file.
Field Name
Format
Print Key
A4
0010
CIS Sort Key
A187
Note: For the Global Record only, the Sort Key is all blanks.
BATCH_CD
A8
CI_BATCH_INST / The CIS Batch Process that called the FO

Extract COBOL routine
BATCH_NBR
N10
CI_BATCH_INST / A sequence number for serial instances of a

Batch Process over time
BATCH_RERUN_NBR
N10
CI_BATCH_INST / The number of times a particular batch has

been re-run since its initial run
FO Count [Artificial]
N10
Total number of distinct FO record blocks in an extract
Date/Time [Artificial]
A26
System time of extraction.
FO Id Start [Artificial]
A10
The lowest valid FO ID in a particular thread in the extract. If there

is only one thread, this will be 0000000000.
FO Id End [Artificial]
A10
The highest valid FO ID in a particular thread in the extract. If there
16
Field Name
Format
is only on thread, this will be 9999999999.
BATCH_THREAD_NBR
N10
CI_BATCH_THD / Identifies a thread distinctly within a group of

threads
Thread Count [Artificial]
N10
Total number of threads in the extract run
Field Order Record

One record is produced for every field order to be printed.
Field Name
Format
Print Key
A4
CIS Sort Key
A187
FO_ID
A10
CI_FO_STG_DWN / System-assigned identifier for a Field Order
PREM_ID
A10
CI_FO / System-assigned identifier for the Premise at which the

Field Order will be done
SCHED_DT
D10
CI_FO / The scheduled date of the Field Order
SCHED_TM
T15
CI_FO / The scheduled time of the Field Order (optional)
DISP_GRP_CD
A8
CI_FO / The Dispatch Group to which the Field Order has been
assigned
REP_CD
A8
CI_FO / The Representative within the Dispatch Group
DESCR254
C254
CI_FO / Free-form notes about the Field Order
ACCT_ID
A10
CI_SA / The Account that is/has been/will be paying for services

at the Premise
ENTITY_NAME
A64
CI_PER_NAME / The Primary name of the Main customer on the

Account identified above
Multiple Account Message

[Artificial]
A10
A message item indicating the existence of more than one active

Account associated with a Premise.
ADDRESS_SBR
A361
CI_PREM / A sub-record of address information (Defined in detail

later in this section)
MR_WARN_CD
A4
CI_PREM / Meter Read Warning code
DESCRIPTION
A60
CI_MR_WARN / Description of the MR Warning code
MR_INSTR_CD
A4
CI_PREM / Meter Read Instruction code
DESCRIPTION
A60
CI_MR_INSTR / Description of the MR Instruction code
MR_INSTR_DETAILS
A250
CI_PREM / For an expanded version of the Meter Read

Instruction above, or for information deemed relevant but for
which no code exists.
Telephone Info
0100
Telephone numbers for the Main customer on the Account above.

Occurs 3 times per FO Record, consisting of the following three
fields:
PHONE_TYPE
A12
CI_PER_PHONE / The type of telephone. Typical values are

Home, Business, Dormitory, Cellular, Fax.
PHONE
A24
CI_PER_PHONE / Self-explanatory
17
Field Name
Format
EXTENSION
A6
CI_PER_PHONE / Self-explanatory
LS_SL_SW
A1
CI_PER / Life Support or Sensitive Load. Set to Y if any Person

on any active Account associated with this Premise has this type
of information on their record.
LS_SL_DESCR
A254
CI_PER / Description of the Life Support/Sensitive Load
LL_ID
A10
CI_PREM / System-assigned identifier for a Premises landlord (if

one exists)
DESCRIPTION
A60
CI_LANDLORD / Description of the Landlord
ACCT_ID
A10
CI_LANDLORD / The Landlords account number
Geographic Info
Geographic locator types and their values for the Premise. Occurs
3 times per FO Record, consisting of the following two fields:
DESCR
A60
CI_GEO_TYPE / The description of a geographic locator type
GEO_VAL
A50
CI_PREM_GEO / The actual value of the above locator type at a

given Premise
SP Record
One record is produced for every Service Point (SP) that has a field activity on the field order. Up
to 15 characteristics and their respective values can be listed for a SP. If there is no
Characteristic information for the SP on the database, the fields will be blank.
Field Name
Format
Print Key
A4
2000
CIS Sort Key
A187
SP_ID
A10
CI_SP / Unique system-generated identifier for the Service Point
SP_TYPE_CD
A8
CI_SP / The Service Points type code
DESCR
A60
CI_SP_TYPE / The description of the SP Type
SP_SUBTYPE_FLG
A2
CI_SP_TYPE / The SP Types sub-type code. Values:

M Meter
I Item
U Unbadged (multi-item)
DESCR
A60
CI_LOOKUP / The description of the sub-type
SP_SRC_STATUS_FLG
A2
CI_SP / The status of the source of the service delivered through

a Service Point.
DESCR
A60
CI_LOOKUP / The description of the source status
DISCON_LOC_CD
A4
CI_SP / If the SP has been disconnected, a code for the location

of the disconnection
DESCR
A60
CI_LOOKUP / The description of the disconnect location
MTR_LOC_CD
A4
CI_SP / A code for the location at the Premise of the Service

Points Meter
DESCR
A60
CI_MTR_LOC / The description of the location code
18
Field Name
Format
MTR_LOC_DETAILS
A250
CI_SP / Detailed information regarding the location of the SPs

Meter
SP_MTR_RD_CYCLE
A30
CI_MR_CYC / Description of the SPs Service Cycle
SP_MTR_RD_ROUTE
A30
CI_MR_RTE / Description of the SPs Service Route
SP_FAC_LVL_1
A30
CI_FAC_LVL_1 / Description of the SPs Level 1 Facility
SP_FAC_LVL_2
A30
SP_FAC_LVL_3
A30
Geographic Info
Geographic locator types and their values for a Service Point.

Occurs 3 times per record, consisting of the following two fields:
DESCR
A60
CI_GEO_TYPE / The description of a geographic locator type
GEO_VAL
A50
CI_SP_GEO / The actual value of the above locator type at a

given Service Point
Characteristic Info
Occurs 15 times per record, consisting of the following two fields:
SP_CHAR
A30
CI_CHAR_TYPE / The description of a Characteristic that the

Service Point has been deemed to possess
SP_CHAR_VALUE
A30
CI_CHAR_VAL / The description of the Value of the above

Characteristic for this Service Point
MR_WARN_CD
C4
Field Warning code
DESCRIPTION
C30
Description of the Field Warning code
MR_INSTR_CD
C4
Field Instruction code
DESCRIPTION
C30
Description of the Field Instruction code
MR_INSTR_DETAILS
C250
For an expanded version of the Field Instruction above, or for

information deemed relevant but for which no code exists
Item Record
This record is produced if a Service Point is of subtype Item. Because an SP may have at most
one badged item installed at any given point in time, there is at most one record for an SP. If
there is no Item currently installed, a message is printed to that effect.
Field Name
Format
Print Key
A4
CIS Sort Key
A187
ITEM_ID
A10
CI_SP_ITEM_HIST / The system-generated ID of the Item

currently installed at the Service Point
BADGE_NBR
A16
CI_ITEM / The Items badge number
ITEM_TYPE_CD
A8
CI_ITEM / A code specifying the type of the Item
DESCR
A60
CI_ITEM_TYPE / The description of the Item type
MFG_CD
A8
CI_ITEM / A code for the manufacturer of the Item
DESCR
A60
CI_MFG / The actual name of the manufacturer
MODEL_CD
A8
CI_ITEM / The manufacturers model number for the Item
2200
19
Field Name
Format
DESCR
A60
CI_MODEL / The description of the model
SERIAL_NBR
A16
CI_ITEM / Self-explanatory
RECEIVE_DT
D10
CI_ITEM / The date on which the Item was received by the utility
from its manufacturer. This is NOT the install date.
DESCR254
A254
CI_ITEM / A detailed description of the Item (optional).
EVENT_DTTM
D26
CI_SP_ITEM_EV_I / The date and time of the installation of the

Item at its current location.
Meter Record
This record is produced if a Service Point is of subtype Meter. Because an SP may have at most
one meter installed at any given point in time, there is at most one record for an SP. If there is no
Meter currently installed, a message is printed to that effect.
Field Name
Format
Print Key
A4
2400
CIS Sort Key
A187
MTR_ID
A10
CI_MTR_CONFIG / The system-generated identifier for the

Meter currently installed at the Service Point.
BADGE_NBR
A16
CI_MTR / The Meters badge number
MTR_TYPE_CD
A8
CI_MTR / A code for the type of the Meter
MFG_CD
A8
CI_MTR / A code for the manufacturer of the Meter
DESCR
A60
CI_MFG / The actual name of the manufacturer
MODEL_CD
A8
CI_MTR / The manufacturers model number for the Meter
DESCR
A60
CI_MODEL / A description of the model
SERIAL_NBR
A16
CI_MTR / Self-explanatory
RECEIVE_DT
D10
CI_MTR / The date on which the Meter was received by the

utility from its manufacturer. This is NOT the install date.
DESCR254
A254
CI_MTR / A detailed description of the Meter (optional).
INSTALL_DTTM
D26
CI_CFG_SPMR_VW / The date and time of the installation of

the Meter at its current location.
MTR_CONFIG_ID
A10
CI_SP_MTR_HIST / The system-generated identifier for the

Meters current Configuration
EFFDT
D10
CI_MTR_CONFIG / The effective date of the current

Configuration
EFF_TM
T15
CI_MTR_CONFIG / The effective time of the current

Configuration
Register Record
One record is produced for every register on the currently effective Meter Configuration.
Field Name
Print Key
20
Format
A4
2450
Field Name
Format
CIS Sort Key
A187
REG_ID
A10
CI_REG / The system-generated unique identifier for the

Register
READ_SEQ
N2
CI_REG / The read sequence of the Register
UOM_CD
A4
CI_REG / The Unit Of Measure in which the Register is

calibrated
TOU_CD
A8
CI_REG / The Time Of Use period during which the Register

measures consumption
REG_CONST
N6.6
CI_REG / The Register Constant (if any) by which the actual

reading is multiplied to calculate consumption
CONSUM_SUB_FLG
A2
CI_REG / A flag that indicates whether the Register is a

consumptive or subtractive register
HOW_TO_USE_FLG
A2
CI_REG / A flag that indicates whether the Registers

measured consumption is to be added to, subtracted from, or
used as a check against the measured consumption of other
Registers (if the Register is Subtractive) or measures a peak
(maximum) value (if the Register is Consumptive)
NBR_OF_DGTS_LFT
N1
CI_REG / The number of digits to the left of the decimal point

on the Registers readout
NBR_OF_DGTS_RGT
N1
CI_REG / The number of digits to the right of the decimal point

on the Registers readout
FULL_SCALE
N9.5
CI_REG / The maximum value that can be displayed on the

Registers readout before it turns over to zero
READ_OUT_TYPE_CD
A8
CI_REG / A code indicating the type of physical readout (dials,

digital etc.) employed on the Register
PROTOCOL_CD
A8
CI_REG / A code indicating the means by which the registers

consumption information is collected
TOLERANCE
N9.5
CI_REG / Tolerance is used to warn the meter reader that a

Register is approaching its maximum permitted value
READ_DTTM
D26
CI_MR / The date and time of the most recent Register

reading that is either a Customer Read, Regular read or a
Verified read
REG_READING
N9.6
CI_REG_READ / The actual value displayed on the Registers

readout when it was most recently read
READ_TYPE_FLG
A2
CI_REG_READ / The type code of the Register reading
End Meter Record

A dummy record used to signal DOC1 that the last Register record for a Meter has been
reached.
Field Name
Format
Print Key
A4
CIS Sort Key
A187
2490
21
SP/Multi-Item Record
This record is produced if a Service Point is of subtype Unbadged. The Multi-Item record on the
database has only two fields, the Service Point ID and the Effective Date, both of which form a
composite Prime Key. Since this record always appears subordinate to the SP in the SP Group,
only the date field is needed here. This record is stipulated in the CIS database as the parent to
the detail item records that are its children.
Field Name
Format
Print Key
A4
CIS Sort Key
A187
EFF_DT
D10
2600
CI_SP_MULT_ITEM
Multi-Item Detail Line Record

One record is produced for each distinct type of item on the effective multi-item configuration at
the time of printing. There may be any number of distinct item types and any number of individual
items of a given type.
Field Name
Format
Print Key
A4
2620
CIS Sort Key
A187
ITEM_TYPE_CD
A8
CI_MULT_ITEM / A code for the type of Item
DESCR
A60
CI_ITEM_TYPE / The description of the Item type
ITEM_CNT
N9.2
CI_MULT_ITEM / The number of individual Items of a given

type
End SP/Multi-Item Step Record

A dummy record to signal DOC1 that the last Item record in a Multi-Item configuration has been
reached.
Field Name
Format
Print Key
A4
CIS Sort Key
A187
2690
Field Activity Record

One record is produced for each Pending field activity linked to the field order. Activities in any
other Status are ignored.
Field Name
Format
Print Key
A4
CIS Sort Key
A187
FA_ID
A10
CI_FA / The unique system-generated identifier for a Field

Activity
FA_TYPE_CD
A8
CI_FA / A code specifying the Field Activitys type
DESCR
A60
CI_FA_TYPE / The description of the FA type
FA_PRIORITY_FLG
A2
CI_FA / In the case of several Activities being created for

the same SP, the Priority Flag stipulates which should be
22
3000
Field Name
Format
done first.
FA_CREATED_BY_FLG
A2
CI_FA / A code indicating who or what originated this Field

Activity
XLATLONGNAME
A30
CI_LOOKUP / The description of the Created By flag
SCHED_DT
D10
CI_FA / The date on which the Activity is scheduled to be

done
SCHED_TM
T15
CI_FA / The time at which the Activity is scheduled to

commence (optional).
INSTRUCTIONS
A254
CI_FA / Free form detailed instructions as to exactly what

is to be done.
DESCR254
A254
CI_FA / A more detailed description of the FA Type

(optional)
Credit and Collection Record

One record is produced for a Field Activity that was created by a Severance Process (i.e.,
FA_CREATED_BY_FLG = SE (Severance Event)).
Field Name
Format
Print Key
A4
3100
CIS Sort Key
A187
SA_ID
A10
CI_SEV_PROC / The Service Agreement for which a

Severance Process has issued a Disconnect field activity
as a result of a Severance Event
Overdue Amount [Artificial]
N13.2
The program calls another COBOL routine (CIPFFTBN)

that calculates this amount based on the Severance
Process Arrears Date
Current Amount [Artificial]
N13.2
The program calls another COBOL routine (CIPFFTBN)

that calculates this amount using the current date.
Past Severance Processes

[Artificial]
N3
The number of Severance Processes issued against this

Service Agreement in the past, excluding the one that
generated this Activity
ACCT_ID
A10
CI_SA / The Account associated with the Service

Agreement above
ENTITY_NAME
A64
CI_PER_NAME / The Primary name of the Main

customer on the Account above
BILL_DT
D10
CI_BILL / The date of the most recent bill charged to the

Account above
CUR_AMT
N13.2
The dollar amount of the most recent bill. Calculated

from CI_BILL_SA
PAY_DT
D10
CI_PAY_EVENT / The date of the most recent Frozen

payment on the Account of the SA above
PAY_AMT
N13.2
CI_PAY / The amount of the most recent Frozen payment

on the Account of the SA above
23
Field Name
Format
Credit Rating [Artificial]
N5
Calculated from the Credit Rating Base Score on the

Installation Table and CR_RATING_PTS from
CI_ACCT_CR_R_VW
Cash-only Switch
A1
Set to Y if the Cash Only score is above the Cash Only

Threshold as defined on the Installation Table.
Calculated from the Cash Only Base Score on the
Installation Table and CASH_ONLY_PTS from
CI_ACCT_CR_R_VW
N13.2
The program calls another COBOL routine (CIPDFDVN)

to calculate this amount
[Artificial]
Deposit Amount [Artificial]
Field Activity Step Record

One record is produced for each Step within a Field Activity.
Field Name
Format
Print Key
A4
3200
CIS Sort Key
A187
STEP_SEQ_NBR
N3
CI_FA_STEP / The sequence of a Step within a Field

Activity
FA_STEP_TY_ACT_FLG
A2
CI_FA_STEP / A code indicating the FA Step Type

Action.
XLATLONGNAME
A60
CI_LOOKUP / The description of the FA Step Type

Action.
FA_STEP_DESCR
A60
CI_FA_STEP_TYPE / Description of the FA Step Type.
OPTIONAL_SW
A1
CI_FA_STEP_TYPE / Y indicates that a particular

Step is regarded as optional for field activities of this FA
Type
The next 14 record types (through End Field Order Record) are all dummy records that contain
no information and exist only to signal DOC1 to print a pre-specified block of text.
Field Activity Step (Enter Meter Badge Number) Record

This record is produced if the step requires space for the field worker to write a meters badge
number.
Field Name
Format
Print Key
A4
CIS Sort Key
A187
3410
Field Activity Step (Enter Item Badge Number) Record

This record is produced if the step requires space for the field worker to write an items badge
number.
Field Name
Print Key
24
Format
A4
3430
Field Name
CIS Sort Key
Format
A187
Field Activity Step (Enter Customer Contact) Record

This record is produced if the step requires space for the field worker to write customer contact
information.
Field Name
Format
Print Key
A4
CIS Sort Key
A187
3450
Field Activity Step (Enter Reconfigure Register) Record

This record is produced if the step requires space for the field worker to write register
configuration information.
Field Name
Format
Print Key
A4
CIS Sort Key
A187
3470
Field Activity Step (Enter Disconnect Location) Record

This record is produced if the step requires space for the field worker to write disconnect location.
Field Name
Format
Print Key
A4
CIS Sort Key
A187
3490
Field Activity Step (Enter Register Read) Record

This record is produced if the step requires space for the field worker to write register read
information.
Field Name
Format
Print Key
A4
CIS Sort Key
A187
3510
Field Activity Step (Enter Multi-Item) Record

This record is produced if the step requires space for the field worker to write multi-item
information.
Field Name
Format
Print Key
A4
CIS Sort Key
A187
3530
Field Activity Step (Enter TO Stat) Record

This record is produced if the step requires space for the field worker to write trouble order
statistics.
Field Name
Format
25
Field Name
Format
Print Key
A4
CIS Sort Key
A187
3550
Field Activity Step (Enter Changes) Record

This record is produced if the step requires space for the field worker to write free format
information.
Field Name
Format
Print Key
A4
CIS Sort Key
A187
3570
Field Activity Step (Generic) Record

This record is used for consistency on any FA Type that has no other type of FA Step (action)
record associated with it.
Field Name
Format
Print Key
A4
CIS Sort Key
A187
3999
End Field Activity Step Record

Field Name
Format
Print Key
A4
CIS Sort Key
A187
6100
End Field Activity Record

Field Name
Format
Print Key
A4
CIS Sort Key
A187
6200
End SP Record
Field Name
Format
Print Key
A4
CIS Sort Key
A187
6300
End Field Order Record

Field Name
Format
Print Key
A4
CIS Sort Key
A187
9990
Definition of Address Subrecord (Sbr)

Used in mailing address and service address, total length = 361 bytes
Field Name
26
Format
Description
Field Name
Format
COUNTRY
A3
ADDRESS1
A64
ADDRESS2
A64
ADDRESS3
A64
ADDRESS4
A64
CITY
A30
NUM1
A6
NUM2
A4
HOUSE_TYPE
A2
COUNTY
A30
STATE
A6
POSTAL
A12
GEO_CODE
A11
IN_CITY_LIMIT
A1
Description
Field Order Maintenance

A field order contains the field activities that connect, disconnect, and investigate service at a
premise. The topics in this section describe the pages on which field order-related information is
maintained.
For more information about field orders, refer to The Big Picture Of Field Orders and How Are
Field Orders Created And Dispatched.
Contents
Lifecycle of a Field Order
Field Order - Main Information
Field Order - Field Activities
Lifecycle of a Field Order

The following diagram illustrates the lifecycle of a field order.
Refer to The Lifecycle Of Field Activities and Field Orders for a more detailed discussion of the
lifecycle of a field order. The following diagram merely illustrates the state transition rules.
27
Field Order Lifecycle

Dispatched
Canceled
Work Done,
Not Recorded
Complete
Pended by
User
Dispatched
A field order starts its life in the Dispatched state.

Please note that when a field order is dispatched, its
field activities remain in the Pending state.
Pended by User
You Pend a field order when you want to indicate to

others that it shouldnt be dispatched (for whatever
reason).
Work Done, Not Recorded
You may mark a field order as Work Done, Not

Recorded if you know the field work is complete, but
you lack the details (or time) to actually Complete the
field order.
Complete
After the related field work has been performed, the

system is updated to reflect what happened and the field
order becomes complete. No changes may be made to
a Complete field order. Refer to How Does A Field
Order Get Completed for more information about
completion.
Canceled
A field order may be Cancelled.
Field Order - Main Information

The Main page contains core field order information. Open this page using Field Order, Field
Order.
Description of Page
Field Order is a concatenation of information about the order. It consists of the address of the
premise, the status of the field order, the number of field activities linked to the order and, if the
order has been completed, the date on which the work was done.
28
Field Order ID is the unique system-generated identifier for the field order.
Enter the Premise ID of the premise at which the field order will take place.
Use Schedule Date/Time to define when the field order is scheduled to be done.
Enter Reschedule Reason when changing the field orders schedule date/time.
Note. Reschedule Reason only appears if the Fieldwork Options feature configuration exists
with the Reschedule Reason Required option set to Y.
Field Order Status defines the state of the field order. The following values may exist:
Dispatched
When the system creates a field order due to the

dispatch of field activities, the system creates a field
order in the Dispatched state. A field order remains in
this state until the work is done. At that time, you can
change the state to Work Done, Not Recorded.
Alternatively, you can enter the results of the fieldwork (if
available) and change the state to Completed. If the
field order cannot be done for any reason, you should
change the state to Canceled. Refer to How Does A
Field Order Get Completed? for more information.
Work Done, Not Recorded
You may change a field order to this state if you want to

indicate the fieldwork has been done, but you dont have
the necessary information to complete the order. After
the completion information has been entered, you should
change the status to Completed.
Note. You should only use this state if your organization
keeps track of the state of dispatched field orders during
the workday. If you dont do this, you can transition a
field order from Dispatched directly to the Completed
state.
Completed
A Completed order is one where the fieldwork is done

and the results have been entered into the system. An
order can only be in this state if all of its field activities
are in the state of completed or canceled.
Canceled
You cancel an order when, for whatever reason, it

cannot be done. You may uncancel an order by
changing its status to an appropriate value.
Pended by User
It should be rare to find a field order in this state as it is

used when you want to hold a field order pending some
event. A field order remains in this state until you decide
what to do with it (either dispatch or cancel it). At that
time, you change its status to an appropriate value.
29
To completely understand the significance of a field orders status, refer to The Big Picture Of
Field Orders.
Enter Cancel Reason when canceling the order.
Note. Cancel Reason only appears if the Fieldwork Options feature configuration exists with
the Cancel Reason Required option set to Y.
The Display Field Order button displays an online image of the field order when clicked. This
button is only available if there is at least one pending field activity linked to the field order. Refer
to Online Field Order Image for more information.
Note. You can only use the Display Field Order button if your system has been configured to
display an on-line image; otherwise, a message indicating that the service is not available will
appear. This option can only be configured by your technical staff. The system comes with a
configuration to display field order images using DOC1, but can work with other applications.
Data is Not a Snapshot. Unlike other online image displays, such as bill and letters, the data
used to produce a field order is not snapshot data. It is always the latest and greatest data from
the system. As a result, the Display Field Order button is only available for field orders with
pending field work.
Turn on Extract in Next Run if the field order should be extracted (downloaded or interfaced) in
the next extraction run. This switch is only selectable when the field orders status is
Dispatched.
Default note. When a field orders status becomes Dispatched, the system automatically turns
on Extract in Next Run.
Use Work Date/Time to define when the fieldwork was done. This field is gray when the status is
anything other than Completed.
If the field order has been extracted, the Extract Date/Time are displayed.
Use Dispatch Group to define the logical group of representatives located at an operations area
that is responsible for the order.
Dispatch group comes from field activity. When the system creates a field order from the
Dispatch Field Activities query it populates the orders dispatch group using the dispatch group on
the field activity(s). After the field order is created, you can change the orders dispatch group as
needed.
Dispatch group may be overridden as part of grouping field activities prior to dispatch.
When a user creates a field order on the Group Field Activities page, the orders dispatch group is
assigned Using Alternate Dispatch Groups To Find The Lowest Common Denominator for more
information.
30
Worked By shows the representative that actually performed the fieldwork. This field is gray
when the status is anything other than Completed.
The Representative is the individual (or crew) assigned to the field order and responsible for the
actual performance of the field orders activities. Only representatives defined as valid for the
field orders dispatch group may be assigned.
Use Schedule End Date/Time if an appointment has been scheduled for this field order. If so,
these fields contain the date and time that the fieldwork should be finished.
Enter any Comments about the field order.
Enter a Phone Type, Phone Number, and Extension to record a phone number for the field
representatives to use if they need to contact someone while in the field. The Phone Format for
the phone number type is also displayed.
At the bottom of this page is a tree that shows the accounts, service agreements, field activities
and appointments that are currently linked to the field orders service point(s). You can use this
tree to both view high-level information about these objects and to transfer to the respective page
in which an object is maintained.
Field Order - Field Activities

The Field Activities page shows the field activities linked to the field order. Open this page using
Field Order, Field Order, Activities.
Description of Page
The following information is displayed in the top portion of every page in this page.
Field Order is a concatenation of information about the order. It consists of the address of the
premise, the status of the field order, the number of field activities linked to the order and, if the
order has been completed, the date on which the work was done.
Field Order ID is the unique system-generated identifier for the field order.
The Field Activity scroll contains the field activities associated with the field order. To modify a
field activity, simply move to a field and change its value. To add a new activity, click the + button
to insert a row, then fill in the information for each field. The following fields display:
Service Point ID
This is the system identifier of the service point at which

the activity takes place. Summary information about the
service point is displayed adjacent.
Activity Type
Indicate the type of field activity. Only those activity

types that have been defined as valid for the service
points SP type may be selected. The activity types
description is displayed adjacent.
Field Activity
The unique system-generated identifier for this field

activity.
Immediately below the Activity Type and Field Activity ID is a message created by the system
about the field activity. If an appointment has been made for this field activity, information about
the appointment is also displayed.
31
Field Activity Priority
When a field activity is created, the value in this field is a

default derived from the field activitys FA type. The
operator may override this value so long as the activity is
in status Pending or Held.
Field Activity Status
A field activity is originally created in the Pending state.

It remains in this state until the fieldwork is done and the
system is updated with the results. At that time, the
activity transitions to the Completed state. If an activity
cannot be done, it should be Canceled. Change an
activitys status to Held if you want to hold the activity
pending some future event.
To completely understand the significance of a field
activitys status, refer to The Big Picture Of Field Orders.
Cancel Reason
When the field activity is canceled, a reason for the

cancellation should be supplied
Instructions
Enter any special instructions to be supplied to the field

crew.
Comments
Use the comments area to describe anything unusual

about the activity. For example, if you change the
activitys status to Held, it might be a good idea to
explain the reason for doing so in the comments.
The Field Activity Step grid contains a summary of the field activitys steps.
The number and type of steps associated with a field activity are defined by the field activitys
type (which is maintained on the previous page). Refer to Designing Field Activity Types for more
information.
Field Activity Maintenance

A field activity is a task that takes place at a service point. Examples of field activities include
reconnect service, exchange meter and disconnect service.
A field activity contains one or more steps. The steps serve two purposes:
They provide instructions of the individual units of work to be performed in the field.
They define what must be done to complete the field activity.
The steps are defined by the field activitys activity type.

The topics in this section describe the pages on which field activity-related information is
maintained.
For more information about field activities, refer to The Lifecycle Of Field Activities And Field
Orders.
32
Contents
Lifecycle of a Field Activity
Field Activity - Main Information
Field Activity - Steps
Field Activity - Characteristics/Remarks
Field Activity - Log
How To Add A Step To A Field Activity
Field Activity Remark Exceptions
Lifecycle of a Field Activity

The following diagram illustrates the lifecycle of a field activity.
Refer to The Lifecycle Of Field Activities and Field Orders for a more detailed discussion of the
lifecycle of a field activity. The following diagram merely illustrates the state transition rules.
Field Activity Lifecycle

Pending
Canceled
Complete
Held
Pending
A field activity starts its life in the Pending state. A field

activity remains in this state until you Cancel, Complete
or Hold it. Please note that when a field order is
dispatched, its field activities remain in the Pending
state.
Held
You Hold a field activity when you want to indicate to

others that it shouldnt be dispatched (for whatever
reason). A Held field activity can be Completed or
Canceled.
Complete
After the related field work has been performed, the

system is updated to reflect what happened and the field
activity becomes complete. No changes may be made
to a Complete field activity. Refer to How Does A Field
Order Get Completed for more information about
completion.
Canceled
A Pending or Held field activity may be Canceled.
33
Field Activity - Main Information

The Main page contains core field activity information. Open this page using Field Order, Field
Activity.
Description of Page
The following fields are displayed on every tab page.
Field Activity is a concatenation of summary information regarding this field activity. It is
composed of the address of the premise of the service point at which the activity will occur, a brief
description of the activity, the activitys current status, and the activitys scheduled date.
Field Activity ID is the system-generated unique identifier for the field activity.
The remaining fields are specific to the main tab page.
Indicate the Service Point ID at which the activity takes place. Information about the service
point is displayed adjacent.
Use Activity Type to define the type of field activity. Only those activity types defined as valid for
the service points SP types field activity profile may be selected. The activity types description
is displayed adjacent.
Displayed just below the Activity Type is a system-generated message regarding how the field
activity was created. This message includes the date and time the field activity was created and
the process that created it. If a user manually creates a field activity the users ID is
concatenated into the message.
Use Schedule Date / Time to define when the field activity is scheduled to be done.
Enter Reschedule Reason when changing the field activitys schedule date/time.
Note. Reschedule Reason only appears if the Fieldwork Options feature configuration exists
with the Reschedule Reason Required option set to Y.
If an appointment is linked to this field activity, the system calls the appointment information
algorithm plugged in to the installation options.
Field Activity Status defines the state of the field activity. The following values may exist:
Pending
A field activity is originally created in the Pending state.
Completed
When an activitys fieldwork is done the system is

updated with the results and the activity becomes
Completed.
Canceled
If an activity cannot be done, it should be Canceled.
Held
Change an activitys status to Held if you want to hold

the activity pending some future event.
To completely understand the significance of a field activitys status, refer to The Big Picture Of
Field Orders.
To change the status of the field activity, use the FA Actions, described below.
If you cancel a field activity, you must supply a Cancel Reason Code.
34
Field Activity Priority is a default value from the field activitys field activity type. It is used by the
system to establish the order of precedence if there are several field activities pending for the
same service point at the same time. The user may override this value.
Eligible for Dispatch controls whether a Dispatch Group can be assigned to the field activity
and whether the field activity can be linked to a field order. This field is display-only (it is defined
on the activitys activity type)
Use Dispatch Group to define the logical group of representatives located at an operations area
that is responsible for the activity. For example, in the South West Operations Area you may
have the dispatch groups of SW Service Installers, SW Service Investigators, SW Meter
Exchangers, etc. Within each dispatch group are representatives with interchangeable skills (i.e.,
you can assign a field activity to any representative within a dispatch group). You only define the
representative when the field activity is linked to a field order. Refer to Setting Up Dispatch
Groups for more information.
Default note. The type of field activity and the service points SP type and operations area
define the Dispatch group that the system assigns to a field activity. Refer to Designing Who
Does Your Field Activities for more information.
A Field Orders dispatch group comes from its field activities. When the system creates a
field order from the Dispatch Field Activities query it populates the orders dispatch group using
the dispatch group on the field activity(s). After the field order is created, you can change the
orders dispatch group as needed. Changing the dispatch group on the order effectively changes
the dispatch group on the orders activities.
Dispatch group may be overridden as part of grouping field activities prior to dispatching.
When a user creates a field order on the Group Field Activities page, the orders dispatch group is
assigned Using Alternate Dispatch Groups To Find The Lowest Common Denominator for more
information.
Dispatch group is protected when the field activity is linked to a field order. Once a field
order has been created for a field activity, the dispatch group on the field activity cannot be
changed. The change to a dispatch group should occur on the field order.
Field Order ID defines the field order to which the activity is linked. This field is gray if the activity
type is not eligible for dispatch. This field will be blank when the activity is not linked to a field
order. Summary information about the field order appears adjacent.
If the dispatch group for the field activity references an external system feature configuration, the
External ID is used to reference the unique identifier of the field activity in the external system.
The Intermediate Status field is used to display interim status of a dispatched field activity.
Integration Required. The external ID and intermediate status fields are only updated if the
integration with your external system passes this information to the system.
35
Note. The values for the intermediate status field are customizable using the Lookup table. This
field name is FA_INT_STATUS_FLG. Many values are supplied with the base product to
support different sample integrations. To see the values, follow this link to the field activity table
definition CI_FA and find the field name. Also refer to the documentation related to out-of-the-box
integrations supplied with our other products such as Oracle Utilities Mobile Workforce
Management and Oracle Utilities Work and Asset Management to see what values are used for
integration with those systems.
Use Instructions to specify any special instructions to be supplied to the field crew.
Use Comments to describe anything unusual about the activity. For example, if you change the
activitys status to Held, it might be a good idea to explain why you did so in the comments.
If you have plugged in an FA Additional Information algorithm on the Installation table,
Additional Info displays the results of the algorithm, if any.
The FA Actions buttons allow you to change the status of the field activity.
Click Complete to change the status of the field activity to complete. This button is only
enabled if the status is pending or held.
Click Cancel to change the status of the field activity to canceled. This button is only
enabled if the status is pending or held.
Click Hold to change the status of the field activity to held. This button is only enabled if the
status is pending.
Click Pend to change the status of the field activity to pending. This button is only enabled if
the status is held.
At the bottom of this page is a tree that shows the account(s) and service agreement(s) that are
currently linked to the field activitys service point. You can use this tree to both view high-level
information about these objects and to transfer to the respective page in which an object is
maintained.
Field Activity - Steps

Use this page to reference the objects that were created or updated to reflect what took place in
the field. Open this page using Field Order, Field Activity, Steps.
We strongly recommend that you understand the information described in How Does A Field
Order Get Completed? before you use this page.
The number and type of steps associated with a field activity are defined by the field activitys
type (which is maintained on the previous page). Refer to Setting Up Field Activity Types for
more information.
Description of Page
Summary information about the Service Point at which the activity will occur is displayed, as well
as the service points system-generated Service Point ID.
36
The Field Activity Status is displayed next. See Field Activity - Main for the valid values of
Status and their meanings.
The Field Activity Steps grid displays the step(s) involved in the field activity, as defined by the
field activitys field activity type. In order to complete a step, you typically need to add or change
something in the system to reflect what happened in the field. For example, you would add a
meter read for a step that required a new meter read. Refer to How Does A Field Order Get
Completed? for information describing how to enter this information.
If the field activity is linked to an FA upload staging that is in the status pending or error, the FA
Completion field displays information about the FA upload staging record.
The FA Actions buttons allow you to change the status of the field activity. Refer to the main tab
page for a description of the fields.
Field Activity - Characteristics/Remarks

Use this page to link additional information to the field activity. Open this page using Field Order,
Field Activity, Characteristics/Remark.
Description of Page
Summary information about the Service Point at which the activity will occur is displayed, as well
as the service points system-generated Service Point ID.
about the field activity.
Characteristic Type
Default Note. A field activity's characteristics default from the field activity type.
The Remarks grid is used to define anomalies associated with the field activity. For example,
you can indicate performing the required task wasnt possible because there was a dangerous
situation at the premise.
The Field Activity Remark Status is only relevant if a Field Activity Remark code has
algorithms associated with it. Algorithms are associated with field activity remarks if additional
activities should occur after a field activity with such a remark is activated. For example, you
could generate a customer contact to send a letter to the customer to remove debris from the
meter area if a remove debris remark is associated with the field activity. The execution of the
algorithm is performed by a background process called FACT (field activity remark activation).
The Field Activity Remark Status indicates whether the algorithm has been executed:
When you add a remark that has an algorithm, the status is Pending. It remains in this state
until the FACT process next runs.
When the FACT process next runs, if the system is successful in executing the algorithm, the
status of the field activity remark may become Complete. If the system is not successful in
executing the algorithm, the status becomes Error.
37
Algorithm may control status. By default, the field activity remark activation process assumes
that if the algorithm does not detect an error, the status of the FA remark should be complete.
However, in some cases, the algorithm may not find an error but may also want the status of the
FA remark to remain pending. Refer to FACT-CMPOTG for an example of such an algorithm.
Remarks that are in error. Field activity remarks whose algorithms could not be successfully
executed by the FACT background process result in the creation of a Field Activity Remark
Exception record. To correct errors, you may have to delete and re-add the field activitys remark
code if the error is impossible to fix (e.g., if the remark causes a customer contact to be
generated and there is no customer at the field activitys premise).
Refer to Setting Up Field Activity Remarks for more information.
Field Activity - Log

Use this page to view and add log records for a field activity. Open this page using Field Order,
Field Activity, Log.
Description of Page
The Log grid displays log entries that audit the progress of a field activity. You cannot modify or
delete log entries that have been created by the system.
You can manually add a log entry of type User.
The Log grid displays the following information:
Date/Time
Displays the date and time when the log entry was
created.
Log Type
Indicates the entry event for which the log entry was
created. The log type for log entries created online is
User. Refer to the FA Log Entry Events table below for
information about log types provided for log entries that
may be created by sample plug-ins.
Note. The values for the log type are customizable using the Lookup table. This field name is
FA_LOG_TYP_FLG.
Details
Contains user-specified or system-generated information

about the log entry.
User
Displays the user who caused the log entry to be

created.
Sequence
Displays the sequence that makes up part of the unique

identifier of this log record (together with the Field
Activity ID).
38
FA Log Entry Events

Log entries are generated either manually by a user or via a plug-in. The system provides some
sample plug-ins that may be configured to populate the table.
The sample FA integration algorithm may be configured to create log entries for certain
conditions.
The sample FA response application services provided by the system create log entries for
positive or negative responses to outgoing messages.
The sample FA completion application service provide by the system may create log entries
under certain conditions.
The table below indicates the log types provided by the system and which sample plug-ins may
create them.
Log Type
Appointment Book - Negative
Acknowledgement
Generated By
FA Response
application service for a
negative response to
Appointment Book
NDS message.
Content of Details
Negative Acknowledgment. Message ID (%1) - %2.
Error (%3) %4
Where %1 is message ID
%2 is the Notification Download Type description
%3 and %4 are the external message code and its
corresponding base message category/number, if the
external message code has been specified.
Appointment Booked
FA integration algorithm
Appointment booked for <appointment start date/time

> - <appointment end date/time>.
Appointment Canceled
Appointment for <appointment start date/time > <appointment end date/time> has been canceled.
Appointment Canceled Negative Acknowledgement
FA Response
any Appointment
Cancellation NDS
message.

