Summary

The SA Billing process is used to calculate charges and generate bills on assessments.

Step by Step

1     Create a new Billing batch.

• Select the Billing palette in SA> Billing. This will expand the Billing palette and display the steps in the Billing process.
• Select New from the Billing batch number drop-down menu to create a new batch. This will open the New Batch window.
  • If there are open batches in the Billing process, you can create a new batch without affecting the open batches.
• Enter a Batch Month and Batch Year. These fields will default to the current fiscal period and fiscal year. These values are used for reference only, and are not necessary the fiscal month and year the transactions in the batch will be posted to. The fiscal period the transactions are posted to is determined by the journal Entry date entered when creating the GL Distribution List report.
• Type in a batch number and click the Save icon or press ENTER to create a batch in the current batch month and year.
  • To automatically create a batch with the next available batch number (the highest batch number used in the present month plus one), click the Generate icon  .
• The batch number is used to identify a specific batch. Batch numbers are limited to three digits and must be unique with the batch month of the batch year.
• You can have more than one open batch in a process at a time.
• If there is an open batch, the batch with the lowest batch number and fiscal period will open. Select a batch from the drop-down menu at the top of the palette.
• You can delete batches by selecting a batch and pressing DELETE.

2     Generate the Billings.

• Open the Generate Billing window (SA> Billing> Generate).
• Select the Assessment Statuses you would like to include in the batch.
  • Click the Select All or Deselect All icon drop-down menus to select or deselect all of the displayed statuses. All assessment statuses are selected by default.
  • Assessment Statuses are created and maintained on the Assessment Status Maintenance window (SA> Maintenance> Assessment Status).
• Enter a Billing Cycle or click the field label to select one from a list.
  • The selected billing cycle will determine which billing palette items are enabled. If the selected billing cycle is set up with "Bills" as the statement method, the Bills palette item will be enabled and the process will generate printed bills.
  • If the selected billing cycle is set up with "Transfer Register" as the statement method, the Transfer Register Report and Transfer Register Export palette items will be enabled and the process will generate a report and an export file that contains the billing information.
    • Transfer register export files are used by organizations that transfer assessment billing responsibilities to another entity. Once the transfer register report and export file are created, and the Billing batch is committed, the system will create both a receivable and a payment in the same transaction. Once the batch is committed, the account will be in PAID status.
  • Billing cycles are created and maintained on the Billing Cycle Maintenance window (SA> Maintenance> Billing Cycle).
• The Last Bill Date field will populate with the date that the selected billing cycle was last included in a billing batch.
• Specify the Transaction Date that will be associated with the billing batch.
• Specify the Interest Calculation Date that will be used to as the start date of interest calculations.
  • If the interest calculation date is prior to an included assessment's grace period end date, no interest will be calculated for that assessment in this billing batch. The assessment grace period is set up when the assessment is created on the Assessment Maintenance window (SA> Maintenance> Assessment> General tab> Grace Period (Days) field).
  • This is a required field.
• Enter a Due Date for the billing batch.
• Check the Automatically apply available credit toggle to automatically apply available credit when the billing batch is generated.
  • The system will only apply up to the amount of the Bill, applying to Interest first and then to Principal. In addition to the standard Interest and Principal transactions created when every billing batch is generated, payment transactions against Interest and Principal are also created when this toggle is checked.
  • If the Billing Cycle selected above is set up for Transfer Register output, this toggle will not be enabled.
• Check the Generate interest for outstanding billed principal toggle to override standard interest calculations by including unpaid, invoiced principal in the interest calculations.
  • If this toggle IS NOT CHECKED, standard interest calculations will be used. Unpaid interest principal will be subtracted from the principal balance prior to calculating interest owed. This is the standard method of calculation.
  • If this toggle IS CHECKED, the principal balance on the SA master record will not have any amount subtracted from it prior to calculating owed interest. This will also suppress system warnings that alert users to a principal balance that is less than zero.
  • NOTE: Please confirm that your organization includes unpaid, invoiced principal in interest calculations before checking this toggle. Most organizations DO NOT calculate interest this way and should not check this toggle.
• Click the Confirm icon when complete.

3     Edit the generated billing transactions.

• Open the Edit window (SA> Billing> Edit).
• The Billing tab of the Edit window is used to edit the assessments that will be included in the Billing batch.
  • Each assessment included in the batch will display an Interest and a Principal billing transaction. If the Automatically apply available credit toggle was checked on the previous step, and an included assessment has available credit, payment transactions for Interest and Principal will also be displayed.
  • Highlight an assessment transaction and click the Delete icon or press DELETE to remove the selected assessment from the batch. All transactions associated with that assessment will be removed.
• The Errors tab of the Edit window displays any assessments that meet the initial filtering criteria but could not be included in the batch. Each error line item will provide information as to why the assessment was excluded. These warnings will not prevent the Billing batch from being completed, but are meant to call attention to potential items of interest.

4     Print the reports and commit the billing batch.