1. Convergent Invoicing: Scheduling
Convergent Invoicing (CI) or I should say BRIM has been a hot topic for some time. Though its usage
(talking about BRIM) in Utilities is still not clear, (Prepaid scenarios, Demand Management System and
Consume to Cash scenarios, not thought of here ) I still went ahead to post something on this(talking
about CI now). Instead of blogging on the master data used in CI or the basic architecture etc., I would be
writing up on the basic processes which are present in the solution. This would be the standard processes
as mentioned in the SAP documentation. So if you are looking to learn about the basics of CI then please
refer to this link here or the SAP course AC245.
The below post is on Scheduling.
The system has to determine the target date for billing the billable items. The target date for billing is the
earliest possible billing time for a billable item. Scheduling helps to distribute the load on the system, as
well as allowing us to specify a customer-specific billing date.
We can use the billing cycle (maintained in Contract Account and Provider Contract) to influence the
determination of the target date of billing and the target date of invoicing. If a billing cycle is entered in
the Contract Account, then this applies (if no further changes are made) to both Billing and Invoicing. We
can have a different billing cycle in the Provider Contract and in the Contract Account. The billing cycle is
used to specify billing periods. The billing cycle specifies the period end and the length of a billing period.
Scheduling can be configured for Billing and Invoicing processes in the system.
Regardless of whether or not billing cycles are used, we can influence the billing date and invoicing date as
follows:
• Specify grace days, such as two days after the creation of the invoicing order.
• Define periods, such as every 14 days.
• Configure special factory calendars.
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2. If billing cycle is maintained in the master data and no separate rules are present, then the system
determines the dates based on the end of period. Else this condition of ‘end of period’ is ignored.
Only in expert mode for billing, we can bill billable items before they reach the target date.
Example: Billable items from the month of January are not transferred into the system until February.
The invoice for the month of February, therefore, has a billing time span that goes back into January,
whereas the billing period consists only of the month of February.
Rule 0001 : Baseline date in Current Month
1. For a billable item created on October 10, the following dates result based on the system
configuration:
• Baseline date for determining the target date of billing is October 10.
• Billing is cycle-based in relation to the period end. The system determines the end of the billing
period in which October 10 lies. As per first subset of the rule 0001: Any date on and before October
13 which falls in this period would need to be billed by October 15.
• The system adjusts the baseline date for determining the target date to the period end that was
determined. That means that the baseline date is October 15.
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3. Rule 0001 : Baseline date in Next Month
2. For a billable item created on October 20, the following dates result based on the system
configuration:
• Baseline date for determining the target date of billing is October 20.
• Billing is cycle-based in relation to the period end. The system determines the end of the billing
period in which October 20 lies. As per the second subset of the rule 0001: All dates after October 13
will fall in the next period which ends on November 15. As factory calendar is maintained November
15 turns out to be a weekend so the date changes to November 17.
• The system adjusts the baseline date for determining the target date to the period end that was
determined. That means that the baseline date November 17.
Above we have played with the fields of ‘Fixed Date’. ‘Add Months’ just adds a month to the ‘Date Limit
To’ field. Below is another scenario of ‘Additional Days’.
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4. Rule 0001 : Use of Additional Days
3. For a billable item created on October 13, the following dates result based on the system
configuration:
• Baseline date for determining the target date of billing is October 13.
• Billing is cycle-based in relation to the period end. The system determines the end of the billing
period in which October 13 lies. As per the first subset of the rule 0001: All dates will have 3 days
added to the baseline date.
• The system adjusts the baseline date for determining the target date to the period end that was
determined. That means that the baseline date October 16.
So below are the screenshots of the billing units used in the Billing Process which highlights the above 3
scenarios. Point to note would be the columns ‘Bill From’, ‘From Date’ and ‘To Date’.
Billable Items for Point 1
Billable Items for Point 2
Billable Items for Point 3
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5. As written earlier the concept of billing cycle is also the same. Below I have defined a weekly billing cycle
and defined it in the contract account. Execution not shown.
Configuring a Billing Cycle
Billing Cycle in Contract Account
So this is it. I have not put in any major business scenario as I am still exploring. Any comment /feedbacks
would be most helpful and appreciated. :)
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