Error (%3) %4
FA completion
application service if
action is Update Log
Message received from %1. Message text: %2
External Message Received
Where %1 is the description of the external system
feature configuration
%2 is the message sent from the external system.
FA External ID Change
FA External ID changed from <FA External ID Before Change> to <FA External ID - After Change>
FA Intermediate Status Change
FA Intermediate Status changed from <Intermediate

Status Description - Before Change> to <Intermediate
Status Description - After Change>
FA Status Change
FA Status changed from <Status Description - Before

Change> to <Status Description - After Change>
Order Cancellation - Negative
FA Response
39
Log Type
Acknowledgement
Generated By
FA Cancellation NDS
message.
Content of Details
Error (%3) %4
Order Cancellation Confirmed
Order Change - Negative

Acknowledgement
FA Response
positive response to FA
Cancellation NDS
message
Positive Acknowledgment. Message ID (%1) - %2.
FA Response
FA Changed NDS
message.

Error (%3) %4
Where %1 is message ID and %2 is the description of

the NDS type of the original outgoing message.
Order Change Confirmed
FA Response
Changed NDS
message
Order Completion
FA completion
application service
FA is completed by External System
Order Creation - Negative

Acknowledgement
FA Response
FA Creation NDS
message.

Error (%3) %4

Order Creation Confirmed
Order Reschedule - Negative

Acknowledgement
FA Response
Creation NDS
message
FA Response
FA Reschedule NDS
message.

Error (%3) %4

40
Log Type
Order Reschedule Confirmed
Outage Call Interfaced
Generated By
Content of Details
FA Response
Rescheduled NDS
message
Processing Outage
Call NDS message
Outage call has been sent.

How To Add A Step To A Field Activity

You are not allowed to add a step to an activity. If you need to add another step, any of the
following approaches will work:
Add a new activity to the order with an activity type containing the desired step (and cancel
the pre-existing activity).
Change the activitys activity type to be one that includes that desired step.
Navigate to the appropriate maintenance page and make the change. This wont leave an
audit of what took place on the field activity but it will change the system appropriately.
Field Activity Remark Exceptions

If a field activity has a remark code that has algorithms associated with it, the system activates
the algorithms each time the FACT (field activity remark activation) background process is
executed. If errors occur during the activation of the algorithms, a record is written to the field
activity remark exception table with a message indicating the nature of the severe error.
To view the messages associated with the exception records, schedule the TD-FACT background
process. This process generates a To Do entry for every record in the field activity remark
exception table.
After correcting the cause of the error, drill into the Field Activity - Characteristics/Remarks tab
and change the status of the remark from Error to Pending. When the FACT process next runs,
it attempts to execute the remarks algorithm again.
Note. You may have to delete or change the field activitys remark code if the error is impossible
to fix (e.g., if the remark causes a customer contact to be generated and there is no customer at
the field activitys premise).
Group Premise FAs (Field Activities)

This page is used to view the pending field work at a premise and to create field order(s) for the
pending field activities.
Open this page using Field Order, Group Premise FAs.
Description of Page
41
This page has several purposes:
It shows a Premises pending field activities that are not assigned to a field order and are
linked to a dispatch group that is eligible for dispatch. These appear in the first grid.
It shows a Premises open field orders. These appear in the second grid.
It allows users to create a new field order(s) and link pending field activities to them (this is
done by clicking the Create Field Order button).
The Premises address and Premise ID are displayed.

Click the Create Field Order button to create a field order for the selected field activities (the
activities appear in the following grid). You have two options when you click this button:
Specify an Override Dispatch Group. If you do this, a field order will be created for this
dispatch group and the selected field activities will be linked to it.
Leave Override Dispatch Group blank. If you do this, the system will look for the lowest
common denominator dispatch group and assign it to the pending field activities. Refer to
Using Alternate Dispatch Groups To Find The Lowest Common Denominator for more
information.
A field orders dispatch group overrides the activitys dispatch group. Be aware that the
dispatch group that is assigned to the field order will replace the original dispatch group assigned
to the field activities.
After orders have been created, they appear in the grid at the bottom of this page.
Using Alternate Dispatch Groups To Find The Lowest

Common Denominator
When you click the Create Field Order button on the Group Field Activities transaction and leave
the Override Dispatch Group blank the system attempts to find a lowest common denominator
dispatch group and assign it to the pending field activities. If it is successful, all of the field
activities are grouped under a single field order and dispatched. If its unsuccessful, a separate
field order is created for each activity without a common dispatch group.
The following example will help illustrate how a lowest common denominator dispatch group is
assigned to a group of field activities.
FA1: Install Meter
FA2: Read Meter
FA3: Test Meter
Initial dispatch group

assigned to field activity
NorthWest Electric Install

and Remove
NorthWest Electric
Readers
North Electric
Testers
Alternate dispatch group
NorthWest Electric
NorthWest Electric
North Electric
The above table illustrates the following example:
There are 3 field activities at a premise and each of which has a different initial dispatch
group (see the first row in the table).
Each initial dispatch group has an alternate dispatch group.
42
Of these field activities, FA1 and FA2 have a common alternate dispatch group: NorthWest
Electric. FA3, however doesnt have a common dispatch group. This means 2 field orders
will be created:
The first field order (associated with the NorthWest Electric dispatch group) will
contain FA1 and FA2.
The second field order (associated with the North Electric Testers dispatch group)
will contain FA3.
Please refer to Automatically dispatching field activities for another example of how the lowest
common denominator is selected.
Field Order Search

This query is really two queries:
The search dialog shows groups of field orders that are:
Linked to a dispatch group
With a given status
Scheduled on or before a date
The query page shows individual field orders that are:
Linked to the selected dispatch group
With a given status
Scheduled on the selected dispatch date
Open this page using Field Order, Field Order Search.

The topics described in this section describe the search dialog and the query page.
Contents
Field Order Search Dialog
Field Order Query Page
Field Order Search Dialog

This querys search dialog shows groups of field orders that match your search criteria. You can
change the displayed information by changing the search criteria.
Leaving a search field blank. If you leave a search field blank, the system assumes you want
to see all groups of field orders. For example, if you leave dispatch group blank, you will see
every dispatch groups orders. You may use this facility on any of the search fields.
Description of Page
Enter a Dispatch Group to limit the search to a specific dispatch group. Leave this field blank to
view groups of orders linked to all dispatch groups.
43
Enter a Field Order Status to limit the search to groups of orders in a specific state. Valid values
are: Dispatched, Canceled, Completed, Pended By User, Work Done, Not Recorded. Leave
this field blank to view groups of orders regardless of status.
Enter a Schedule Date/Time to limit the search to orders that exist on or before the input date
and time. Leave this field blank to view groups of orders throughout time.
When you select a row and proceed to the query page, the system displays the individual field
orders for the selected dispatch group, status and schedule date.
Field Order Query Page

The query page shows individual field orders for the selected dispatch group, status, and
schedule date.
Description of Page
You can use the Field Order Filter to restrict the field orders that appear in the grid. The
All. This option shows all field orders for the selected dispatch group, status, and schedule
date.
Geo Type. This option shows all field orders whose premise has a given Geographic Type
and Geographic Value. If you leave Geographic Value blank, all field orders whose
premise has a given Geographic Type will be displayed (i.e., all geographic values for the
selected Geographic Type are displayed).
Each row in the query shows an individual field order. Clicking the go to button adjacent to the
order will transfer you to the Field Order Maintenance page with the selected field order
displayed.
Dispatch Field Activities

Refer to How Are Field Orders Created And Dispatched for other ways to dispatch field activities.
This query is really two queries AND a maintenance transaction:
44
The search dialog shows groups of field activities that are:
Eligible for dispatch
Not linked to a field order
Whose service point is serviced by an operations area
Linked to a dispatch group
In the Pending state
Scheduled on or before a date
The query page shows individual field activities that are:
Eligible for dispatch
Not linked to a field order
Serviced by the selected operations area
Linked to the selected dispatch group
In the Pending state
Scheduled on or before the selected dispatch date
On the query page, you can create and dispatch field orders.
Open this page using Field Order, Dispatch Field Activities.

The topics described in this section describe the search dialog and the query page.
Contents
Field Activity Search Dialog
Field Activity Query Page
How Do You Link An Activity To An Existing Order?
Field Activity Search Dialog

This querys search dialog shows groups of field activities that match your search criteria. You
can change the displayed information by changing the search criteria.
Leaving a search field blank. If you leave a search field blank, the system assumes you want
to see all groups of field orders. For example, if you leave dispatch group blank, you will see
every dispatch groups orders. You may use this facility on any of the search fields.
Description of Page
Enter a Dispatch Group to limit the search to a specific dispatch group. Leave this field blank to
view groups of activities linked to all dispatch groups.
Enter an Operations Area to limit the search to a service points serviced by a given operations
area. Leave this field blank to view groups of activities linked to all operations areas.
Enter a On/Before Date to limit the search to activities that exist on or before the input date.
Leave this field blank to view groups of activities throughout time.
When you select a row and proceed to the query page, the system displays the individual field
activities for the operations area, dispatch group and schedule date.
Implied search criteria. In addition to the explicit search criteria shown above, the search is
limited to field activities in the Pending state that are eligible for dispatch and that are not already
linked to a field order.
Field Activity Query Page

The query page shows individual field activities for the selected operations area, dispatch group
and schedule date.
A special facility exists on this page that allows you to create and dispatch field orders for the
activities. Refer to the Description of Page information below for the details.
45
Description of Page
You can use the Field Activity Filter to restrict the field activities that appear in the grid. The
All. This option shows all field activities for the selected dispatch group, operations area, and
schedule date.
Geo Type. This option shows all field activities whose premise has a given Geographic
Type and Geographic Value. If you leave Geographic Value blank, all fields activities
whose premise has a given Geographic Type will be displayed (i.e., all geographic values
are displayed).
Each row in the query shows an individual field activity. Clicking the go to button adjacent to the
activity transfers you to the Field Activity Maintenance page with the selected field activity
displayed.
When youre ready to dispatch field activities,
Turn on the Dispatch? switch on every activity to be dispatched.
If you want to dispatch all activities in the grid, click the Select All button. This causes
the Dispatch? switch to be turned on for every field activity in the grid.
If you want to dispatch specific activities, turn on the Dispatch? switch on the desired
activities.
If you want to turn off the Dispatch? switch on all activities in the grid, click the Clear All
button.
Enter the Representative who will do the work.
Enter the on Date / Time on which the work will be performed (time is optional).
Save the page.
When you save the page, the system:
Creates a new field order for every unique combination of dispatch group and premise on the
selected field activities. The new field order(s) are assigned to the selected representative
and scheduled on the selected date and time.
Links the appropriate field activities to each field order
Sets the status of the field order to Dispatched.
How Do You Link An Activity To An Existing Order?

If a field order already exists and you want to link another field activity to it, simply drill over to the
Field Activity Maintenance page (by clicking the button adjacent to the activity) and update the
activity to reference the desired field order.
Downloading Field Orders

Your field staff must be apprised of all orders for which they are responsible. This communication
can take place in many ways:
46
A printed order can be given to the field crew
An electronic version of the order can be routed to the crews truck
The communication of field orders to the field crews is handled through the field order download
process. The topics in this section describe this process.
The Field Order Download Processes

The following diagram illustrates the processes involved in the creation of the flat file that is
interfaced to your field order print / dispatch software.
Field Order
Process: FDS
Create Download Staging
Field Ord.
Download
Staging
Process: FODL
Create Download Flat File
Flat file to be
interfaced to FO
print / dispatch
software
Contents
FDS - Create Download Staging
FODL - Create Download Flat File
FDS - Create Download Staging

This process looks for all field orders that are marked for extraction (a field order gets marked for
extraction when it is first created if its dispatch group is dispatchable). For each record found, the
system creates a field order download staging record.
Each download staging record is marked with a batch control ID & run number when its created.
The batch control ID comes from the field orders dispatch group. This ID corresponds with a
specific extraction method. The system comes with a single field order download program
(FODL - Create Download Flat File). If you require different print formats or different routing
methods, you will need to create additional programs. Refer to Technical Implementation of
Batch Field Order Production for more information.
The run number is the batch control IDs current run number.
Re-downloading. If you need to download a specific field order, navigate to Field Order - Main
Information and change the orders status to Dispatched.
47
FODL - Create Download Flat File

This process reads all download staging records marked with a given batch control ID & run
number and creates the flat file thats passed to the field order print / dispatch software.
This process is rerunnable. You can reproduce the flat file at any time. Simply request this job
and specify the run number associated with the historic run.
The format of the flat file is determined based on an extract program linked to the field orders
dispatch group. Refer to Dispatch Groups Control The Information Merged Onto Field Orders for
more information.
Uploading Field Order Completion

Information
This section describes how the system uploads field order completion details.
Warning! Its important to be aware that only the following types of field activity steps can have
their completion details uploaded through this process: Connect Service Point, Disconnect
Service Point, Install Meter, Turn On Meter, Turn Off Meter, Read Meter, Remove Meter, Install
Item, Turn On Item, Turn Off Item, Remove Item. Field Activity Completion Considerations
describes a recommendation to use XAI to upload field activity completion information if any of
the other step types are included in the field activity rather than the process described below.
Contents
Field Order Completion Upload Background Processes
FAUP-PRG - Purge Field Activity Upload Objects
Maintaining Field Activity Upload Staging
Field Activity Upload Exception
Field Order Completion Upload Background Processes

The following diagram illustrates the processes involved in the uploading of field order completion
details.
48
Flat file containing

completion details
Process: X
Process: MUP1
Populate Meter Config
Process: MUP2
Create Meter Read
MR Upload
Staging
Meter Read
Reg. Read
Process: FACOMPL
Complete Field Activity
FA Upload
Staging
SP
SP / Item
SP / Meter
Field Order
Field Act.
FA Step

Contents
Process X - Populate MR and FA Upload Staging
FACOMPL - Upload and Complete Field Activities
Process X - Populate MR and FA Upload Staging

tables.
49
Flat file containing

completion details
(including meter
reads)
Process: X
FA
Upload
Staging
FA Step
Upload
MR
Upload
Staging
FA
Remark
Upload
FA Char
Upload
Register
Read
Upload
Read
Remark
Upload

Contents
Meter Read Upload Staging Tables
Field Activity Upload Staging
Field Activity Step Upload Staging
Field Activity Characteristic Upload Staging
Field Activity Remark Upload Staging
Meter Read Upload Staging Tables

If the field activity step involved the installation, removal, turning on, turning off, or reading of a
meter; a meter read must be provided. Because the standard meter read upload process is used
to interface these records into the system, you must create the meter read upload staging records
described under Uploading Meter Reads for every read associated with the completion of field
activities.
Field Activity Upload Staging

You must create a field activity upload staging record for each field activity whose completion
details are being uploaded. The name of this table is CI_FA_STAGE_UP. The following table
describes each column on this file.
Column Name
Lengt
h
Reqd
Data
Type
FA_ID
10
A/N
This is the ID of the field activity whose completion

details are being supplied.
FA_UP_STATUS_FLG
A/N
WORK_DTTM
26
Date/Ti
me
The date and time the work was done.
WORKED_BY
A/N
The unique ID of the representative who performed the

activity.
50
Comments
DESCR254
254
A/N
Optional comments about the field activity.
Field Activity Step Upload Staging

You must create a field activity step upload staging record for each step that was completed. The
name of this table is CI_FA_STP_STG_UP. The following table describes each column on this
file.
Column Name
Lengt
h
Reqd
Data
Type
Comments
FA_ID
10
A/N

STEP_SEQ_NBR
This is the sequence number of the field activity step

whose completion details are being supplied.
FA_STP_UP_STAT_FL
G
A/N
This is the status of the upload record. This must be

set to P for Pending.
FA_STEP_TY_ACT_FL
G
A/N
This is the type of step whose completion details are

being supplied. This must be one of the following
values:
NS - Connect Service Point, DS - Disconnect Service
Point, IM - Install Meter, NM - Turn On Meter, FM Turn Off Meter, MR - Read Meter, RM - Remove
Meter, II - Install Item, NI - Turn On Item, FI - Turn Off
Item, RI - Remove Item
BADGE_NBR
30
See
note
A/N
Badge Number is the badge number of the meter or

item involved with the field activity step. It is required
for the following step types: Install Meter, Turn On
Meter, Turn Off Meter, Read Meter, Remove Meter,
Install Item, Turn On Item, Turn Off Item, Remove Item
READ_DT
10
See
note
Date
This must correspond with a read date on one of the

meter read upload staging records. It is required for
the following step types: Install Meter, Turn On Meter,
Turn Off Meter, Read Meter, Remove Meter
READ_TIME
15
See
note
Time
This must correspond with a read time on one of the

meter read upload staging records. It is required for
the following step types: Install Meter, Turn On Meter,
Turn Off Meter, Read Meter, Remove Meter
DISCON_LOC_CD
See
note
A/N
This is the disconnect location code that identifies

where a service point has been disconnected. It is
required for the Disconnect Service Point step type.
ON_OFF_FLG
See
note
A/N
Set this to 0 if the meter / item was turned off.

Set this to 1 if the meter / item was turned on.
It is required for the following step types: Install Meter,
Install Item.
EVENT_DTTM
26
See
note
Date /
Time
This the date and time an item was installed, removed,

turned on or off. It is required for the following step
types: Install Item, Turn On Item, Turn Off Item,
51
Remove Item
STK_LOC_CD
12
See
note
A/N
This is the stock location where the meter / item is

stored upon removal from a service point. This is
required for the following step types if the meters
meter type or the item's item type tracks location:
Remove Item, Remove Meter. Refer to The Big
Picture Of Asset Inventory for more information.
Field Activity Characteristic Upload Staging

You must create a field activity characteristic upload staging record for each characteristic that
you would like to link to the field activity. The name of this table is CI_FA_STGUP_CHAR. The
following table describes each column on this file.
Column Name
Lengt
h
Reqd
Data
Type
Comments
FA_ID
10
A/N

CI_FA_STAGE_UP record.
CHAR_TYPE_CD
A/N
This must correspond with a characteristic type that is

defined as valid for the field activity type for this field
activity.
SEQ_NUM
This should be set to 10 unless you have multiple

values for a given field activity and characteristic type.
CHAR_VAL
16
See
note
A/N
Populate this field if your characteristic type is

predefined.
ADHOC_CHAR_VAL
254
See
note
A/N
Populate this field if your characteristic type is ad-hoc

or file location.
CHAR_VAL_FK1
CHAR_VAL_FK5
50 each
See
note
A/N
Populate these fields if your characteristic type is

foreign key reference. Up to five columns of 50 bytes
each are provided to accommodate compound keys.
Field Activity Remark Upload Staging

You must create a field activity remark upload staging record for each remark that you would like
to link to the field activity. The name of this table is CI_FA_STGUP_REM. The following table
describes each column on this file.
Column Name
Lengt
h
Reqd
Data
Type
Comments
FA_ID
10
A/N

FA_REM_CD
12
A/N
This must correspond with a field activity remark code.

Refer to Setting Up Field Activity Remarks for more
information.

Refer to MUP1 - Populate Meter Configuration for information about this process.
52

Refer to MUP2 - Create Meter Read for information about this process.
FACOMPL - Upload and Complete Field Activities

FACOMPL processes Pending Field Activity Upload Staging records. For each such record, it
processes the Pending Field Activity Step Upload Staging records as per the following table.
Step Type
What Happens
NS - Connect Service
Point
Changes the connection status of the field activitys service point to connected and
removes the disconnect location (if any). It then updates the related step to reference
the service point.
DS - Disconnect Service
Point
Changes the connection status of the field activitys service point to disconnected
and populates the disconnect location with the supplied value. It then updates the
related step to reference the service point.
IM - Install Meter
Creates a new SP / Meter record and links to it the meter read inferred from the badge
number and read date/ time. Note: the meter read upload process creates this meter
read. It then updates the related step to reference the SP / Meter record.
NM - Turn On Meter
Creates a new turn on event under an exist SP / Meter record. It links the meter read
inferred from the badge number and read date/ time to the turn on event. Note: the
meter read upload process creates this meter read. It then updates the related step to
reference the SP / Meter record.
FM - Turn Off Meter
Creates a new turn off event under an exist SP / Meter record. It links the meter read
inferred from the badge number and read date/ time to the turn off event. Note: the
meter read upload process creates this meter read. It then updates the related step to
reference the SP / Meter record.
MR - Read Meter
Its important to note that the meter read upload process creates this meter read.
When this type of step is uploaded, the system simply updates the related step to
reference the previously created meter read.
RM - Remove Meter
Updates an existing SP / Meter record to indicate the meter has been removed. It
does this by linking the meter read inferred from the badge number and read date/
time. Note: the meter read upload process creates this meter read. It then updates
the related step to reference the SP / Meter record.
II - Install Item
Creates a new SP / Item record using the supplied badge number and event date and
time. It then updates the related step to reference the SP / Item record.
NI - Turn On Item
Creates a new turn on event under an exist SP / Item record. It then updates the
related step to reference the SP / Item record.
FI - Turn Off Item
Creates a new turn off event under an exist SP / Item record. It then updates the
related step to reference the SP / Item record.
RI - Remove Item
Updates an existing SP / Item record to indicate the item has been removed. It then
updates the related step to reference the SP / Item record.
After this process updates the related step, it checks if all required steps under the parent field
activity reference their appropriate foreign key. If so, it completes the field activity. It then checks
if all field activities under the parent field order are complete, if so it completes the field order
(note, it will also update the field order with the work done date / time and worked by information
on the related Field Activity Upload Staging record).
53
Any errors detected during this process are written to the Field Activity Upload Exception table.
You can fix errors using Field Activity Staging page (dont forget to change the records status
back to Pending).
FAUP-PRG - Purge Field Activity Upload Objects

Completed field activity upload staging objects should be periodically purged from the system by
executing the FAUP-PRG background process. This background process allows you to purge all
Completed field activity upload staging objects older than a given number of days.
We want to stress that there is no system constraint as to the number of Completed field activity
upload objects that may exist. You can retain these objects for as long as you desire. However
we recommend that you periodically purge Completed field activity upload objects as they exist
only to satisfy auditing and reporting needs.
Maintaining Field Activity Upload Staging

The Field Activity Upload Staging page has three purposes:
You can view historical field activity upload records.
You can correct field activity upload records that are in error.
You can add new field activity upload records to be uploaded by the field activity upload
background process (or you can click the Complete button to upload and complete the
activity (and order) real time).
This pages dialog is idiosyncratic. Refer to How To for instructions describing how to perform
common maintenance tasks.
The following topics describe this transaction in detail.
Contents
FA Upload Staging - Main
FA Upload Staging - Steps
FA Upload Staging - Characteristics/Remarks
How To
FA Upload Staging - Main

The Main page contains core field activity completion information. Open this page using Field
Order, FA Upload Staging.
Description of Page
FA Upload Staging ID is the system-generated unique identifier for the field activity upload
staging record (note: this will be the same as the unique ID of the associated field activity).
The Field Activity ID is the field activity being completed.
The Service Point ID and its information are displayed beneath.
Upload Status shows the state of the field activity upload record. Potential values are: Pending,
Complete, Error.
54
If a record is in Error, the error message will be displayed adjacent. You can correct an Error by
Correcting whatever is wrong,
Change the Upload Status back to Pending
Click the Complete button. Clicking the Complete button calls the routine that attempts to
update the completion information.
Enter the Work Date/Time when the field work was performed. These values will be populated
on the field activitys field order when it is completed.
Worked By is the individual (or crew) who actually performed the work. Only representatives
defined as valid for the field orders dispatch group may be assigned.
Comments is appended to the field activitys Comments.
The FA Upload Staging Steps scroll contains a summary of the field activitys steps.
Click the Complete button to complete the associated field activity. This button is only enabled
when the field activity upload staging record has been saved on the database and is in the
Pending state.
Click the Delete button to delete the field activity upload staging record. This button is only
enabled when the field activity upload staging record has been saved on the database and is in
the Pending or Error states.
FA Upload Staging - Steps

The Steps page contains completion information related to the field activitys steps. Open this
page using Field Order, FA Upload Staging, Steps.
Description of Page
The Steps scroll contains the field activitys steps. To complete a field activity, you must enter
the relevant information for each required step. The type of information that should be entered
differs depending on the step type.
Step Type
What Fields Are Displayed
Contact Customer
No fields related to customer contact are displayed. Customer Contact must be

created separately.
Change Service Point
No generic fields related to updating a service point are displayed. Service Point must
be updated separately.
Connect Service Point
None
Disconnect Service Point
Disconnect location
Install Meter
Badge number, read date, read time, on/off status
Change Meter
No generic fields related to updating a meter are displayed. Meter must be updated
separately.
Change Meters
Configuration
No generic fields related to updating a meter configuration are displayed. Meter

Configuration must be updated separately.
Turn On Meter
Badge number, read date, read time
55
Turn Off Meter
Read Meter
Remove Meter
Badge number, read date, read time, stock location* (see below)
Install Item
Badge number, event date, event time, on/off status
Change Item
No generic fields related to updating an item are displayed. Item must be updated
separately.
Turn On Item
Badge number, event date, event time
Turn Off Item
Badge number, event date, event time
Reconfigure Multi-Item
No generic fields related to multi-item configuration are displayed. Item configuration

must be updated separately.
Remove Item
Badge number, event date, event time, stock location* (see below)
Test Device
No fields related to device testing are displayed. Device Test must be created
separately.
For step types Remove Meter and Remove Item, enter the Stock Location where the meter /
item is stored upon removal if the meters meter type or the item's item type tracks location.
Refer to The Big Picture Of Asset Inventory for more information.
The Add Meter Read section can be used to add a meter read for those step types that require a
meter read.
The Add Meter Read button becomes enabled after you enter a Badge Number and Read
Date/Time. For required steps, the system populates Read Date/Time with the values entered
for Work Date/Time but you can change these values if necessary.
When you click the button, the Register Readings grid is populated with one row for each of the
meters registers. At this point, enter each registers reading by specifying a Read Type and
Reading. When you save the field activity upload staging record, the read is added to the
database, but the read information disappears. This information is not actually linked to the Field
Activity Upload Staging. When you complete a field activity, the system looks for a meter read to
link to the FA. It should find the one you just created.
Refer to Meter Read - Main for more information about meter reads.
High/low validation. Its important to note that the read will not be subject to high/low validation.
If you require high/low validation, add the read using Meter Read - Main and then simply
reference the reads badge number and date/time on the step.
Click the Complete button to complete the associated field activity. This button is only enabled
when the field activity upload staging record and is in the Pending state.
Click the Delete button to delete the field activity upload staging record. This button is only
enabled when the field activity upload staging record has been saved on the database and is in
the Pending or Error states.
56
FA Upload Staging - Characteristics/Remarks

The Characteristics/Remarks page contains additional information related to the field activity.
Open this page using Field Order, FA Upload Staging, Characteristics/Remarks.
Description of Page
The Characteristics grid is used to link additional information to the field activity.
The Remarks grid is used to define anomalies associated with the field activity.
How To
The topics in this section describe how to perform common maintenance functions.
How To Complete A Simple Field Activity That Requires A Read

The following steps describe how to complete a simple field activity that requires a meter read.
Navigate to Field Activity Upload Staging.
Enter the ID of the field activity being completed.
Use Work Date/Time to define when the field activity was completed.
Navigate to the Steps tab and enter the Badge Number and Read Date/Time. For required
steps, the system populates Read Date/Time with the values entered for Work Date/Time
but you can change these vales if necessary. After entering this information, the Add Meter
Read button becomes enabled. Click it to open the Register Reading grid.
Specify the Read Type and Register Reading for each register on the meter. Then click the
Complete button. When the Complete button is clicked, the following events take place:
The field activity upload staging record is saved.
A meter read is added.
The system attempts to complete the field activity using the information on the field
activity upload staging record and on the meter read.
If the system is not successful in completing the activity due to incomplete information on
the field activity upload staging record, the upload staging steps status will be changed to
Error and a corresponding error message will be displayed. To complete the activity, fix
the cause of the problem and change the steps status back to Pending and then click
the Complete button again.
If the system is successful in completing the activity, the field activity upload staging
records upload status is changed to Complete, the steps upload status is changed to
Complete, the field activitys status is changed to Complete, and, if all field activitys
linked to the field order are Complete, the field orders status is changed to Complete.
Field Activity Upload Exception

If errors are detected during the field activity upload process, a record is written to the field activity
upload exception table with a message indicating the nature of the severe error.
57
To view the messages associated with the exception records, schedule the TD-FAUPL
background process. This process generates a To Do entry for every record in the field activity
upload exception table.
You can fix this error using the FA Upload Staging page and change the status of the remark
from Error to Pending. When the field activity upload process next runs, it attempts to upload
this record again.
Outage Calls
Note: The information in this section applies to the integration with the Oracle Utilities Network
Management System (NMS).
You can use the Outage Call page to view trouble calls and outage information, and to send
outage call reports to NMS for a specific service point. You can also use this page to schedule job
site appointments. Open this page using Main Menu, Field Order, Outage Call.
Description of Page
The Outage Call Search zone is a standard multi-query portal used to search for and list existing
Outage Call records. In the search results list, click the Outage Call link to view and maintain the
information about the outage call.
The following zones are displayed for the selected outage call:
Contents
Outage Call Actions
Outage Call Zone
Outage Call Log
Outage Call Actions

If the outage call is in a state that has valid next states, buttons to transition to each appropriate
next state are displayed. If the record is in at state in which it can be edited, select Edit to change
details regarding the record, such as scheduling or rescheduling a callback or meeting.
Outage Call Zone

The outage call zone contains display-only information about the record.
Outage Call Log

This is a standard log zone.
58
Outage Information
Note: The information in this section applies to the integration with Oracle Utilities Network
Management System (NMS).
The Outage Information portals provide a real-time interface with NMS to search for the following
network management items:
Job history
Call history
Planned outages.
Contents
Job History
Call History
Planned Outages
Job History
You can use the Job History portal to retrieve current and historical outage and non-outage jobs
from NMS by a customer service point or account ID, or proximity to a street intersection or street
segmentor, or other identifiers such as a 911 incident identifier, caller name, or call phone
number.
Use Field Order, Outage Information, Job History to search for and view these records.
Description of Page
The Job History zone can be used to search for an existing Job History record. If the search
results list contains records for a single service point, the service information for that service point
and the job history results will be displayed. If the list contains multiple service points records, a
list of service points are displayed and the service information and job history results will be
displayed for one of these service points. You can click on the Show History button to display
the service information and job history results for any other service point record.
Please see the zone's help text for information about this zone's fields.
Call History
You can use the Call History portal to retrieve trouble call history from NMS by a customer
service point, or account id, or proximity to a street intersection or street segmentor, or other
identifiers such as a 911 incident identifier, caller name or call phone number.
Use Field Order, Outage Information, Call History to search for and view these records.
Description of Page
The Call History zone can be used to search for an existing Call History record. If the search
results list contains records for a single service point, the service information for that service point
and the call history results will be displayed. If the list contains multiple service points records, a
list of service points are displayed and the service information and call history results will be
displayed for one of these service points. You can click on the Show History button to display
the service information and call history results for any other service point record.
59
Planned Outages
You can use the Planned Outages portal to retrieve planned outage information from NMS.
Use Field Order, Outage Information, Planned Outages to search for and view these records.
Description of Page
The Planned Outages zone can be used to search for current, future and past planned outage
status and details from NMS for a particular service point. Planned outage information will only be
available once a planned outage has been scheduled and the list of impacted customers for that
planned outage has been generated.
60
Billing
In this section, we describe how to manage your customers bills.
Contents
The Big Picture of Billing
Maintaining Bills
Financial Transactions On A Bill
Maintaining Bill Segments
Off Cycle Bill Generator
Multi Cancel/Rebill
SA Billing History
Bill Exception
Bill Segment Exception
Maintaining Billable Charges
Uploading Billable Charges
Budget Review
The Big Picture of Billing

A bill is used to communicate changes in an accounts financial obligations to the customer. Over
time, a customer receives many bills. The topics in this section provide background information
about a variety of billing topics.
If you operate in a 3rd party billing environment. Some organizations are responsible for
presenting 3rd party charges on their bills. Others are responsible for sending their charges to a
3rd party for presentation on their bills. If this describes your organization, refer The Big Picture of
SA Relationships for a description of how this functionality is implemented.
Contents
An Illustration Of A Simple Bill
A High Level Overview Of The Bill Creation Process
Bill Errors
Cancel / Rebill Incorrect Bill Segments
Credit Notes - Presenting Cancellation Details on a Separate Bill
Correction Notes - Presenting Correction Details on a Separate Bill
How The System Determines How Much Was Consumed
How To Override The Commodity Amount In A Bill Segment
How Rates Affect The Information On Bill Segments
Bill Frequency - Bill Cycle vs Bill Segment Duration
Prorating Charges When a Rate is Applied
Batch Billing
Billing Financial Transaction Considerations
The Source Of Bill Routing Information
Bill Messages
A Bill May Affect More Than Just Customer Balances
Budget Billing
Using Billable Charges For Pass Through / Convergent Billing
Printing Bills
Sequential Bill Numbers
Document Numbers
Billing Business Processes
Writing Off Bills

Idiosyncratic Manual Bill Cancellation
An Illustration Of A Simple Bill

The following diagram illustrates a simple bill:
A Simple Bill
This section
summarizes recent
financial transactions
Prior Balance
Bill Corrections
Payments
Adjustments
New Charges
Current Balance
$100.00
$0.00
$100.00
$10.00
$115.50
$125.50
Jane Masters
18 Oak Lane
SF, CA
94514
Bill
Routing
We value you as a customer. Please call

if you have any questions about your rate.
Bill
Message
Electric Service through 1-Apr-1999
3 phase meter charge

First 300 kwh @ 0.07
Remaining 100 kwh @ 0.09
State tax 5%
$10.00
$21.00
$9.00
$2.00
Gas Service through 1-Apr-1999
First 10 therms @ $1.00

Next 30 therms @ $2.00
State tax 5%
$10.00
$60.00
$3.50
Electric
Bill
Segment
Gas
Bill
Segment
Financial Transactions That Are Linked To The Bill

PAY Gas Service
Financial Transaction
ADJ Electric Service

Cash
A/R-residential
$68.00
($68.00)
A/R-residential
Late payment rev
$10.00
($10.00)
Cur Amt:
Payoff Amt:
$68.00$68.00-
Cur Amt:
Payoff Amt:
$10.00
$10.00
PAY Electric Service

Cash
A/R-residential
$32.00
($32.00)
Cur Amt:
Payoff Amt:
$32.00$32.00-
BILL Gas Service

A/R-residential
Electric revenue
State tax payable
$73.50
($70.00 )
($3.50)
Cur Amt:
Payoff Amt:
$73.50
$73.50
BILL Electric Service

A/R-residential
Electric revenue
State tax payable
$42.00
($40.00 )
($2.00)
Cur Amt:
Payoff Amt:
$42.00
$42.00
The following concepts are illustrated above:

A bill is produced for an account
A bill is produced for an account. Over time, an account

receives many bills.
A bill summarizes financial transactions

A bill contains information about the various
financial transactions that have taken place since the
last bill was produced (i.e., payments, adjustments, and
bill corrections). The above illustration shows a bill with
financial transactions for new charges, a payment, and
an adjustment.
A bill is routed to persons
A copy of the bill is sent to every person linked to the

account who requires a copy of the bill.
A bill contains messages
A bill may contain messages.
A bill typically contains bill segments A bill typically contains one bill segment for every active
service agreement linked to its account.
A bill segment contains calculation details A bill segment contains information showing how
the segment was calculated and how it should be printed
on the customers bill.
A High Level Overview Of The Bill Creation Process

