A key option on the Account Billing menu is Processing. When you select this option, Circulation gathers and then processes the information required to create account bills, and creates control totals for this billing run.
Business Rules determine whether unapplied payments should be automatically applied (to the new charges) during account bill processing.
Note: Never enter account payments when a billing run is in process.
You can process the account bills only for a single bill source and a single billing date. You can also run a selected-accounts billing of a selected group of accounts at any time.
Select Processing from the Account Billing menu to display the Account Billing Processing window. All of the active billing runs that are ready for processing will be displayed.
Select the billing runs that should be processed (click the appropriate checkbox in the Process column).
Click Continue to process the billing run.
After processing is completed, a processing report appears. This report lists error messages and control totals.
For every account in the billing run, billing processing determines the draw and returns for each route for which the account is to be billed, and rates these draws and returns using account rating to determine the draw charges and credits the account receives. Piece and weight bonuses are also calculated based on the draw. If you have Business Rules set to apply unapplied payments, any unapplied payments will be applied to the new charges.
Recurring charges and credits that are in the specified bill periods are also selected, along with levies (if any are defined). This information, combined with the miscellaneous charges and credits entered since the last billing run, are used in printing the Billing Journal, invoices, and general ledger entries.
If an account is advance bill (defined in Account Setup), bill processing will estimate the charges and credits for the next period, and reverse out charges and credits for the last period. For example, say you are running billing on the last day of June, and an advance bill account was billed 50.00 for June (in May). Circulation calculates the actual charges and credits for that account in June and finds that they total to 40.00. A 10.00 credit would then show up on the account’s invoice, along with the estimated charges for July.
At the end of account bill processing, Circulation has combined control totals of all of the transactions processed in the billing. These control totals print on the Account Billing Processing Report, and also at the end of invoices, the Billing Journal, and the Close Account Billing Report. See the following table.
Invoice Count *
Count of all invoices produced. Any bill with current activity is considered an invoice.
Statement Count *
Count of all statements produced. Any bill with no current period activity is considered a statement.
Total Count *
Total of Invoice Count plus Statement Count.
Balance Forward
Total of Balance Forward (previous balance) for all accounts.
Current
Total of outstanding current aging period balances from all accounts. This contains all of the charges and credits that have just been processed.
Period 1
Total of outstanding age period one balances from all accounts (see Age Period in the Setup Manual for more information about aging periods).
Period 2
Total of outstanding age period two balances from all accounts.
Period 3
Total of outstanding age period three balances from all accounts.
Period 4
Total of outstanding balances beyond age period three from all accounts.
Balance
Total of outstanding balances for all accounts.
Payments
Total of all payments picked up in this billing run. This includes payments (both applied and unapplied) and cash adjustments. This also includes any discount amount related to any other payment type.
Debit Memos
Total of all checks issued to carriers through Accounting - Interface to AP and picked up in this billing run.
Draw Charges
Total of all account draw charges, less any account draw delivery credits (e.g., Office Pay or Complimentary delivery credits) billed for dates prior to the billing date.
Return Credits
Total of all return credits less any returns charges (reversals of delivery credits).
Misc Charges
Net total of all miscellaneous charges and credits picked up by this billing run.
Other Charges/Credits
Total of various types of charges and credits picked up or created by this billing run which do not fall into any of the specific charges/credits categories listed here. This includes net charges for non-return draw adjustments, automatically generated adjustments for backdated carrier collect-office pay conversions, carrier tips, TM delivery credits, taxes, finance charges, minimum daily service charges, weight and piece bonus credits, and interest on recurring charge balances.
Substitute Charges/Credits
Net total of draw charges/credits for substitute carriers during this billing run.
Recurring Charges/Credits
Net total of recurring charges and credits created during this billing run.
Levy Charges
Net total of account levies charged during this billing run.
Advance Draw Charges
Total of all advance billed draw charges less any advance billed draw delivery credits (e.g., office pay delivery credits). These amounts are based on estimated draw for the next billing period.
Advance Misc Charges
Net total of all advance billed recurring charges and credit created during this billing run.
Reverse Charges
Total of all advance billed draw charges and miscellaneous charges billed during the last billing period that are being reversed out on this period’s bills.
Total Charges
Net total of draw charges, return credits, misc charges, other charges/credits, recurring charges/credits, advance draw charges, and reverse charges.
* The Invoice Count, Statement Count and Total Count control totals appear on Account Invoices, the Account Billing Journal, the and the Close Account Billing report.
During billing processing, all account charges and credits are calculated and general ledger account numbers assigned. If any errors are encountered, messages are displayed so you can correct them: Undo the current billing run, make the necessary corrections, and begin the billing process again by selecting Selection.
The next step in processing account bills is to print the Billing Journal so you can verify the billing information (i.e., all accounts look correct) before printing invoices.
