Charge Catalog Grid Example

The Charges Catalog lists any types of Charges that can be applied to a piece of Equipment or a Service.

Adding New Charges

Add New Charge Catalog form example

To add a new Charge Catalog, click the button in the top toolbar of the main Charges Catalog grid. The Add New Charge Catalog form has five Required fields for creating a Charge Catalog record: Name, GLA, (Revenue) Object Code, (Expense) Object Code, and Expense Type. All other fields are optional.

PCR-360 contains two different types of Charges.

Recurring: Charges that recur over time for continued usage of a piece of Equipment or Service. There are four types of Recurring Charges for Organizations to base their Billing practices on.
1. Monthly: This is the default for a Charge's Charge type. The Charge will be applied every month until it is stopped.
  - These Charges can be set to "Bill Forward", thus Bill one month ahead of the Billing Cycle.
  - These Charges can also be set to 'Bill Backward' in order to catch up on past Billing Cycles.
  - When the GLA for this Charge is updated, the Charge is Stopped and Restarted.
  - If Selective Billing was used in the Charge Catalog, some of the Months may not be billed. Also, if Selective Billing is used, "Bill Forward" and "Bill Backward" will be disabled.
2. Quarterly: The Charge will be applied every three months until it is stopped.
  - These Charges are always treated as being set for "Bill Forward".
  - Back Dated Charges will Bill for one cycle only, before continuing on the current cycle.
    - Example, a Charge backdated six months ago, will Bill for only the last three months.
  - When the GLA for this Charge is updated, the Charge is Stopped and a new Charge is Started.
  - The Effective Date for updates to this type of Charges can only be set for the date of the Last Billed.
3. Semi-Annual: The Charge will be applied every six months until it is stopped.
  - These Charges are always treated as being set for "Bill Forward".
  - Back Dated Charges will Bill for one cycle only, before continuing on the current cycle.
    - Example, a Charge backdated twelve months ago, will Bill for only the last six months.
  - When the GLA for this Charge is updated, the Charge is Stopped and a new Charge is Started.
  - The Effective Date for updates to this type of Charges can only be set for the date of the Last Billed.
4. Annual: The Charge will be applied every twelve months until it is stopped.
  - These Charges are always treated as being set for "Bill Forward".
  - Back Dated Charges will Bill for one cycle only, before continuing on the current cycle.
    - Example, a Charge backdated three years ago, will Bill for only the last year.
  - When the GLA for this Charge is updated, the Charge is Stopped and a new Charge is Started.
  - The Effective Date for updates to this type of Charges can only be set for the date of the Last Billed.
Non-Recurring: One-Time Only Charges.

Form Fields

Field Name	Required	Field Description
Name	Yes	The name of the Charge Catalog.
Description	No	A brief description of the Charge Catalog.
Type	No	The type of Charge Catalog. Options are Monthly Recurring (MRC), Nonrecurring(NRC), Annual, Semi-Annual, or Quarterly.
Default Amount	No	The default amount of the Charge Catalog.
Qty	No	Sets the behavior of the Qty field for individual Charges. These values can be a Whole integer (1,2,3 etc), a Fractional Quantity (1.25, .9 etc), or Disabled for the Charge entirely.
Allow Override Amount	No	If checked, this allows the Default Amount to be Overridden on an individual basis for a given Charge.
Taxable	No	If checked, define if this Charge Catalog is Taxable.
Category	No	If checked, designates this Charge Catalog as a Category.
Bill Forward	No	If checked, this changes the Charge Catalog to Forward Billing rather than the standard behavior of Billing in arrears.
Bill Backward	No	If checked, this changes the Charge Catalog to Back Billing.
GLA (Revenue)	Yes	The Revenue GLA for this Charge Catalog; used for Billing purposes.
Object Code (Revenue)	Yes	The Revenue Object Code to use for this Charge Catalog; used for Billing purposes.
Object Code (Expense)	Yes	The Expense Object Code to use for this Charge Catalog; used for Billing purposes.
Expense Type	Yes	The Expense Type this Charge Catalog is designated to use and can be used with Equipment Catalogs to specify different Default Charge amounts on Equipment.

Tabs

Name	Description
Service Catalog Permissions	Provides a list of Service Catalogs where this Charge Catalog applies and can inherit permissions from its parent if applicable.
Equipment Permissions	Provides a list of Equipment this Charge Catalog is applicable to. Also can inherit permissions from its parent if applicable.
SLA Permissions	Provides a list of SLAs this Charge Catalog can have. These can inherit permissions from the parent if applicable.
Feature Permissions	Provides a list of Features this Charge Catalog is applicable to. Also can inherit permissions from its parent if applicable.
SD Permissions	Provides a list of Service Desk types this Charge Catalog can be used on. Can also inherit permissions from its parent if applicable.
Billing Group Overrides	Allows a User to override the Revenue GLA, Revenue Object Code, and Expense Object Code based on the Billing Group.
Billing Group Pricing	Provides a list of amounts that force-override the given amount of the charge if the billing group matches.
GLA Component Pricing	Provides a list of Amounts that force-override the given amount of the Charge if the GLA Format and Components match. Any empty Component fields are treated as wildcards. The model which most closely matches the GLA Components is used.
User Defined Fields	Provides access to all the User Defined Fields related assigned to Charge Catalogs.