When the system is asked to produce a bill for an account, it attempts to create one or more bill
segments for every non-cancelled / non-closed service agreement linked to the account.
Whether or not a service agreement contributes bill segment(s) to a bill is a complicated subject
as the system supports a wide variety of bill segment creation methods. For example, a service
agreement that charges for metered service is produced as follows:
The system first calculates the amount consumed (e.g., the number of lamps, the number of
gallons of water, the peak kW, etc.). For more information, refer to How The System
Determines How Much Was Consumed.
Next, the system applies the service agreements rate to the amount consumed in order to
calculate how much the customer owes. A bill segment and a financial transaction are
generated to reflect the results of this calculation. The details of the calculations are captured
in the bill calculation lines. For more information, refer to How Rates Affect The Information
On Bill Segments for the details. Refer to Effective Dates & Price Proration for information
about how the system prorates changes to rates and prices during a bill period.
There are many bill segment creation algorithms. The above points explain how a bill
segment is produced for a metered service agreement. Its important to be aware that the
system has other bill segment creation algorithms. For example, if the service agreement
charges for a deposit, the system neither amalgamates consumption nor does it apply a rate.
You may be wondering how the system knows which method to use. It uses the bill segment
type on the service agreements SA type. Refer to Designing and Defining Bill Segment Types
for a description of the various bill segment creation algorithms that are supported in the system.
If errors are detected during the bill segment creation process, the bill segment is saved with its
error. The system then proceeds to the accounts next service agreement. This way, a user can
see all problematic bill segments so they can be corrected en masse. Refer to Bill Errors for
information about how to deal with bill errors.
Interdependent service agreements. Your organization may have some service agreements
whose charges must be calculated in a specific order. For example, you might have a service
agreement whose bill segments are calculated using charges from a different bill segment. If this
describes your organization, be aware that the system creates the bill segments in the order of
the billing processing sequence on each service agreements SA type.
When every segment on a bill is error free, the bill is ready to be completed. When a bill is
completed, the system:
Creates a bill routing for each person linked to the account who requires a copy of the bill.
The routing information controls the format of the printed bill and how the bill is sent to the
person. Refer to The Source Of Bill Routing Information for the details.
Links all bill messages to the bill. A bill message can come from a variety of sources. Refer
to The Source Of Bill Messages for the details.
If the Freeze At Bill Completion installation option has been turned on:
All freezable bill segments will be frozen.
All freezable adjustments whose adjustment type indicates Freeze At Bill Completion
will be frozen.
Sweeps recent financial transactions that have been created since the last bill was
completed. Refer to Financial Transactions Created Between Bills for information about how
payments, adjustments and bill corrections appear on a bill.
There are several other functions that happen at completion time. Refer to the description of
the Complete button under Bill Lifecycle for the details.
And thats it; the bill can now be sent to the customer.
The remaining topics in this section provide more information about the creation and completion
of bills.
Batch and real-time bill creation. Anything the batch bill process does for whole sets of
accounts, you can do to a specific account on-line / real time. Refer to How To Create A Bill For
All Service Agreements Linked To An Account for information about how to create a bill on-line /
real time. Refer to Batch Billing for more information about the batch bill creation process.
Bill Errors
The topics in this section describe errors that are detected when the system creates a bill.
Contents
Bill Segment Errors
Bill Completion Errors
Bill Segment Errors

If you consider the huge number of variables involved in the creation of a bill segment, it probably
wont surprise you to learn that occasionally, some bill segments are in error.
Errors tend to be caused by missing or inconsistent data. Some examples of classic errors:
Missing meter reads. For example, if the system cannot find a relevant read (and its not
allowed to estimate) for a metered service point, it generates an error.
Missing master data. For example, if a bill is supposed to be routed to the accounts mailing
address and the account doesnt have such an address, an error is generated.
Missing rate data. For example, if a rate contains a customer specific charge and there is
no value defined on the customers service agreement, an error is generated.
The system saves bill segments that are in error just as it saves bill segments that are error-free.
This is done because bill segments are nothing more than a snapshot of the data that was used
to calculate the charges. By saving the snapshot, you can see the information the system used
when it detected the error and therefore more effectively fix the cause of the error. The standard
way to fix an error is to:
Look at the bill segment to determine the cause of the error.
Correct the cause of the error.
Regenerate the bill segment. Regeneration simply deletes the offending segment and
recreates a new segment using the corrected information.
For every bill segment in error, a record is written to the Bill Segment Exception table.
Refer to How To Correct A Bill Segment Thats In Error for instructions describing how to correct
a bill segment.
Its obvious but worth stressing that a bill may contain some segments that are perfect and others
that are in error. Once all segments that are in error are corrected, the bill can be completed (and
sent to the customer).
If the bill segment in error was created as part of the batch bill process, the system attempts to fix
the offending segment(s) each night during the accounts bill window by regenerating it.
Therefore, if the cause of the error is fixed during the day, the system will automatically
regenerate the bill segment when batch billing next runs; you dont have to manually correct each
bill. And once a bill is error-free, it will be completed and sent to the customer.
Refer to Batch Billing for more information.
Bill Completion Errors

In addition to errors on bill segments, there may also be errors detected when the system
attempts to complete a bill. For example, if the system cannot find a mailing address, the bill will
be in error (as opposed to one of its bill segments).
Errors tend to be caused by missing or inconsistent data. Some examples of classic errors:
Missing mailing address. For example, if the system cannot find an address to which the
bill can be routed, it generates an error.
Bill segments are in error. If a bill contains bill segments that are in error, it cannot be
completed and an error is generated.
The system saves bills that are in error just as it saves bills that are error-free. This is done
because bills are nothing more than a snapshot of the data that was used to calculate the
charges. By saving the snapshot, you can see the information the system used when it detected
the error and therefore more effectively fix the cause of the error. The standard way to fix an error
is to:
Look at the bill to determine the cause of the error.
Correct the cause of the error.
Recomplete the bill.
For every bill in error, a record is written to the Bill Exception table.
Refer to How To Correct A Bill Thats In Error for more information.
If the bill completion error was created as part of the batch bill process, the system attempts to
recomplete the bill each night during the accounts bill window. Therefore, if the cause of the
error is fixed during the day, the system will automatically complete the bill when batch billing next
runs; you dont have to manually complete each bill.
Refer to Batch Billing for more information.
Cancel / Rebill Incorrect Bill Segments

Sometimes the error on a bill segment is not detected by the system. Such errors occur when the
data used to calculate the bill is valid, but wrong. For example, the dial reading on the meter read
is incorrect due to slipped fingers, or the sales tax percent was entered incorrectly on a bill factor.
There is no way the system can detect such problems and therefore the system freezes the bill
segment and routes the bill to the customer. To correct such a bill segment, you must cancel the
offending segment and create a new segment (after correcting the cause of the problem). We
refer to this process as cancel / rebill.
Refer to How To Cancel / Rebill A Bill Segment for more information about how to cancel / rebill a
frozen bill segment.
You must use the cancel / rebill process to correct problems on frozen bill segments. This is
because a frozen bill segment can be thought of as having been posted to your general ledger
(even if the GL interface hasnt run). And once a financial transaction is posted to the general
ledger, it can only be removed via a reversal. Contrast this to bill segments that are in error
they can be deleted because they were never posted to the general ledger.
Refer to Bill Segment Lifecycle for more information about the differences between bill segments
that are frozen and those that are in error.
Bill segments are canceled / rebilled. Its important to stress that bill segments are canceled
and rebilled (as opposed to bills). If every bill segment on a bill is incorrect, you must cancel /
rebill each individual bill segment.
Note. Using the cancel or cancel/rebill functionality will cause the cancel and rebill details to be
swept on to the customers next bill. If your organization requires cancellation details to be
presented to the customer separately from the new bill, then you will need to use Credit Notes.
Refer to Credit Notes - Presenting Cancellation Details on a Separate Bill for more information. If
your organization requires cancellation and rebill details to be presented to the customer
separately from the new bill, then you will need to use Correction Notes. Refer to Correction
Notes - Presenting Correction Details on a Separate Bill for more information.
Credit Notes - Presenting Cancellation Details on a

Separate Bill
The systems Cancel / Rebill functionality will include cancellation and rebilling details on the
customers next bill. Some organizations are required to present cancellation details to the
customer separately and not to commingle them with a new bill. This separate statement
containing only the cancellation information is referred to as a Credit Note.
Credit Notes may be created for an individual bill segment or for all the bill segments linked to a
bill. To create a credit note, a Credit Note button is available on the Bill Segment page and on
the Bill page.
Refer to How To Create A Credit Note for more information about how to create credit notes for a
bill or bill segment.
The topics in this section provide describe the impact of this functionality.
Contents
Credit Notes Are Only Possible if the Installation Option Is Turned On
Credit / Correction Notes and Auto Pay
Adjustments On Credit Notes
Credit Note Routing Suppression
Credit Notes Are Only Possible if the Installation Option Is Turned On

The Credit Notes button on the bill segment and bill pages will only be available if you have
selected the Credit Note Bill Correction option on the Installation record.
Credit / Correction Notes and Auto Pay

If a credit or correction note is being created for a customer who is enrolled in Auto Pay, note the
following functionality:
When creating a credit or correction note for a bill (and all its bill segments):
The system will cancel an automatic payment behind-the-scenes if a credit or correction note
is issued BEFORE the automatic payment is interfaced to the financial institution. When you
recomplete the bill, the system will create a new automatic payment that reflects the new
amount due (and the canceled automatic payment will net out the original automatic
payment). This is standard auto pay logic. Refer to How Are Automatic Payments
Cancelled? for more information.
If the customer has automatic payments that have already been interfaced to the financial
institution, the creation of the credit or correction note will have no affect on any automatic
payment. A warning will be issued in this case.
When creating a credit or correction note for a bill segment:
Because automatic payments are for an entire bill, creating a credit or correction note at the
bill segment level will not affect any automatic payments. A warning is issued in this case.
For more information about correction notes, see Correction Notes - Presenting Correction
Details on a Separate Bill.
Adjustments On Credit Notes

Above, we described how a credit note is a separate document that contains the cancellation
details of the various bill segments that appeared on a given bill. Some implementations also
want the adjustments that appeared on the original bill to be cancelled when a credit note is
produced. Then, when the next bill is produced for the customer, they want these same
adjustments reproduced. The following points describe how to implement this functionality:
Plug in a Bill Completion algorithm on the applicable Customer Classes. A base-package

algorithm (C1-CN-RADJ) will reverse a bill's adjustments when a credit note is completed.
Plug in a Post Bill Completion algorithm on the applicable Customer Classes. A basepackage algorithm (C1-CN-ADNB) will recreate the adjustments on the original bill after the
credit note is completed. These adjustments will be swept onto the next bill produced for the
account.
You can restrict the above functionality to specific adjustment types (for whatever reason). You
do this by putting a given char type / char value on the adjustment types that should be reversed
and recreated when a credit note is created. You define this char type / char value combination
as parameters of the two algorithms described above.
When the original bill contains adjustment cancellations. The above discussion explained
how adjustments can be canceled on a credit note and then recreated on the next bill. These
same algorithms also do the opposite, i.e., if the original bill contains an adjustment cancellation,
the credit note will contain the recreated adjustment, and the next bill will contain its cancellation.
Without this, the credit note would not be the reversal of the bill (and this is how some
organizations operate).
Credit Note Routing Suppression

Some implementations do not send credit notes to their customers. To implement this
functionality, plug in a Bill Completion algorithm on the applicable Customer Classes. A basepackage algorithm (C1-CN-BRT) will cause the routing information to be suppressed when a
credit note is completed.
Correction Notes - Presenting Correction Details on a

Separate Bill
The systems Cancel / Rebill functionality will include cancellation and rebilling details on the
customers next bill. Some organizations are required to present cancellation and rebilling details
to the customer separately and not to commingle them with a new bill. This separate statement
containing the cancellation and rebill information is referred to as a Correction Note.
Correction notes may be created for an individual bill segment or for all the bill segments linked to
a bill. To create a correction note, a Correction Note button is available on the Bill Segment and
Bill pages.
Refer to How To Create A Correction Note for more information about how to create correction
notes for a bill or bill segment.
The topics in this section describe correction notes.
Contents
Correction Notes Are Only Possible if the Installation Option Is Turned On
Correction Notes Versus Credit Notes
Correction Notes and Auto Pay
Correction Notes Are Only Possible if the Installation Option Is Turned On

The Correction Note button on the bill segment and bill pages will only be available if you have
selected the Correction Note Bill Correction option on the Installation record.
If your implementation uses Correction Notes, it is recommended to also use the Freeze At Bill
Completion installation option. For more information, see Installation Options - Billing.
Correction Notes Versus Credit Notes

Correction notes are a mixture of Credit Note and Cancel / Rebill functionality. However, unlike
credit notes, correction notes are like regular bills and are subject to payment.
When you issue a correction note for a bill, the system cancels and rebills the bill segments for
that bill. The new bill (the correction note) contains both the cancelled bill segments and the
rebilled bill segments.
Similar to credit notes, the new bill (or correction note) is stamped with the ID of the original bill.
After you review the bill segments, you can complete the correction note. During completion, the
rebilled bill segments and the cancelled financial transactions (of the original bills bill segments)
are swept onto the correction note.
Correction Notes and Auto Pay

Refer to Credit / Correction Notes and Auto Pay for a description of how the system handles
correction notes for customers using auto pay.
10
How The System Determines How Much Was Consumed

There are two types of service agreements:
Those that charge for some commodity (e.g., electricity, water, garbage, street lighting).
Those that charge for something intangible (e.g., deposit, charitable contribution, payment
arrangement).
For service agreements that charge for something intangible, there is no notion of determining
how much was consumed and therefore the topics in this section are not relevant. For service
agreements that charge for a commodity, the first step in the creation of a bill segment is the
determination of how much was consumed. For example,
If the service agreement bills for electricity, the system must determine how much electricity
was consumed.
If the service agreement bills for lamp service, the system must determine how many lamps
the customer uses.
After the system determines how much was consumed during the bill period, it saves the
consumption on the bill segment in the following snapshots:
The meter read snapshot contains information about the meter reads that were used to
determine consumption for metered service points.
The item snapshot contains information about the items that existed at the service points.
The service quantity snapshot contains the billable service quantities that were derived
using the meter read and item snapshots.
The topics in this section describe how each of the above snapshots is built.
This logic is in a plug-in. The logic described below resides in algorithms that are plugged-in
on the bill segment type referenced on a service agreement's SA type. If you need different logic,
you should develop the appropriate algorithm and plug it in on your bill segment types.
Contents
Meter Read Snapshot
Item Snapshot
Service Quantity Snapshot
Calculation / Audit Read Details
Meter Read Snapshot

To understand this section, you have to come to grips with the concept of a perfect end meter
read. Our definition of perfection is a meter read that results in a number of days of usage that is
in sync with the prices on the service agreements rate. You see, many prices in a rate are
expressed in respect of some period of time, e.g., a monthly flat charge of $10 is expressed in
respect of 30 days. If the number of days on a bill segment is not in sync with the days of the
prices, the bill segment must be prorated and proration is not desirable because it confuses the
customer.
When selecting the perfect read, not only are we trying to prevent the current bill segment from
prorating, were also trying to prevent future bills from prorating. Remember, its the end read on
the current bill segment that serves as the start read on the next bill segment. So, if we dont pick
the right read, the next bill will prorate (ad infinitum).
11
The topics in this section describe how the system selects the perfect reads while it assembles
the meter read snapshot.
Contents
Determine The Bill Period For Metered Service
Determine The Consumption Period For Metered Service
Determine The Service Agreement's Billable Service Points
Determine The Service Points' Meters
Determine The Meters' Start And Stop Meter Reads
Determine The Bill Period For Metered Service

First, the system determines a start date and temporary end date for the bill segment. These
dates form the boundary of the meter reads to be included on the bill segment.
If this is the first bill segment for the service agreement, the billing segment start date is set to
the start date of the service agreement. If this is not the first bill segment, the start date is the
previous bill segments end date.
As for the end date, it can only be estimated at this point (the end read determines the actual
end date and this read is only selected a few steps later). The temporary end date is either
the end date of bill cycle schedule window, the service agreements end date, or, in the case
of on-line billing, determined by the user.
Refer to Service Agreement Main Information for more information about a service agreements
start and end dates.
Determine The Consumption Period For Metered Service

The consumption period is the inclusive period passed in to the rate application. It is used for
calculating the charges for the bill segment. The consumption period is visible on the bill
calculation header that groups together the bill calculation lines.
Consider a bill segment that covers June 1st through July 1st and a subsequent bill segment
that covers July 1st through August 1st. The charges for July 1st are included on the first bill
segment, so the second bill segment should not actually bill July 1st. In this scenario, the
inclusive consumption period provided to rate application for the second bill segment will be
July 2nd through August 1st.
Consider a bill segment that must include bill factor value proration.
st
st
Assume the bill segment dates are July 1 - August 1 and that a new rate version is
th
effective on July 20 and that the charges should be prorated. The rate application process
will be called twice, with the following inclusive dates:
Period for charges calculated by old rate version: July 2 July 19
Period for charges calculated by new rate version: July 20 August 1
Two bill calculation headers will be created in this case, each with the appropriate dates and
the collection of bill calculation lines that represent the charges for the bill.
Consider what should occur for the very first bill segment for a service agreement.
12
It is possible that the start date of the new customers service agreement matches the
end date of the previous customers service agreement. In this case, the stop/start date
is billed to the old customer and the new customer should not be billed for it.
It is possible that no other service agreement has been billed for the start date. Perhaps
this is new service that has never been billed. Perhaps there is a gap in time between
when the previous customer stopped service and when the new customer starts service.
You configure your SA types to tell the system what to do for the initial consumption period.
You may instruct the system to calculate the start of the consumption period from the day
after SA start date, to always include the SA start date, or include the SA start date only if no
previous customer was billed for that day (i.e., a back-to-back situation).
Determine The Service Agreement's Billable Service Points

The system looks at every service point linked to the service agreement. The system ignores
service points that:
Are not billable (e.g., check meters).
Were disconnected before the bill period started.
Have yet to be connected as at the bill end date.
Refer to Service Agreement SA / SP for more information about a service agreements service
points.
Determine The Service Points' Meters

The system retrieves each meter linked to each service point during the bill period (a service
point has multiple meters when a meter exchange has occurred during the bill period).
Refer to Installing / Removing A Meter for more information about a service agreements service
points.
Determine The Meters' Start And Stop Meter Reads

The system retrieves a start and stop meter read for each meter linked to the service agreement
during the bill period.
Subtractive versus Consumptive meters. The system only looks for both start and stop reads
when it has to subtract the start read from the stop read to derive consumption. There are some
types of registers that are reset every time the meter is read and therefore each reading contains
the total amount consumed. For this latter type of register, the system just looks for a single read.
For more information, refer to Meter Configuration Maintenance for information about the
Consumptive / Subtractive indicator.
The start read can come from any of the following sources:
If this is the first bill segment for a service point, the start read is defined on the service
agreement / service point relationship.
If the meter was installed at an existing service point during the bill period, the start read is
defined on the service point installation history. This happens when a meter is exchanged for
another meter during a bill period.
13
Otherwise, the start read is the same as the end read on the customers previous bill
segment.
The stop read can come from any of the following sources:
If this is the final bill segment for a service point, the stop read is defined on the service
agreement / service point relationship. Refer to Service Agreement SA / SP for more
information about the start and stop reads.
If the meter was removed from an existing service point, the stop read is defined on the
service point installation history. This happens when a meter is exchanged during a bill
period. Refer to SP / Meter Installation for more information about installing and removing
meters while a service agreement is in effect.
Otherwise, the system looks for the next scheduled meter read date. Not just any date can
be used, the system attempts to find a read that meets the following criteria:
Is after the end date of the last bill segment plus the rates frequencys minimum offset
days, and
Is on/before the cutoff date of the bill
If no such meter read date could be found, the service agreement is skipped. Otherwise, the
system then looks for a read that exists in the time period that starts X days before the
service points next scheduled meter read date, and ends Y days after the scheduled meter
read date (where X and Y are the rates frequencys minimum and maximum offset days,
respectively).
If more than one such read exists, the selection is based on the priority of read types (the
read with the highest priority read type is selected). For example, verified reads are preferred
to regular reads. Refer to the Description of Page section under Meter Read Main for more
information about read types and their billing selection priority.
If no read can be found, the system estimates consumption and generates a corresponding
estimated meter read if:
The service agreement allows estimation.
The user allows estimation (if the bill is produced as a result of an ad hoc request);
The bill cycle schedule (if one is being used) allows estimation.
The register is not a peak register (this is an artificial constraint, but most organizations
do not estimate peak consumption).
The rate schedule allows estimation;
The register is subtractive. This is because only subtractive registers are self-correcting.
For example, assume we estimate a reading of 100 and the next real read is 102, the
customer will only be charged for 2 units. However, consider what would happen if we
estimated a consumptive register the consumption associated with the next real read
would be billed in its entirety.
The register does not measure peak consumption.
Negative consumption is not allowed for the SP/meter combination.
Refer to Estimation and Negative Consumption for more information about negative consumption.
14
The number of days in the bill period is then computed (this equals the start date of the bill
segment through the date of the end read). If this is less than the SA types minimum
number of days on a bill, the service agreement is skipped.
Item Snapshot
The steps the system follows to build the item snapshot are the same as those used to build the
meter read snapshot. The major differences are as follows:
Items (e.g., lamps, hydrants, traffic lights) are not read so there are no meter reads to access.
There are two sources of items:
Item-based service points have a single, badged item that may be installed at any instant
in time. These types of service points are used, for example, when your organization
keeps track of the installation history of specific lamps. If an item is installed at an itembased service point during the bill period, it will be included in the item snapshot.
All types of service points (metered, item-based, and non-badged) may contain one or
more unbadged items. Multiple items exist at a service point, for example, when your
organization chooses to record multiple lamps on a single service point rather than
creating a separate service point for each lamp (this might be useful for a parking lot at a
shopping mall). Each item referenced in the service points collection of unbadged items
is included in the snapshot.
Refer to Service Points With Multiple Items for more information about service points with multiple
items. Refer to SP / Item Installation for more information about installing and removing badged
items at a service point. Refer to Service Point Multiple Items for more information about the
collection of items that may exist at both meter and item-based service points.
Service Quantity Snapshot

For service agreements where the meter reads are maintained in Oracle Utilities Customer Care
and Billing, the service quantity (SQ) snapshot is the total amount consumed for each unit of
measure referenced on the bill segments meter read snapshot. For service agreements where
the meter reads are not maintained in Oracle Utilities Customer Care and Billing and bill
determinants are requested from a meter data management system via a usage request, the
service quantity (SQ) snapshot is the total amount consumed for each unit of measure referenced
on the bill segments usage request
Register Rules and SQ Rules. If the service agreements rate has register rules or SQ rules,
they may alter the amount of measured consumption or add additional units of measure to the SQ
snapshot. Refer to Defining Measured Quantity Manipulation Rules for more information.
Lamps and estimated consumption. If any of the items linked to the service agreements
service points indicate the system should estimate consumption (e.g., lamps), additional entries
will be added to the SQ snapshot for each such item. Refer to Setting Up Estimated
Consumption For Items for more information.
Note. Meter read details used for interim calculations are ignored when producing the service
quantity snapshot.
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Calculation / Audit Read Details

We use the term calculation / audit read to describe a meter read that appears on a bill segment
but for which no real meter read exists. The following points provide examples of when
calculation / audit reads may be required:
Some retail companies upload meter read details when they upload pass through charges.
They do this in order to print the read details that were used to calculate the pass-through
charges. It should be stressed that these reads are not used to derive billable consumption
(because the charges have already been calculated). These reads are only uploaded for
printing purposes and therefore real meter reads are not created. We categorize these
reads as calculation / audit reads. Refer to Billable Charge Upload - Read Details for more
information about uploading meter reads with pass-through charges.
You may have interval billing rates where youre required to print the intervals that contain, for
example, the intervals with the three highest peak charges. To do this, you setup a
calculation only rate component to find these intervals and create a calculation / audit read
for each such interval. Refer to RCCL-CVTOSC for an example of such an algorithm that
would be plugged-in on a calculation only rate component.
You may have interval billing rates that map interval consumption into time-of-use
consumption. If you use a base-package algorithm to do this (refer to RCTMPS and RCTMS
for examples), a calculation / audit read is created for each resultant time-of-use quantity.
These algorithms do this in case you need this information for bill print purposes or in case
you have multiple bill lines that need to use the same mapped consumption.
You may have situations where a meter has been temporarily removed from a service point
but the business practice dictates that usage for the service point should be calculated during
billing.
Both real and calculation / audit reads are stored in a bill segments read details (the name of the
table is CI_BSEG_READ). The following points describe the differences between these two
types of rows on this table:
Calculation / audit reads may or may not reference a service point.
Calculation / audit reads do not reference the prime key of a real read.
Calculation / audit reads have a usage flag with a value of Calculation.
Calculation / audit reads do not require a UOM code. If a UOM is not supplied, an SQI must
be supplied.
If you encounter other scenarios during your implementation that necessitate calculation / audit
reads, you can develop bill segment type and rate component algorithms to add additional
calculation / audit reads to a bill segments read details.
In order to avoid confusing end-users, we do not show calculation / audit reads on Bill Segment Read Details (this page only shows real reads). Rather, calculation / audit reads are shown in a
separate section on Bill Segment - SQ Details.
Calculation / Audit Usage Details

We use the term calculation / audit usage to describe service quantities retrieved from the bill
segments usage request. An example of when calculation / audit usage may be required:
16
You may have situations where meter reads are not maintained in Oracle Utilities Customer
Care and Billing and bill determinants are requested from a meter data management system
via a usage request. MDM might return both bill determinants and meter reads to print on the
bill.
Usage service quantities are also stored in a bill segments read details (the name of the table is
CI_BSEG_READ). The following points describe the differences between these types of rows on
this table:
Calculation / audit usage may or may not reference a service point.
Calculation / audit usage does not reference the prime key of a real read.
Calculation / audit usage has a usage flag with a value of Service Quantity.
Calculation / audit usage does not require a UOM code. If a UOM is not supplied, an SQI
must be supplied.
If you encounter other scenarios during your implementation that necessitate calculation / audit
usage, you can develop bill segment type and rate component algorithms to add additional
calculation / audit usage to a bill segments read details.
In order to avoid confusing end-users, we do not show calculation / audit reads on Bill Segment Read Details (this page only shows real reads). Rather, calculation / audit usage is shown in a
separate section on Bill Segment - SQ Details.
How To Override The Commodity Amount In A Bill

Segment
As described earlier, the calculation of the amount consumed is one of the first steps that takes
place when a bill segment is created. 99.9% of the time, the system does a perfect job in this
effort. However, there are rare circumstances when, due to missing or incorrect data, the
quantity calculated by the system is not what you want to charge the customer for (consider what
the consumption should be if the meter is broken?).
To help you deal with these rare situations, a back door exists that allows a bill segments
billable quantities to be overridden. This truly is a back door because the proper way to fix the
amount of a commodity is to correct the cause of the error and then cancel / rebill the bill
segment.
Refer to How To Override Service Quantities On A Specific Bill Segment for more information.
How Rates Affect The Information On Bill Segments

After consumption has been compiled, the system applies the service agreements rate to the
consumption to determine how much to charge the customer. We refer to this process as rate
application. Refer to Rates for detailed information about rates.
17
Not all service agreements use a rate! There are a small number of service agreements that
dont use a rate to calculate the charges that appear on their bill segments. For example, a
service agreement used to levy a customers payment arrangement amount doesnt need a rate
because the amount to charge is defined on the service agreement. Whether or not a service
agreement needs a rate is defined by the service agreements SA type. Whether or not the
system calls the service agreements rate to calculate charges is controlled by the bill calculation
algorithm plugged-in on the bill segment type thats referenced on the service agreements SA
type. Refer to Designing and Defining Bill Segment Types for a description of the various bill
segment creation algorithms that are supported in the system.
Your proration choices impact what appears on a bill. A rate contains a variety of effectivedated information (e.g., the prices are effective-dated, the structure of the rate is effective-dated,
etc.). If this effective-dated information changes during a bill period, the system may need to
prorate the charges. For example, if the sales tax percentage changes mid-period, the system
can prorate the tax change (e.g., 20 days at 6% and 11 days at 6.25%). When you setup a rate,
you define exactly how the system handles changes that occur during a bill segment. For
example, you can tell the system that sales tax changes should not be prorated. Rather, it should
use the value effective at the start / end of the bill period (note, you have several other options).
We mention this because your choices have a large impact on how a rate affects the information
on bill segments. Refer to Effective Dates & Price Proration for more information.
Rate application is a very sophisticated process as it can affect every aspect of a bill segment.
The following points describe how rate application works at a high-level:
The read details that were amassed earlier are passed into rate application.
First, the rate schedules register rules (if any) are executed. Register rules are used to
manipulate the amount consumed on each read detail. For example, gas rates typically use
one or more register rules to convert a cubic foot / meter into a thermal unit. Each affected
read detail is updated to show the before and after quantities.
Next, the total amount of each unique unit of measure / time-of-use code thats referenced on
every read detail is summarized in the bill segments service quantity (SQ) details. For
example, if a service agreement has 3 meters and each meter has one register that
measures kWh, there will be three read details (assuming there are not meter exchanges
during the bill period). In this step, the total amount from all three read details is summarized
in one entry in the bill segments SQ details.
Next, the rate schedules service quantity rules (if any) are executed. Service quantity rules
are used to calculate service quantities (SQ) referenced in the rate that cannot be derived
from the read details. For example, if you have a rate that has a charge based on the
number of days in the bill period, a service quantity rule would be necessary to calculate the
number of days in the bill period.
Next, the system determines which of the rates rate versions should be processed. Note, a
flag on the rate schedule allows you to control what happens if multiple rate versions are
detected during the bill period. A bill segment calculation detail is created for each such
rate version. Each calculation detail contains the results of executing the rate versions rate
components (where a separate bill line is created for each rate component). Each bill line
contains:
18
An audit of what was priced.
How the printed bill line should look (if the bill lines is printed).
How the amount of the bill line should be booked in the general ledger.
Note. There are many plug-in spots available on a rate component. These plug-ins can
manipulate virtually every aspect of the bill segment. This means if you require functionality that
isnt support by the base package rate components, you can build additional rate component
plug-ins to do whatever you need.
After every rate version is processed, rate application returns the calculation details to the
process that called it. This point is important as it means that rate application executes in
memory (i.e., it does NOT insert the calculation details on the database, rather, it returns
them to whatever process called rate application). Because rate application executes in
memory, it can be used to perform billing calculations in many parts of the system. For
example:
Both online and batch billing use rate application to calculate the charges that are
eventually saved on the bills bill segments.
The Rate Check transaction calls rate application when you want to check a rate realtime. When you use this transaction, you enter the consumption thats passed into rate
application and then rate application shows you the calculation details that result.
Plug-ins exist that call rate application to estimate bill segments when adequate billing
history doesnt exist. For example, the BUDCALC-PH budget recommendation algorithm
calls rate application to calculate a budget amount for a customer without adequate
history. Another example is the DEPRECOM-MBT deposit recommendation algorithm.
This plug-in calls rate application to calculate a recommended deposit amount for a
customer without adequate history.
Refer to Rates for more information about how rates are constructed.
Bill Frequency - Bill Cycle vs Bill Segment Duration

An accounts bill cycle defines when the system attempts to create bill segments for the accounts
service agreements. The word attempt is stressed because a service agreement may not have
a bill segment on every bill created for its account.
Some examples will help make the point:
An account may be on a monthly bill cycle (meaning we attempt to create a bill every month
for the account) but contain only biannual service agreements. However, this is not sensible.
Why? Because the system would attempt to create a bill every month for the accounts
service agreements, but only twice during the year would it succeed (because the service
agreements have a biannual duration).
An account may be on a biweekly bill cycle (meaning we attempt to create a bill every 2
weeks for the account) and contain a mixture of biweekly, monthly, and quarterly service
agreements. In this scenario, every two weeks the system would create a bill that contains at
least one bill segment (for the biweekly service agreement). However, 12 times a year, the
bill will contain an additional bill segment for the monthly service agreement. And 4 times a
year, the bill will contain one more bill segment (for a total of 3) for the quarterly service
agreement.
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In sum, the accounts bill cycle controls when the system attempts to create a bill for the
accounts service agreements. Whether a service agreement contributes a bill segment to the bill
is a complicated subject. The topics in this section describe how the system knows its time to
create a bill segment for a service agreement.
Important! An accounts bill cycle should attempt to create bill segments at least as often as the
shortest service agreement duration. For example, if an account has both monthly and quarterly
service agreements, the account should be placed on a monthly bill cycle. Refer to How Does An
Account Get Its Bill Cycle? for more information.
For more information about bill cycles, refer to Defining Bill & Service Cycles.
Contents
Ways To Control The Start Date Of A Bill Segment
Ways To Control The End Date Of A Bill Segment
Preventing Short Bill Segments
Ways To Control The Start Date Of A Bill Segment

Bill segments produced for a service agreement have two time periods:
The bill segment period. The bill segment period defines the entire period of time covered by
a bill segments charges.
The consumption period. The consumption period defines the period of time used to
calculate the number of days for daily charges.
The consumption period almost always starts one day after the bill segment period. The
consumption period always ends on the bill segments end date. For example, a bill segment
period that spans 5-Jan-2002 through 6-Feb-2002 will almost always have a corresponding
consumption period of 6-Jan-2002 through 6-Feb-2002. The reason that the start dates dont
match is because a bill segments start date equals the end date of the prior bill segment (i.e., the
start date was already counted in the previous bill segments consumption period and we dont
want to count it twice).
The only time when the previous paragraph isnt true is the first bill segment thats produced for a
new service agreement. This is because different companies count the first day of a new service
agreement differently than others. Refer to Initial Consumption Period Considerations for
examples and an explanation of how you can control the start date of the consumption period.
Ways To Control The End Date Of A Bill Segment

The following points describe the different methods that can be used to define the end date on a
service agreements bill segments:
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Meter Read Date. For service agreements with metered consumption (excluding real time
meters), the end date is the date of the meter read used on the last day of the bill segment.
This is a deceptively disingenuous statement because the algorithm used to select this end
read is complex (and it relies on the service cycle schedule - hence the name of this option).
Bill Period Schedule. Non-metered service agreements may have the end date of their bill
segments defined on the user-maintained bill period calendar. This option is used when bill
segments must fall on strict calendar boundaries (e.g., quarterly bills that end on the last day
of the quarter).
Anniversary. In addition to the Bill Period Calendar method, non-metered service

agreements may have their bill segment end date based on the first day of service. For
example, if service started on the 16th of some month, the ongoing bill segments will start on
roughly the 16th of each month. This option is frequently used to bill for garbage or cable
service.
ASAP. For non-meter service agreements that use neither the Bill Period Calendar nor
Anniversary methods, the system assumes the end date of a bill segment is the current date.
This option is frequently used for service agreements that deal with items (e.g., street lamps,
phone booths).
Billable Charge. For non-metered service agreements that exist to levy billable charges, the
start AND end dates are defined on the billable charge information that is entered by a user
or interfaced from an external system.
The topics in this section discuss each of the above methods.

