Summary

The Billing Cycle Maintenance window is used to create and maintain billing cycles. A billing cycle is a group of UB customer accounts that should be billed in the same billing batch. When billings are generated (UB> New Billings), the new billing is generated by billing cycle. Billing cycles are also used in Past Dues, Winter Averaging and the Budget Billing process.

Billing cycles are attached UB customer accounts when they are created using the New Account Wizard and you can view or modify the billing cycle attached to a UB customer account in the Account Maintenance window (UB> Maintenance> Account> Account tab> Account sub-tab> Billing Cycle field).

Many of the UB module reports can be filtered by billing batch. The AR Totals by Cycle Report (UB> Reports> AR Totals By Cycle) and Aging Reports (UB> Reports> Aging) will display the outstanding balances on customers by billing cycle. The Account Master Report (UB> Reports> Account Master) and Accounts By Service Report (UB> Reports> Accounts by Service) will display UB customer information filtered by billing cycle. The Transactions by Date and Trial Balance by Date reports will display transaction information filtered by billing cycle.

Step by Step

1     Open the Cycle Maintenance window (UB> Maintenance> Cycle Code).

• The Cycle Maintenance window lists all of the billing cycles created in the application.
• Click the Delete button to delete a billing cycle. If there are customer accounts attached to the billing cycle you will not be able to delete it.
• Highlight a billing cycle in the data grid and the Edit Cycle section on the right will populate with the cycle details.
• Click the Create button to create a new billing cycle. This will enable the Create Cycle fields to the right.

2     Create a new cycle code.

• Enter a Billing Cycle Code. The billing cycle code can be up to three numeric digits long. You cannot enter letters into this field.
• Enter a Description that pertains to the billing cycle. The Description can be up to 40 alphanumeric characters long.
  • Some customers enter the meter route numbers or section of the town the billing cycle pertains to in the Description field.
• Enter a Period End Date.
  • The Period End Date will default to the current date when creating a new cycle code, but it should be the day prior to the start date for the next billing period.
    • For example, if the new cycle is going to start billing on 6/1/2022, the period end date should be 5/31/2022.
  • Once a cycle is billed and committed in the New Billing Process (UB> New Billing), the Period End Date field will automatically update based on the Period End Date that was input during the generate step of the New Billing process.
• Enter the Days in Period.
  • The Days in Period field defines the number of days in the billing cycle.
• The Combine consumption for service field is used to select which service in this billing cycle will be used in combined consumption.
  • This feature supports the upcoming Allocation Billing functionality and is not yet enabled.
• If you are editing an existing billing cycle code, and if any service groups have been billed for the selected cycle code, the Service Group Code, Service Group Description, and Period End Date will be displayed in a small data grid at the bottom of the Edit Cycle section. The Period End Date can be edited.
  • Service groups are added to the New Billing process via the Service Group field on the Generate step (UB> New Billing> Generate).
  • Service groups are created and maintained on the Service Group Maintenance window (UB> Maintenance> Service Group).
• Click SAVE to save the new billing cycle.

3     Add UB customer accounts to the billing cycle.

• After a cycle code has been created you can add a UB customer to the billing cycle (UB> Maintenance> Account> Account tab> Account sub-tab> General section> Billing Cycle field).