Route Type Change

The Route Type Change utility can be used to change the route type for one or more routes, or all routes in one or more districts. In addition, changes can be made to:

• Allow Carrier Collect and Allow Office Pay flags for the routes selected. This may cause billing changes for subscribers on the route, for example if an office pay subscriber’s route is changed to a carrier collect only route—a billing change would change the subscriber’s billing method from office pay to carrier collect.

• Credit statuses for subscribers on the routes selected. If the credit status is changed, end grace transactions can be created if the subscriber’s grace period changes and the subscriber is currently in grace. You may optionally generate tasks as part of this process.

• Grace periods. Grace periods may be changed because of route type changes (grace periods can be defined by route type). End grace transactions would also be created in this scenario.

• Rate changes. Rate changes might be made for subscribers, based on the new route type and billing method. Billing change transactions are created for subscribers with billing method or rate changes.

• Renewal notices and invoices for subscribers on the routes selected. Because of delivery method or credit status changes, you may want to reissue renewal notices or invoices to subscribers on the routes affected. A “rebill” transaction will be created for the subscriber. Renewal notices and invoices can then be generated for subscribers with rebill transactions.

Follow the procedure below to run this utility:

1. Select Route Type Change from the Character Utilities | Setup menu.

   
2. Select Add and complete the following fields.

   Field	Type	What to enter
   PRODUCT	setup	Enter the product for which routes will have route types changed.
   EFFECTIVE DATE	date	Enter the date on which the changes created by this utility should be based (including changes to route setup, billing changes, and end grace changes).
   DISTRICT	setup	Enter the district whose routes should have route type changes made, or enter “*” to multi-select districts. Leave this field blank if you want to select specific routes, rather than districts.
   ROUTE	setup	If District is blank, indicate the routes for which route types should be changed (enter “*” to multi-select routes).
   NEW ROUTE TYPE	setup	Enter the route type that should be assigned to these routes. The route type must be set up in advance.
   ALLOW CARRIER COLLECT	yes/no	Indicate whether the routes selected should allow carrier collect subscribers.
   ALLOW OFFICE PAY	yes/no	Indicate whether the routes selected should allow office pay subscribers.
   SOURCE	setup	Enter the source code that should be used for any transactions created by this utility. For example, if you enter “routetyp” and a billing change transaction is created for a subscriber, the source code of the billing change transaction will be “routetyp”.
   BILLING CHANGE REASON	setup	Enter the reason code for any billing change transactions created by the utility. For example, if a carrier collect subscriber is delivered by a route that is changed to office pay only, a billing change transaction will be created for the subscriber.
   GRACE CHANGE REASON	setup	Enter the reason code for any grace change transactions created by the utility. For example, if a subscriber is in grace and her grace period changes due to a changed credit status, a grace change transaction will be created for that subscriber.
   CHANGE CREDIT STATUS	yes/no	Indicate whether subscribers delivered by the routes selected should have their credit statuses changed by the utility.
   CREDIT STATUS	setup	If you are changing credit statuses, enter the credit status here. All subscribers on the selected routes will now have this credit status.
   CREATE REBILL TRAN	predefined	Indicate under what circumstances subscribers of the routes selected should have rebill transactions created. You can create rebill transactions for all subscribers (always), no subscribers (never), or only subscribers who have already received an invoice or renewal notice and thus need a reprint (if needed).
   REBILL REASON	setup	Enter the reason code for any rebill transactions that are created.
   GENERATE TASKS	yes/no	Set this field to “y” if you are changing credit statues and a task should be generated for each subscriber whose status was changed. The field will only open if at least one task is defined for the Route Type Change utility (Event field set to “Report Processing” and Report field set to “Route Type Change”).

3. Select Continue to change the route type and create the associated transactions. You will be prompted to enter the file name for an export file. This export file, which is written to /dti/exchange/cm, will contain details about subscriber information changed by the process (see Appendix B for the file format). As part of the process, the Route Type Change report will also appear, listing subscribers changed by the process and the information that was affected.

4. If rebill transactions were created, you can reprint invoices or renewal notices in Subscriber | Renewal Notices. The Print Rebills field must be set to “y” and the rebill reason must be the same as you entered here.