Contents
Using The Meter Read Date Method
Using The Bill Period Schedule Method
Using The Anniversary Method
Using Billable Charges
Using The Meter Read Date Method

A metered service agreements SA type does not contain a specific indication that the service
agreement is used to charge for metered service. Rather, if the system finds metered service
points linked to the service agreement, it knows to use a meter read date as the end date of the
bill segment. The trick is finding the perfect read amongst many possible reads. Refer to Meter
Read Snapshot for a description of how the system finds the perfect end read.
If the next read date is in the future. The system will not create a bill segment for a metered
service agreement if the next expected read date is in the future. The system determines the
next expected read date using the service cycle schedule linked to the service agreements
service points.
Multiple scheduled read during a bill period. A base-package Get Consumption algorithm
let's you control what happens when a service agreement's service point(s) have multiple
scheduled meter readings during a bill period. You have two choices: 1) create a single bill
segment using the latest scheduled meter read for the bill period, or 2) create a separate bill
segment for every scheduled meter read during the bill period. The choice is yours. Refer to
BSGC-SP for a description of the base-package algorithm type.
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Using The Bill Period Schedule Method

The bill period schedule method causes the bill segment end date to be calculated using a bill
period schedule. The bill periods schedule defines when bill segments are produced and their
respective end dates. This method is used when the bill segment needs to fall on strict calendar
boundaries (e.g., quarterly bills that end on the last day of the quarter).
The service agreements SA type indicates if the service agreement uses this method, and if so,
the specific bill period whose schedule defines the end dates.
Future and Past End Dates. Its important to be aware that a bill period schedule can be used
to generate end dates that are in the future or in the past.
For more information about bill periods, refer to Designing Bill Periods.
Using The Anniversary Method

The anniversary date method causes the bill segment end date to be calculated based on the first
th
day of service. For example, if a service agreement started on the 16 of some month, the
th
ongoing bill segments will start on roughly the 16 of each month. This method is frequently used
to bill for garbage or cable service. When using this method, you also define the applicable billing
frequency (i.e., monthly, bi-monthly, quarterly, etc.).
The following table contains the bill periods for a service agreements starting on 23-Feb-99 that
uses a monthly frequency.
Start Date
End Date
Billing
Days
23-Feb-99
25-Mar-99
30
25-Mar-99
25-Apr-99
31
25-Apr-99
25-May-99
30
25-May-99
25-Jun-99
31
25-Jun-99
25-Jul-99
30
25-Jul-99
25-Aug-99
31
25-Aug-99
24-Sep-99
30
24-Sep-99
24-Oct-99
30
24-Oct-99
24-Nov-99
31
24-Nov-99
24-Dec-99
30
24-Dec-99
24-Jan-00
31
24-Jan-00
23-Feb-00
30
23-Feb-00
25-Mar-00
31
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Future and Past End Dates. Its important to be aware that anniversary billing can generate end
dates that are in the future or in the past. The future-option generates the next anniversary date
after the current date. The past-option generates the anniversary date that immediately precedes
the current date.
the billing frequency.
For more information about the SA Type attributes that control this method, refer to Setting Up SA
Types.
Using Billable Charges

Bill segments for billable charge service agreements have both their start and end dates defined
on the respective billable charge.
For more information about billing billable charges, refer to How To Create A One-Time Invoice.
For more information about creating a billable charge, refer to Maintaining Billable Charges. For
more information about interfacing a billable charge from an external system, refer to Uploading
Billable Charges.
the billing frequency.
For more information about the SA Type attributes that control this method, refer to Setting Up SA
Types.
Preventing Short Bill Segments

Every SA type contains an attribute defining the minimum number of days on a bill segment.
Whenever the system attempts to create a bill segment other than the final bill segment, it checks
if the number of days is at least as great as the minimum. If not, the bill segment will not be
created as part of this bill run. Rather, the system waits until the number of days in the bill
segment is at least as large as the minimum. This is true for all methods of bill duration
calculation.
Prorating Charges When a Rate is Applied

It is possible for some of the prices that appear on a bill segment to change during the course of
the bill period.
Refer to Effective Dates & Price Proration for more information about how charges are prorated
during rate application.
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Batch Billing
99.9% of all bills are created by the batch bill process (known by the batch control ID of BILLING)
and require no human intervention before they can be finalized and sent to a customer. The
other 0.1% are created by users on-line / real time. This section discusses several important
concepts associated with batch billing.
Contents
Window Billing And The Bill Cycle Schedule
Confirming A Batch Of Bills Before Completing Them
Canceling A Batch Of Bills After They're Complete
Reopening A Batch Of Bills After They're Complete
Fixing Errors Detected In Batch Billing
Completing Pending Bills
Window Billing And The Bill Cycle Schedule

Refer to The Cyclical Billing Process & Window Billing for more information about how an
accounts bill cycle dictates when a customer is billed.
Confirming A Batch Of Bills Before Completing Them

If youre implementing new rates or if something unusual is being introduced that affects billing,
you may want to turn off the bill cycle schedules Freeze and Complete switch. If this switch is
off, the system creates bills, it just doesnt freeze and complete them. You can then review the
entire batch of bills to make sure theyre clean.
If you find the bills are wrong, correct the source of the error and rerun the bill cycle. The
system will remove all incomplete bills and then reproduce them using the corrected
information in the system.
If you find the bills are correct, turn the Freeze and Complete switch on and rerun the cycle.
The system will remove all incomplete bills and then reproduce them. Assuming nothing
changed, the bill amounts will be the same.
Refer to Setting Up Bill Cycle Schedules for more information.
Canceling A Batch Of Bills After They're Complete

If you need to cancel an entire batch of bills because they were created using faulty data (e.g.,
the wrong tax rate was defined in the rate), you can. A background process called MASSCNCL
exists for this purpose.
This background process will cancel all the frozen bill segments for the latest run of a given bill
cycles schedule. Optionally, you can cancel bills for a given bill date within the bill cycles
schedule. The cancel reason used on the bill segment is the one marked as the bill cancel
reason for mass cancel. Refer to Setting Up Bill (Segment) Cancellation Reasons for more
information.
When the cycle is billed again, new bill segments will be created, and the original bill segments
and the cancellations will automatically be hidden from the customers.
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Reopening A Batch Of Bills After They're Complete

If you need to reopen an entire batch of bills because they were completed prematurely (e.g.,
payments did not get posted before billing ran, so recent payments were not reflected in the
account balances), you can. A background process called MASSROBL exists for this purpose.
This background process will reopen all the bills for a given bill date for the latest run of a given
bill cycles schedule.
Fixing Errors Detected In Batch Billing

If an error bill segment is created by the batch billing process, the system attempts to fix the
offending segment each night by regenerating it using the information that exists at that time.
Therefore, if the cause of the error is fixed during the day, the system will automatically
regenerate the bill segment when batch billing next runs; you dont have to manually correct each
bill. And, once a bill is error-free, it will be completed and sent to the customer.
Important! Automatic regeneration only works during the accounts bill window. If an error bill
segment is not successfully regenerated on the last night of the accounts bill cycle, it will remain
in error until the next time the accounts cycle runs (unless a user corrects it real time). At that
time, the system will generate another bill error indicating the prior bill segment is in error (and
then therell be two bill segments in error).
Completing Pending Bills

If you need to complete pending bills created by the batch billing process, you can. A
background process called C1-BLCMP, exists for this purpose.
This background process will complete all pending bills on a given bill date for a given bill cycles
schedule. This process does not delete and regenerate freezable bill segments linked to pending
bills.
Refer to Bill Errors for more information.
Billing Financial Transaction Considerations

The topics in this section provide information about the financial impact of a bill segment.
Contents
Billing - Current Balance versus Payoff Balance
The Source Of GL Accounts On A Bill Segment's Financial Transaction
Determining the Statistical Quantity
Billing - Current Balance versus Payoff Balance

A bill segments financial transaction affects a service agreements payoff balance and/or current
balance. In this section, we describe these two balances.
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Contents
When Current Balance Equals Payoff Balance
When Current Balance Differs From Payoff Balance
Bill Segment Type Controls Which Balance(s) Are Affected
When Current Balance Equals Payoff Balance

For most service agreements, payoff balance and current balance are always the same (or in
colloquial speech the amount the customer thinks they owe equals what they really owe). Lets
run through a typical example. The values in the payoff balance and current balance columns
reflect the amount due after the financial transaction has been applied (i.e., the running balance):
Date
Payoff
Balance
Current
Balance
1-Jan-99
Bill: $125
125
125
15-Jan-99
Payment: $150
-25
-25
2-Feb-99
Bill: $175
150
150
14-Feb-99
Payment: $150
3-Mar-99
Bill: $200
200
200
15-Mar-99
Payment: $150
50
50
2-Apr-99
Bill: $225
275
275
As you can see, payoff balance and current balance are always in sync.
When Current Balance Differs From Payoff Balance

For some service agreements, payoff balance and current balance differ (or in colloquial speech the amount the customer thinks they owe differs from what they would owe if they wanted to pay
off their account).
Lets run through an example of a customer on a budget to illustrate a classic service agreement
where these two balances are not the same. The values in the payoff balance and current
balance columns reflect the amount due after the financial transaction has been applied:
Date
Payoff
Balance
Current
Balance
1-Jan-99
Bill: $125, Budget $150
125
150
15-Jan-99
Payment: $150
-25
2-Feb-99
150
150
14-Feb-99
Payment: $150
3-Mar-99
200
150
15-Mar-99
Payment: $150
50
The following table describes the various types of service agreements where these balances may
differ.
Type Of Service
Agreement
Deposit
26
What Payoff Balance Holds
What Current Balance

Holds
Payoff balance holds the amount of deposit you are
Current balance holds the amount
holding on behalf of the customers debt. This

amount is showed as a credit (with a negative sign)
because you truly owe the customer this money.
the customer owes for a deposit.
Charitable contribution
N/A - charitable contribution service agreements

never have a payoff balance.

the customer owes for a charitable
contribution.
Payment
arrangements
Payoff balance holds the total amount of delinquent

debt that remains unpaid. When a payment
arrangement is started, you transfer the payoff
balance from the utility service agreement to the
payment arrangement service agreement. Each
billing period, the customer pays down this balance.

the customer owes in respect of the
billed payment arrangement
amounts.
Service agreements on
a budget plan
Payoff balance holds the actual amount owed (actual

bills minus payments).

the customer owes in respect of the
billed budget amount.
Bill Segment Type Controls Which Balance(s) Are Affected

Every bill segment references a bill segment type (the bill segment type comes from its service
agreements SA type). The bill segment type controls how payoff balance and current balance
are affected by the bill segment amount. It also controls the algorithm used by the system to
calculate the bill segments bill lines.
Refer to Designing and Defining Bill Segment Types for more information about how bill segment
type affects how a bill segment is produced and how its financial transaction is generated.
The Source Of GL Accounts On A Bill Segment's Financial Transaction

A bill segments financial transaction also contains the double-sided accounting entry that defines
how the bill segment affects the general ledger.
Refer to The Source Of GL Accounts On Financial Transactions for a description of where the
system extracts the distribution codes used to construct the GL accounts.
Determining the Statistical Quantity

The statistical quantity for each general entry line in the financial transaction is populated by
adding together the statistical quantity for all bill calculation lines for the same distribution code.
The bill calculation line indicates a statistical quantity if its corresponding rate component has
marked the GL statistical quantity setting.
The statistical quantity for a bill calculation line is the prorated billable quantity for that line.
If the corresponding rate component for the bill calculation line is not marked measures
peak, then the statistical quantity corresponds to the billable quantity for the bill line. This is
because billable quantities for SQs that do not represent a peak quantity are prorated when
applying the rate.
27
If the corresponding rate component for the bill calculation line is marked measures peak,
then the statistical quantity may not correspond to the billable quantity for the bill calculation
line. SQs that measure peak are not prorated when applying the rate. However, when
determining the statistical amount to send to the general ledger, the quantity is prorated in the
same manner as quantities that do not measure peak amounts.
Bill Calc Line Statistical Quantity. The statistical quantity for each bill calculation line is
calculated when generating the bill segment and used to populate the statistical quantity for the
FT GL entry. The calculated value is not saved in the bill calc line record.
The Source Of Bill Routing Information

When a bill is completed, the system creates a bill routing for each person linked to the account
who receives a copy of the bill. The bill routing record contains the information that controls how,
where and to whom a bill is sent.
The following points describe how this works:
Each person who receives a copy of an accounts bill is listed on the accounts person
information.
A bill routing is created for each such person when the bill is completed.
The information that appears on the bill routing record is controlled by the bill route type
specified on the respective account / person information:
If the bill route type indicates the persons bills are routed via fax, the address line 1
address constituent is populated with the persons fax number. The system knows which
of a persons phone numbers is a fax number by the phone type. If the person has
multiple fax numbers, one is selected at random.
If the bill route type indicates the persons bills are routed via email, the address line 1
address constituent is populated with the persons Email address.
If the bill route type indicates the persons bills are routed via the postal service, the
address constituents are populated with the address specified on the account / person's
bill address source. Note, if the person has a seasonal address effective on the
business date, the seasonal address will be used regardless of the value of bill address
source.
Refer to Printing Bills and How To Reprint A Bill (For The Original Recipients or For Someone
New) for more information. Refer to Account Person Information for information regarding how
to control who receives a copy of a bill, where the bill is sent, and how the bill is formatted.
Bill Messages
The topics in this section describe how messages are linked to a bill and bill segment.
Contents
The Source Of Bill Messages
Substituting Field Values Into A Message
28
The Source Of Bill Messages

When a bill is completed, the system sweeps bill messages from the following sources onto the
bill.
Bill or Bill Segment Messages. Bill messages will be linked either to the bill or to one its bill
segments depending on the source of the bill message code. In other words, messages
associated with a service agreement (directly or indirectly) will be linked to the bill segment;
messages associated with an account (directly or indirectly) will be linked to the bill.
All permanent and temporary bill messages linked to an account are linked to the bill when it
is completed. Refer to Account Bill Messages for more information. Note well that all
temporary bill messages are removed from the account when they are swept onto a bill (a
temporary message is swept onto the next bill produced for the account).
The system checks if the bills accounts customer class has bill messages. If so, it links all
such messages that are effective on the bill date to the bill when it is completed. Refer to
Setting Up Customer Class Bill Messages.
All permanent and temporary bill messages linked to service agreements that contributed bill
segments to the bill are linked to their respective bill segment when the bill is completed.
Refer to Service Agreement Miscellaneous for more information. Note well that all
temporary bill messages are removed from the service agreement when they are swept onto
a bill segment (a temporary message is swept onto the next bill segment produced for the
service agreement).
The system checks if each bill segments rate has bill messages. If so, it links all such
messages that are effective on the bill segments start date to the bill segment when the bill is
completed. Refer to Rate Schedule Bill Messages.
The system checks if the service provider associated with each sub bill segment has bill
messages. If so, it links all such messages that are effective on the bill segments start date
to the bill segment when the bill is completed. Refer to Service Provider Bill Messages.
The system checks if the meter read remarks referenced on meter reads used on a bill
segment have bill messages. If so, it links all such messages that are effective on the bill
segments start date to the bill segment when the bill is completed. Refer to Meter Read
Remark Bill Messages.
In addition, a user may manually add an ad hoc message to a bill.

And finally, you can develop your own background processes and algorithms that add bill
messages to accounts, service agreements, bills and/or bill segments. Refer to Substituting Field
Values Into A Bill Message for examples.
Substituting Field Values Into A Message

Many bill messages contain static text (i.e., the message is the same on every bill). However, the
system supports messages whose contents are dynamic. For example, consider the bill
message Thank you for your charitable contributions in 2000 for $123.12, please keep this
bill for tax purposes. This message contains two substitution values (the year and the amount)
as is therefore considered dynamic.
Dynamic messages can be implemented as follows:
29
Create a bill message code whose Message on Bill contains substitution values. For
example, the bill message code to produce the message illustrated above would contain the
following Message on Bill - Thank you for your charitable contributions in %1 for %2,
please keep this bill for tax purposes.
Use either of the following methods to link the message code and its substitution parameters
to the bill:
Create a background process or algorithm to insert a permanent or temporary bill

message on the appropriate accounts. Then, when an accounts bill is next completed,
the system will sweep the message (and its substitution parameters onto the bill).
In addition to inserting the appropriate bill message code, your background process /
algorithm must also insert the appropriate substitution values. The name of the table in
which account messages are inserted is CI_ACCT_MSG. The name of the table in which
a messages substitution values are inserted is CI_ACCT_MSG_PRM (you will insert one
row for each substitution field).
Please see the background process identified by the process ID REACH for an example
of a background process that performs this type of function. Please see the algorithm
identified by DEP PIF MSG for an example of an algorithm that performs this type of
function.
Rather than adding the dynamic message to account (and then letting the bill completion
logic transfer the account message to the bill), you could construct a bill completion
algorithm that adds the message code and substitution values on the bill (during bill
completion). The name of the table in which bill messages are inserted is
CI_BILL_MSGS. The name of the table in which a messages substitution values are
substituted is CI_BILL_MSG_PRM (you will insert one row for each substitution field).
A Bill May Affect More Than Just Customer Balances

The topics in this section provide information about obscure things that may happen when a bill is
created, frozen, or canceled.
Contents
Auto Cancel / Rebill If A Service Agreement Is Stopped Retroactively
Cancel Historical, Estimated Bill Segments When A Real Read Is Found
Deposits May Be Refunded
FT Freeze Repercussions
Auto Cancel / Rebill If A Service Agreement Is Stopped Retroactively

If the system detects a bill segment with a bill date after the stop date of the service agreement
(because the service agreement was retroactively stopped), the system automatically cancels the
bill segment and creates a new one with an end date equal to the service agreements stop date.
Cancel Historical, Estimated Bill Segments When A Real Read Is Found

A special plug-in spot exists on bill segment type that can be used to automatically cancel
historical, estimated bill segments when a real read is used on the current bill. Refer to
BSAXERLIM for more information about this algorithm. This algorithm would typically be
specified on bill segment types that calculate bills using meter reads.
30
Note. This algorithm is called by the system when creating bills in batch. It does not get called
when a user creates bills online.
Deposits May Be Refunded

Refer to Refunding Deposits for how deposits may be refunded when a deposit service
agreement is final billed.
FT Freeze Repercussions
Refer to Obscure Things That Can Happen for more information about things that can happen
when an FT is frozen (and FTs get frozen during billing).
Budget Billing
The topics in this section provide background information about a variety of budget billing issues.
We strongly recommend familiarizing yourself with the topics described in Designing and Defining
Budget Plans to fully appreciate how budgets fit into the systems financial architecture.
Contents
Account versus Service Agreement
How To Set Up A Customer To Participate In A Budget Plan
The Financial Impact Of Budget Plans
Budget Billing Background Processes
Canceling A Budget
Account versus Service Agreement

Customers who pay on a budget plan tend to believe that there is one budget amount applied to
their accounts bill each month. This is not true. Rather, each service agreement has an
individual budget amount (stored in the recurring charge array). The sum of an accounts service
agreements budget amount is the accounts budget amount.
Why does each service agreement have a unique budget amount? Because all financial
accounting in the system is performed at the service agreement level, not for an entire account.
While a unique budget amount is defined for each service agreement, a user can use a simple
page to view and change the budget amount for all eligible service agreements linked to an
account.
Its important to be aware that some service agreements linked to an account may not be eligible
for budget plans. For example, assume you have a customer with a deposit service agreement
and one or more utility service agreements. This customer will be billed for their deposit
regardless of the utility service agreements budget amounts. You define whether a service
agreement may participate in a budget plan on the service agreements SA type.
31
How To Set Up A Customer To Participate In A Budget Plan

If a customer wants to participate in a budget billing plan, simply transfer to Account Budget and
generate a new budget for the customer.
The Financial Impact Of Budget Plans

The only difference between a customer who participates in budget billing and one who doesnt is
that budget billing customer have bill segments where payoff amount differs from current amount.
Why? Because the payoff amount is the actual amount of the bill. The current amount is the
amount the customer is expected to pay (i.e., their budget amount).
Lets run through an example of a customer on a budget to illustrate a service agreement where
these two balances are not the same. The values in the payoff balance and current balance
columns reflect the amount due after the financial transaction has been applied:
Date
1-Jan-99
Payoff
Balance
Current
Balance
125
150
15-Jan-99
Payment: $150
-25
2-Feb-99
150
150
14-Feb-99
Payment: $150
3-Mar-99
200
150
15-Mar-99
Payment: $150
50
For more information about current and payoff amounts, refer to Current Balance versus Payoff
Balance.
Budget Billing Background Processes

The topics in this section describe the background processes that automate management of
customer who participate in budget billing plans.
Budget Processing. The budget background processes only calculate budget amounts for
pending start, active and pending stop SAs whose start and end date (if any) includes the budget
date. Additionally, the budget date is used to select the rate schedule that is in effect for an SA if
estimating consumption is necessary.
Contents
Budget True Up
Budget Monitor
Budget True Up
The Budget True Up background process (referred to by the batch control ID of BUDTRUP)
examines all accounts who participate in budget billing plans. If enough time has passed since
the customers budget was last trued up, the system will calculate the accounts recommended
budget amount. If the recommended amount differs from their existing budget amount by more
than a given tolerance percentage, the customers budget amount (actually, the recurring charge
amount on the accounts service agreements) will be changed.
32
The amount of time between true ups and the true up method used to true up is defined on the
accounts budget plan. The tolerance percentages are defined as parameters of the true-up
algorithm that is plugged in on the accounts budget plan. Refer to Designing and Defining
Budget Plans for all the details.
Budget Monitor
The Budget Monitor background process (referred to by the batch control ID of BUDMON)
examines all accounts that participate in budget billing plans. If the accounts existing budget
amount is out-of-sync with predefined tolerance percentages, the system will highlight the
account on the Budget Review page.
The tolerance percentages are defined as parameters of the budget monitor algorithm that is
plugged in on the accounts budget plan. Refer to Designing and Defining Budget Plans for all
the details.
Canceling A Budget
The following points describe when a budget is cancelled:
A user can cancel a budget at any time by using the Cancel Budget action on the Account Budget page.
The system may cancel a budget during a collection process (if the collection process
contains a Cancel Budget collection event). Refer to Types Of Collection Events for more
information.
When a service agreement is stopped, the system automatically cancels the budget.
When a customers budget is cancelled, the following events transpire:
Any recurring charge entry whose effective date is after the cancel date is deleted. This is
possible if you are entering a back-dated stop date for the service agreement. For example,
perhaps you run the Budget True Up process, which adds a new budget amount to the
service agreement (effective today). Then imagine that the customer calls you and informs
you that they moved out last week. If you stop the customer's service as of last week, the
recurring charge effective today is deleted when the stop is finalized.
A new recurring charge amount of zero is created for each of the customers service
agreement.
Each service agreements current balance is synchronized with its payoff balance (using the
sync adjustment code defined on the service agreements SA type).
Using Billable Charges For Pass Through / Convergent

Billing
The term pass through billing is used to describe the practice of receiving charges calculated by
third parties and presenting them on the customers bill along with your own charges. Pass
through billing is implemented in the system using Billable Charges.
The following points provide information to help you decide the most appropriate way to
implement pass through billing given your specific requirements:
33
Customers with pass through charges will need a separate service agreement to hold the
pass through charges. We refer to this type of service agreement as a billable charge
service agreement.
Note. A service agreements SA type controls whether a service agreement can have billable
charges linked to it. Specifically, the SA type must have a special role of Billable Charge.
A billable charge service agreement holds the billable charges until the customer is next
billed. At that time, a separate bill segment will be created for each unbilled billable charge
linked to the billable charge service agreement.
While it is not required, we recommend creating a separate billable charge service agreement
for each type of pass through charge. For example, if you can receive pass through
charges from the local water company and the local cable company, wed recommend having
two billable charge service agreements for each customer.
As described under We Bill For Them, you can setup the system to automatically create
billable charge service agreements when you start regular service for your customers. If you
take this approach, you can also have the system create the payable transaction to pay the
3rd party. Refer to Pay At Bill Time vs. Pay At Pay Time for more information.
You can interface billable charges using the Billable Charge Interface. The interfaced
charges can consist of any of the following:
Pre-calculated bill lines that will be presented as is to the customer.
Service quantities that are used by the system to calculate the charges on behalf of the
third party. For example, the 3rd party may pass through the number of kilowatt hours
and you calculate the bill lines for them. Refer to Uploading Consumption Rather Than
Bill Lines for more information.
Meter read details that you want printed on the bill. Note, the base package bill segment
creation algorithm simply sweeps billable charge read details onto the related bill
segments read detail. This algorithm does NOT use these reads to derive service
quantities. This is intentional as most implementations that import reads also import
service quantities and therefore deriving service quantities is unnecessary (and also error
prone). If your implementation needs to derive service quantities from these reads, you
can develop your own bill segment creation algorithm to do just this.
All of the above. You might interface both bill lines and service quantities if the third party
calculated the charges but did not calculate the taxes. The dollar amount for which taxes
will be calculated would be defined using a service quantity. Refer to Calculating Taxes
On Uploaded Charges for more information.
Note. You cannot interface interval data via the billable charge interface. Rather, you would
need to interface the interval data using the standard interval data set interface and then let the
system calculate the charges for you.
34
The bill lines on a billable charge can fit into any of the following categories:
Memo-only (i.e., dont affect the general ledger). A bill line that is memo-only contain
information that is purely informational. For example, the 3rd party might pass the start
and end meter reads that they used to calculate the charges. You can use memo-only
bill lines to show this information on the customers bill. If a bill line is not memo-only
(i.e., it affect the general ledger), a distribution code must also be specified to define how
the lines affects the general ledger.
Show on the customer bill. It is possible to create bill lines that affect the general ledger,
but are not shown on the customers bill. This is an unusual practice, but it happens.
Summary / detail. Each bill line has an indication of whether it is a summary or detail
line. This only impacts bill presentation.
Note. The above indicators can be defaulted onto a billable charge line by using Billable Charge
Line Types when you interface the lines into the system.
Characteristics (i.e., user-defined fields) can be associated with billable charge lines. You
might populate this information if you are interfaced information that may be useful during bill
presentation or for reporting purposes.
If service quantities are specified on a billable charge, they are saved on the bill segment
created when the billable charge is billed. This means that they system can support creation
of a graph of historical usage on the bill, as well as other queries on customer usage. In
addition, it might be possible to event estimate consumption based on these service
quantities (but such a plug-in is not supplied with the base package).
Note. The system does not support passing in items (e.g., street lamps). This could be a
rd
problem if you need to perform ratable calculations for the 3 party based on, say, the number of
street lights. However, if you require ratable, street light pass through billing, you can calculate a
service quantity for each type of street light and save this information on the billable charge. The
associated rate would then have a price per service quantity rather than a price per item type.
Note. The system does not support sending in raw meter reads with billable charges. This
consumption needs to be passed in as a service quantity. However, you can pass in meter read
details to be printed on the bill segment.
Cancel / rebill for billable charges is quite different than for normal bill segments. A billable
charge bill segment can be cancelled, and this will reverse the financial effects of the billable
charge. But without new information from the source, there is no way to rebill the customer.
Therefore, if the original charges were incorrect, the source system would send both a
reversal of the charges and a newly revised set of information. These could be passed as
two separate billable charges or they could combined on a single billable charge.
In terms of the customer information setup, while a service agreement that holds billable
charges does not need a service point, there are advantages to having this information in the
system. For one thing, if jurisdictional taxes are being calculated by the system, the definition
of the jurisdiction(s) is held on the service point or premise. Also, the link to the service point
defines the service address, facilitates customer lookup, causes information to appear in
Control Centrals trees, etc.
35
For most other functionality, the billable charge service agreement supports the same
functionality as normal service agreements. This includes budget billing, payment
distribution, credit & collection tracking and events, current & payoff balances, movement of
old debt onto payment arrangements, etc.
For more information about creating a billable charge, refer to Maintaining Billable Charges. For
more information about creating sub service agreements to hold billable charges, refer to We Bill
For Them. For more information about interfacing a billable charge from an external system,
refer to Uploading Billable Charges.
Printing Bills
The contents of this section describe the technical implementation of both an online and batch bill
production.
Contents
Bill Routings Are Created For Each Recipient Of A Bill
Bill Route Types Control The Information Merged Onto Bills
Technical Implementation Of Online Bill Images
Technical Implementation Of Printing Bills In Batch
Reproducing The Bill Print Flat File
How To Reprint A Specific Bill
Who Gets A Copy Of A Bill?
Final Bills and Bill Print
The Doc 1 Records
Bill Routings Are Created For Each Recipient Of A Bill

Refer to The Source Of Bill Routing Information for a description of how the system constructs the
information used to route a bill to one or more recipients.
Bill Route Types Control The Information Merged Onto Bills

Every bill routing record references a Bill Route Type. The bill route type controls the following:
bills. Algorithms of this type are called under the following scenarios:
The background process that interacts with your bill print software calls these algorithms.
If your bill print software has the ability to construct a real-time image of a bill, you can
plug-in an Online Bill Image algorithm on the Installation Record. This type of algorithm
will call the extract algorithm for an appropriate bill route type to extract the information
that is merged onto the bill. Refer to Technical Implementation Of Online Bill Image for
the details.
It contains the ID of the background process responsible for interacting with your bill print
software in batch.
Technical Implementation Of Online Bill Images

Users can view an image of any bill that is sent to a customer on Bill - Main if you set up the
following:
36
Plug-in an Online Bill Display construction algorithm on the Installation Record.
Plug-in the appropriate bill extract algorithm on each Bill Route Type.
The system provides algorithms that interact with bill print software that renders an image of the
bill in a PDF. The following points describe what takes place when clicking Display Bill when
these sample algorithms are used.
The sample Online Bill Display algorithm ONLN-BL-DSP is executed.
This algorithm calls the bill extract algorithm for an appropriate bill route type (as determined
by the algorithm). The sample bill extract algorithm BLEX-EX constructs the information that
appears on the bill and returns it to the Online Bill Display algorithm. This algorithm, in turn,
passes it to your bill print software.
software.
Your bill print software renders an image of the bill in a PDF and returns it to the Online Bill
Display algorithm.
And finally, the system displays the PDF in a separate browser session. Note that the client
must have Adobe Acrobat Reader installed to view PDF files.
The system provides algorithms that interact with BI Publisher or Crystal Reports to render an
online image of your bill. The following points describe what takes place when clicking Display
Bill when these sample algorithms are used.
The sample Online Bill Display algorithm C1-ONLIN-CR is executed.
This algorithm calls the bill extract algorithm for an appropriate bill route type (as determined
by the algorithm). The sample bill extract algorithm C1-BLEX-CR is supplied for displaying
bills via BI Publisher or Crystal. This is not actually extracting data because when you use BI
Publisher or Crystal reports, the report itself is responsible for extracting and formatting the
data. The base product algorithm supplied returns the appropriate report code to the Online
Bill Display algorithm, which in turn returns the report code to the bill page.
A user exit on the bill page invokes BI Publisher or Crystal and displays the bill in a separate
browser session.
Refer to Bill Print in BI Publisher or Crystal for examples of the data extracted for the report.
Technical Implementation Of Printing Bills In Batch

The batch process that extracts bill information reads all bill routing records in a given run number
that are marked with its batch control ID
The base package example of this process (known by the batch control ID of POSTROUT) simply
calls the extract algorithm on the routing record's route type to format the information placed onto
the flat file. Refer to Bill Route Types Control The Information On Bills for more information.
37
The base package also supplies a batch bill print production (known by the batch control ID of
RTTYPOST) specifically used to print bills via Crystal reports. This process invokes every distinct
extract algorithm found on route types referring to this batch control id. The extract algorithms
are responsible for building the information needed to schedule the report to run in Crystal and
submitting the report to be scheduled.
If your software doesn't support online bill images. The algorithm that formats bill extract
records that's plugged in on bill route type serves two purposes: 1) it interacts with the online bill
display algorithm plugged into to the installation record to support online images of a bill, and 2) it
interacts with the background process to support printing your bills in batch. If your bill print
software does not support the rendering of bill images real time, there is no need to create an
extract algorithm. Rather, you should simply develop your own download process that works with
your bill print software to print bills in batch (and then specify this batch process on your bill route
type).
Reproducing The Bill Print Flat File

You can reproduce the flat file at any time. Simply request the download process and specify the
run number associated with the historic run.
How To Reprint A Specific Bill

Refer to How To Reprint A Bill (For The Original Recipients or For Someone New) for instructions
describing how to reprint a specific bill.
Who Gets A Copy Of A Bill?

A copy of a bill is sent to every individual / business specified in the bills routing details.
There are two ways in which a bill routing detail can be created:
When a bill is completed, the system creates a routing detail for every person linked to the
account that wants to receive a copy of the bill (as specified on Account Person
Information). Refer to The Source Of Bill Routing Information for more information.
After a bill is completed, you may insert a bill routing record. Refer to How To Reprint A Bill
(For The Original Recipients or For Someone New) for more information.
Final Bills and Bill Print

If a bill is produced for an account where all of the accounts SA's are stopped, closed or
cancelled; the bill is flagged as being the final bill on the flat file produced by the postal routing
process (refer to Bill Record - 0100 for the details of this switch).
If a bill is considered to be a final bill and the amount owing for the entire account is less than the
final bill threshold amount on the installation record, the bill will be skipped (i.e., it won't appear on
the flat file produced by the postal routing process). Note, this logic also suppresses bills from
being produced when a payment is received AFTER the final bill and the account's balance falls
beneath the installation record's final bill threshold amount. Refer to Installation Options - Billing
38
The Doc 1 Records

Numerous different types of records are interfaced to the Doc 1 bill print software. However, they
all share a common structure:
The first 4 bytes are called the Printer Key. This field is a record type used by the Doc 1 bill
template.
used to construct a printed bill appear in the correct order in the interface file.
The next 12 bytes are called the Mailing Key. This field is used to control the order in which
the formatted bills are printed.
The next 3 bytes are a filler that is available for future use.
The remaining bytes contain the Bill Information that appears on the printed bill. The type
of information differs for each type of record.

Contents
Sort Key
Mailing Key
Bill Information

The following table defines each printer key (i.e., record type) on the bill print flat file.
Recor
d Type
0010
0100
0300
Description
Notes
Bill record
Required. 1 per bill.
Current charge record
1 per current charge.
0600
Payment record
1 per payment.
0900
Premise record
1 per premise.
1100
Service agreement record
1300
1 per SA linked to the

premise.
Bill segment record
1 per bill segment linked

to the SA.
1500
Bill calculation header
1 per bill calculation

header linked to the bill
segment.
1700
Bill calc line
1 per bill calculation line

linked to the bill
calculation header
1900
End of record type 1500
1 for each bill calculation

header
2100
Read detail
1 for each meter read

detail linked to the bill
39
segment
2400
Service quantity detail
1 for each service quantity

detail linked to the bill
segment
2700
Item detail
1 for each item detail

linked to the bill segment
2840
Bill segment messages
1 for each message detail

linked to the bill segment
2900
1 for each bill segment
3100
Consumption history (for graph)
1 for each historical

consumption period that
appears on the graph
3400
Adjustment detail
1 for each adjustment
3600
1 for each service

agreement
3700
1 for each premise
3900
Bill message detail
1 for each message
9999
1 for each bill
Sort Key
The following table defines the structure of the sort key that appears on each bill print record.
Please note that different components are filled in for each printer key.
Field Name
Format
Bill Print Intercept
A8
This is the user ID, if any, who reviews the bill (as specified on the
account record)
Bill ID
A12
Sequence Number
N2
The sequence number of the account / person information associated

with this bill routing information.
Copy Number
N1
The number of copies desired by the account / person associated with

this bill routing information.
Bill record group
A2
10 Bill
20 Payment
30 Current charge
40 Message
50 Non-Premise
55 Non-Premise end
60 Premise
70 Bill end
Filler
A2
Premise State
A6
Only applicable for Premise based records.
Premise City
A30
40
Premise Address 1
A64
Premise Id
A10
Premise record group
A2
10 Premise record
20 SA level record
30 Premise end record
SA Print Priority
A2
SA Id
A10
SA Group
A2
For Premise based records:

10 SA
20 Histogram
30 Current charge
40 Adjustment
50 SA end record
For Non-Premise based records:
10 SA
20 Current Charge
30 Adjustment
40 SA end record
Bill Segment End Date
A10
If the record is related to an adjustment, this is the adjustment

creation date.
If the record is for histogram detail, this contains the histogram detail
number.
Bill Segment Id
A12
If the record is related to an adjustment, this is the adjustment ID.
Bill Segment Group
A2
10 Bill segment
20 Bill segment calculation group
30 Bill segment read detail
40 Bill segment SQ detail
50 Bill segment item detail
55 Bill segment message
60 Bill segment end
Bill Calc Header Sequence
N2
For records related to read detail, SQ detail, item detail or bill

message detail, this field contains the related sequence number for
that record.
Bill Calc Header Group
A2
10 Bill calculation header

20 Bill calculation line
30 Bill calculation end
Line Seq
N3
Defines order of rows for similar record types
Filler
65
Only applicable for non-premise based records. (This makes up for

the premise address related fields that are not applicable above).
41
Mailing Key
The following table defines the structure of the mailing key that appears on each bill print record.
Field Name
Format
Postal code
A12
This is the postal code on the bill routing record.
Bill Information
The topics in this section describe the information that appears on each on each bill print record.
Contents
Global Extract Information Record (0010)
Bill Record (0100)
Current Charge Record (0300)
Payment Record (0600)
Premise Record (0900)
Service Agreement Record (1100)
Bill Segment Record (1300)
Bill Calc Header Record (1500)
Bill Calc line Record (1700)
End Bill Calc Header Record (1900)
Bill Segment Read Record (2100)
Bill Segment SQ Record (2400)
Bill Segment Item Record (2700)
Bill Segment Message Record (2840)
End Bill Segment Record (2900)
Histogram Record (3100)
Adjustment Record (3400)
End Service Agreement Record (3600)
End Premise Record (3700)
Message Record (3900)
End Bill Record (9999)
Address Sub-record
Global Extract Information Record (0010)

produced, this record will physically be the last record on the extract file.
Field Name
Format
BATCH_CD
A8
Batch Control Code of the extract process.
BATCH_NBR
N10
Batch Number of the extract process
BATCH_RERUN_NBR
N10
Batch Rerun number of the extract process.
BILL_CNT
N10
Count of bills on this extract. Multiple copies of a bill are counted

multiple as well.
EXTRACT_DTTM
A26
System time of extraction. Also updated in bill routing table.
BILL_ID_START
A12
This is only used when a bill is produced as a result of an online request

(from Bill Main). It contains the Bill Id to extract.
42
Field Name
Format
BILL_ID_END
A12
This is only used when a bill is produced as a result of an online request

(from Bill Main). It contains the Bill Id to extract.
THREAD_NBR
N10
This field is only used if bills are extracted in batch. It contains the
thread number in which the bill was extracted.
THREAD_CNT
N10
This field is only used if bills are extracted in batch. It contains the total
number of threads that were extracted.
Bill Record (0100)

Field Name
Forma
t
BILL_ID
A12
CI_BILL
ACCT_ID
A10
CI_BILL
BILL_DT
CI_BILL
DUE_DT
CI_BILL
COPY_NBR
N1
NBR_BILL_COPIES
N1
CI_BILL_RTG
BILL_PRT_INTERCEPT
A8
CI_BILL_RTG
BILL_FORMAT_FLG
A2
CI_BILL_RTG
REPRINT_SW
A1
CI_BILL_RTG
CASH_ONLY_SW
A1
CUR_BAL
S13.2
CI_BILL_SA
CUR_CHG_AMT
S13.2
CI_FT
CUR_CORR_AMT
S13.2
CI_FT
CUR_ADJ_AMT
S13.2
CI_FT
CUR_PAY_AMT
S13.2
CI_FT
CUR_PREV_BAL
S13.2
CI_FT
TOT_BAL
S13.2
CI_BILL_SA
TOT_CHG_AMT
S13.2
CI_FT
TOT_CORR_AMT
S13.2
CI_FT
TOT_ADJ_AMT
S13.2
CI_FT
TOT_PAY_AMT
S13.2
CI_FT
TOT_PREV_BAL
S13.2
Computed during extract.
CURRENCY_CD
A3
CI_BILL_SA
DELINQUENT_AMT
S13.2
Computed during extract.
CUST_PO_ID
A20
CI_BILL_RTG
ACCT_ENTITY_NAME
A64
CI_PER_NAME. Account Entity Name. Might include prefix/suffix

from Account/Person if available.
ENTITY_NAME
A64
CI_BILL_RTG. Mailing Entity Name.
43
Field Name
Forma
t
ADDRESS_SBR
A361
CI_BILL_RTG. Refer to its components in a later section.
FINAL_BILL_SW
A1
Computed during extract. Contains a value of Y if this bill is

considered to be a final bill.
SCHED_EXTRACT_DT
CI_APAY_CLR_STG. This is the date that the automatic payment will

be downloaded.
ENTITY_NAME1
A64
CI_BILL_RTG. Mailing Entity Name1.
ENTITY_NAME2
A64
ENTITY_NAME3
A64
ACCT-CUR-SYMBOL
A4
Currency symbol for the accounts currency code.
Current Charge Record (0300)

Field Name
Format
DEBT-CLASS-CD
A4
Debt Class of SA Type
DEBT-CLASS-DESCR
A30
Debt Class Description
CUR-CHARGE-AMT
S13.2
Derived from CI_FT (Only the current charge bill segments.)
TOT-CHARGE-AMT
S13.2
Derived from CI_FT (Only the current charge bill segments.)
Payment Record (0600)

Field Name
Format
FT TYPE
A2
Pay or Pay Cancel (PS or PX)
PAY-DT
Derived from CI_FT
CAN_RSN_CD
A4
Derived from CI_PAY, Only for cancellation
CAN-RSN-DESCR
A30
Derived form CI_PAY_CAN_RSN
CUR-PAY-AMT
S13.2
Derived from CI_FT.
TOT-PAY-AMT
S13.2
Derived from CI_FT.
Premise Record (0900)

