TM Forum Community

 View Only

  • 1.  How do I carry details about invoicing in the Product Order (TMF622)

    Posted Jun 10, 2020 15:46
    I am trying to figure out what TM Forum says about onboarding and how to carry information about invoice details, such as bill-cycle, invoicing address, language that kind of things. TMF622 does not really reveal this, is there a better place to read up on this ?

    Scenario is like this
    0 Customer visits webshop (say he is already a customer to make this easy) 
    1 Catalog has a PostPaid Subscription "Gold" that the customer picks
    2 A Product Order is prepared for "Gold"
    2.1 As the order is prepared I now need to also provide details about 
    * invoicing address (email or postal address)
    * language on the invoice
    * bill cycle (should the bill be on 1;st of the month or the 15;th or ...)
    3 Order is submitted 
    4 Order is fulfilled
    4.1 the subscription "Gold" is created in the system
    4.2 the billing/invoicing details are stored together with "Gold" 

    TMF622 refer to BillingAccountRef, but to me that should mean that the Billing-Account is created before the Product-Order is submitted, is that correct.

    How would I carry information about invoicing in an Order if I would go TM Forum way ?

    -Tobias
    #TMForumGeneral

    ------------------------------
    Tobias Eriksson
    Qvantel Oy
    ------------------------------


  • 2.  RE: How do I carry details about invoicing in the Product Order (TMF622)

    Posted Jun 15, 2020 06:44
    Edited by Jonathan Goldberg Jun 16, 2020 01:53
    Hi Tobias
    The individual Open API User guides (specifications) by their nature do not give a holistic view of how telco processes are managed and executed.
    The APIs represent capabilities that the user (e.g. process designer) would take advantage of when creating user or system journeys.

    A rough flow for a shopping scenario might be:
    • TMF620 (product catalog) for displaying offerings
    • TMF679 (qualification) for ensuring only relevant offerings are shown
    • TMF663 (shopping cart) for capturing the shopping cart prior to checkout
    • TMF632 (party), TMF629 (customer), TMF666 (account), TMF670 (payment methods), and possibly TMF673 (address) for onboarding the customer and financial stuff
    • TMF622 (order) for confirming, attaching billing/payment details, and submitting the order
    The Billing Account (in TMF666) includes the relevant invoicing details that you mention in your post.

    P.S. - more effective in general to use the dedicated discussion page for Open APIs here.

    Hope it helps

    ------------------------------
    Jonathan Goldberg
    Amdocs Management 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.
    ------------------------------



  • 3.  RE: How do I carry details about invoicing in the Product Order (TMF622)

    Posted Jun 17, 2020 02:29
    Thanx Jonathan,
    I'll have a look at TMF663, and the Open API discussion
    -Tobias

    ------------------------------
    Tobias Eriksson
    Qvantel Oy
    ------------------------------

    Original Message


  • 4.  RE: How do I carry details about invoicing in the Product Order (TMF622)

    Posted Jun 19, 2020 08:35

    Hi Eriksson

     

    You have a point here , because this information is updated frequently and has no specific time for changes! And some of it can be changes right before or at the time of the invoicing/Billing!

    You have mentioned example of such information e.g. Addresses , Contacts details , Preferred language ,loyalty or customer level .. I add also  product description in different languages , comments and tags on each product in the invoice/bill etc.  

    All Billing Systems , Core Banking  are not directly in access to such information!

    It is the responsibility of the Invoicing Formatting system or Bill/Invoice Presentment to capture such information on the fly or on demand before o during Bill Cycle!!

    And many of the Bill presentment system such as Lagrange Systems , OpenText , GMC , PitneyBowes are using different ways to access and update such information!!

    The best scenario here is some of these data are frequently changing and has no specific time and the best way is to make it -operational wise- external files (CSV/XML) on secure file system , this way operators or even trusted users in business can do the changes easily and quickly e.g.  product description in different languages , Comments , communication text messages and promotional ads  which appeared on the bill or invoice  etc.

    However another type of information are based on logic and need other systems to access it e.g. CRM, loyalty, Customer help, Apps  !

    It is wisely stored in database tables which can be accessed by other systems and bill presentment as well.

     So, in both ways Bill/Invoice presentment must capable to use both ways external CSV/XML tables and DB tables before or during Bill cycle/invoicing.

    Ahmed Zaki

    Lagrange Systems

     

     



    ------------------------------
    Ahmed Zaki
    TO BE VERIFIED
    ------------------------------



  • 5.  RE: How do I carry details about invoicing in the Product Order (TMF622)

    Posted Aug 20, 2025 10:43

    Ad "TMF622 refer to BillingAccountRef, but to me that should mean that the Billing-Account is created before the Product-Order is submitted"

    I have the same problem.

    It would be great if the same approach was used as for relatedEntity - reference to existing customer or customer data for new customer can be specified.

    Example scenario:

    1) Customer creates order on eShop. He wants to specify BA attributes.

    2) Order is submitted.

    3) As part of POCV existing BA or new BA is created.



    ------------------------------
    Peter Rajsky
    CGI Information Systems and Management Consultants Inc.
    ------------------------------



Related Content