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How and where to use fields defined in CustomerBillingCycleSpecification like billingDateShift, chargeDateOffset, creditDateOffset etc

  • 1.  How and where to use fields defined in CustomerBillingCycleSpecification like billingDateShift, chargeDateOffset, creditDateOffset etc

    Posted Dec 09, 2021 11:04
    Dear all,
                   Kindly clarify my doubts for fields/attributes  defined in CustomerBillingCycleSpecification
    (1) how and where to use billingDateShift, chargeDateOffset, creditDateOffset , paymentDueDateOffset, mailingDateOffset
    (2) Please give practical example of these fields and how these are being used.
    (3) Another doubt whether CustomerBillingCycle uses CustomerBillingCycleSpecification and how these are related.
    (4) As per the swagger java classes CustomerBillingCycle is not covered/defined only CustomerBillingCycleSpecification is defined but in SID document and  TMF678 APIs are defined why ?.  Which one should be used in billing structure.

    kindly clarify my above doubts.
    regards
    Mukesh

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    mukesh se n
    C-DOT
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  • 2.  RE: How and where to use fields defined in CustomerBillingCycleSpecification like billingDateShift, chargeDateOffset, creditDateOffset etc

    TM Forum Member
    Posted Dec 13, 2021 05:26
    Hi Mukesh,

           1. Bill Cycle Specification is like a definition of my billing cycle. For example the bill cycle of 13th of every month, while Billing Cycle is like an instance of the specification, i.e. Billing Cycle of 13th December 2021 or a Billing Cycle of13th January 2022. Both might be linked to same specification and hence may have similar characteristics but one is for Dec 2021 while another one is for January 2022.

            2. When you define a Billing Cycle Specification you can define its attributes which will help you define Billing Specification level characteristics which are common for all cycles which refer to this specification
    • billingDateShift defines the offset from the start of the billing cycle, example the billing cycle may start on 13th of every month but it takes 2 days to complete the backend process and the bill will be generated on 15th of every month so the offset indicates this from the start of the cycle.
    • chargeDateOffset defines the cutoff upto which all external charges that are added to the system gets added to the bill. Let's take an example of international roaming which are computed in external system, and are added to the bill generated by your CSP. The chargeDateOffset identifies the offset from start of the cycle where it needs to be reported to get included in the customer bill.
    • creditDateOffset  is the offset to include credit in the bill.
    • paymentDueDateOffset identifies the offset from the start of the cycle when the bill payment is due for a specific cycle specification.
    • mailingDateOffset identified when the bill needs to be sent by email to the customer

    3. BillCycleSpecification is part of TMF 666 and you will find all APIs for it in there. 

    Hope this helps.

    Thanks,


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    Nitin Patil
    Amdocs India Limited
    Any opinions and statements made by me on this forum are purely personal, and do not necessarily reflect the position of the TM Forum or my employer
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  • 3.  RE: How and where to use fields defined in CustomerBillingCycleSpecification like billingDateShift, chargeDateOffset, creditDateOffset etc

    Posted Dec 16, 2021 01:22
    Dear Nitin, Thank you so much for your great support and clarifying my doubts, it is really helped me.
    I just want to give brief on my understanding as per your explanation, kindly check and let me correct if i am wrong.
    I just took below example for my understanding
    BillCycleSpecification Attributes : 13th of every month(Example)
    billingDateShift : 3
    chargeDateOffset : 2
    creditDateOffset : 2
    paymentDueDateOffset : 10
    mailingDateOffset :3
    billingPeriod : monthly
    validFor : ?

    BillCycle Attributes : 13th December 2021 (Example)
    billingDate : 16th December 2021
    chargeDate : 15th December
    creditDate : 15th December
    paymentDueDate: 23rd December 2021
    mailingDate : 16th December 2021

    Please check above example and  let me correct if i am wrong. 

    (2) Applied Customer Billing Rate (ACBR), perhaps more colloquially known as a charge. so each charge like Voice charge, , Tax, Discount , credit, PenaltyCharge etc will have one item in ACBR ? If yes means any kinds of charge related to a customer will go into ACBR and will be included in customer bill.

    (3) Would you please explain about Composite AppliedCustomerBillingRate, whther we have to include in bill or not ?. As per the documnet " The important thing (and change from Information Framework versions prior to version 12) is that the CustomerAccount now is based upon the FinancialCharges and not upon the AppliedCustomerBillingRate)

    Thanks waiting for you valuable reply.


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    mukesh se n
    C-DOT
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