Field Name
Format
NON_PREM_SW
A1
Y/N switch to indicate (Y) special (non-premise) premise record. This is

for non-premise service agreements such as charity or payment
arrangement.
PREM_ID
A10
From CI_SA or CI_BSEG
ADDRESS_SBR
A361
Service Address (Address of Char Premise) from CI_PREM. Refer to its

components in a later section.
Service Agreement Record (1100)

Field Name
Format
SA_ID
A10
CI_SA
OLD_ACCT_ID
A15
CI_SA
44
Field Name
CUST_READ_FLG
Format
A2
CI_SA
SIC_CD
A4
CI_SA
SIC_DESCR
A30
CI_SIC
BUSINESS_UNIT
A10
CI_SA
SA_TYPE_CD
A8
CI_SA
SA_TYPE_DESCR
A30
CI_SA_TYPE
SA_TYPE_DFLT_DESCR
A80
CI_SA_TYPE
SVC_TYPE_CD
A2
CI_SA_TYPE
SVC_TYPE_DESCR
A30
CI_SVC_TYPE
REV_CL_CD
A8
CI_SA_TYPE
CHAR_PREM_ID
A10
CI_SA
SA_REL_ID
A10
CI_SA_REL
SA_REL_TYPE_CD
A8
CI_SA_REL
SA_REL_TYPE_DESCR
A30
CI_SA_REL_TYPE
SPR_CD
A12
CI_SA_REL
SPR_DESCR
A50
CI_SPR
SPR_ENTITY_NAME
A64
CI_PER_NAME (this is the service providers persons name)
Bill Segment Record (1300)

Field Name
Format
START_DT
CI_BSEG
END_DT
CI_BSEG
CLOSING_BSEG_SW
A1
CI_BSEG
EST_SW
A1
CI_BSEG
BILL_CYC_CD
A4
CI_BSEG
SQ_OVERRIDE_SW
A1
CI_BSEG
ITEM_OVERRIDE_SW
A1
CI_BSEG
BSEG_STAT_FLG
A2
CI_BSEG
CAN_RSN_CD
A4
CI_BSEG
CAN_RSN_DESCR
A30
CI_BILL_CAN_RSN
CUR_AMT
S13.2
CI_FT
TOT_AMT
S13.2
CI_FT
Bill Calc Header Record (1500)

Field Name
Format
START_DT
CI_BSEG_CALC
END_DT
CI_BSEG_CALC
45
Field Name
SETID
Format
A10
CI_BSEG_CALC
RS_CD
A8
CI_BSEG_CALC
CALC_AMT
S13.2
CI_BSEG_CALC
DESCR_ON_BILL
A80
CI_BSEG_CALC
Bill Calc line Record (1700)

Field Name
Format
APP_IN_SUMM_SW
A1
CI_BSEG_CALC_LN
CALC_AMT
S13.2
CI_BSEG_CALC_LN
EXEMPT_AMT
S13.2
CI_BSEG_CALC_LN
UOM_CD
A4
CI_BSEG_CALC_LN
TOU_CD
A8
CI_BSEG_CALC_LN
SQI_CD
A8
CI_BSEG_CALC_LN
BILL_SQ
S12.6
CI_BSEG_CALC_LN
DESCR_ON_BILL
A80
CI_BSEG_CALC_LN
End Bill Calc Header Record (1900)

Field Name
Format
Dummy field
Bill Segment Read Record (2100)

Field Name
Format
SP_ID
A10
CI_BSEG_READ
BADGE_NBR
A16
CI_MTR
UOM_CD
A4
CI_BSEG_READ
TOU_CD
A8
CI_BSEG_READ
RDG_DEC_POS
N1
CI_REG. Decimal positions of the reads.
START_REG_READING
S9.6
CI_BSEG_READ
START_READ_DTTM
CI_BSEG_READ
START_ESTIMATE_SW
A1
CI_REG_READ
END_REG_READING
S9.6
CI_BSEG_READ
END_READ_DTTM
CI_BSEG_READ
END_ESTIMATE_SW
A1
CI_REG_READ
MSR_QTY
S12.6
CI_BSEG_READ
USAGE_FLG
A2
CI_BSEG_READ
USE_PCT
N3
CI_BSEG_READ
HOW_TO_USE_FLG
A2
CI_BSEG_READ
CONSUM_SUB_FLG
A2
CI_REG
46
Field Name
Format
MSR_PEAK_QTY_SW
A1
CI_BSEG_READ
REGISTER_CONST
S6.6
CI_BSEG_READ
QTY_DEC_POS
N1
CI_UOM. Decimal positions of the final quantity.
FINAL_UOM
A4
CI_BSEG_READ
FINAL_TOU
A8
CI_BSEG_READ
FINAL_REG_QTY
S12.6
CI_BSEG_READ
SQI_CD
A8
CI_BSEG_READ
FINAL_SQI_CD
A8
CI_BSEG_READ
Bill Segment SQ Record (2400)

Field Name
Format
UOM_CD
A4
CI_BSEG_SQ
TOU_CD
A8
CI_BSEG_SQ
SQI_CD
A8
CI_BSEG_SQ
SQ_DEC_POS
N1
CI_BSEG_SQ
BILL_SQ
S12.6
CI_BSEG_SQ
Bill Segment Item Record (2700)

Field Name
Format
START_DT
CI_BSEG_ITEM
END_DT
CI_BSEG_ITEM
ITEM_CNT
S9.2
CI_BSEG_ITEM
ITEM_DESCR
A30
CI_ITEM_TYPE
Bill Segment Message Record (2840)

Field Name
Format
BILL_MSG_CD
A4
CI_BSEG_MSG
MSG_ON_BILL
A254
CI_BILL_MSG_L
End Bill Segment Record (2900)

Field Name
Format
Format
Dummy field
Histogram Record (3100)

Field Name
UOM_CD
A4
TOU_CD
A8
SQI_CD
A8
SQ_DEC_POS
N1
CI_SA_TYPE
CI_UOM. Decimal positions of SQ.
47
Field Name
SQ_CNT
Format
N2
Count of SQ (maximum of 13.)
MAX_BILL_SQ
S12.6
Maximum Bill SQ from list. This is derived from CI_BSEG_READ.
SQ_DT (1:13)
Date (for label of the SQ). This is derived from CI_BSEG.
BILL_SQ (1:13)
S12.6
(1:13)
13 occurrences of QTY, one for each period ending on the SQ_DT. This
is derived from CI_BSEG_READ.
Adjustment Record (3400)

Field Name
Format
ADJ_DT
CI_FT
FT_TYPE_FLG
A2
CI_FT
CUR_AMT
S13.2
CI_FT
TOT_AMT
S13.2
CI_FT
ADJ_TYPE_CD
A8
CI_ADJ
ADJ_TYPE_DESCR
A30
CI_ADJ_TYPE
DESCR_ON_BILL
A80
CI_ADJ_TYPE
CAN_RSN_CD
A4
CI_ADJ
CAN_RSN_DESCR
A30
CI_ADJ_CAN_RSN
End Service Agreement Record (3600)

Field Name
Format
Format
Dummy field
End Premise Record (3700)

Field Name
Dummy field
Message Record (3900)

Field Name
Format
BILL_MSG_CD
A4
CI_BILL_MSGS
MSG_PRIORITY_FLG
A2
CI_BILL_MSG
INSERT_CD
A8
CI_BILL_MSG
MSG_ON_BILL
A254
CI_BILL_MSG
End Bill Record (9999)

Field Name
Format
Dummy field
Address Sub-record
The address sub-record that appears in both the bill record (0100) and the premise record (0900)
is composed of the following:
48
Field Name
Format
COUNTRY
A3
ADDRESS1
A64
ADDRESS2
A64
ADDRESS3
A64
ADDRESS4
A64
CITY
A30
NUM1
A6
NUM2
A4
HOUSE_TYPE
A2
COUNTY
A30
STATE
A6
POSTAL
A12
GEO_CODE
A11
IN_CITY_LIMIT
A1
Description
Refer to The Source Of Bill Routing Information for a description
of conditions when this field will contain a fax number or an
Email address rather than the first line of a postal address (this
only occurs for a bill record (0100)).
Sequential Bill Numbers

Every bill is uniquely identified by its bill ID. Bill ID is a random, system-assigned number. In
some locales, bills have an additional identifier known as a sequential bill number. Sequential
bill numbers are system-assigned, sequential numbers. For example, the first bill produced by
the system is assigned a sequential bill number of 1, the next bill is assigned a value of 2, etc. An
additional requirement is that no gaps may exist between the sequential bill numbers.
The topics in this section describe how sequential bill numbers are implemented in the system.
Contents
Sequential Numbers Are Only Assigned If The Installation Option Is Turned On
Pending Bills Do Not Have A Sequential Bill Number
When / How Is The Sequential Bill Number Assigned
Additional Functionality for Sequential Bill Numbering
Sequential Numbers Are Only Assigned If The Installation Option Is Turned

On
Sequential bill numbers will only be assigned if you have selected Sequential Bill Numbers as the
Alternative Bill ID Option on the Installation record.
Pending Bills Do Not Have A Sequential Bill Number

Bills are assigned a sequential bill number after they are completed. This means that pending
bills will not have a sequential bill number. This is intentional as pending bills can be deleted and
if a deleted bill had a sequential bill number, gaps would result. Refer to Bill Lifecycle for more
information about a bills state transition lifecycle.
49
When / How Is The Sequential Bill Number Assigned

Warning! This section is a technical explanation of how sequential bill numbers are assigned. It
contains background information for those who wish to understand the rationale of the design.
The batch billing process (known by the batch control ID of BILLING) takes advantage of parallel
processing to allow multiple bills to be produced concurrently. In addition, we allow groups of bills
to be committed in chunks (based on the commit frequency assigned to the billing background
process). These two facts make it impossible to allocate sequential bill numbers during batch
billing (because back outs could result in gaps and parallel processing could result in duplicates).
This is why sequential bill numbers are allocated as follows:
A sequential bill number is allocated when a bill is completed online (by clicking the
Complete button on Bill Main).
If you submit the batch billing process with the following parameters, sequential bill numbers
will be allocated when bills are completed:
Batch thread number must equal 1.
Batch thread count must equal 1.
Override maximum records between commits must equal 1.
The above parameters mean that bills are not being produced in parallel and they are not
being committed in chunks. This allows the system to allocate sequential bill numbers
when the bills are completed.
If you do not run batch billing single-threaded, you must schedule the Assign Sequential Bill
Numbers background process (known by the batch control ID of ASSGNSBN) to run
immediately after batch billing. This single-threaded process assigns sequential bill numbers
to completed bills.
The following measures are in place as a fail-safe:
If the billing download process (known by the batch control ID of POSTROUT)

encounters a bill without a sequential bill number, it will abort with an appropriate error
message.
Users are not allowed to delete a completed bill with a sequential bill number. Note,
deletion of completed bills is typically prohibited due to the presence of frozen bill
segments. However, its possible to create a bill without frozen bill segments and
additional logic exist to inhibit the deletion of such bills if they have sequential bill
numbers.
Additional Functionality for Sequential Bill Numbering

The following points describe additional features that are enabled when the Installation record
indicates sequential bill numbers are used:
The bills number appears in bill info. Bill info is the concatenated string of information that
summarizes a bill on many pages in the system.
The Bill Search page includes an additional search option to search by bill number.
The match type algorithm that allows payments to be matched to a given bill id will try to
match the payment to a bill with a matching sequential bill number.
50
Document Numbers
Every bill is uniquely identified by its bill ID. Bill ID is a random, system-assigned number. In
some locales utilities may be required to assign and print an additional document number. For
example, in Argentina a utility must obtain authorization from the national tax agency before they
are allowed to print bills at a local office. Once authorized, the utility is assigned a printing
authorization code valid for a period. The printing authorization code and expiration, as well as an
official document number are printed on the bill at the location where the bill is issued.
The topics in this section describe how document numbers are implemented in the system.
Contents
Document Numbers Are Only Assigned If the Installation Option Is Turned On
Pending Bills Do Not Have a Document Number
When/How Is the Document Number Assigned
Additional Functionality Exists When Document Numbers Are Used
Document Numbers Are Only Assigned If the Installation Option Is Turned

On
Document numbers will only be assigned if you have selected Document Numbers as the
Alternative Bill ID Option on the Installation record. In addition, the Document Number and
Document Number Details algorithms must be enabled on the Installation record. These
algorithms contain the logic used by the system to assign a document number to a bill.
Pending Bills Do Not Have a Document Number

Similar to sequential bill numbers, bills are assigned a document number after they are
completed. This means that pending bills will not have a sequential bill number. Refer to Bill
Lifecycle for more information about a bills state transition lifecycle.
When/How Is the Document Number Assigned

Warning! This section is a technical explanation of how document numbers are assigned. It
contains background information for those who wish to understand the rationale of the design.
An installation algorithm assigns a document number to a bill.
Similar to sequential bill numbers, document numbers are allocated as follows:
A document number is allocated when a bill is completed online (by clicking the Complete
button on Bill Main).
The Assign Bill Document Numbers background process (known by the batch control ID of
C1-BNBAS) should be scheduled to run immediately after batch billing. This single-threaded
process assigns document numbers to completed bills.
The logic used to assign a document number resides in the installation options Document
Number algorithm
The following measures are in place as a fail-safe:
If the billing download process (known by the batch control ID of POSTROUT)

encounters a bill without a document number, it will abort with an appropriate error
message.
51
Users are not allowed to delete a completed bill with a document number. Note,
deletion of completed bills is typically prohibited due to the presence of frozen bill
segments. However, its possible to create a bill without frozen bill segments and
additional logic exist to inhibit the deletion of such bills if they have sequential bill
numbers.
Additional Functionality Exists When Document Numbers Are Used

The following points describe additional features that are enabled when the Installation record
indicates that document numbers are used:
The Bill Search page includes an additional search option to search by Document Number
and Document Type.
The bills document number and type appear in bill info. Bill info is the concatenated string
of information that summarizes a bill on many pages in the system.
The match type algorithm thatallows payments to be matched to a given bill id will try to
match the payment to a bill with a matching document number and type.
Writing Off Bills

If your organization practices open-item accounting and your credit and collections rules revolve
around collecting on unpaid bills, you can set up the system to automatically write-off bills.
If you've enabled this functionality, Bill - Main will contain a button that a user can click to
manually write off a bill. A corresponding button exists that a user can click to reverse a writtenoff bill.
Refer to Writing Off Bills for a description of how to set up the system to allow both automated
and manual bill write off.
Idiosyncratic Manual Bill Cancellation

If a bill's account is associated with a Customer Class that has a Cancel Bill algorithm, the
system invokes this algorithm before the bill is displayed to determine if the bill is "cancellable". If
the algorithm indicates the bill is cancellable, a button appears on Bill - Main. When clicked, the
Cancel Bill algorithm is invoked again to cancel the bill. This functionality is meant to support
unique cancellation needs required by some implementations; the sample base-package
algorithm is empty.
Maintaining Bills
A bill is used to communicate changes in a customers financial obligations to the customer. The
topics in this section describe how to maintain bills.
The system creates most bills behind-the-scenes. Most bills are created by the system when
it processes the bill cycle schedule. You should only have to access the bill pages to correct a bill
or to add a bill real-time. For information about how the system creates bills, refer to The Big
Picture of Billing.
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Its important to be aware that there are very few fields that are directly modifiable by a user. To
modify most fields on a bill, you have to change source information (e.g., service agreement, rate,
meter read) and then regenerate the bill. For example, if you want to change a bills amount, you
must cancel or add bill segments; you cannot change the bills amount by modifying the bill
amount field. Refer to How To for step-by-step instructions that explain how to perform common
bill maintenance functions.
Contents
Bill Lifecycle
Bill - Main Information
Bill - Bill Segments
Bill - Bill Routings
Bill - Bill Messages
Bill - Characteristics
How To
Bill Lifecycle
The following diagram shows the possible lifecycle of a bill.
Bill Lifecycle
Pending
Garbage
Complete
Warning! This explanation only makes sense in the context of the page used to maintain bills.
Refer to Bill Main Information for the details.
A bill is initially saved in the Pending state. You may create one or more bill segments for the
account's service agreements at this point. Refer to How To for information about generating bill
segments for the bill.
A bill becomes Complete when it is ready to be sent to the customer. Completing a bill triggers
many things to occur. Refer to the section below for information about what happens when a bill
is completed.
When you complete a bill, several things may happen:
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Pre-completion algorithms associated with the accounts service agreements SA types are
executed. The system executes these algorithms first in the order of the billing processing
sequence on each service agreements SA type then in the order of the algorithms
sequence. These are not executed for the completion of credit notes.
Pre-completion algorithms associated with the accounts customer class are executed.
The bills due date is calculated. This is equal to the bill date plus the number of days defined
on the accounts customer class. If the resultant date is not a workday, the due date is set to
the next workday. Note, this due date can be overridden if an override algorithm exists on
the accounts customer class.
The bills routing information is set up using Account Person Information.
If the Freeze At Bill Completion installation option has been turned on, freezable bill
segments and adjustments linked to the account are frozen. Note, only freezable
adjustments whose adjustment type indicates Freeze At Bill Completion will be frozen at
this time. Refer to Preventing SA Balances And The GL From Being Impacted Until Bill
Completion for more information.
If a final bill segment of a deposit service agreement is detected, the deposit is refunded to
the customer using the refund method algorithm plugged-in on the deposit SAs deposit
class. Refer to Deposit Refund for more information. This step is skipped during the
completion of credit notes, or if the bill is linked to an off cycle bill generator.
Post completion algorithms associated with the accounts service agreements SA types are
executed. The system executes these algorithms first in the order of the billing processing
sequence on each service agreements SA type then in the order of the algorithms
sequence.
Bill completion algorithms associated with the accounts customer class are executed.
Bill messages are amalgamated from various sources and linked to the bill. Refer to The
Source Of Bill Messages for more information.
Other financial transactions that have been frozen since the last bill and are marked to show
on bill are linked to the new bill
For open-item customers adjustments and corrections are linked
For correction notes or credit notes, the bill cancellation financial transactions are linked
For off cycle bill generator bills:
Adjustments linked to the off cycle bill generator are linked to the bill
If the off cycle bill generator is linked to a service agreement, then all financial
transactions associated with the SA are linked to the bill
For all other situations, payments, adjustments and corrections are linked assuming the
adjustments are not linked to an off cycle bill generator
All financial transactions that dont already have a user-defined aging date will be dated with
the current date. In other words, they start aging from the date the bill is completed.
If the account pays automatically and the installations Autopay Creation Option is to Create
At Bill Completion, an automatic payment is created. Refer to APAYCREATE for more
information about the auto pay creation algorithm. This step is skipped during the completion
of credit notes.
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If the accounts customer class indicates the account is an open-item customer, a match
event is created. The bills FTs and the automatic payments FTs are linked to it. Refer to
Payments and Match Events for more information about match events. This step is skipped
during the completion of credit notes.
If the account pays automatically and the installations Autopay Creation Option is to Create
On Extract Date, the bill is stamped with the date when the automatic payment is to be
created. Refer to The System Background Processes for more information about
APAYCRET, the background process that creates the automatic payment and APAYDSFR,
the background process that distributes and freezes the automatic payment. This step is
skipped during the completion of credit notes.
The bills late payment date is calculated. This is equal to the due date plus the grace days
defined on the accounts customer class. If the resultant date is not a workday, the LPC date
is set to the next workday. This step is skipped during the completion of credit notes.
The account is marked for review by the account debt monitor on its due date plus a grace
period defined on its customer class. This step is skipped during the completion of credit
notes.
If the accounts customer class indicates the account is an open-item customer, the system
will create a match event if the new charges are offset by other financial transactions. Refer
to Payments and Match Events for more information about match events. This step is
skipped during the completion of credit notes.
The bills status becomes Complete.
Post bill completion algorithms associated with the accounts customer class are executed.
If the system cannot complete the bill (for whatever reason), the bill remains Pending and an
error message is shown on the main bill page. After correcting the cause of the problem, attempt
to complete the bill again.
A complete bill may be changed back to pending using the Reopen button on Bill Main
Information. You would reopen a bill when
Add more bill segments to a completed bill. Refer to the How To section for information
about linking bill segments for a bill.
Fine-tune the payments, adjustments, and corrections that were linked to a completed bill.
Refer to the How To section for detailed instructions.
When youre happy with the bill, you can complete it again.
Cannot reopen historical bills. You may only reopen an accounts most recent bill (except if
this bill is linked to an off cycle bill generator) because recompleting the bill causes the endingbalance to change, and we dont want this to happen to historical bills.
Automatic payments. If an automatic payment was created when the bill was completed and it
has already been interfaced to the financial institution, you cannot reopen the bill. If the
automatic payment exists, but it has not yet been interfaced, the system will automatically cancel
the payment when you reopen the bill.
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Certain bill completion algorithms prevent reopening. If a bill contains a service agreement
whose SA type has a transfer accounts receivable to service provider algorithm, the system will
not allow the bill to be reopened. Refer to If You Deal With TBFU Service Providers You Cant
Reopen Bills for more information about this bill completion algorithm.
You may delete a Pending bill from the database. You may not delete a pending bill if: a) there
are frozen bill segments linked to the bill, or b) if financial transactions were linked to the bill (and
this can only happen if the bill had been previously completed).
In addition to removing the bill, the system will also remove unfrozen bill segments linked to the
bill.
Bill - Main Information

Open Financial, Bill, Main to maintain core bill information.
The following discussion describes the fields on this page. Refer to How To for a description of
how to perform common bill maintenance functions.
Description of Page
Bill Info contains a concatenation of important information about the bill (e.g., the bill date, its
status, due date, ending balance, etc.). If sequential bill numbering has been enabled, the bills
number also appears. If document numbering has been enabled, the assigned document number
and document type will also appear. If this bill is a correction note or credit note, a message will
appear indicating this along with the ID of the original bill. If the batch billing background process
generates the bill, the bill information includes the bill cycle and window start date. Bills
generated manually, i.e., off-schedule, do not have this information.
Bill ID is the system-assigned unique identifier of the bill.
Account ID identifies the customer who is responsible for the bill. The name of the main
customer on the account appears adjacent.
If this bill is a credit note or correction note, a message appears adjacent to the account
information indicating that this bill is a credit note or correction note for another bill; this hyperlink
will drill you to the original bill. If a credit note or correction note has been issued for one or more
of this bills bill segments, a message appears indicating such.Bill Status is the bills status.
Refer to Bill Lifecycle for the potential values and how to handle a bill when it exists in a given
state. Adjacent to the bill status is the Display Bill button, which will display an online image of
the bill when clicked. Refer to How To Display A Bill On-line for more information.
If the bill is associated with an off cycle bill generator, a message appears adjacent to the bill
status indicating this and the hyperlink will take the user to the related off cycle bill generator.
Note. You can only use the Display Bill button if your system has been configured to display an
on-line image; otherwise, a message indicating that the service is not available will appear. This
option can only be configured by your technical staff. The system comes with configurations to
display bill images using BI Publisher, DOC1, and Crystal, but can work with other applications.
Due Date is the date on which the bill is due. A bills due date is calculated as follows:
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Add the due days specified on the accounts customer class to the bill date.
The resulting date is the due date unless its not a workday. In this case, the due date is set
to the next workday (workdays are defined in the installation options tables).
If the accounts customer class has an override due date calculation algorithm, the due date
may be overridden. Refer to Setting Up Customer Classes for more information.
Late payment charges. Late payment charges are calculated on the due date plus the grace
period. Refer to Defining Late Payment Charge Options for more information.
Bill Date is the business date that was used when the bill was completed. For example, if batch
billing starts on 11:55 pm on 1-Jan-2000 and a bill is produced at 1:00 am on 2-Jan-2000, this
bills bill date would be 1-Jan-2000.
Create Date/Time is the date and time on which the bill was originally created.
Completion Date/Time is the date and time on which the bill was completed.
If the customer pays automatically and the automatic payment has not yet been created, a brief
message appears highlighting the date and amount of the future automatic payment. In addition,
a button appears called Stop Autopay, that, when clicked, causes the associated automatic
payment to stop. You might click this button if the customer indicates that they will send in a
payment. After you click the Stop Autopay button, a message appears highlighting the
stoppage. Refer to How And When Are Automatic Payments Created for more information about
how to setup the system to defer the creation of automatic payments until the future automatic
payment extract date.
In the Message area, a brief error message appears if theres a problem with the bill. The
message area is suppressed if there are no problems with the bill.
Click the magnifying button to view the long explanation. The long explanation will provide
information about the cause of the error (and how to fix it).
The Late Payment Charge Details section contains information about how the system
determines when and whether to levy late payment charges:
Eligible for Late Payment Charge can be checked if a charge should be levied for late
payment. This field is defaulted based on the customers customer class. If you want to
excuse a bill from late payment charge processing uncheck this box.
Late Payment Charge Date is the date on which the system will levy a late payment charge
if payment is not received. This date is calculated when the bill is completed. It is equal to
the bills due date plus the accounts customer classs grace days. If this date does not fall
on a workday, the date is set to the next available workday when the bill is completed. If you
want to manually delay the onset of late payment charge processing, extend this date into the
future.
Late payment charges. Late payment charges are calculated on the due date plus the grace
period. Refer to How Late Payment Charges Get Calculated for more information.
Bill Summary summarizes the financial impact of the bill. The information that appears differs
depending on whether the account is a balance-forward or open-item account. If the account is a
balance-forward customer, the following information appears:
Previous Periods Balance is the balance from the accounts last bill.
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Total Payments is the total amount of frozen or canceled payment segment financial
transactions linked to this bill. Frozen payment segments appear as negative numbers
(decreasing the amount owed by the customer), while canceled payment segments appear
as positive numbers (increasing the amount owed). You can drill down on this balance to
view the financial transactions that contribute to this total. Refer to How To Remove
Unwanted Payments From A Completed Bill for a description of how to perform common
maintenance functions.
Total Adjustments is the total amount of frozen or canceled adjustment financial

transactions linked to this bill. You can drill down on the balance to view the financial
transactions that contribute to this total. Refer to How To Remove Unwanted Adjustments
From A Completed Bill for a description of how to perform common maintenance functions.
Total Bill Corrections is the total amount of canceled and / or rebilled bill segment financial
transactions that contribute to this total.
Total Current Billing Charges is the total amount of frozen bill segment financial
Ending Balance For This Period is the sum of the five amounts above. It is the amount
owed by the customer as of the end of the bill period.
If the account is an open-item customer, the following information appears under Bill Summary:
New Charges is the total amount of frozen bill segment financial transactions linked to this
bill. You can drill down on this value to view the financial transactions that contribute to this
total.
Adjustments is the total amount of frozen or canceled adjustment financial transactions

linked to this bill. You can drill down on this value to view the financial transactions that
contribute to this total. Refer to How To Remove Unwanted Adjustments From A Completed
Bill for a description of how to perform common maintenance functions.
Corrections is the total amount of canceled and / or rebilled bill segment financial
transactions linked to this bill. You can drill down on this value to view the financial
Total is the sum of the above amounts. You can drill down on this value to view the financial
If the account is an open-item customer, the following information appears under Match
Summary (note, this section is not displayed for balance-forward accounts):
X Balanced Item(s) contains the count and total amount of financial transactions linked to
this bill that are linked to balanced match events.
X Unbalanced Item(s) contains the count and total amount of financial transactions linked to
this bill that are linked to unbalanced match events.
X Disputed Item(s) contains the count and total amount of financial transactions linked to
this bill that are linked to disputed match events.
X Unmatched Item(s) contains the count and total amount of financial transactions linked to
this bill that are not linked to any match event.
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Total Changes After Completion only appears if bill segments that appeared on the original bill
have been subsequently canceled or rebilled. The amount displayed is the net effect of all
cancels and rebills. Note, you can use the Remarks column in the bill segments grid (to the
right) to see which bill segments have been cancelled / rebilled.
If 25 or fewer bill segments are linked to this bill, the grid in the lower right portion of the page
contains one row for every bill segment linked to the bill.
The following points describe each column in the grid:
The Bill Segment column contains a concatenation of each bill segments division, SA type,
status and bill period. The division and SA type come from the bill segments service
agreement.
The Current Amount column contains the bill segments effect on the service agreements
current balance.
The Status column shows the bill segments status. Refer to Bill Segment Lifecycle for the
possible values.
The Remarks highlight special situations. The following remarks may appear:
Rebill after completion appears if the bill segment is a rebill that was created after the
bill was sent to the customer. The financial impact of this bill segment appears as a bill
correction on the next bill produced for the customer.
Rebill prior completion appears if the bill segment is a rebill that was created before the
bill was sent to the customer.
Canceled after completion appears if the bill segment was canceled after the bill was
sent to the customer. The financial impact of this bill segment appears as a bill
Canceled prior completion appears if the bill segment was canceled before the bill was
sent to the customer.
If the bill segments status is Error or Incomplete, this column contains an estimated
value of this bill segment. The estimated value is calculated by computing an average
daily amount from the service agreements frozen bill segments in the last 365 days.
This average is then applied to the number of days in this bill segments bill period. If the
bill segment doesnt have a bill period (rare, but possible), the historical average is not
displayed.
If the bill segments status is Error, this column also contains the error message.
Rebilled due to correction appears if a correction note was generated for the bill
segment. This remark appears only if you have the Correction Note Billing Option
specified in the Installation record.
Rebilled due to correction. Canceled after completion appears for a correction note
that spawns another correction note. This remark appears only if you have the
Correction Note Billing Option specified in the Installation record.
If more than 25 bill segments are linked to this bill, the grid in the lower right portion of the page
contains a summary of the various bill segments linked to the bill.
The following points describe each column in the grid:
The Status column shows the bill segments status. Refer to Bill Segment Lifecycle for the
possible values. Click on the hyperlink to transfer to the Bill Segments tab where the
associated bill segments can be viewed.
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The Total Bill Segments column contains the number of bill segments linked to the bill with
this Status. If the status is Error or Incomplete, this column contains an estimated value of
these bill segments. The estimated value is calculated by computing an average daily amount
from frozen bill segments in the last 365 days for each service agreement. This average is
then applied to the number of days in each bill segments bill period. Please note, an
historical average cannot be computed if an Error or Incomplete bill segment does not have
a bill period (rare, but possible).
The Total Amount column contains the sum of the current amount of these bill segments.
At the bottom of the scroll is shown the Total Generated Charge. This represents the total
amount of the bill segments. This amount may differ from the Total Current Billing Charges
when:
The bill is not Complete. A bill segments financial effect is not shown on the bill until the bill
is completed.
A bill segment has been canceled / rebilled since the bill was completed.
The topics that follow describe each of the actions that appear in the Bill Segment Action and
Bill Action areas. Refer to How To for a description of typical business processes that use these
buttons.
Contents
Generate
Freeze
Cancel Frozen
Freeze / Complete
Complete
Delete
Reopen
Credit Note
Correction Note
Write Off
Reverse Write Off
Cancel Bill
Generate
The Generate button causes a bill segment to be created for each service agreement linked to
the account. The system generates bill segments in the order of the billing processing sequence
on each service agreements SA type.
This button is enabled when you are in add mode (i.e., you are not displaying an existing bill) and
you have selected an Account ID.
When clicked, the Generate window opens.
You must specify the following parameters in the Generate window to generate the bill segments:
Cutoff Date is the last possible day of each bill segments bill period. The current date
defaults when the window opens. Refer to Ways To Control The End Date Of A Bill Segment
Accounting Date defines the financial period to which the new bill segments financial
transactions are booked. The current date defaults when the window opens.
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Check Allow Estimates if the system is allowed to estimate consumption if it cant find a
meter read.
If the service agreements use meter reads, use the Billing Option to control how the system
retrieves meter reads that appear on the bill. Choose Use Cut off Date if the meter reads
must exist on the Cutoff Date (defined above). Choose Use Schedule if you want the
service agreements service point(s) service cycle schedule to control the meter reads that
are used (the schedule effective on the cutoff date is used to select the meter reads).
After specifying the parameters, click Calculate to create a new bill and new bill segments for the
account. You see a summary of the bill segments in the lower right portion of the page.
Freeze
Clicking Freeze causes all freezable bill segments to become frozen. Refer to Bill Segment
Lifecycle for more information about freezing.
This button is enabled if:
the Freeze At Will Bill Segment Freeze Option on the installation option has been selected
AND
freezable bill segments exist AND
there are no error, incomplete or pending cancel bill segments.
Freezing a day or more after generation. If, during freezing, bill segments in closed
accounting periods are detected, a pop-up appears in which you can specify a new accounting
date; this date is updated onto the offending bill segments. This only happens if the accounting
period closes before you freeze the bill segments (the accounting date is stamped on a bill
segment when its generated).
If, after freezing, youre ready to send the bill to the customer click Complete to finalize the bill.
If problems are detected after freezing. A bill segment may not be changed after it is frozen.
All subsequent changes must occur by canceling the frozen bill segment and creating a new bill
segment. Refer to How To Cancel A Bill Segment and How To Cancel / Rebill A Bill Segment for
more information.
Cancel Frozen
Clicking Cancel Frozen causes all frozen bill segments to become canceled. Refer to Bill
Segment Lifecycle for more information about cancellation. This button is disabled if the bill is
written off.
Pending cancels are not affected. Clicking Cancel Frozen does not affect bill segments that
are pending cancel. To make a pending cancel bill segment canceled, transfer to Bill
Segment Main and click Cancel.
If you need to cancel a specific bill segment, either transfer to the next tab and cancel the bill
segment in question or follow the instructions under How To Cancel A Bill Segment.
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This button is enabled if frozen bill segments are linked to the bill.
When clicked, the Cancel Frozen Bill Segments window opens.
In the Cancel Frozen Bill Segments window, you must specify the following parameters to
cancel the frozen bill segments:
Cancel Reason defines why you are performing the cancellation.
Accounting Date defines the financial period to which the canceled bill segments financial
After specifying the parameters, click Calculate to cancel the frozen bill segments.
There is no Undo. Unlike cancellations performed on Bill Segment Main, there is no Undo
action. This transaction moves the pending cancel bill segments to the cancel state immediately;
whereas the bill segment transaction lets you examine the cancellation before you commit it. If
you cancelled bill segments by mistake, you must generate and freeze new bill segments.
If the bill is pending, the cancellation causes the bill segments to be suppressed on the version
of the bill sent to the customer (but they remain in the database for audit and financial reporting
purposes).
If the bill is complete and you do not Reopen the bill, the financial impact of the canceled bill
segments appears on the next bill created for the account (under Bill Corrections).
If the bill is complete you may be able to Reopen the bill and then Complete it. By doing this,
you can suppress a frozen bill segment on a previously completed bill. This means that if you
catch a problem after completion you dont necessarily have to show the problem to the
customer. Rather, cancel the problem, reopen and then recomplete the bill (when you
recomplete the bill the system marks the bill segment to be suppressed on the version sent to the
customer because its cancellation appears on the same bill as the original charges).
Freeze / Complete
The Freeze / Complete button performs a variety of functions:
all freezable bill segments (including rebills) become frozen
all pending cancel bill segments become canceled
all freezable adjustments whose adjustment type indicates Freeze At Bill Completion
become frozen
the bill is finalized and marked for transmission to the customer
Refer to Bill Lifecycle for information about what happens during bill completion. Refer to Bill
Segment Lifecycle for more information about freezing.
the Freeze At Bill Completion Bill Segment Freeze Option on the installation option has
been selected AND
the bill is pending AND
there are no bill segments or there are bill segments and all are freezable, pending cancel,
frozen or canceled AND
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there are no error or incomplete bill segments.
When clicked, the Complete window opens.

If the User May Override Bill Date option has been enabled on the Installation Record, you may
override the Bill Date prior to completion. Otherwise, the Bill Date is the current date and cannot
be changed. The current date defaults when the window opens.
Freezing a day or more after generation. If, during freezing, bill segments in closed
accounting periods are detected, a pop-up appears in which you can specify a new accounting
date; this date is updated onto the offending bill segments. This will only happen if the
accounting period closes before you freeze the bill segments (the accounting date is stamped on
a bill segment when its initially generated).
After specifying the parameter, click Calculate to freeze and complete the bill.
Complete
The Complete button causes a bill to be finalized and marked for transmission to the customer.
Refer to Bill Lifecycle for information about what happens during bill completion.
AND
there are no bill segments or there are bill segments and all are frozen or canceled.
When clicked, the Complete window opens.

If the User May Override Bill Date option has been enabled on the Installation Record, you may
override the Bill Date prior to completion. Otherwise, the Bill Date is the current date and cannot
be changed. The current date defaults when the window opens. If completing a correction note,
the user is prompted to enter a Correction Note Date instead of a bill date in the Complete
window.
After specifying the above parameters, click Calculate to complete the bill.
Delete
The Delete button deletes a bill and its bill segments.
all bill segments are incomplete, freezable or in error.
Reopen
The Reopen button causes a bill to be reopened. Refer to Bill Lifecycle for information about why
you would reopen a bill.
the bill is complete AND
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the bill is not written off AND
this is the most recent bill produced for the account AND
the bill is not linked to an off cycle bill generator AND
reopening hasnt been prohibited for the bill. Refer to Bill Lifecycle for information about
conditions that can prevent a bill from reopening.
After reopening a bill, it returns to the pending state and you can make changes to the accounts
financial transactions (e.g., add payments, adjustments, and bill segments). After which, you
click Complete or Freeze / Complete to finalize the bill. Only one of these buttons is shown the
specific one depends on how your organization has set the Bill Segment Freeze Option on the
installation record.
Credit Note
The Credit Note button is used to cancel ALL bill segments and create a new bill that contains
the cancellation details. We refer to this negative bill as a credit note. Refer to Credit Notes Presenting Cancellation Details on a Separate Bill for more information.
the Use Credit Notes option on the Installation record is turned on AND
the bill is not written off.
When clicked, the Credit Note window opens.