GLA Pricing Models

There are two different GLA pricing models that Charges match against: GLA Component Pricing and Billing Group Pricing. GLA Component Pricing is used as the default amount for Charges when matching the Charge Catalog and specific GLA Components. Multiple components may be specified or omitted. The Charge Catalog uses pricing for the closest matching pricing model. Billing Group Pricing is used for Charges that match the Charge Catalog and the specified Billing Group. The amounts for these models are used as the amount for Charges whenever a Charge is added, created, updated, or generated.

To turn on the GLA Component Pricing or Billing Group Pricing, use the GLA Pricing Model Configuration Option.

Arranging the Hierarchy

To arrange the hierarchy (parent-child relationships), please see the main Catalog page.

Rules For Form Fields

All the specific rules for how form fields act on the form are indicated here.

Category

A Category does NOT need to have a Revenue GLA, Revenue Object Code, Expense Object Code, or Expense Type. A Category can simply be a bucket containing other Charges.
A Category MAY have a 'Default Amount' and/or use the 'Allow Override Amount' flag. This allows the Category to function as a Charge in its own right.

Expense Type

Expense Type has several system-defined options, which are used to help specify what GLA needs to be billed for any given charge incurred.
- Options:
  - Default: This Expense Type is intended for any charge types not identified within the system.
  - Usage: This Expense Type is intended for use to catch charges related to Calls/Usages.
  - Equipment: This Expense Type is intended for use to catch charges related to Equipment/Installations.
  - Labor: This Expense Type is intended for use to catch charges related to Labor Costs.
The four above are simply system level defaults created at installation, and can not be deleted. Others can be manually created by an Administrator for added flexibility. To create a new value, please see the System: List Values - Add New List Value section of the wiki. The List Type for Expense Type is "EXPENSE_TYPE".

Effective vs Date to Last Bill

Update Unbilled Charges dialogue

Charges can be one time (Non-Recurring) instances or recurring (Monthly, Quarterly, Semi-Annual, Annual) instances of expenses. For Monthly Recurring Charges, the user has the ability to update these, and specify the Effective Date for the changes. There are two update options for Effective Date: Effective Today or Date to Last Bill, and an option to cancel the update. These options dictate when the changes will become effective.

Effective Today: This means that the MRC will be stopped with the old details (GLA, Amount, Quantity, etc.) yesterday and restarted with the new details today. When the Bill is run for the next billing cycle, if the Prorate flag is set, the charge will bill a portion of the month with the old details and the rest of the month with the new details. Alternate Recurring Charges (Quarterly, Semi-Annual and Annual), can not be set to using the current Date as the Effective Date.

Date to Last Bill: This means that the MRC will be stopped with the old details (GLA, Amount, Quantity, etc.) on the Billed Through Date and restarted with the new details on the next day. When the next Bill is run the entire month should be billed with the new details. Alternate Recurring Charges (Quarterly, Semi-Annual and Annual), when updated will use this as the Effective Date.

Keep Existing: This means that changes to the MRC will be rolled back, and the Charge will continue on as it previously was.

Charges on Services and Equipment are grouped together on the bill by use of Object Codes. This allows for totals of all instances of each type of charge.

For more details on GLAs, please see the Catalog: G/L Accounts page. For more details on Charges, please see the Billing: Object Codes page.

There are two ways a comment can be made on a Charge:

Using the Charge's Description
Making a Remark on the Item the Charge is applied to

Comments within Descriptions

Comments can be added to the Description of the Charge. This gives the comment a high degree of visibility, but also means the comment will display on Bills. This means that a User will need to, later on, go back to the Charge and remove the comment so that it does not keep appearing on future Bills. Due to the maintenance of the Description necessary to support the comment using this method, using this method is not recommended.

Remarks as Comments

Remark Form example

Using the Remarks tab on the item with the Charge (Service/Equipment/GLA/Service Desk Item), comments can be made about the Charge. These Remarks do not have a high level of visibility, and will not appear on the Bill. The Remark is saved for as long as it is left on the record it is saved to, and requires no further action from a User. This makes it the recommended method for putting a comment on a Charge.

Back Billing & Forward Billing

PCR-360 allows Monthly Recurring Charges to be billed in Arrears or Forward and optionally allow Back Billing. When Forward BIlling, running the Bill process charges for the next month while Arrears Billing charges for the current month. Back Billing refers to the ability of Monthly Recurring Charges to catch-up charges and credits for past bill cycles. See the Back Billing page for more information.

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