Consolidate Rent and Usage-Based Billing onto a Single Invoice using Bill Groups

You can now align usage invoices with rent into a single invoice, using the billing group as an additional alignment criterion. You can define billing groups to consolidate all contract charges regardless of whether the amounts are contractually scheduled amounts or ad hoc charges incurred during the life of contract.

In order to simplify billing and present all billable amounts on a single invoice, a date assignment process has been implemented. This process aligns the invoice date of unscheduled payments, such as usage charges, with the rent due dates. The goal is to ensure that both scheduled and unscheduled charges appear together on the same invoice.

If a usage invoice is generated and no rent invoice for the same contract and billing group is due, the usage invoice will be temporarily held. It will be aligned with the next scheduled rent invoice, ensuring that both the rent and usage charges are billed together when the next rent invoice is issued.

Prior to Release 12.2.15, usage invoices and rent were not aligned according to the billing group alignment criteria.

To align usage invoices with rent into a single invoice:

  1. Create and activate a Billing Group for a customer.
  2. Create a lease contract for the customer and add assets and usage.
  3. Assign Billing Group Name to the contract or asset billing setup terms and conditions.
  4. Ensure that Usage Invoice Not to be Aligned with Next Rental Invoice is not selected.
  5. Activate the lease contract.
  6. Capture meter readings for the asset.
  7. Run the billing concurrent programs:
  • Service Contracts Main Billing: Calculates billing amounts in Oracle Service Contracts based upon the usage type.
  • Usage Based Billing: Transfers the usage billing amounts into Lease and Finance Management and creates billing items.
  • Master Program -- Process Billable Streams - Contracts: Identifies contracts with streams due for billing and creates billing items.
  • Usage Billing Alignment - Contracts: Aligns usage-based charges with the rent billing items using the contract and billing group as alignment criteria.
  • Master Program -- Receivables Invoice Transfer: Transfers the rent and usage billing items to the Oracle Receivables interface tables.
  • AutoInvoice Master Program: Imports the billing transactions into Oracle Receivables and generates the invoice details.

The following screenshots describe creating a bill group and assigning the billing group name to the contract:

Create Billing Group

Create Billing Group

Assign Billing Group to Contract

Assign Billing Group to Contract

Steps to Enable

To enable Billing Groups:

  1. Navigate to Setup > System Options > Operational Options
    • Enable Billing Groups system option.

Configure System Options

Configure System Options

Key Resources

For more information, refer to: Align Usage Invoices with Rent for the Same Contract and Billing Group (Doc ID 3046873.1)