You must specify the following parameters in the Credit Note window to cancel the frozen bill
segments:
Credit Note Date defines the date of the credit note on which the cancellation details appear.
The current date defaults when the window opens.
After specifying the parameters, click Calculate to cancel the frozen bill segments and create a
credit note.
It should be noted that if this operation is successful, the new negative bill is complete. It is
ready for transmission to the customer and for interface to the general ledger.
If you want to issue a credit note for a specific bill segment. Rather than cancel all bill
segments on a bill, you can create a credit note for a specific bill segment on a bill. To do this,
drill down on the bill segment in question and then click the Credit Note button on the bill segment
page. You can also issue a credit note for selected bill segments on the next tab by selecting the
desired bill segments and clicking the Credit Note button.
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Correction Note
The Correction Note button is used to cancel and rebill ALL bill segments and create a new bill
that contains the cancellation and rebill details. We refer to the resultant bill as a correction note.
Refer to Correction Notes - Presenting Correction Notes on a Separate Bill for more information.
the Correction Note Billing Option is specified on the Installation record AND
there is at least one frozen bill segment on the bill or all of the bills bill segments are frozen
or cancelled AND
there are no bill segment financial transactions that have been transferred out of the system.
When clicked, the Correction Note window opens.

You must specify the following parameters in the Correction Note window to correct the bill
segment:
Cancel Reason defines why you are performing the correction.
Cutoff Date is the last possible day of each bill period for a bill segment. The current date
Accounting Date defines the financial period that the financial transactions are booked for a
bill segment. The current date defaults when the window opens.
meter read.
Use the Billing Option to define how the system looks for meter reads:
Select Use Schedule if the system should select reads based on the SAs SP service
cycle schedule. Refer to How The System Determines How Much Was Consumed for
more information.
Select Use Cut off Date if the system should only select reads from the end date of the
existing bill segment.
If you prefer to have the system use the consumption details used on the original bill
segments, check Use Old Read/Item/SQ. If this switch is on, neither Allow Estimates nor
Billing Option is relevant.
After specifying the parameters, click Calculate to correct the bill segments and create a
correction note. The Bill Page opens and displays the Correction Note.
Once you complete a correction note, it cannot be reopened.

After you create a correction note, the Undo Correction Note button is activated.
The button is enabled if:
the Correction Note Billing Option is specified on the Installation record AND
the bill is a correction note AND
the bill is not linked to an off cycle bill generator AND
all of the bill segments for the correction note are freezable.
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If you want to issue a correction note for a specific bill segment. You can create a
correction note for a specific bill segment on a bill. To do this, drill down on the bill segment in
question and then click the Correction Note button on the bill segment page. You can also issue
a correction note for selected bill segments by selecting the desired bill segments and clicking the
Correction Note button.
Write Off
Refer to Writing Off Bills for a description of when the Write Off button appears and what
happens if the button is clicked.
Reverse Write Off

Refer to Writing Off Bills for a description of when the Reverse Write Off button appears and
what happens if the button is clicked.
Cancel Bill
Refer to Idiosyncratic Manual Bill Cancellation for a description of when the Cancel Bill button
appears and what happens if the button is clicked. Note that if the bill is linked to an off cycle bill
generator, this button is not enabled.
Bill - Bill Segments

You can use this page to view all or selected bill segments linked to a bill. In addition, you can
also perform certain maintenance functions on this page (see the details below).
Open Financial, Bill, Bill Segments to view this information.
Note. If the bill has more than 25 bill segments and you dont use the go to buttons in the bill
segment grid on the Main tab to drill over to this information, the search criteria are intentionally
left blank in order to avoid retrieving all bill segments (with the resultant slow response times).
You must therefore use the SA Filter and the Status Filter to define the type of bill segments
that should be retrieved. See the Description of page below for more information about this
pages search criteria.
The Description of page section below describes the fields on this page. Refer to How To for a
description of how to perform common maintenance functions.
Description of page
status, due date, ending balance, etc.).
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Note. If the bill has more than 25 bill segments and you dont use the hyperlinks in the bill
segment grid on the Main tab to drill over to this page, the Filters are intentionally left blank in
order to avoid retrieving all bill segments (with the resultant slow response times). You must
therefore use the SA Filter and the Status Filter to define the type of bill segments that should
be retrieved.
The area beneath Bill Info provides you with options that control which bill segments appear in
the grid. The following points describe the various options:
Use the SA Filter to define the types of service agreements whose bill segments appear in
the grid. The following options are available:
Address. Use this option to restrict bill segments to those whose service agreements
are linked to service points associated with a given Address, City and/or Postal code.
Note, you can specify any combination of these fields.
All. Use this option if you do not wish to restrict bill segments based on service
Geographic Type. Use this option to restrict bill segments to those whose service
agreements are linked to service points associated with a given Geo Type and Value.
SA Type. Use this option to restrict bill segments to those whose service agreements
are linked to a given CIS Division and SA Type.
Use Status Filter to restrict the bill segments based on their status. The following options
are available:
All. This option shows all bill segments regardless of status.
Refer to Bill Segment Lifecycle for the various status values.
The Select All / Clear All buttons are used to select bill segments if you plan on issuing any of
the mass update actions at the bottom of the page. These buttons are enabled if either of the
following conditions is true:
All bill segments that appear in the grid are in the Error, Freezable and/or Incomplete
states.
All bill segments that appear in the grid are in the Frozen state
Refer to the description of the mass update actions below for more information.
100 bill segments at a time. Clicking Select All selects the first 100 bill segments in the grid. If
more than 100 bill segments exist, you must select them in batches.
The grid that follows contains the bill segments that match your search criteria. The following
information appears in the grid:
Select box. See the mass update description immediately above for conditions under which
this checkbox can be used to select bill segments for mass update actions.
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The Bill Segment column contains a concatenation of the bill segments division, SA type,
status and bill period. The division and SA type come from the bill segments service
agreement. Click the hyperlink to transfer to Bill Segment Main Information. On this page
you can perform maintenance functions (e.g., cancel/rebill, delete, cancel, etc., depending on
the segments status) on the bill segment in question.
The Current Amount column contains the bill segments effect on the service agreements
current balance.
The Status shows the bill segments status. Refer to Bill Segment Lifecycle for the possible
values.
The Remarks column highlights special circumstances associated with the bill segment.
Rebill after completion appears if the bill segment is a rebill that was created after the
bill was sent to the customer. The financial impact of this bill segment appears as a bill
Rebill prior completion appears if the bill segment is a rebill that was created before the
bill was sent to the customer.
Canceled after completion appears if the bill segment was canceled after the bill was
sent to the customer. The financial impact of this bill segment appears as a bill
Canceled prior completion appears if the bill segment was canceled before the bill was
sent to the customer.
If the bill segments status is Error or Incomplete, this column contains an estimated
value of this bill segment. The estimated value is calculated by computing an average
daily amount from the service agreements frozen bill segments in the last 365 days.
This average is then applied to the number of days in this bill segments bill period. If the
bill segment doesnt have a bill period (rare, but possible), the historical average is not
displayed.
If the bill segments status is Error, this column also contains the error message.
Rebilled due to correction note appears if the correction note was generated for the bill
segment. This remark is generated only if you have Correction Note specified in the
Installation record.
Rebilled due to correction. Canceled after completion appears for a correction note
that spawns another correction note. This remark is generated only if you have
Correction Note specified in the Installation record.
The Service Quantity and UOM (unit of measure) columns contain the amount of
consumption that was billed. The UOM is defined on the service agreement's SA type.
The Bill Segment ID is the system-assigned unique identifier of the bill segment.
This transaction has sophisticated logic that can be used to perform mass updates to the bill
segments that appear in the grid (using the buttons at the bottom of the page). The following
points describe these mass update actions:
Contents
Generate (Bill - Bill Segments)
Freeze (Bill - Bill Segments)
Delete (Bill - Bill Segments)
Cancel/Rebill/Freeze (Bill - Bill Segments)
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Cancel (Bill - Bill Segments)

Credit Note (Bill - Bill Segments)
Correction Note (Bill - Bill Segments)
Generate (Bill - Bill Segments)

The Generate button is used to delete and recreate one or more bill segments. This button is
enabled if you select at least one row from the bill segments grid thats in the Error, Freezable
and/or Incomplete state.
Note that you can only select a bill segment for regeneration if ALL bill segments in the grid are in
the Error, Freezable and/or Incomplete states. Note, you can use the Status Filter to restrict
the type of bill segments in the grid.
You must specify the following parameters in the Generate window to regenerate a new bill:
Accounting Date defines the financial period to which the new bill segments financial
transactions will be booked. The current date defaults when the window opens.
meter read.
If the service agreements use meter reads, use the Billing Option to control how the system
After specifying the parameters, click Calculate to regenerate the selected bill segments. A
summary of what the system does is presented next.
Freeze (Bill - Bill Segments)

The Freeze button is used to freeze one or more bill segments. This button is enabled if you
select at least one row from the bill segments grid thats in the Freezable state AND the
installation option indicates users are allowed to freeze at will.
Note that you can only select a bill segment for freezing if ALL bill segments in the grid are in the
Freezable state. Note, you can use the Status Filter to restrict the type of bill segments in the
grid.
When clicked, the Freeze window opens.
Accounting Date is used to define the financial period to which the frozen bill segments financial
After specifying the above parameters, click Freeze to freeze the selected bill segments. A
summary of what the system does is presented next.
Delete (Bill - Bill Segments)

The Delete button is used to delete one or more bill segments. This button is enabled if you
select at least one row from the bill segments grid thats in the Error, Freezable and/or
Incomplete state.
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Note that you can only select a bill segment for deletion if ALL bill segments in the grid are in the
Error, Freezable and/or Incomplete states. Note, you can use the Status Filter to restrict the
type of bill segments in the grid.
If the system is successful in deleting the selected bill segment(s), a confirmation window
summarizes what the system just did (i.e., it shows the number of bill segments that were
deleted).
Cancel/Rebill/Freeze (Bill - Bill Segments)

If problems are detected with a frozen bill segment, it should be canceled and a new bill segment
should be created. We refer to this process as cancel / rebill. Refer to Cancel / Rebill Incorrect
Bill Segments for more information.
Before you cancel / rebill, youll probably need to fix the cause of the problem. The following
table describes common problems and how to fix them.
Problem
How To Fix It
The wrong rate was used
Go to Service Agreement Rate Info and correct the

rate.
The wrong meter read was used
Add a meter read with a more powerful read type for the
service point in question.
The wrong meter was connected to the service point
Go to SP / Meter Installation and correct the SP / Meter

linkage. Then go to Service Agreement SA / SP and
indicate the appropriate start read for the service points
correct meter.
A contract rider was applied incorrectly

contract rider information.
The wrong tax exemption amount was calculated
Go to Service Agreement Rate Info and correct the tax

exemption information.
Multi-Cancel/Rebill Saves Time. If the cause of the problem impacts many bill segments
related to a service agreement, you should use the Multi Cancel Rebill transaction as it allows
you to cancel / rebill an unlimited number of bill segments at once.
Credit Notes. Using the cancel/rebill functionality causes the cancel and rebill details to be
swept on to the customers next bill unless you Reopen the bill. If your organization requires
cancellation details to be presented to the customer separately from the new bill, you should not
use the Rebill functionality. Rather, you should issue a Credit Note and then generate a new bill
containing the revised charges.
The Cancel/Rebill/Freeze button is used to cancel, rebill and freeze one or more bill segments.
This button is enabled if you select at least one row from the bill segments grid thats in the
Frozen state AND the bill is not written off.
Note that you can only select a bill segment for cancel/rebill/freeze if ALL bill segments in the grid
are in the Frozen state. Note, you can use the Status Filter to restrict the type of bill segments
in the grid.
When clicked, the Cancel/Rebill/Freeze window opens.
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Cancel Reason defines why the bill segment(s) are being canceled.
Accounting Date defines the financial period to which the canceled and new bill segments
financial transactions are booked. The current date defaults when the window opens.
meter read.
more information.
Warning! If the cause of the rebill is an incorrect rate and the new rate requires service
quantities that were not calculated when the bill was originally calculated, do not turn on Use Old
Read/Item/SQ. Why? Because you want the system to derive new service quantities during the
rebill process.
After specifying the parameters, click Calculate to cancel, rebill and freeze the selected bill
segments.
Errors. Bill segment errors may occur when you cancel / rebill the bill segments. For example, if
you change the SAs rate to a rate that requires a unit-of-measure that doesnt exist on the SAs
meter, a bill segment error is generated. If this occurs, you must go to Bill Segment Main for
the pending cancel bill segment and use the Undo action to remove the offending bill segment
(and restore the original segment to the Frozen state). Alternatively, you can drill down on the
Error bill segment and use the Regenerate action after correcting the cause of the problem.
There is no Undo. Unlike cancel / rebills performed on Bill Segment Main, there is no Undo
action. This is because this transaction freezes the newly created bill segments after it
cancel/rebills; whereas the bill segment transaction lets you examine the new bill segment before
you freeze it. If you made a mistake, simply correct the cause of the mistake and then cancel /
rebill again. The erroneous financial transactions are automatically suppressed on the next bill
produced for the customer.
A confirmation window summarizes what the system just did (i.e., it shows the number of bill
segments that were deleted / generated).
Cancel (Bill - Bill Segments)

The Cancel button is used to cancel one or more bill segments. This button is enabled if you
select at least one row from the bill segments grid thats in the Frozen state AND the bill is not
written off.
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Note that you can only select a bill segment for cancellation if ALL bill segments in the grid are in
the Frozen state. Note, you can use the Status Filter to restrict the type of bill segments in the
grid.
When clicked, the Cancel window opens.
Accounting Date is used to define the financial period to which the canceled bill segments
financial transactions are booked. The current date defaults when the window opens.
After specifying the above parameters, click Calculate to cancel the selected bill segments.
There is no Undo. Unlike cancellations performed on Bill Segment Main, there is no Undo
action. This transaction moves the pending cancel bill segments to the cancel state immediately;
whereas the bill segment transaction lets you examine the cancellation before you commit it. If
you cancelled bill segments by mistake, you must generate and freeze new bill segments.
Credit Note (Bill - Bill Segments)

The Credit Note button is used to cancel selected bill segments and create a new bill that
contains the cancellation details. We refer to this negative bill as a credit note. Refer to Credit
Notes - Presenting Cancellation Details on a Separate Bill for more information.
if you select at least one row from the bill segments grid thats in the Frozen state AND
the bill is not written off.
Note that you can only select a bill segment for this action if ALL bill segments in the grid are in
the Frozen state. Note, you can use the Status Filter to restrict the type of bill segments in the
grid.
You must specify the following parameters in the Credit Note window to cancel the frozen bill
segments:
Credit Note Date defines the date of the credit note on which the cancellation details appear.
The current date defaults when the window opens.
After specifying the parameters, click Calculate to cancel the frozen bill segments and create a
credit note.
It should be noted that if this operation is successful, the new negative bill is complete. Refer
to Bill Lifecycle for information about the steps that take place during completion. It is ready for
transmission to the customer and for interface to the general ledger.
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If you want to issue a credit note for an entire bill. Rather than cancel a specific bill segment,
functionality exists that allows you to create a credit note for ALL bill segments on a bill. To use
this feature, display the bill in question and then click the Credit Note button on the bill page.
Correction Note (Bill - Bill Segments)

The Correction Note button is used to cancel and rebill bill segments and create a new bill that
contains the cancellation and rebill details. We refer to the resultant bill as a correction note.
Refer to Correction Notes - Presenting Correction Notes on a Separate Bill for more information.
the Correction Note option is specified on the Installation record AND
the bill segment is frozen AND
there are no bill segment financial transactions that have been transferred out of the system.
When clicked, the Correction Note window opens.

You must specify the following parameters in the Correction Note window to correct the bill
segment:
Cancel Reason defines why you are performing the correction.
Cutoff Date is the last possible day of each bill segments bill period. The current date
Accounting Date defines the financial period to which the corrected bill segments financial
meter read.
more information.
After specifying the parameters, click Calculate to correct the bill segments and create a
correction note. The Bill Page opens and displays the Correction Note.
If you want to issue a correction note for an entire bill. You can create a correction note for
ALL bill segments on a bill. To use this feature, display the bill in question on the Bill page and
click the Correction Note button.
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Bill - Bill Routings

This page is used to view the recipients of a bill. Refer to Printing Bills for a discussion of how
this information is used to produce bill images.
This page is also used to request a new copy of a bill. Refer to How To Reprint A Bill (For The
Original Recipients or For Someone New) for a description of how to do this.
No routing information until completion. A bill has no routing details until it is completed. At
completion time, the system creates a routing detail for every person linked to the account that
receives a copy of its bills. Refer to The Source Of Bill Routing Information for more information
about how this information is constructed.
Use Financial, Bill, Bill Routings to open this page.
Description of Page
status, due date, ending balance). If sequential bill numbering has been enabled, the bills
number also appears.
The Bill Routing Information scroll contains an entry for each recipient of the bill. This
information is disabled after the bill has been routed to the recipient. The remainder of this
discussion describes the fields that can be defined for each recipient of the bill.
Person ID identifies the person who was originally associated with the routing record. You may
change the Person ID to any person in the system as this information is only used to default the
recipient's name and address information, below.
The Bill Routing Parameters area contains information explaining how and when the bill is
routed to the recipient. This information is gray when the rill routing information has been
extracted or if a bill is reopened:
Bill Route Type is the method used to transmit the bill to the customer. If the Person ID is
linked to the account, the bill route type defaults from the person's Account Person
Information.
Sequence is the system-assigned identifier assigned to this bill routing.
Batch Control is the identifier of the batch of bills in which the recipients copy was
downloaded. The batch process is defined on the Bill Route Type.
Extract Date/Time is the date and time the bill was downloaded. This information only
appears after the download has commenced.
Format indicates if the customer should receive a Detailed or a Summary bill. If the Person
ID is linked to the account, this information defaults from Account Person Information.
Reprint is checked if a user created this routing. This switch is populated by the system and
is always protected.
Turn on Do Not Extract if the bill should not be routed to the individual for whatever reason.
Copies indicates the number of copies of the bill the person receives. If the Person ID is
linked to the account, this information defaults from Account Person Information.
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PO ID is the purchase order Id the customer wants printed on their copy of the bill. If the
Person ID is linked to the account, this information defaults from Account Person
Information.
Intercept is the user ID of the individual who wants to review the bill before it is sent to the
customer. This field is only populated when the account has a Bill Print Intercept specified.
Intercept information is defined on Account Main Information.
The Mailing Address Information area contains the recipients name and address.
If the recipient has an override mailing name, Name1, Name2 and Name3 contain the
persons override mailing name. Otherwise, Name1 contains the recipients primary name
(this name might also include a prefix or suffix if the related Account Person relationship
has these fields defined).
The remaining fields are the recipients address. Refer to The Source Of Bill Routing
Information for information about how the system constructs the recipients address. Note:
If the recipients address is a mailing address (as opposed to fax or email), the Country
associated with the address controls the fields that appear in the address. Refer to
Defining Countries for more information on the address constituents.
If a user manually adds a routing record, the mailing address information defaults from
the information on the current routing record.
If a user specifies a Person ID that is linked to the bill's account, the Bill Route Type
defined on the Account Person record is defaulted.
If a user specifies a Person ID that is not linked to the bill's account, the Bill Route Type
on the installation record is defaulted. Note, if the bill route indicates the bill is routed via
the postal service, the system will only be able to default the person's address if the
person has an override mailing address on their correspondence information.
If the user changes the Bill Route Type after the initial default, the system populates the
address information as described under The Source Of Bill Routing Information.
Bill - Bill Messages

The Messages page is a grid containing one row for every message that appears on the bill.
Open Financial, Bill, Bill Messages to view this information.
No messages until completion. A bill has no messages until it is completed (unless you insert
them manually). At completion time, the system assembles messages from the various message
sources. Refer to The Source Of Bill Messages for information about these sources.
The bill segment(s) may also have messages. Be aware that only account-oriented messages
are linked to a bill. There may also be service agreement-oriented messages linked to the bills
bill segments. Refer to Bill - Bill Messages for information about the page on which service
agreement-oriented messages are displayed. Refer to The Source Of Bill Messages for
information about the various message sources and whether each is linked to a bill or a bill
segment.
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Bill messages may contain dynamic information. Refer to Substituting Field Values Into A Bill
Message for more information.
The Description of Page section below describes the fields on this page. Refer to How To Add
Ad Hoc Messages To A Bill for a description of how to perform common maintenance functions.
Description of Page
status, due date, ending balance). If sequential bill numbering has been enabled, the bills
number also appears.
Bill Message is the code that identifies the bill message.
Message On Bill is the message associated with the code.
Priority is the bill messages priority (on the printed bill).
Insert Code defines if the bill message causes an insert in the envelope.
Bill - Characteristics
The Characteristics page is a grid containing one row for each characteristic linked to the bill. Bill
characteristics are purely informational.
Note. You can only choose characteristic types defined as permissible on a bill record. Refer to
Setting Up Characteristic Types and Their Values for more information.
Description of Page
The following fields display on the grid:
Characteristic Type must be a type of characteristic defined as permissible on a bill record.
Sequence Controls the order in which characteristics of the same type are displayed.
Characteristic Value indicates the value of the characteristic if the characteristic type is predefined or foreign key reference.
How To
The topics in this section describe how to perform common bill maintenance functions.
Contents
How To Create A Bill For All Service Agreements Linked To An Account
How To Create A Bill For A Specific Service Agreement
How To Create a Bill with no Bill Segments
How To Create A One-Time Invoice
How To Correct A Bill Segment That's In Error
How To Correct A Bill That's In Error
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How To Cancel A Bill Segment

How To Cancel / Rebill A Bill Segment
How To Create A Credit Note
How To Create A Correction Note
How To Create An Off Cycle Bill Generator
How To Override Service Quantities On A Specific Bill Segment
How To Override The Items Billed On A Specific Bill Segment
How To Remove Unwanted Adjustments (or Payments) From A Completed Bill
How To Add An Adjustment (or Payment) To A Completed Bill
How To Reprint A Bill (For The Original Recipients or For Someone New)
How To Add Ad Hoc Messages To A Bill
How To Remove A Completed Bill
How To Display A Bill On-line
How To Create A Bill For All Service Agreements Linked To An Account

99.9% of all bills are created by the batch bill process and require no human intervention before
they are finalized and sent to a customer. The other 0.1% are created by users on-line / real
time. This section explains how to create the 0.1%.
The following points describe how to use this page to create a new bill:
Navigate to the Bill Main Information page:
If you have already selected the customer (say on Control Central), select Go To Bill +
option on the account context menu. This will transfer you to this page with the
respective account populated.
If you havent selected the account, use the main menu to navigate to this page (Main
Menu, Financial, Bill, +) and then select the Account ID using the adjacent search
button.
Click the Generate button to create a new bill.
You will see a summary of the bill segments in the lower right portion of the page. If there are
errors, refer to How To Correct A Bill Segment Thats In Error. If there are no errors, the Bill
Segment Freeze Option on the installation option controls the next step:
If this option is set to Freeze At Bill Completion, click the Freeze / Complete button.
If this option is set to Freeze At Will, click the Freeze button and, if everything looks
clean, click the Complete button.
How To Create A Bill For A Specific Service Agreement

Most bills contain a bill segment for every service agreement linked to the account. If you want to
produce a bill that contains bill segments for a subset of service agreements (e.g., you want to
create a one-time invoice for an accounts billable charge service agreement), follow these steps:
button.
Click the save button to create a bill without bill segments for the account.
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Select Go To Bill Segment + option on the Bills context menu to transfer to Bill Segment Main.
Select the SA ID of the service agreement for which you want to create a bill segment.
Click the Generate button to generate a bill segment.
If an error exists, refer to How To Correct A Bill Segment That's In Error.
If there are no errors, the Bill Segment Freeze Option on the installation option controls the
next step:
If this option is set to Freeze At Bill Completion, return to Bill Main (using the bill
context menu) and click the Freeze / Complete button.
clean, return to Bill Main and click the Complete button.
How To Create a Bill with no Bill Segments

You may wish to generate a bill that contains no bill segments. For example, perhaps your
customer is billed quarterly but pays monthly. During the months where no charges are
calculated, you may choose to send a "bill" that does not show new charges, but includes the
payments received. To produce a bill with no bill segments, follow these steps:
button.
Click the save button to create a bill without bill segments for the account.
At this point either the Complete or Freeze / Complete button (based on the value of Bill
Segment Freeze Option on installation options) becomes enabled. Click the applicable
button for your installation to complete the bill. At this point, all the steps described for
completing a bill in Bill Lifecycle are performed, including sweeping onto the bill any
payments received since the last bill was generated.
How To Create A One-Time Invoice

The following points describe the steps necessary to create and bill a one-time invoice:
If the customer to be invoiced doesnt already have an appropriate billable charge service
agreement, create one. The easiest way to do this is from Start/Stop Service.
Use Maintaining Billable Charges to add a billable charge for the service agreement. The
billable charge contains the invoice lines and amounts. The system will produce the bill for
this charge when the accounts bill cycle next executes. If you cant wait until that time,
proceed to the next step.
If you created a new billable charge service agreement in step 1, you must activate it before
billing can bill it. To do this, transfer to Service Agreement Main Information and click the
activate button.
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Refer to How To Create A Bill For A Specific Service Agreement for instructions describing
how to create a bill with a bill segment for the billable charge service agreement.
How To Correct A Bill Segment That's In Error

A bill segment will exist in the Error state if a problem was encountered during the generation of
a bill segment. To fix an error bill segment you must correct the cause of the error and then
regenerate the bill segment. Refer to Bill Segment Errors for background information.
Error segments created during batch billing. If the error bill segment was created as part of
the batch bill process, the system attempts to fix the offending segment(s) each night during the
accounts bill window by regenerating it. Therefore, if the cause of the error is fixed during the
day, the system will automatically regenerate the bill segment when batch billing next runs; you
dont have to manually correct each bill. And once a bill is error-free, it will be completed and
sent to the customer. Refer to Batch Billing for more information.
Correcting the cause of a bill segment error can be difficult or trivial; we hope that the error
messages (along with their long descriptions) provide a good description of how to resolve the
issue.
After you have corrected the cause of the error, you should regenerate the bill segment. There
are two ways to do this:
You can use the Generate action on Bill Bill Segment to regenerate one or more bill
segments. We recommend using this method if the cause of the error affected many bill
segments because you can regenerate many bill segments at a time on this page. Also, be
aware that this transaction shows the estimated value of error bill segments so you can
gauge whether to invest a lot of time in correcting the problem. For example, if the bill
segments estimated value is $10,000, its probably worth correcting the problem before
sending the bill out. However, if the bill segments value is small, you may decide to simply
delete the error bill segment and send the bill without it (the system will attempt to create a
bill for the deleted period the next time the account is billed).
You can use the Generate action on Bill Segment - Main to regenerate an individual bill
segment. Wed recommend using this method if the problem is bill segment-specific and you
need to examine the information that is snapshot on the bill segment to resolve the error
(e.g., you need to look at the meter reads and service quantities).
Drilling Into Bill Segment Errors. When you use the bill segments in error To Do list to work
through errors, you will be transferred to Bill Segment - Main with the bill segment displayed.
After all errors have been resolved on a bill, return to Bill Main. The Bill Segment Freeze
Option on the installation option controls the next step:
If this option is set to Freeze At Will, click the Freeze button and, if everything looks clean,
click the Complete button.
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How To Correct A Bill That's In Error

Besides errors on bill segments, there may also be errors detected when the system attempts to
complete a bill. For example, if the system cannot find a mailing address, the bill will be in error
(as opposed to one of its bill segments). Refer to Bill Errors for background information.
To correct such an error:
Navigate to Bill Main.
Look at the bills error message. Push the view button to view the long explanation that will
provide suggestions as to the cause of the error (and how to fix it). Transfer to the
appropriate page to fix the problem.
After fixing the cause of the error, return to Bill Main. The Bill Segment Freeze Option on
the installation option controls the next step:
clean, click the Complete button.
How To Cancel A Bill Segment

If a bill segment was frozen and it should never have been created in the first place, the bill
segment must be canceled. There are several ways to do this:
You can use the Cancel Frozen action on Bill Main to cancel all frozen bill segments linked
to the bill. We recommend using this method if you need to cancel everything on a bill.
You can use the Cancel action on Bill Bill Segments to cancel selected bill segments. We
recommend using this method if you need to cancel multiple bill segments.
You can use the Cancel action on Bill Segment - Main to cancel an individual bill segment.
Wed recommend using this method if you need to examine the information on the bill
segment before canceling it.
If the related bill is pending, the cancellation will cause the bill segment to be suppressed on the
version of the bill sent to the customer (but it remains in the database for audit and financial
reporting purposes).
If the related bill is complete and you do not Reopen the bill, the financial impact of the canceled
bill segment(s) will appear on the next bill created for the account (under Bill Corrections).
If the related bill is complete you may be able to Reopen the bill and then Complete it. By doing
this, you can suppress a frozen bill segment on a previously completed bill. This means that if
you catch a problem after completion you dont necessarily have to show the problem to the
recomplete the bill the system will mark the bill segment to be suppressed on the version sent to
the customer because its cancellation appears on the same bill as the original charges).
How To Cancel / Rebill A Bill Segment

If a bill segment was frozen but it contains incorrect information, it should be canceled and a new
bill segment should be created. We refer to this process as cancel / rebill. Refer to Cancel /
Rebill Incorrect Bill Segments for more information.
Before you cancel / rebill, you must correct the cause of the problem. The following table
describes common problems and where to go to fix them.
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Problem
How To Fix It

rate.

correct meter.


After correcting the cause of the problem, youre ready to cancel and rebill the offending bill
segment(s). There are several ways to do this:
You can use the Cancel / Rebill / Freeze action on Bill Bill Segments to cancel, rebill and
freeze selected bill segments. We recommend using this method if you need to cancel / rebill
multiple bill segments due to a pervasive problem.
You can use the Rebill action on Bill Segment - Main to cancel and rebill an individual bill
segment. Wed recommend using this method if you need to examine the information on the
bill segment before and after canceling it. If you use this method, you must also use the
Freeze action to freeze the newly created bill segment.
If the cause of the problem impacts many bill segments related to a service agreement, you
should use the Multi Cancel Rebill transaction as it allows you to cancel / rebill an unlimited
number of bill segments at once.
If the related bill is pending, the cancellation will cause the erroneous bill segment to be
suppressed on the version of the bill sent to the customer (but it remains in the database for audit
and financial reporting purposes).
bill segment(s) and their rebill bill segment(s) will appear on the next bill created for the account
(under Bill Corrections).
this, you can suppress an erroneous frozen bill segment on a previously completed bill. This
means that if you catch a problem after completion you dont necessarily have to show the
problem to the customer. Rather, cancel / rebill the problem, reopen and then recomplete the bill
(when you recomplete the bill the system will mark the bill segment to be suppressed on the
version sent to the customer because its cancellation appears on the same bill as the original
charges).
How To Create A Credit Note

A credit note is used to cancel bills segments and present the results of this cancellation on a
separate bill. This separate bill is referred to as a credit note. Refer to Credit Notes - Presenting
Cancellation Details on a Separate Bill for more information.
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Installation option must be turned on. If your organization creates credit notes, be sure to
select the Credit Note Billing Option on the Installation Options. If you dont select this option, the
credit note buttons will not be enabled.
Before creating a credit note, you must first determine whether a single bill segment must be
canceled or whether all bill segments for a bill must be canceled:
If you need to issue a credit note for the entire bill, navigate to the Bill page and click the
Credit Note button.
If you need to issue a credit note for a specific bill segment, navigate to the Bill Segment
page and click the Credit Note button.
Open-item customers. If any of the bill segments are associated with an open-item customer
class AND the original bill segment is an open item, the match event will be created and balanced
with the original FT and the cancellation FT, assuming you have the appropriate FT freeze
algorithm plugged-in on the customer class.
Issuing a credit note for a specific bill segment. You may also issue a credit note for an
individual bill segment. When you create a credit note for an individual bill segment, that bill
segment is canceled and a new credit note bill is created for that single bill segments
cancellation information.
How To Create A Correction Note

The Correction Note button is used to cancel and rebill bill segments and present the
cancellation and rebill details on a separate bill. Refer to Correction Notes - Presenting
Correction Notes on a Separate Bill for more information.
Installation option must be turned on. If your organization creates correction notes, be sure to
select the Correction Note Billing Option on the Installation Options. If you dont select this
option, the correction note buttons will not be enabled.
Before creating a correction note, you must first determine whether the note should impact a
single bill segment or whether all bill segments for a bill must be corrected:
If you need to issue a correction note for the entire bill, navigate to the Bill page and click the
Correction Note button.
If you need to issue a correction note for a specific bill segment, navigate to the Bill Segment
page and click the Correction Note button.
Open-item customers. If any of the bill segments are associated with an open-item customer
class AND the original bill segment is an open item, the match event will be created and balanced
with the original FT and the cancellation FT, assuming you have the appropriate FT freeze
algorithm plugged in on the customer class.
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Issuing a correction note for a specific bill segment. You can also issue a correction note for
an individual bill segment. When you create a correction note for an individual bill segment, that
bill segment is canceled and a new correction note bill is created for that single bill segments
cancellation information.
How To Create An Off Cycle Bill Generator

An off cycle bill generaor is used to create an off cycle bill for an account. You control the
financial transactions that are linked to the bill. To create a bill using the base off cycle bill
generator business object, follow these steps:
With an account in context, select Go To Off Cycle Bill Generator + on the account context
menu. This will transfer you to this portal with the respective account populated.
Select the adjustments, billable charges and/or service agreements that you wish to include
in the bill.
Enter the required bill information to be used when creating the bill; this includes the Cutoff
Date, Accounting Date, Allow Estimates switch, Billing Option and Bill Date.
Click the save button.
Click the Complete button to transition the off cycle bill generator to the complete state and
create the bill. Any errors encountered while attempting to create the bill will be captured in
the off cycle bill generators log.
Refer to Off Cycle Bill Generator for more information.
How To Override Service Quantities On A Specific Bill Segment

The calculation of the amount of the commodity used by the customer is one of the first steps that
happens when a bill segment is created. 99.9% of the time, the system does a perfect job in this
quantity calculated by the system is not correct (consider what the consumption should be if the
meter is broken).
service quantities to be overridden. This truly is a back door because the proper way to fix the
amount of a commodity is to correct the cause of the error and then cancel / rebill the bill segment
(or issue a credit note).
This section describes how to override the total amount of service quantity consumption billed on
a bill segment. You would do this in the rare situation when you cannot get the meter reads (and
exchanges) to reflect the amount of consumption you need to bill.
Display the error or freezable bill segment on Bill Segment Main.
Important! You can only override consumption on a bill segment that is in Error or Freezable.
This means you must generate a bill segment before you can override the SQ details.
Transfer to the Bill Segment SQ Details tab.
Insert one row in the service quantity (SQ) grid (click the + button) for each service quantity
you need to add. You may also change service quantities that were populated by the system
when it initially generated the bill segment by overwriting the respective values.
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Save the bill segment.
Generate the bill segment.
If the bill segment still looks wrong, repeat the above points until the bill segment is correct.
The Bill Segment Freeze Option on the installation option controls the next step:
Warning! Even though the system doesnt use the consumption associated with the bill
segments meter reads when you override consumption, it will use the end reading(s) as the start
read(s) on the NEXT bill segment produced for the service agreement. Therefore, make sure the
end read(s) are correct, otherwise youll have to override the service quantities on the next bill
segment.
Override Calculation/Audit Read Details. The above steps may also be taken to override
entries in the calculation/audit read details collection.
How To Override The Items Billed On A Specific Bill Segment

The calculation of the amount of the commodity used by the customer is one of the first steps that
happens when a bill segment is created. 99.9% of the time, the system does a perfect job in this
quantity calculated by the system is not correct.
billable quantities to be overridden. This truly is a back door because the proper way to fix the
amount of a commodity is to correct the cause of the error and then cancel / rebill the bill
segment.
This section describes how to override the total number of items billed on a bill segment. You
would do this in the rare situation when you cannot get the item snapshot to reflect the amount of
consumption you need to bill.
Display the error or freezable bill segment on Bill Segment Main.
Important! You can only override consumption on a bill segment that is in Error or Freezable.
This means you must generate a bill segment before you can override the item details.
Transfer to the Bill Segment Item Details tab.
Insert one row in the item grid (click the + button) for each item you need to add. You may
also change item amounts that were populated by the system when it initially generated the
bill.
Save the bill segment.
Generate the bill segment.
If the bill segment still looks wrong, repeat the above points until the bill segment is correct.
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The Bill Segment Freeze Option on the installation option controls the next step:
How To Remove Unwanted Adjustments (or Payments) From A Completed

Bill
If the system (or a user) has created adjustments that have been swept onto a recently
completed bill but you dont want them to appear on the bill (e.g., the system generated a late
payment charge but you want to forgive it) perform the following steps:
Cancel the adjustment (Adjustments Main Information).
Navigate to the Bill - Main page.
Click the Reopen button to reopen the previously completed bill.
Click the Complete button to recomplete the bill. When the bill is recompleted, the system
will see that an adjustment that was swept onto the bill when it was originally completed has
been canceled and it will mark the adjustment for suppression on the printed bill.
You can remove unwanted payments using an analogous approach Cancel the payment,
Reopen the bill, Complete the bill.
Cannot reopen historical bills. You may only reopen an accounts most recent bill because
recompleting the bill causes the ending-balance to change, and we dont want this to happen to
historical bills.
How To Add An Adjustment (or Payment) To A Completed Bill

If you want to add an adjustment to a completed bill perform the following steps:
Add and freeze the adjustment (Adjustments Main Information).
will sweep the recently created financial transactions onto itself.
You can add a payment to a bill using an analogous approach Add the payment, Reopen the
bill, Complete the bill.
recompleting the bill causes the ending-balance to change, and we dont want this to happen to
historical bills.
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How To Reprint A Bill (For The Original Recipients or For Someone New)
A copy of a bill is sent to every individual / business specified in the bills routing details. The
system creates the routing details when a bill is completed. Refer to The Source Of Bill Routing
Information for more information about how this information is compiled during bill completion.
If you want to reprint a bill OR if you want to send a bill to someone other than the original
recipient(s):
Transfer to the Bill - Bill Routings tab.
Insert a new row (click the + button). Note well, you can only insert information on a bill that
is Complete.
Specify the name and address to which the bill should be sent. If you want to send the bill to
someone other than the original recipient, simply specify the individuals name and address.
If the recipient is a person in the system, you can select their person ID and let the system
default this information for you.
Save the bill.
If a bill is Complete but the print process hasnt yet executed, you dont have to insert a new
routing row. Rather, you can simply change the name and address on the original routing details.
How To Add Ad Hoc Messages To A Bill

