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  • 1.  API for Receipt, Invoice Creation Use Case

    TM Forum Member
    Posted Aug 15, 2018 15:25
    Hello Everyone,

    I have a use case where a consumer system needs to call an API towards an external provider system to create an invoice receipt against appropriate payment method, amount and receipt number.  We are trying to figure out which API would be the most appropriate one to realize this use case. 

    We have narrowed it down to Payment Management, Billing Management and Customer Bill Management API(s). I came across a quite useful page on projects.tmforum.org titled "Select API's". Based on it I suppose Billing Management API would be the way to go; however this page was created back in 2015; so the information is quite dated.  

    https://projects.tmforum.org/wiki/display/API/Select+APIs

    Appreciate feedback. 

    P.S. Are there any plans to update the "Select API's" page? A reference page like this will be more than welcome.

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    Mansoor Khan
    Ericsson Inc. - Solution Architect
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  • 2.  RE: API for Receipt, Invoice Creation Use Case

    TM Forum Member
    Posted Aug 15, 2018 15:27
    Adding descriptions of above mentioned API's below for quick reference:

    Billing Management API
    Provides standardized mechanisms for billing
    account, bill item and settlement note advice
    management either in B2B or B2B2C contexts.

    Customer Bill Management API
    This API allows operations to find and retrieve
    one or several customer bills (also called
    invoices) produced for a customer also allows
    operations to find and retrieve the details of
    applied customer billing rates presented on a
    customer bill.


    Payment Management API
    The Payments API provides the standardized
    client interface to Payment Systems for notifying
    about performed payments or refunds.
    Examples of Payment API originators (clients)
    include Web servers, mobile app servers,
    Contact center dashboards or retail store
    systems.

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    Mansoor Khan
    Ericsson Inc. - Solution Architect
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    Original Message


  • 3.  RE: API for Receipt, Invoice Creation Use Case

    TM Forum Member
    Posted Aug 20, 2018 06:25
    Hi Mansoor

    Just for your reference, Billing Management is effectively retired, was split into Account Management and Customer Bill management.

    For your specific question, I guess that the flow you are trying to achieve is as follows. Let's suppose that you have implemented an A/R system, this would likely implement and expose the Payment Management API to allow a consumer (e.g. a self-service web page or a CSR portal) to make a payment to be credited to an account. But you now want to generate and store/dispatch a paper/electronic receipt for that payment, and this would be done by some third party.
    Your A/R system would invoke the third-party system, which is perhaps a document generation and management system, specifying the template to be used and the specific information to replace the placeholders (date, invoice number, amount, etc.).
    Such a system would have its own APIs, not necessarily governed by TMF Open API, but if any API was relevant it would perhaps be 667 Document Management, but this API does not currently define document generation from template.
    Hope it helps.

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    Jonathan Goldberg
    Amdocs Management Limited
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    Original Message


  • 4.  RE: API for Receipt, Invoice Creation Use Case

    TM Forum Member
    Posted Sep 24, 2018 15:18
    Hi Mr. Goldberg, Thank you for your intuitive reply. Yes, I noticed from document GB992 OpenAPI Map that Billing Management API shall be replaced. The Document Management API description doesnt make me think of invoices. We have used Document Management API to upload documents such as Customer Passport Scans, Knowledge Objects (HowTo dcouments). 

    Alternatively, the Customer Bill Management does refer to invoices specifically; which we are interested in to create invoices from template towards a different system (which you guessed). Would like to know if you have anything further to add. 

    Document Management API
    It provides the operations to synchronize documents and document versions across systems. It also provides operations for uploading documents by Users as well as for viewing of documents online

    Customer Bill Management API
    This API allows operations to find and retrieve one or several customer bills (also called invoices) produced for a customer also allows operations to find and retrieve the details of applied customer billing rates presented on a customer bill.

    Much Appreciated.

    BR,

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    Mansoor Khan
    Ericsson Inc. - Solution Architect
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    Original Message