If you want to add a message to a completed bill:
Transfer to the Bill - Bill Messages tab.
Insert a new row (click the + button). Note, you can only insert a message on the most recent
bill that is Complete.
Specify the desired message code.
Save the bill.
Reprint the bill as per How To Reprint A Bill (For The Original Recipients or For Someone
New).
Refer to The Source Of Bill Messages for more information about the messages the system
automatically links to a bill when the bill is completed.
How To Remove A Completed Bill

You cant physically remove a completed bill from the system. However, you can remove all
financial transactions from the bill (and therefore end up with a zero value bill). You can also
suppress the bill from being printed. To do this, perform the following steps:
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If the bill has bill segments, cancel each bill segment. Refer to How To Cancel A Bill
Segment for instructions describing how to do this.
If the bill has payment amounts or adjustment amounts that were entered incorrectly,
navigate to the payment and/or adjustment pages and cancel the payments / adjustments.
Transfer to the Bill - Bill Routings tab. Turn on the Do Not Print switch for every routing entry.
will sweep the canceled segments onto it and the net effect should be zero current charges.
recompleting the bill causes the ending balance to change, and we dont want this to happen to
historical bills.
If the bill has payment amounts or adjustment amounts that are valid, but you dont want them to
appear on this bill, navigate to the Bill, Financial Details page. Drill over to each respective
financial transaction by clicking the drill down button. Clicking this button transfers you to
Financial Transaction - Main. On this page, clear out the value of the Bill ID. Clearing out the Bill
ID unlinks the financial transaction from the bill. When the system next completes a bill for the
account, it will find the unbilled financial transaction and link it to the bill.
How To Display A Bill On-line

To display a bill on-line, you must first have installed software to render the bill in a format
suitable for displaying. You must also configure the system to invoke this software; otherwise,
you will get a message indicating that the service is not available. This option can only be
configured by your technical staff.
The system can be configured to work with different bill production software, and it comes
configured with the ability to display a bill on-line using BI Publisher, DOC1, or Crystal. With
DOC1, the bills are presented in PDF format. To view the bills, you must have Adobe Acrobat
Reader installed.
To view a bill on-line, click the Display Bill button.
Financial Transactions On A Bill

Open Financial Query, Financial Transactions On A Bill to view the financial transactions on a
bill.
Note. You can also open this page using the go to buttons that prefix the financial transaction
summaries on Bill - Main.
Description of page
Bill Id is the system-assigned unique identifier of the bill.
Account ID is the bills account.
The area beneath Account ID provides you with options that control which financial transactions
appear in the grid. The following points describe the various options:
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Use the SA Filter to define the types of service agreements whose financial transactions
appear in the grid. The following options are available:
Address. Use this option to restrict financial transactions to those whose service
agreements are linked to service points associated with a given Address, City and/or
Postal code.
All. Use this option if you do not wish to restrict financial transactions based on service
Geographic Type. Use this option to restrict financial transactions to those whose
service agreements are linked to service points associated with a given Geo Type and
Value.
SA ID. Use this option to restrict financial transactions to those of a specific service
agreement.
SA Type. Use this option to restrict financial transactions to those whose service
agreements are linked to a given CIS Division and SA Type.
Use FT Type Filter to restrict the type of financial transactions that appear in the grid. The
Adjustments. This option shows all financial transactions associated with adjustments.
All. This option shows all financial transactions.
Corrections. This option shows all financial transactions associated with corrections
(i.e., cancel / rebills that have occurred after the bill was completed).
Current Charges. This option shows all financial transactions associated with bill
segments (that arent Corrections).
Payments. This option shows all financial transactions associated with payments.
Use Match Event Status Filter to restrict the financial transactions based on the status of
their match event. This filter only appears if the bill's account is an open-item customer. The
All. This option shows all financial transactions.
Balanced. This option shows all financial transactions whose match event is balanced.
Disputed. This option shows all financial transactions whose match event is disputed.
Unbalanced. This option shows all financial transactions whose match event is
unbalanced.
Unmatched. This option shows all financial transactions that are not linked to a match
event.
Dont forget to click the search button after changing the filters or after selecting a new Bill ID.
The grid that follows contains the financial transactions that match your search criteria. The
following information is displayed:
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Match Event Status shows the status of the financial transaction's match event. This
column only appears if the bill's account is an open-item customer.
FT Type displays the type of financial transaction except for adjustments. For adjustments,
the adjustment types description is shown. Click on the hyperlink to transfer to Financial
Transaction - Main. On this page, you can change certain aspects of the FT in question.
Refer to How To Remove Unwanted Adjustments (or Payments) From A Completed Bill for a
description of how to perform common maintenance functions.
Accounting Date is the date the system uses to determine the financial transaction's
accounting period in your general ledger.
Current Amount contains the financial transaction's effect on the service agreements
current balance.
Payoff Amount contains the financial transaction's effect on the service agreements payoff
balance. The Payoff Amount will be dim if it equals the Current Amount.
Show on Bill indicates if information about the financial transaction appears on the
customers bill.
SA Information contains a summary of the respective service agreement.
Financial Transaction ID is the system-assigned unique identifier of the financial

transaction.
At the bottom of the page is a summary of the financial transactions that match the search
criteria.
Maintaining Bill Segments

A bill typically contains one bill segment for every active service agreement linked to its account.
A bill segment contains information showing how the segment was calculated and how it should
be printed on the customers bill.
The actions taken to create a bill segment are dependent on the service agreements SA type.
For example, a service agreement that charges for metered service is produced as follows:
The system calculates the amount of the commodity that was consumed (e.g., the number of
lamps, the number of gallons of water, the peak kW, etc.). Refer to How The System
Determines How Much Was Consumed for the details.
The service agreements rate is applied to the amount consumed to calculate how much the
customer owes for the service. A bill segment and a financial transaction are generated to
reflect the results of this calculation. Refer to How Rates Affect The Information On Bill
Segments for the details. Refer to Effective Dates & Price Proration for information about
how the system prorates changes to rates and prices during a bill period.
SA type controls everything. The above points explain how a bill segment is produced for a
metered service agreement. Its important to be aware that the system has other bill segment
creation algorithms. For example, if the service agreement charges for a deposit, the system
neither amalgamates consumption nor does it apply a rate. You may be wondering how the
system knows which method to use? It uses the bill segment type on the service agreements SA
type. Refer to Designing and Defining Bill Segment Types for a description of the various bill
segment creation algorithms that are supported in the system.
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Its important to be aware that there are very few fields that are directly modifiable by a user. To
modify most fields on a bill segment, you have to change source information (e.g., service
agreement, rate, meter read) and then regenerate the bill segment. For example, if you want to
change the rate used to calculate a bill segment, you must change the rate history on the
respective service agreement and then cancel / rebill the bill segment. Refer to How To for stepby-step instructions that explain how to perform common bill segment maintenance functions.
Contents
Bill Segment Lifecycle
Bill Segment - Main Information
Bill Segment - Read Details
Bill Segment - Item Details
Bill Segment - SQ Details
Bill Segment - Calc Lines
Bill Segment - Financial Details
Bill Segment - Bill Segment Messages
Bill Segment - Sub Bill Segments
Bill Segment - Usage
Financial - Bill Segment Calculation Line Characteristics

The following diagram shows the possible lifecycle of a bill segment.
Warning! This diagram only makes sense in the context of the page used to maintain bill
segments. Refer to Bill Segment Main Information for the details.
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Incomplete
Error
Garbage
Freezable
Frozen
or
Pending
Cancel
Canceled
Bill segments are initially created in the Incomplete state. Bill segments in this state dont have
bill lines or a financial transaction; they are simply a stub awaiting generation.
Click Generate to generate the bill segments bill lines and its financial transaction.
If the system cannot generate the bill segment (for any number of reasons), the bill segment
is moved to the Error state. You may regenerate the bill segment after correcting the source
of the error (by clicking Generate). You may also delete such a bill segment.
If the system successfully generates a bill segment, the bill segment becomes Freezable. If
the bill segment is incorrect, correct the cause of the problem (e.g., fix the meter read,
change the service agreements rate) and regenerate the bill segment (by clicking Generate).
Click the delete button to physically remove an Incomplete, Error or Freezable bill segment from
the database. Note, batch billing will delete unfrozen bill segments when it attempts to create bill
segments for an account that has unfrozen bill segments. Also note, if youve plugged-in the
appropriate pre-completion algorithm, the system will delete bill segments in error on the last
night of the bill cycle. Refer to DELBSEG for more information.
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Click Freeze to freeze a bill segment and its financial transaction. After doing this, the bill
segments state becomes Frozen and the bill segment may now appear on a customers bill.
Also note, when a bill segment is frozen, its financial details will be interfaced to the general
ledger the next time the GL interface executes.
You may not change a bill segment once it is frozen. However, you have two options if you want
to change a frozen bill segments financial impact:
If you need to remove the financial effects of a bill segment, click Init Cancel. Clicking this
button causes a new financial transaction to be generated and linked to the bill segment.
This financial transaction reverses the financial effects of the original bill segment. The bill
segment becomes Pending Cancel after the system successfully generates this financial
transaction. At this point, you have two options:
Click Cancel to freeze the cancellation. Clicking this button causes the bill segment to
move to the Canceled state. Once canceled, the bill segment cannot be uncanceled or
changed.
Click Undo to return the pending cancellation to the Frozen state.
Click Rebill if you need to recalculate the bill segment because something has changed
since it was originally created (e.g., the service agreements rate was changed, a new read
was entered). Clicking this button causes the following events to take place:
The original bill segment is moved to the Pending Cancel state.
A new bill segment is created in the Freezable (or Error) state.
At this point, you have two options.
Click Freeze to make the new bill segment Frozen and make the original bill segment
Canceled.
Multi-Cancel/Rebill Saves Time. If you need to rebill many bill segments related to a service
agreement (e.g., because many bill segments were created using the wrong rate), you should
use the Multi Cancel Rebill transaction as it allows you to cancel / rebill an unlimited number of
bill segments at once.
Note. Using the cancel and cancel/rebill functionality will cause the cancel and rebill details to be
swept on to the customers next bill. If your organization requires cancellation details to be
presented to the customer separately from the new bill, then you will need to use Credit Notes.
Refer to Credit Notes - Presenting Cancellation Details on a Separate Bill for more information.
Click Undo to delete the new bill segment and return the original bill segment to the Frozen state.
Bill Segment - Main Information

The Description of Page section below describes the fields on this page. Refer to How To for a
description of how to perform common bill maintenance functions.
The Main page contains core bill segment information. Open Financial, Bill Segment, Main to
view this information.
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Note. Most bill segments are created by a background process. Refer to A High Level Overview
Of The Bill Creation Process for information describing how the system creates a bill segment.
Description of Page
Bill Seg Info is a concatenation of the bill segments division, SA type, status, bill period and
amount. Bill Segment ID is the system-assigned unique identifier of the bill segment.
Account ID references the bill segments account.
Current Amount is the bill segments effect on the service agreements current balance. Payoff
Amount is only shown if it differs from current amount. Refer to Billing Current Balance versus
Payoff Balance for more information.
Bill ID is the system-assigned unique identifier of the bill on which the bill segment appears. A
concatenation of its bill date, status, due date and amount is displayed.
SA ID contains information about the bill segments service agreement. A concatenation of the
service agreements division, SA type, start option (if any), status and start date is displayed.
If the quotation module is not turned off, you can generate simulated bill segments when you
create a quote. You can view simulated bill segments by drilling down on the desired bill
segment from Quote - Quote Details. When a simulated bill segment is displayed on this page,
the Billing Scenario ID that controlled the bill segments billing period (and consumption) is
displayed. Refer to Creating Quotes And Quote Details for more information.
Period is the start and end dates of the bill segment.
Usage Period is the period used by the meter data management system to determine the correct
interval data to process for the bill segment. This field appears when the bill segment is for an SA
that has Bill Determinants Required for the special role flag.
Bill Cycle displays the bill cycle and window start date of the bill segments bill. This information
is only populated on bills when they are generated on-schedule by the batch billing background
process. Bills generated manually, i.e. off-schedule, do not have this information.
Status is the bill segments status. Refer to Bill Segment Lifecycle for the potential values and
how to handle a bill segment when it exists in a given state.
If the Closing switch is on, this is the final bill segment for the service agreement (i.e., the service
agreement has been stopped and this is the final bill segment).
If the Estimate switch is on, consumption on this bill segment has been estimated by the system.
Refer to The Theory Behind Consumption Estimation for more information.
If the SQ Override switch is on, a user has overridden the service quantities (i.e., the amount of
consumption for which the customer is charged is not consistent with the customers meter
reads). This switch is also set if a user has overridden the calculation/audit read details. Refer to
How To Override Service Quantities On A Specific Bill Segment for more information.
If the Item Override switch is on, a user has overridden the type and/or number of items (i.e., the
type/number of items for which the customer is charged is not consistent with the customers
service point information). Refer to How To Override The Items Billed On A Specific Bill Segment
If this bill segment was created for a sub service agreement where we calculate the charges (i.e.,
not for a pass through billing situation):
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Formatted: Not Highlight

SA Rel ID shows the unique identifier of the record that defines the relationship between the
sub service agreement and the master service agreement (this record shows the service
provider associated with the bill segment). Click the go to button to transfer to this record.
Master Bseg ID shows the unique identifier of the master bill segment whose bill triggered
the creation of this sub service agreement. This bill segments consumption was used to
calculate the charges on this bill segment.
Premise is the address of the main premise associated with the service agreement (as defined
on the service agreements characteristic premise). Its important to note that the service
agreement may cover service at multiple premises, but only one may be defined as the main
premise.
Create Dt/Tm is the date and time on which the bill segment was created or regenerated.
In the Message area, a brief error message appears if theres a problem with the bill segment.
The message area is suppressed if there are no problems with the bill.
Push the magnifying glass button to view the long explanation. The long explanation will provide
information about the cause of the error (and how to fix it).
If the bill segment is a rebill of a canceled bill segment, a reference to the original bill segment is
displayed. Click the adjacent go to button to transfer to the bill segment that was canceled.
If the bill segment was canceled and rebilled by another segment, a reference to the new bill
segment is displayed. Click the adjacent go to button to transfer to the new bill segment that
superceded the canceled segment.
The topics that follow describe each of the actions on that appear in the Bill Segment Actions
area. Refer to How To for a description of typical business processes that use these buttons.
Mass update actions. This page allows you to work on individual bill segments. If you want to
update many bill segments linked to a bill at once, try using the mass update actions available on
Bill -Bill Segments.
Contents
Generate (Bill Segment)
Delete (Bill Segment)
Freeze (Bill Segment)
Rebill (Bill Segment)
Init Cancel (Bill Segment)
Undo (Bill Segment)
Cancel (Bill Segment)
Credit Note (Bill Segment)
Generate (Bill Segment)

Click the Generate button to create a new a bill segment.
This button is enabled when either of the following conditions is true:
You are in add mode (i.e., you are not displaying an existing bill segment) and you have
selected an Account ID, Bill ID and SA ID.
You are displaying a bill segment that is Incomplete, Error, or Freezable. Refer to Bill
Segment Lifecycle for more information about these status values.
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You must specify the following parameters to generate a new bill segment:
Cut-off Date is the last possible day of the bill segments bill period. The current date
Accounting Date is used to define the financial period to which the new bill segments
financial transaction will be booked. The current date defaults when the window opens.
Turn on Allow Estimates if the system is allowed to estimate consumption if it cant find a
meter read.
If the service agreement uses meter reads, use the Billing Option to control how the system
After specifying the above parameters, click the Calculate button to create a new bill segment for
the bill.
If an error exists, refer to How To Correct A Bill Segment That's In Error.
If there are no errors, the Bill Segment Freeze Option on the installation option controls the next
step:
If this option is set to Freeze At Bill Completion, return to Bill Main (using the bill context
menu) and click the Freeze / Complete button.
If this option is set to Freeze At Will, click the Freeze button and, if everything looks clean,
return to Bill Main and click the Complete button.
Delete (Bill Segment)

The Delete button deletes a bill segment.
This button is enabled if you are displaying a bill segment that is Incomplete, Error, or
Freezable. Refer to Bill Segment Lifecycle for more information about these status values.
Freeze (Bill Segment)

Clicking the Freeze button causes a freezable bill segment to become frozen. Refer to Bill
Segment Lifecycle for more information about freezing.
AND
the bill segment is freezable.
Freezing a day or more after generation. If the bill segment is linked to a closed accounting
period, a pop-up appears in which you can specify a new accounting date. This will only happen
if the accounting period closes before you freeze the bill segment (the accounting date is
stamped on a bill segment when its initially generated).
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If problems are detected after freezing. A bill segment may not be changed after it is frozen.
All subsequent changes must occur by canceling the frozen bill segment and creating a new bill
segment. Refer to How To Cancel A Bill Segment and How To Cancel / Rebill A Bill Segment for
more information.
Rebill (Bill Segment)

If problems are detected with a frozen bill segment, it should be canceled and a new bill segment
should be created. We refer to this process as cancel / rebill. Refer to Cancel / Rebill Incorrect
Bill Segments for more information.
Before you cancel / rebill, youll probably need to fix the cause of the problem. The following
table describes common problems and where to go to fix them.
Problem
How To Fix It

rate.

correct meter.


Multi-Cancel/Rebill Saves Time. If the cause of the problem impacts many bill segments
related to a service agreement, you should use the Multi Cancel Rebill transaction as it allows
you to cancel / rebill an unlimited number of bill segments at once.
Credit Notes. Using the cancel/rebill functionality will cause the cancel and rebill details to be
swept on to the customers next bill unless you Reopen the bill. If your organization requires
cancellation details to be presented to the customer separately from the new bill, you should not
use the Rebill functionality. Rather, you should issue a Credit Note and then generate a new bill
containing the revised charges.
The Rebill button causes an existing bill segment to be canceled, and a new bill segment to be
created.
This button is enabled when you display a Frozen bill segment AND the bill segment's bill is not
written off AND the bill segments bill is not linked to an off cycle bill generator. Refer to Bill
Segment Lifecycle for more information about these status values.
When clicked, the Rebill window opens.
You must specify the following parameters to cancel and rebill a new bill segment:
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Cancel Reason defines why the bill segment is being canceled.
Cutoff Date is the last day of the new bill segment. The cutoff date on the bill segment
defaults when the window opens.
Accounting Date is used to define the financial period to which the canceled and new bill
segments financial transactions will be booked. The current date defaults when the window
opens.
meter read.
Use the Billing Option to define how the system looks for meter reads. Select Use
Schedule if the system should select reads based on the SAs SPs service cycle schedule.
Turn on Use Old Read/Item/SQ for Regen if you want the system to use the consumption
details on the original bill segment when it calculates the new bill segment.
Click the Calculate button to cancel the original bill segment and create a new bill segment.
At this point, there are now two bill segments - the original bill segment is in the state of Pending
Cancel, the new bill segment is in the Freezable (or Error) state. If you want to back out, click
the go to button to return to the original bill segment and then click Undo (this will delete the new
bill segment and return the original bill segment to the Frozen state). If the new bill segment
looks correct, click Freeze to move the original bill segment to the Canceled state and the new
bill segment to the Frozen state.
Init Cancel (Bill Segment)

The Init Cancel button causes the first step of the bill segment cancellation process to be
executed. Youd click this button if a frozen bill segment should never have been created (i.e.,
you want to remove the financial impact of a bill segment from a customers balance).
This button is enabled when you display a Frozen bill segment AND the bill segment's bill is not
written off. Refer to Bill Segment Lifecycle for more information about these status values.
You must specify the following parameters to cancel and rebill a new bill segment:
Cancel Reason defines why the bill segment is being canceled.
Accounting Date is used to define the financial period to which the canceled bill segments
financial transactions will be booked. The current date defaults when the window opens.
Click the Calculate button to cancel the original bill segment.

At this point, the bill segment is in the state of Pending Cancel. If you want to back out, click
Undo; the bill segment will be returned to the Frozen state. Click Cancel to move the bill
segment to the Canceled state.
Credit Notes. Using the cancel functionality will cause the cancel details to be swept on to the
customers next bill unless you Reopen the bill. If your organization requires cancellation details
to be presented to the customer separately from the new bill, you should not use the cancel
functionality. Rather, you should issue a Credit Note and then generate a new bill containing the
revised charges.
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Undo (Bill Segment)

The Undo button returns a Pending Cancel bill segment to the Frozen state. If a Pending
Cancel bill segment was created during a Cancel / Rebill, the newly created Freezable bill
segment is also deleted.
This button is enabled when you display a Pending Cancel bill segment. Refer to Bill Segment
Lifecycle for more information about this status.
Cancel (Bill Segment)

Clicking the Cancel button causes a Pending Cancel bill segment to become Canceled. Refer
to Bill Segment Lifecycle for more information about cancellation.
This button is enabled if a Pending Cancel bill segment is displayed AND the bill segment's bill is
not written off.
You must specify the following parameters to cancel the frozen bill segments:
transactions will be booked. The current date defaults when the window opens.
After specifying the above parameters, click the Calculate button to cancel the frozen bill
segments.
If the related bill is pending, the cancellation will cause the bill segment to be suppressed on the
version of the bill sent to the customer (but it remains in the database for audit and financial
reporting purposes).
bill segment will appear on the next bill created for the account (under Bill Corrections).
this, you can suppress a frozen bill segment on a previously completed bill. This means that if
you catch a problem after completion you dont necessarily have to show the problem to the
recomplete the bill the system will mark the bill segment to be suppressed on the version sent to
the customer because its cancellation appears on the same bill as the original charges).
Credit Note (Bill Segment)

The Credit Note button is used to cancel a bill segment and create a new bill that contains the
cancellation details. We refer to this negative bill as a credit note. Refer to Credit Notes Presenting Cancellation Details on a Separate Bill for more information.
If you want to issue a credit note for an entire bill. Rather than cancel a specific bill segment,
functionality exists that allows you to create a credit note for ALL bill segments on a bill. To use
this feature, display the bill in question and then click the Credit Note button on the bill page.
the bill segment is frozen AND
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the bill segment's bill is not written off.

You must specify the following parameters to cancel the frozen bill segment:
transaction will be booked. The current date defaults when the window opens.
Credit Note Date defines the date of the credit note on which the cancellation details will
appear. The current date defaults when the window opens.
After specifying the above parameters, click the Calculate button to cancel the frozen bill
segment and create a credit note.
It should be noted that if this operation is successful, the new negative bill will be complete
(meaning that it will be ready for transmission to the customer and for interface to the general
ledger).
Bill Segment - Read Details

The Read Details page contains information about the meter reads that were used to derive the
bill segments metered consumption. Open Financial, Bill Segment, Read Details to view this
information.
Note. Refer to How The System Determines How Much Was Consumed for how the system
assembles this information.
The Description of Page section below describes the fields on this page. Refer to How To for a
description of how to perform common bill maintenance functions.
Description of Page
The meter read grid is a snapshot of the meter reads used to calculate the bill segments
consumption. One row exists for every register linked to every meter linked to every service point
linked to the service agreement. This information is for audit purposes only and may not be
modified. The following information is displayed in the grid:
Final Unit of Measure is the unit of measure of the resultant billing quantity.
Final Time of Use is the time-of-use code of the resultant billing quantity.
Final Service Quantity ID is the service quantity identifier of the resultant billing quantity.
Register Quantity is the resultant billing quantity.
Service Point ID is the unique identifier of the service point at which the meter was located.
Meter Configuration ID is the unique identifier of the meters configuration.
Sequence is the sequence number of the register on the meter.
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Unit of Measure is the registers unit of measure.
Time of Use is the registers time-of-use code.
SQI is reserved for future use.
Start Register Reading is the start register reading. If the register is consumptive, (as
opposed to subtractive) the word N/A Consumptive is displayed, as the start read is not
relevant. Click the Go to button to drill down into the meter read.
End Register Reading is the end register reading. Click the Go to button to drill down into
the meter read.
Measured Quantity is the resulting measured quantity.
Measured quantity isnt necessarily the difference between the start and end read. The
measured quantity is equal to the Measured Quantity * Register Constant * Installation Constant *
Use Percent.
Measured quantity isnt necessarily the quantity thats billed. If the rate used to calculate the
bill segment has a register rule, this consumption will be transformed further. For example, a
cubic foot of gas can be transformed by a register rule to a therm of gas. When register rules
convert measured consumption, they do NOT overwrite the measured quantity. Rather, they
populate the Final UOM, Final TOU, Final SQI, and Register Quantity with the final billable
quantity. Refer to Setting Up Register Rules for more information.
Register Constant is the constant on the register that is multiplied by the measured quantity
to derive the registers billable consumption.
How To Use is the registers how to use code.
How To Use (SP) is the SA/SPs how to use code.
Use Percent is the SA/SPs usage percentage.
Measures Peak Qty indicates if the unit of measure is one that measures peak consumption.
Start Read Date/Time is the date and time of the start meter read. If the register is
consumptive, (as opposed to subtractive) nothing will be displayed.
End Read Date/Time is the date and time of the end meter read.
Start Reg Read ID is the unique identifier of the start register read. If the register is
Read Type is the read type of the start meter read.
End Reg Read ID is the unique identifier of the end register read.
Read Type is the read type of the end meter read.
Multiplier is the composite multiplier that converts the measured quantity to the registered
quantity.
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Note. The multiplier is calculated by dividing the Register Quantity by the Measured Quantity (if
the Measured Quantity is 0, then the result is 0). This is not stored on the database. There is a
chance that the value is not precise due to round-off.
Bill Segment - Item Details

The Description of Page section below describes the fields on this page. Refer to How To
Override The Items Billed On A Specific Bill Segment for a description of how to override this
information.
The Item Details page contains information about the items located at the service agreements
service points. Open Financial, Bill Segment, Item Details to view this information.
Note. Refer to How The System Determines How Much Was Consumed for how the system
assembles this information.
Description of Page
The item details grid is a snapshot of the items that existed at the service agreements service
points at the time the bill segment was created. One row exists for every type of item linked to
every service point linked to the service agreement.
This information may be modified on a bill segment in the Error or Freezable state. Insert one
row in the item grid (click the + button) for each item you need to add. You may also change item
amounts that were populated by the system when it initially generated the bill by simply
overwriting the information.
Warning! The proper way to fix the number and type of items on a bill segment is to correct the
service point / item information and then regenerate the bill segment. Overriding the item details
on a bill segment is a last resort that should only be used when you cant fix the service point /
item information (for whatever reason).
The following information is displayed in the grid:
Seq No is the system-assigned unique identifier of the item detail row.
Item Type is the type of item.
Item ID is the unique identifier of the item (this is only displayed if a badged item is linked to
the service point; non-badged items dont have unique identities).
Start Date is the first day in the bill segments bill period that the item was linked to the
service point.
End Date is the last day in the bill segments bill period that the item was linked to the service
point.
Item Count is the number of items of this type that were linked to the service agreements
service points.
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If the items item type indicates the system must estimate consumption (e.g., lamps), UOM is
the unit of measure of the estimated consumption. Daily Service Quantity is the items
estimated amount of daily consumption.
Refer to Setting Up Item Types for more information about item types. Refer to Setting Up
Estimated Consumption For Items for more information about defining the estimated consumption
amount for items.
Bill Segment - SQ Details

Override Service Quantities On A Specific Bill Segment for instructions describing how to override
this information.
The SQ Details page contains information about the service quantities (SQ) that will be priced by
the service agreements rate. In addition to showing SQ details, this page shows any Calculation
/ Audit Read Details that are linked to the bill segment. Open Financial, Bill Segment, SQ
Details to view this information.
Description of Page
The Service Quantity details grid is a snapshot of the service quantities amassed from:
The bill segments meter reads.
The bill segments usage request.
Those items for which the system estimates consumption.
The SQ rules defined on the service agreements rate. Refer to Defining Measured Quantity
Manipulation Rules for more information about how SQ rules can introduce additional service
quantities.
The register rules defined on the service agreements rate. Refer to Defining Measured
Quantity Manipulation Rules for more information about how register rules can introduce
additional service quantities.
Billable charges that supply service quantities.
One row exists for every unique combination of unit of measure (UOM), time-of-use (TOU) code,
and service quantity identifier (SQI) associated with the service agreement. Refer to UOM versus
TOU versus SQI for more information.
This information may be overridden on a bill segment in the Error or Freezable state. Insert one
row in the service quantity grid (click the + button) for each UOM/TOU/SQI you need to add. You
may also change amounts that were populated by the system when it initially generated the bill by
simply overwriting the information.
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Warning! The proper way to fix the SQ details on a bill segment is to correct the cause of the
error (e.g., correct the meter reading). Overriding the SQ details on a bill segment is a last resort
that should only be used when you cant fix the cause of the problem. Refer to How To Cancel /
Rebill A Bill Segment for ways to fix common problems.
Unit of Measure is the unit of measure of the service quantity.
Time of Use is the time-of-use of the service quantity.
SQI is the service quantity identifier of the service quantity.
Initial Service Quantity is the initial quantity amassed by the system before application of
the rates SQ rules.
Billable Service Quantity is the service quantity that will be priced by the service
agreements rate. This amount differs from the initial service quantity when the rates SQ
rules manipulate consumption.
The Calculation/Audit Read Details section contains Calculation / Audit Read Details. This
section only appears if any of the following conditions are true:
The service agreement has a special role of Billable Charge, Bill Determinants Required
or Interval Billing.
The bill segment has one or more reads with a usage flag of Calculation/Audit.
The following information may be defined for each calculation / audit read:
Final Unit of Measure is the final unit of measure of the calculation / audit read.
Final Time of Use is the final time-of-use code of the calculation / audit read.
Final SQI is the final service quantity identifier of the calculation / audit read.
Start Date/Time is the date and time of the calculation / audit read.
End Date/Time is the date and time of the calculation / audit read.
Quantity is the quantity of the calculation / audit read. This would typically contain the
amount that was billed during the Start Date/Time through the End Date/Time for the Final
Unit of Measure, Final Time of Use and Final SQI.
Unit of Measure is the initial unit of measure of the calculation / audit read (if any).
Time of Use is the initial time-of-use code of the calculation / audit read.
SQI is the initial service quantity identifier of the calculation / audit read.
Start Quantity is the start quantity (if any). This value would typically only be displayed if
the calculation / audit read is subtractive (i.e., you must subtract the end quantity from the
start quantity to determine billable consumption).
End Quantity is the end quantity (if any). This value would typically only be displayed if the
calculation / audit read is subtractive (i.e., you must subtract the end quantity from the start
quantity to determine billable consumption).
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Measured Quantity is the resulting measured quantity (if any). This value would typically
only be displayed if the calculation / audit read is subtractive (i.e., you must subtract the end
quantity from the start quantity to determine billable consumption). It should contain the
difference between the Start Quantity and the End Quantity.
Constant is the constant of the measuring device that was multiplied by the Measured
Quantity to derive the calculation / audit reads Quantity.
How To Use is a code that indicates if the calculation / audit read was is considered to be
additive, subtractive, peak or check.
Use Percent is the percentage of the total consumption that was billed.
Meas Peak Qty indicates if the unit of measure is one that measures peak consumption.
Multiplier is the ratio of the Quantity and the Measured Quantity. This value only appears
if a non-zero value exists in both of these fields.
Seq No is the sequence number (if any).
Service Point is the unique identifier of the service point at which the readings were
calculated (if applicable).
This information may be overridden on a bill segment in the Error or Freezable state. Insert one
row in the calculation / audit details grid (click the + button) for each entry you need to add. You
may also information populated by the system when it initially generated the bill by simply
overwriting the information.
Warning! The proper way to fix the calculation/audit details on a bill segment is to correct the
cause of the error. Overriding the calculation/audit details on a bill segment is a last resort that
should only be used when you cant fix the cause of the problem.
Refer to Calculation / Audit Read Details for more information about this section.
The Calculation/Audit Usage Details grid contains usage service quantities for the bill segment.
This section appears when the service agreement has a special role of Bill Determinants
Required. The following information is displayed in the grid:
Final Unit of Measure is the final unit of measure of the calculation / audit usage.
Final Time of Use is the final time-of-use code of the calculation / audit usage.
Final Service Quantity ID is the final service quantity identifier of the calculation / audit
usage.
Start Date/Time is the date and time of the calculation / audit usage.
End Date/Time is the date and time of the calculation / audit usage.
Quantity is the quantity of the calculation / audit usage. This would typically contain the
amount that was billed during the Start Date/Time through the End Date/Time for the Final
Unit of Measure, Final Time of Use and Final SQI.
Sequence is the sequence number.
Service Point ID is the unique identifier of the service point at which the usage was
calculated.
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Refer to Calculation / Audit Usage Details for more information about this section.
Bill Segment - Calc Lines

Cancel / Rebill A Bill Segment for instructions describing how to regenerate this information if the
bill segment is incorrect.
The Calc Lines page contains information about the bill calculation lines produced when the
system generates the bill segment. These lines are the source of the details printed on the
customers bill. Open Financial, Bill Segment, Calc Lines to view this information.
Most service agreements use a rate to calculate the information that appears on this page. Refer
to How Rates Affect The Information On Bill Segments for more information.
Description of Page
The Bill Segment Header (Bill Seg Hdr) scroll contains one entry for every version of the rate
that was used to calculate the bill segments lines. Because most bill segments use a single rate
version, you typically only see one entry in the scroll.
The following information is displayed above the bill calculation line grid.
Sequence will be 1 unless multiple versions of the rate were in effect during the bill period. If
there was more than one effective rate version, there will be a separate set of calc lines for
each version applied. The lines that apply to the first part of the bill period would have a
Sequence of 1, the lines for the next part of the bill period would have a Sequence of 2 and
so on.
Start Date End Date is the portion of the bill segment period that the calculation details
apply. For metered service, this period is referred to as the consumption period.
Amount is the sum of the bill calculation lines in the grid.
Desc on Bill is summary information about the calculation details that will be printed on the
customers bill.
Rate Version is the ID of the rate version and its effective date. This information only
appears if a rate was used to calculate the charges.
The calculation lines grid is a snapshot of how the system calculated the bill segment amount.
One row exists for every calculation involved in this process. This information is for audit
purposes only and may not be modified. The following information is displayed in the grid:
An extra column with a drill down button appears if the bill calculation line is the result of an
interval pricing rate component or a TOU pricing rate component that contains an audit
algorithm. For more information, refer to Interval Billing Calculation Details.
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A drill down button appears in the Calc Line Char column if the bill calculation line has
characteristics. The Calc Line Char column only appears if at least one of the calculation
lines has a characteristic.
Sequence is the system-assigned unique identifier of the calculation detail row.
Description on Bill is the information about the bill line that appears on the customers bill.
Calculated Amount is the calculated amount associated with the bill line.
The Print switch controls whether information about this line will print on the customers bill.
The Appears in Summary switch defines if this lines amount also appears on a summary
line. This switch plays a part at bill print time those lines that appear in a summary print in
the left dollar column, those that dont appear in a summary print in the right dollar column.
The system automatically populates this switch as follows:
Bill segments created by applying a rate have this switch turned on if the corresponding
rate component is summarized on a summary rate component
Bill segments created from billable charges use the value of this switch as defined on the
billable charge. Refer to Maintaining Billable Charges for more information.
Unit of Measure (UOM) is the unit of measure of the service quantity priced on the
calculation line.
Time of Use (TOU) is the time-of-use code of the service quantity priced on the calculation
line.
SQI is the service quantity identifier of the service quantity priced on the calculation line.
Billable Service Quantity is the service quantity priced on the calculation line. This quantity
will be different from the measured consumption is there are SQ rules or register rules in
effect.
Base Amount is used by calculation lines (e.g. taxes) that are cross-referenced to other
calculation lines and whose value(s), therefore, depend on the amounts calculated by those
other lines. The Base Amount shows the total amount derived from the cross-referenced
line(s) that the current line then used to calculate its billed amount.
Rate Component Sequence refers to the sequence number of the rate component on the
applicable rate version that was used to calculate the line.
Measures Peak Qty is checked if the UOM priced on the calculation line is used to measure
a peak quantity.
Exempt Amount is the amount of the calculated charge that the customer doesnt have to
pay because they are tax exempt.
Distribution Code is the distribution code associated with the calculation line. This
distribution code is used to build the general ledger details on the bill segments financial
transaction.
Description describes the characteristic value that was used when the lines amount was
calculated. This information is only displayed if the line was calculated using a bill factor
(because only bill factors use characteristic values). Refer to An Illustration Of A Bill Factor
And Its Characteristics for more information.
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Bill Segment - Financial Details

Cancel / Rebill A Bill Segment for instructions describing how to regenerate this information if it is
incorrect.
The Financial Details page contains information about the financial effects of the bill segment.
Open Financial, Bill Segment, Financial Details to view this information.
Note. Refer to The Source Of GL Accounts On A Bill Segments Financial Transaction for how
the system compiles this information.
Description of Page
The Bill Segment FT scroll contains one entry for every financial transaction (FT) associated with
the bill segment. All bill segments have an FT that shows the impact of the bill segment on the
general ledger. A bill segment may have an additional FT (for a maximum of two) if it is
cancelled. The second FT shows the impact of the cancellation on the general ledger.
The following financial transaction information is displayed above the general ledger distribution
grid.
FT Type displays the type of financial transaction (FT).
Show on bill indicates if information about the FT appears on the customers bill.
FT ID is the system-assigned unique identifier of the FT. Click the go to button to transfer to
the Financial Transaction - Main page. On this page you can change certain aspects of the
FT in question. Refer to How To Remove Unwanted Adjustments (or Payments) From A
Completed Bill for a description of how to perform common maintenance functions.
The posted by information that appears adjacent to the FT ID shows the date on which the
FT was frozen and the user ID of the user who performed the operation.
The Linked to bill on message appears when the financial transaction is linked to a bill. A
FT is linked to a bill the next time a bill is completed for the account. Therefore, if a user
cancels a bill segment, the FT associated with the cancellation will not be linked to a bill until
the next bill is completed (although the financial effect of the cancellation takes place
immediately). Click the adjacent go to button to transfer to the bill on which the FT appears.
Current Amount contains the FTs effect on the service agreements current balance.
Payoff Amount contains the FTs effect on the service agreements payoff balance. This
field is only visible when the payoff amount differs from the current amount.
Accounting Date is the date the system uses to determine the FTs accounting period in
your general ledger.
Arrears Date is the date the FT starts aging.
The journal details grid is a snapshot of the distribution codes used to generate the GL accounts
that are affected by the FT. This information is for audit purposes only and may not be modified.
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Seq is the system-assigned unique identifier of the distribution line.
Distribution Code is the distribution code used to generate the GL account affected by the
distribution line. Drill over to the FT if you need to see the actual GL account.
Amount is the amount debited / credited (credits are shown as negative values).
Statistics Code and Statistics Amount are only specified when a statistical quantity is
associated with the distribution line. For example, if the line is associated with a charge for
the total number of kilowatt-hours consumed, the statistics code will be the KWH and the
statistics amount will be the number of kilowatt hours associated with the charge.
Description describes the characteristic value that was used when the lines amount was
calculated. This information is only displayed if the distribution line was derived from bill
calculation lines that were calculated using a bill factor (because only bill factors use
characteristic values). Refer to An Illustration Of A Bill Factor And Its Characteristics for
more information.
If you have configured your installation options to indicate that fund accounting is practiced,
the description of the Fund associated with this distribution code is displayed.
Bill Segment - Bill Segment Messages

The Messages page is a grid containing one row for every message that appears on the bill
segment. Open Financial, Bill Segment, Bill Segment Messages to view this information.
No messages until completion. A bill segment has no messages until it is completed (unless
you insert them manually). At completion time, the system assembles messages from the
various message sources. Refer to The Source Of Bill Messages for information about these
sources.
The bill may also have messages. Be aware that only service agreement-oriented messages
are linked to a bill segment. There may also be account-oriented messages linked to the bill.
Refer to Bill - Bill Messages for information about the page on which account-oriented messages
are displayed. Refer to The Source Of Bill Messages for information about the various message
sources and whether each is linked to a bill or a bill segment.
Description of Page
Msg Code is the code that identifies the bill message.
Message On Bill is the message associated with the code.
Priority is the bill messages priority (on the printed bill).
Insert Code defines if the bill message causes an insert in the envelope.
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Bill Segment - Sub Bill Segments

The Sub Bill Segments page contains the sub bill segments that are associated with the master
SAs bill segment. Open this page using Financial, Bill Segment, Sub Bill Segment.
Note. Sub bill segments are only linked to the master SAs bill segment when the master SA has
an SA relationship with a We Bill For Them Rate Ready or an Its Us service provider. Refer to
The Rate Ready Calculation Method for the details.
Description of Page
The following information is displayed in the grid.
Click the adjacent Go To button to transfer to the bill segment.
The Bill Segment column contains a concatenation of the bill segments business unit, SA
type, status, bill period and amount. The business unit and SA type come from the bill
The Current Amount column contains the bill segments effect on the sub service
agreements current balance.
The Status column contains the bill segments current status.

Bill Segment - Usage

This Usage portal is available when the bill segment has associated usage requests. It displays
all usage requests related to the bill segment. Open this page using Financial, Bill Segment,
Usage.
General Information
Bill Segment ID is the system-assigned unique identifier of the bill segment.
Bill Segment Information contains a concatenation of important information about the bill
segment.
Bill Segmet Usage
The following information is displayed in the Bill Segment Usage zone:
The Create Date/Time of the usage request.
The Usage column contains a concatenation of the bill segments division, SA type, status,
and period of the usage request. The usage information links to the Usage Portal for the
usage request.
The Usage ID for the usage request.
Financial - Bill Segment Calculation Line Characteristics

This page displays the characteristics that are linked to a specific bill segment calculation line.
The information on this page is for audit purposes only and cannot be changed.
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Open this page by clicking the Go To Calc Line Characteristic button on the calculation lines
grid of the Bill Segment - Calc Lines page.
Description of Page
Account is the account to which the bill segment is linked. The name of the main person on the
account appears next to the account ID.
The SA is the service agreement to which the bill segment applies. Basic information about the
service agreement appears adjacent.
Premise shows the service agreements characteristic premise (i.e., the primary premise
associated with the service agreement).
The Bill Seg ID and Bill Seg Header displays the identification of the bill segment and header
associated with the calculation line characteristic.
Calc Line displays the calculation line number with which the characteristics are associated.
The Description on Bill displays the description of the calculation line that appears on the
customers bill.
The characteristics grid displays the Characteristic Types and the Characteristic Values
associated with the calculation line.
For more information about characteristics, refer to Setting Up Characteristic Types and Their
Values.
Off Cycle Bill Generator

The Off Cycle Bill Generator portal may be used to create an off cycle bill for an account where
you control which financial transactions are linked to the resultant bill. For example, you can
create a bill for a specific adjustment or billable charge. Navigate using Main Menu, Financial,
Off Cycle Bill Generator.
Contents
Off Cycle Bill Generator Query
Off Cycle Bill Generator Portal
Off Cycle Bill Generator Query

Use the query portal to search for an existing off cycle bill generator. Once an off cycle bill
generator is selected, you are navigated to the maintenance portal to view and maintain the
selected record.
Off Cycle Bill Generator Portal

This portal appears when an off cycle bill generator has been selected from the Off Cycle Bill
Generator Query portal.
The topics in this section describe the base-package zones that appear on this portal.
Contents
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Off Cycle Bill Generator Actions

Off Cycle Bill Generator Zone
Financial Transactions On Bill
Off Cycle Bill Generator Log
Off Cycle Bill Generator Actions

If the off cycle bill generator is in a state that has valid next states, buttons to transition to each
appropriate next state are displayed.
Refer to How To Create An Off Cycle Bill Generator for more information about how to create an
off cycle bill on-line / real time.
Off Cycle Bill Generator Zone

The Off Cycle Bill Generator zone contains display-only information about the off cycle bill
generator.
Financial Transactions On Bill

The Financial Transactions On Bill zone shows financial transactions linked to the off cycle bill
generators bill. Information displayed on this zone is similar to that displayed on the Financial
Transactions On A Bill transaction.
Off Cycle Bill Generator Log

An off cycle bill generator log contains an entry for every recorded event during the lifecycle of the
off cycle bill generator. There are two general types of log entries:
Automatic entries. The system automatically creates an entry in the log when an off cycle
bill generator is created or there is a status change or when a related entity is created. This
also includes any implementation-specific log entries. Users cannot modify or delete these
log entries.
Manual entries. Users can add manual entries to record significant events at their
discretion.
Multi Cancel/Rebill
The Multi-Cancel/Rebill transaction is used to cancel / rebill (and freeze) one or more bill
segments linked to a service agreement.
Note. You would typically use this transaction when something has been wrong for an extended
period of time. For example, if the customer was assigned the wrong rate when they first started
service, you would correct the customers rate using Service Agreement Rate Info and then use
this transaction to cancel / rebill the customers historical bill segments.
The following topics describe how to use this transaction.
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Contents
Multi Cancel/Rebill - Main
Multi Cancel/Rebill - Graph
Multi Cancel/Rebill - Main

The main page is used to select the bill segments to be cancel/rebilled and to initiate the
cancel/rebill request. Open Financial, Multi-Cancel/Rebill to use this transaction.
Description of Page
This page contains all non-cancelled bill segments associated with a given SA ID. The service
agreements SA Info, Account ID (and name), characteristic Premise (and address), Current
Balance and Payoff Balance are displayed at the top of page.
When the page first opens, the grid is populated with ALL non-cancelled bill segments displayed
in reverse chronology order. All frozen bill segments are pre-selected for cancel/rebill
processing. The following information appears in the grid:
Selected Switch. If this switch is turned on, the bill segment will be cancel / rebilled when the
Cancel/Rebill/Freeze button is clicked. You can use the mouse to toggle the value of this
switch on a specific bill segment. Alternatively, you can click the Select All button or Clear
All button to toggle the switch for all frozen bill segments. The checkbox is disabled if the bill
segment's bill is written off. Note: the total number of selected bill segments is shown above
the grid for confirmation purposes.
Start Date. This is the first day of the bill segment.
End Date. This is the last day of the bill segment.
Create Date/Time. This is the day/time the bill segment was created.
Amount. This is the payoff amount of the bill segment.
Original Amount. This column only contains a value if the bill segment is a rebill of another
bill segment. In this situation, one of the following values will be displayed:
If the amount of the new bill segment differs from the amount of the original bill segment,
the amount of the original bill segment will be displayed.
If the amount of the new bill segment equals the amount of the original bill segment, the
word No change will be displayed.
Bill Segment Information. This is the standard bill segment summary information.
Sorting By Values In The Grid. Just like all grids in the system, you can click on a column
heading to resort the grid by the value of the respective column. This might be useful to sort the
bill segments in Amount order.
After selecting the bill segments to be cancel/rebilled, click the Cancel/Rebill/Freeze button.
When this button is clicked, an additional informational page displays. Specify the following
information and then click Calculate to cancel the selected bill segment and create new bill
segments:
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Accounting Date is used to define the financial period to which the canceled and new bill
segments financial transactions will be booked.
meter read.
Select Use Schedule if the system should select reads based on the SAs SPs service
cycle schedule.
If youd prefer to have the system use the consumption details snapshot on the original bill
segments, turn on Use Old Read/Item/SQ. If this switch is on then neither Allow Estimates
nor Billing Option is relevant. The Use Old Read/Item/SQ switch is not available if the bills
SA references an SA type with a special role flag of Bill Determinants Required.
Warning! If the cause of the rebill is an incorrect rate and the new rate requires service quantities
that were not calculated when the bill was originally calculated, do not turn on Use Old
Read/Item/SQ. Why? Because you want the system to derive new service quantities during the
rebill process.
Default note. The Accounting Date is defaulted to the current date and the Use Old
Read/Item/SQ switch is turned on.
After specifying the above information, the system cancel / rebills each segment in chronological
order (i.e., earlier segments will be cancel / rebilled before later segments). The new amount of
each bill segment is shown in the Original Amount column. You can navigate to the Graph page
to graphically view the financial ramifications of the cancel/rebills.
Errors. Its possible that bill segment errors will occur when you cancel / rebill the bill segments.
For example, if you change the SAs rate to a rate that requires a unit-of-measure that doesnt
exist on the SAs meter, a bill segment error will be generated. If this occurs, you must go to Bill
Segment Main for the pending cancel bill segment and use the Undo action to remove the
offending bill segment (and restore the original segment to the Frozen state). Alternatively, you
can drill down on the Error bill segment and use the Regenerate action after correcting the
cause of the problem.
There is no Undo. Unlike cancel / rebills performed on Bill Segment Main, there is no Undo
action. This is because the multi-cancel/rebill transaction freezes the newly created bill segments
after it cancel/rebills; whereas the bill segment transaction lets you examine the new bill segment
before you freeze it. If you made a mistake, simply correct the cause of the mistake and then
cancel / rebill again. The erroneous financial transactions will be automatically suppressed on the
next bill produced for the customer.
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Multi Cancel/Rebill - Graph

This page contains a graph that shows the rebilled and original payoff amounts for a service
agreements non-cancelled bill segments. Open Financial, Multi Cancel/Rebill and navigate to
the Graph page to view this information.
Description of Page
This page contains a graph that shows the payoff amounts for a service agreements noncancelled bill segments (represented by the blue bars in the graph). If a bill segment is a rebill of
another bill segment, the payoff amount of the original bill segment is displayed on a red-colored
bar adjacent to the respective blue bar.
Click a bar. You can click on a bar to drill down to a bill segment.
SA Billing History
Open Financial Query, SA Billing History to view a history of all bill segments produced for a
service agreement.
Description of Page
The Account ID is displayed with the accounts name adjacent.
The SA Information shows a summary of information about the service agreement. The SA ID
is the unique identifier of this SA.
One row is displayed for every bill segment ever produced for the selected service agreement.
The following information is displayed for each bill segment:
The Start Date and End Date of the bill segment.
The number of Days in the bill segment period.
The Status of the bill segment
The Current and Payoff Amounts of the bill segment.
The UOM (Unit of Measure) of the service quantity designated as the graph UOM for the
SAs SA type.
The total amount of the service Billable Service Quantity that was billed.
The Avg Daily Qty is the Billable Service Quantity divided by the numbers of days of
service.
If you need to see more detailed information about the bill segment, click the go to button to
transfer to the bill segment page.
Bill Exception
If errors are detected during the billing process, it may cause a record to be written to the bill
exception table with a message indicating the nature of the severe error.
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To view the messages associated with the exception records, schedule the TD-BIERR
background process. This process generates a To Do entry for every record in the bill exception
table.
Refer to How to Correct a Bill That's In Error for instructions describing how to correct a bill.
Bill Segment Exception

If errors are detected during the billing process, it may cause a record to be written to the bill
segment exception table with a message indicating the nature of the severe error.
To view the messages associated with the exception records, schedule the TD-BSERR
background process. This process generates a To Do entry for every record in the bill segment
exception table.
Refer to How To Correct A Bill Segment Thats In Error for instructions describing how to correct
a bill segment.
Maintaining Billable Charges

You create a billable charge whenever a customer should be charged for a service that occurs
outside the normal course of business. For example, you would create a billable charge to
charge a contractor for the repair of a ruptured gas line.
Billable charges can be uploaded from an external system. Refer to Uploading Billable
Charges and Using Billable Charges For Pass Through Billing for more information.
A billable charge must refer to a service agreement. This service agreement behaves just like any
other service agreement:
Bill segments are created for the service agreement. Whenever billing is performed for
an account with billable charge service agreements, the system creates a bill segment for
each billable charge. This means that if a service agreement has many unbilled billable
charges, it will have many bill segments.
Payments are distributed to the service agreement. Payments made by an account are
distributed to its billable charge service agreements just like any other service agreement.
Overdue debt is monitored. The credit and collections process monitors billable charge
service agreements for overdue debt and responds accordingly when overdue debt is
detected.
This service agreement must reference an SA Type that has a Special Role Flag of Billable
Charge. If such a service agreement does not already exist for the account, one must be
created before you can levy a billable charge. See For more information at the end of this
section for links to other sections that will help you with this process.
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Billable charge templates exist to minimize the effort required to create a billable charge for a
customer. A billable charge template contains the standard bill lines, amounts and distribution
codes used to charge for a one-off charge.
A user may override the information on the template when the billable charge is created. For
example, you can create a billable charge template to levy charges when a contractor ruptures a
gas main. This template would contain the bill lines, amounts and distribution codes associated
with a ruptured pipe repair. Then, when a contractor ruptures a line, a user can create a billable
charge using the template and override the amount to reflect the actual repair amount (if it differs
from the norm).
Templates arent required. A billable charge can be created without a template for a truly
unexpected charge. If you dont use a template, youll have to enter the bill information manually.
Refer to Setting Up Billable Charge Templates for more information.
Adding taxes and other calculation lines to a billable charge. Refer to Billable Charge SQ
Details for information about how to have the system calculate tax lines and append them to the
billable charge.
Contents
Billable Charge - Main
Billable Charge - Line Characteristics
Billable Charge - SQ Details
Billable Charge - Read Details
Billable Charge - Main

Open Financial, Billable Charge to add or update a billable charge.
Description of Page
The Billable Charge ID is system generated. The Account ID of the account responsible for the
charge is displayed at the top.
Use SA ID to define the ID of the billable charge service agreement that will hold the billable
charges debt. The Account ID for the service agreement is displayed for information purposes.
Use Start Date and End Date to define the charges bill period.
Installment billable charges. You can create many future dated billable charges to implement
unusual installment plans. For example, if you want to bill a customer $250 today, $150 next
month, and $1000 three months from now; you could create three billable charges with a date
that reflects the earliest bill date. When a bill is produced for the account, the system will create a
bill segment for every billable charge whose start date is on or before the current date.
If you want to create the billable charges from an existing template, enter the ID of the Billable
Charge Template from which the billable charge information defaults. If your SA Type indicates a
billable charge template, that value will be defaulted.
116
Use Description on Bill to define the verbiage that should print on the customers bill above the
line item details.
Billable Charge Status defines the state of the billable charges. Possible values are Billable
and Cancelled. Click the Cancel button to cancel a billable charge.
Bill Segment ID is the ID of the bill segment on which the billable charges charge details appear.
This information is only populated AFTER the billable charge has been swept onto a bill.
The Total Bill Amount displays the sum of all billable charge lines except those that are Memo
Only. The Total Line Amount displays the sum of all billable charge lines except those that
Appear In Summary.
The information in the scroll defines the line item details associated with the billable charge. Click
the drill down button to navigate to the line characteristics. The following fields are required for
each line:
Sequence
Sequence controls the order in which the line items

appear on the bill segment.
Description on Bill
Specify the verbiage to print on the bill for the line item.
Charge Amount
Specify the amount to charge for the line item.
Show on Bill
Turn this switch on if the line item should appear on the

customers printed bill. It would be very unusual for this
switch to be off.
Appears in Summary
Turn this switch on when the amount associated with

this line also appears in a summary line. This switch
plays a part at bill print time - those lines that appear in a
summary print in the left dollar column, those that dont
appear in a summary print in the right dollar column.
Also note, those lines that appear in a summary line are
not included in the total amount associated with the
billable charge.
Memo Only, No GL
Turn this switch on if the billable charge line does not

contribute to the total amount due (e.g., this switch
would be on for information only lines).
Distribution Code
Specify the distribution code that identifies the GL

account associated with this line item. The description
of the code appears adjacent.
For more information about billable charge templates, refer to Setting Up Billable Charge
Templates.
Billable Charge - Line Characteristics

Characteristics may be associated with billable charge lines. Typically, this is done to categorize
billable charge lines for reporting purposes.
117
Open Financial, Billable Charge, Line Characteristics to maintain characteristics that are
associated with billable charge.
Description of Page
The Billable Charge Line scroll defines the billable charge line to which you wish to assign
characteristic values. The following fields display:
Characteristic Type
The type of characteristic.
Characteristics Value
The value of the characteristic.
Note. You can only choose characteristic types defined as permissible on a billable charge line.
Billable Charge - SQ Details

Optionally, you may specify service quantities associated with a billable charge. These are most
commonly used when you want the system to calculate charges in addition to the billable charge
lines (e.g., adding tax to the billable charge lines).
The SA must specify a rate. If you want the system to calculate additional charges based on
the service quantities defined on this page, the related billable charge service agreement must
reference a rate. This rate must have rate components that calculate charges based on the
service quantities specified on this page. When the service agreement is next billed, the system
will sweep on the billable charges and then call the rate and pass it the service quantities defined
on this page. The rate will calculate the additional charges and these will be appended to the bill
segment.
Open Financial, Billable Charge, SQ Details to maintain a billable charges service quantities.
Description of Page
Sequence
Specify the sequence number of the SQ.
UOM
Select the unit of measure of this SQ. One or more of

UOM, TOU, or SQ Identifier must be selected.
TOU
Select the time of use period.
SQ Identifier
Select the SQ identifier.
Service Quantity
Specify the number of units of this service quantity.
Billable Charge - Read Details

Optionally, you may specify meter read details associated with a billable charge. These are most
commonly used when you need to print the read details that were used to calculate the bill lines
that appear on the main tab.
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Using these reads to derive billable consumption. The base package bill segment creation
algorithm simply sweeps billable charge read details onto the related bill segment as calculation /
audit reads. This algorithm does NOT use these reads to derive billable consumption. This is
intentional as most implementations that import reads also import billable consumption and
therefore deriving billable consumption is unnecessary (and also error prone). If your
implementation needs to derive billable consumption from these reads, you can develop your own
bill segment creation algorithm to do just this.
Open Financial, Billable Charge, Read Details to maintain a billable charges service quantities.
Description of Page
The grid is a snapshot of the meter reads whose consumption was billed using the bill lines
shown on the main tab. One row exists for every read that should be swept onto the related bill
segment as a calculation / audit read when the system creates a bill segment for this billable
charge. The following information is displayed in the grid:
Final Unit of Measure is the unit of measure of the resultant billing quantity.
Final Time of Use is the time-of-use code of the resultant billing quantity.
Final Service Quantity Identifier is the service quantity identifier of the resultant billing
quantity.
Register Quantity is the resultant billing quantity.
How To Use (SP) is the SA/SPs how to use code.
Service Point ID is the unique identifier of the service point at which the meter was located.
Meter Configuration ID is the unique identifier of the meters configuration.
Sequence is the sequence number of the register on the meter.
Unit of Measure is the registers unit of measure.
Time of Use is the registers time-of-use code.
SQI is reserved for future use.
Start Register Reading is the start register reading.
End Register Reading is the end register reading.
Measured Quantity is the resulting measured quantity.
Register Constant is the constant on the register that is multiplied by the measured quantity
to derive the registers billable consumption.
How To Use is the registers how to use code.
Use Percent is the SA/SPs usage percentage. A value of 100% is defaulted.
Measures Peak Qty indicates if the unit of measure is one that measures peak consumption.
Start Read Date/Time is the date and time of the start meter read. If the register is
End Read Date/Time is the date and time of the end meter read.
119
Start Reg Read ID is the unique identifier of the start register read. If the register is
Read Type is the read type of the start meter read.
End Reg Read ID is the unique identifier of the end register read.
Read Type is the read type of the end meter read.
Multiplier is the composite multiplier that converts the measured quantity to the registered
quantity.
Note. The multiplier is calculated by dividing the Register Quantity by the Measured Quantity (if
the Measured Quantity is 0, then the result is 0). This is not stored on the database. There is a
chance that the value is not precise due to round-off.
Uploading Billable Charges

This section describes how the system uploads billable charges from an external source. This
mechanism is used when you need to pass through charges that have been calculated by a
third party but appear on your bill.
Contents
Billable Charge Upload Background Processes
BCUP-PRG - Purge Billable Charge Upload Objects
Billable Charge Upload Staging
Billable Charge Upload Exception
Billable Charge Upload Background Processes

The following diagram illustrates the processes involved in the uploading of billable charges into
the system.
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Process: X
Process: BCU1
Populate & Validate SA ID,
Line Details & SQ Details
Flat file
containing
billable
charge
details
Billable
Charge
Upload
Staging
Process: BCU2
Create Billable Charge
Billable
Charge
Contents
Process X - Populate BC Upload Staging
BCU1 - Validate & Populate Billable Charge Upload Staging
BCU2 - Create Billable Charge
Process X - Populate BC Upload Staging

tables (shown in the yellow section of the following ERD).
121
Providers
External ID
SA
Bill. Charge
Line Type
Billable
Charge
Upload St.
Distribut.
Code
Bill Charge
Upload Line
Currency
Code
UOM
TOU
B.C.U.S.
Service
Quantity
SQI
B.C.U.S.
Register
Read
Valid Values:
Add
Subtract
Check
Calculation
Service
Point
Usage Flag
Register
Read

Contents
Billable Charge Upload Staging Layout
Billable Charge Line Upload Staging Layout
Billable Charge Line Characteristic Upload Staging Layout
Billable Charge Service Quantity Upload Staging Layout
Billable Charge Read Details Upload Staging Layout
Billable Charge Upload Staging Layout

You must create an upload staging record for each billable charge. The name of this table is
CI_BCHG_UP. The following table describes each column on this table.
Column Name
Length
Reqd
Data Type
Comments
BCHG_UP_ID
30
Char
This is the unique identifier of the

record. This value does NOT have
to be a random number, but it does
need to be unique. If your process
that inserts records on this table is
capable of calling a COBOL routine,
call CIPCKEYG and it will supply a
12 digit random number for you.
BCHG_UP_STAT_FLG
Char
122
NT_XID_CD
30
Char
This is the external system id of the

sender of the billable charge. See
the description of the
SA_EXT_REFT_ID field for how this
field is used to determine the billable
charges SA_ID. Refer to Designing
External Systems for more
information about this field.
SA_EXT_REF_ID
36
Varchar2
This field along with NT_XID_CD

are used to uniquely identify the
service agreement against which
the billable charge will be stored.
These two fields are used to identify
a SA relationship record; the SA
relationship record, in turn, has a
sub SA and it is this SA that the
billable charge will be linked to.
Note well: these fields are only
necessary if you do not know the
billable charge SA ID. Refer to
Maintaining SA Relationships for
more information.
BCHG_EXT_REF_ID
50
Varchar2
This is the identifier of the billable

charge in the senders system.
CRE_DTTM
26
Date/Time
The date and time the upload

staging row was inserted (this can
be used for audit purposes).
START_DT
10
Date
The start date of the period

encompassed by the billable
charge.
END_DT
10
Date
The end date of the billable charge

period.
DESCR_ON_BILL
80
Varchar2
This is the description that should

prefix the charges on the printed bill.
SA_ID
10
See note
Char
This must correspond with a SA ID

of a billable charge service
agreement. You may leave this
column blank if NT_XID_CD and
SA_EXT_REF_ID are populated.
BILLABLE_CHG_ID
12
Char
Leave this column blank. It will be

assigned by the system when it
creates a billable charge record.
Billable Charge Line Upload Staging Layout

You must create a billable charge line upload record for each line to be uploaded. The name of
this table is CI_BCHG_LINE_UP. The following table describes each column on this table.
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Defaulting from BCHG_UP_XTYPE. Please pay special attention to the Comments column
below as many fields, if left blank, will default from each records BCHG_UP_XTYPE.
Column Name
Length
Reqd
Data Type
Comments
BCHG_UP_ID
30
Char
This is the foreign key to the billable

charge upload staging record.
LINE_SEQ
This is the unique line number of the

billable charge line. This value must
be unique within the billable charge.
DESCR_ON_BILL
80
Varchar2
This is the description that will be

printed on the bill for the line.
CHARGE_AMT
13.2
This is the amount associated with

the billable charge line.
BCHG_LINE_XID
20
Varchar2

billable charge line in the senders
system.
BCHG_UP_XTYPE
30
Char
This is the type of billable charge

line. This is a foreign key reference
to the billable charge line type
control table. This control table is
used to populate the remaining
fields (if they are blank). If this field
is blank, the remaining fields must
be specified as they cannot be
defaulted from the billable charge
line type control table. Refer to
Billable Charge Line Type for more
information.
CURRENCY_CD
See note
Char
This is a foreign key reference to the

currency code of the billable charge
line. This field must be specified if
CHARGE_AMT is non-zero.
SHOW_ON_BILL_SW
See note
Char
This should be Y if the line should

appear on the customers printed
bill. This should be N if the line
should not appear on the customers
printed bill. If left blank, this value
will be populated from the lines
BCHG_UP_XTYPE.
APP_IN_SUMM_SW
See note
Char
This should be Y if the line appears

in a summary line. This should be N
if the line does not appear in a
summary line. This switch plays a
part at bill print time those lines
that appear in a summary print in
the left dollar column, those that
dont appear in a summary print in
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the right dollar column. If left blank,

this value will be populated from the
lines BCHG_UP_XTYPE.
MEMO_SW
See note
Char
This should be Y if the line does

NOT affect the general ledger. This
should be N if the line affects the
general ledger. If left blank, this
value will be populated from the
lines BCHG_UP_XTYPE.
DST_ID
10
See note
Char
If the line affects the general ledger,

the set ID (the previous field) and
the distribution code of the GL
account must be specified. If left
blank, this value will be populated
from the lines BCHG_UP_XTYPE.
Billable Charge Line Characteristic Upload Staging Layout

If you want to upload characteristics on your billable charge lines, you must create a billable
charge line characteristic upload record for each characteristic on each line. The name of this
table is CI_B_LN_UP_CHAR. The following table describes each column on this table.
Column Name
Length
Reqd
Data Type
Comments
BCHG_UP_ID
30
Char

LINE_SEQ

charge line upload staging record
CHAR_TYPE_CD
Char

billable charge line characteristics.
This value must be unique within the
billable charge line characteristics.
CHAR_VAL
16
Char
A characteristic value must be

supplied if the ad hoc switch on
characteristic type is N. Otherwise, it
is not allowed.
ADHOC_CHAR_VAL
30
Varchar2
An ad hoc characteristic value must

be supplied if the ad hoc switch on
characteristic type is Y. Otherwise, it
is not allowed.
Billable Charge Service Quantity Upload Staging Layout

You must create a billable charge service quantity upload record for each service quantity to be
uploaded. The name of this table is CI_BCHG_UP_SQ. The following table describes each
column on this table. Refer to pass through charges for more information about how this type of
information is used.
Column Name
BCHG_UP_ID
Length
30
Reqd
Y
Data Type
Char
Comments
125
SEQ_NUM
Sequence of the service quantity

within the Billable Charge Upload
UOM_CD
Char
The unit of measure of the Billable

Charge Upload SQ row. If
specified, it must reference a valid
value on CI_UOM. Note, at least
one of the following fields should be
specified: SQI_CD, TOU_CD,
UOM_CD.
TOU_CD
Char
The time of use of the Billable

Charge Upload SQ row. If
value on CI_TOU. Note, at least
one of the following fields should be
UOM_CD.
SQI_CD
Char
The service quantity identifier of the

Billable Charge Upload SQ row. If
value on CI_SQI. Note, at least one
of the following fields should be
UOM_CD.
SVC_QTY
12.6
Quantity of the service used for the

UOM / TOU / SQI combination
Billable Charge Read Details Upload Staging Layout

You must create a billable charge read details upload record for each read detail to be uploaded.
The name of this table is CI_BCHG_UP_READ. The following table describes each column on
this table. Refer to pass through charges for more information about how this type of
information is used.
Column Name
Length
Reqd
Data Type
Comments
BCHG_UP_ID
30
Char

SP_ID
10
Char
Note, if USAGE_FLG is calculation,

you can set this field to 0 if you do
not know the SP ID. The only thing
thats important is that the
combination of BCHG_UP_ID,
SP_ID and SEQNO are unique.
SEQNO
Number
This should be a value greater than

zero. See SP_ID comment for more
information. This is typically the
sequence number of the register on
the meter.
END_READ_DTTM
26
DateTime
This is the date and time of the end

read
126
END_REG_READ_ID
12
Char
This field must reference an existing

register read ID if USAGE_FLG is
anything other than a calculation.
END_REG_READING
9.6
Number
This is the reading of the end read.
FINAL_REG_QTY
12.6
Number
This is the final amount of the

reading (this is the amount of
billable consumption the read detail
contributed to the entire billed
consumption).
FINAL_SQI
Char
The service quantity identifier of the

FINAL_REG_QTY. If specified, it
must reference a valid value on
CI_SQI. Note, at least one of the
following fields should be specified:
FINAL_SQI, FINAL_UOM_CD.
FINAL_TOU_CD
Char
The time-of-use code of the

CI_TOU.
FINAL_UOM_CD
Char
The unit of measure of the

CI_UOM. Note, at least one of the
following fields should be specified:
FINAL_SQI, FINAL_UOM_CD.
HOW_TO_USE_FLG
Char
See the field description in the data

dictionary for the valid values
(CI_BCHG_UP_READ).
MSR_PEAK_QTY_SW
Char
Y or N
MSR_QTY
12.6
Number
This is the difference between

END_REG_READING and
START_REG_READING for
subtractive registers.
REG_CONST
6.6
Number
This is the registers constant (the

value used to adjust the measured
quantity due to something
associated with the physical meter).
Set this to a value of 1 if it is not
known.
SQI_CD
The service quantity identifier of

END_REG_READING and
START_REG_READING. If
value on CI_SQI. Note, at least one
of the following fields should be
UOM_CD.
127
START_READ_DTTM
26
DateTime
This is the date and time of the start

reading.
START_REG_READ_ID
12
Char
This field must reference an existing

register read ID if USAGE_FLG is
anything other than a calculation.
START_REG_READING
9.6
Number
This is the reading of the start read.
TOU_CD
Char
The time-of-use code of

END_REG_READING and
START_REG_READING. If
value on CI_TOU.
UOM_CD
Char
The unit of measure of

END_REG_READING and
START_REG_READING.
USAGE_FLG
Char
See the field description in the data

dictionary for the valid values
(CI_BCHG_UP_READ).
USE_PCT
Number
This is the percentage of the

consumption that was billed (this will
typically be 100).
BCU1 - Validate & Populate Billable Charge Upload Staging

This process has several functions:
It populates the SA ID on all BC upload staging records where SA ID is left blank. This
means that you dont have to know the SA ID in order to interface a billable charge into the
system. The program populates SA ID with the service agreement related to the SA
relationship with the most recent effective date for a given combination of service provider's
external system ID and customer's ID in the sender's system. The system can only do this if
the following points are true:
You use the systems SA relationship functionality to define that you provide bill ready
billing services for a service provider. On the customers SA relationship record you must
define the customers ID in the service providers system. Refer to Maintaining SA
Relationships for more information.
You identify the service providers external system ID on the billable charge upload
staging record.
You identify the customers ID in the senders system.
Note. You can still interface billable charges if you dont use the systems SA relationship
functionality. How? You simply need to derive the SA ID associated with the uploaded billable
charge.
128
It populates various fields (e.g., the GL distribution code, memo only switch) on the billable
charge upload line records from the billable charge line type specified on each respective
record.
Any validation / population errors detected during this process are written to the BC Upload
Exception table. You can fix errors using BC Upload Staging page (dont forget to change the
records status back to Pending).
BCU2 - Create Billable Charge

This process creates a billable charge and billable charge lines (shown in the yellow section of
the following ERD) for all BC upload records in the Pending state.
SA
Process: BCU2
Create Billable Charge
B.C.U.S.
B.C.U.S.
Line
B.C.U.S.
Read
Details
BC
B.C.U.S.
Service
Qty
BC Line
BC Read
Details
BC
Service
Qty
If the billable charges SA is Closed, it will Reactivate it so that the billable charges will be swept
onto the next bill produced for the account.
Note. This process will override the values of the various switches referenced on bill charge
upload staging line if the respective service agreements SA type has an override value for the
lines billable charge line type. Refer to SA Type Billable Charge Overrides for more
information.
This is an optional
relationship that, if used, will
override the values of several
switches (memo only, print on
bill, etc) on the BC Line
SA Type
SA
SA Type /
BC Line
Type
B.C.U.S.
Bill. Charge
Line Type
B.C.U.S.
Line
Any errors detected during this process are written to the Billable Charge Upload Exception table.
You can fix errors using BC Upload Staging page (dont forget to change the records status back
to Pending).
BCUP-PRG - Purge Billable Charge Upload Objects

Completed billable charge upload staging objects should be periodically purged from the system
by executing the BCUP-PRG background process. This background process allows you to purge
all Completed billable charge upload staging objects older than a given number of days.
129
We want to stress that there is no system constraint as to the number of Completed billable
charge upload objects that may exist. You can retain these objects for as long as you desire.
However we recommend that you periodically purge Completed billable charge upload objects
as they exist only to satisfy auditing and reporting needs.
Billable Charge Upload Staging

The Billable charge Upload Staging page has three purposes:
You can view historical billable charge upload records.
You can correct billable charge upload records that are in error.
You can add new billable charge upload records. These will be uploaded by the billable
charge upload process (although its probably easier to just add the billable charges using the
Maintaining Billable Charges page).
The topics in the section describe how to maintain this information.

Contents
Billable Charge Upload - Main
Billable Charge Upload - Lines
Billable Charge Upload - SQ Details
Billable Charge Upload - Read Details
Billable Charge Upload - Main

Open this page using Financial, Billable Charge Upload Staging, Main.
Description of Page
Refer to Billable Charge Upload Staging for more information about these fields.
Correcting Errors. If a Billable Charge Upload records status is Error, you should correct the
problem and then change its status back to Pending. The next time the billable charge upload
process runs, it will revalidate the record and, if valid, it will create a billable charge record.
Billable Charge Upload - Lines

Open this page using Financial, Billable Charge Upload Staging, Lines.
Description of Page
Refer to Billable Charge Line Upload Staging for more information about these fields.
Billable Charge Upload - SQ Details

Open this page using Financial, Billable Charge Upload Staging, SQ Details.
Description of Page
130
Refer to Billable Charge Service Quantity Upload Staging for more information about these fields.
Billable Charge Upload - Read Details

Optionally, you may specify meter read details associated with a billable charge. These are most
commonly used when you need to print the read details that were used to calculate the bill lines
that appear on the main tab.
Using these reads to derive billable consumption. The base package bill segment creation
algorithm simply sweeps billable charge read details onto the related bill segments read detail.
This algorithm does NOT use these reads to derive billable consumption. This is intentional as
most implementations that import reads also import billable consumption and therefore deriving
billable consumption is unnecessary (and also error prone). If your implementation needs to
derive billable consumption from these reads, you can develop your own bill segment creation
algorithm to do just this.
Open Financial, Billable Charge, Read Details to maintain a billable charges service quantities.
Description of Page
Refer to Billable Charge Read Details Upload Staging for more information about these fields.
Billable Charge Upload Exception

If errors are detected during the billable charge upload process, a record is written to the billable
charge upload exception table with a message indicating the nature of the severe error.
To view the messages associated with the exception records, schedule the TD-BCUPL
background process. This process generates a To Do entry for every record in the billable
charge upload exception table.
You can fix this error using the Billable Charge Upload Staging page and change the status of the
record from Error to Pending. When the billable charge upload process next runs, it attempts to
upload this record again.
Budget Review
The Budget Review page shows all accounts with an anomalous budget amount.
Note. This information on this page is created by the Budget Monitor background process.
Open this page using Financial Query, Budget Review.
Description of Page
One row is displayed for every account whose current budget amount is out-of-sync with the
recommended budget amount.
131
Rows are also displayed for errors. Please be aware that if the Budget Monitor background
process encounters an error when it attempts to calculate an accounts recommended budget,
these errors will also appear as rows in this query.
Clicking the Go To button will cause the Account Budget page to open. When this page opens
you can recalculate the customers budget amount.
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