Invoice

Using the financial management (called Invoice) you´ll see all booking changes and services in a monthly report.

The Financial Mgmt. navigation takes you to the Billing Overview, where the Billing tile is located:

Billing Overview

The SP-Invoice service is used to identify the monthly cost items in a cost table to provide a basis for information accompanying the invoice. These cost items are divided into two categories:

• Service-Bookings

  A service has been booked and incurs corresponding costs every month. The costs for service bookings are divided into one-off costs (only the services are incurred when booking) and monthly costs (accrue every month).

• Change-Bookings

  These are items that have resulted from a change made in the respective billing month. Change bookings can only incur one-off costs.

In general, the above-mentioned items are only written when the respective order (i.e., change or service or termination) has been completed.

Cost record types

The monthly cost table can be changed / adjusted after its initial monthly creation (see how it works) as follows:

• Items
  can be excluded in the cost table.
• Custom costs
  can be created in the cost table. These items may contain positive (costs) or negative (credits) figures.
• Specific cost items
  May need a quantity (so-called special quantity). These items are based on services that have set the parameter flat billing = Yes . As a result, a quantity must be specified monthly. This function is useful for monthly changing quantities.

Finalize cost table

If a cost table for a billing month has been agreed from the administrator's point of view and no manual changes are necessary, the table can be "finalized" for the respective month.

By pressing the corresponding button, the data records of the month are "frozen", so that no changes are possible. Furthermore, the export is now available as a "final version".

Functionality

This chapter describes the process for obtaining data from the billing table. The core of the function is the so-called Cost Collector, which carries out the data collection and processing. It can be started via two variants:

1. via Test Job

   An authorized user can manually start a collection job for the current billing month via the settings menu. This function is useful if you want to check the functionality of the Collection Job in advance.

   With each new run of the test job, the cost table of the current billing month is first emptied and then filled with the new data. The only exception are the custom costs that may have already been created manually for the month, these are not removed.

2. At the end of the billing period

   Depending on the configured end of the billing period (either the last day of the month or the 15th of the month), the Cost Collector function is carried out automatically. This is the last job that can be performed for this month, so that all data from the previous billing period is collected. After that, no further job execution can be started unless it has ended with an error.

It should be noted that the result of the collection, depends largely on the parameters used. For example, whether one-time zero costs (costs with 0 €) should be included in the table or not.

The Cost Collector function processes the service or change postings in four steps according to the configured parameters:

1. In the first step (1)

   all one-time costs for the respective billing month are collected, these can be found in both the service and change bookings.

2. In the second step (2)

   all monthly costs that are new in that billing month are recorded. These can be items that were newly ordered this month or that have been used for some time, for example through an import, but are only now being recorded. In this case, the previous months are automatically recalculated. These positions are recognizable by the so-called performance month.

3. In the third step

   monthly costs are recorded, the termination date of which is in the current month. Here, too, a correction can theoretically occur via imports, so that the termination date is already in the past and costs have already been recorded in previous statements. If this is the case for items, credit notes will be issued for the affected performance months.

4. The last step

   processes the remaining monthly service bookings that have not already been recorded by the previous checks.

Cost record table

On the one hand, the Billing tile is used to view the months that have already been billed and, on the other hand, to check and adjust unbilled months and then finally bring them to billing. In both cases, the items of the selected billing month can be downloaded from the tile either as a draft for review or as a final export.

You are taken to the Billing page via Billing > Settlements. After selecting the page, you will get the following view:

In the upper part of this page, you can see a short status of the collector job of the selected period, regardless of whether it was or is a rule job or a manual job. The status indicates whether the last run was successful or not. The lead time point is the date and time of the last job and after run time you will find the runtime of the last job. Finally, you will see the time of the monthly regular job after the point Time of final export. If the month has not yet expired, the entry is empty because the job rule only runs after the month has expired. Therefore, this is only filled by the rule job.

In the table below, you can see all settlement items of the selected month. You select the month in which you select the month you want to view after Period. Once you have selected the month, you can choose different actions depending on the status of the month. The display in the top row changes according to the status of the selected month.

On the left side of the row, as in all other tables, you can specify the number of entries to display on a page. To change this, select the appropriate number of entries from the pull-down menu that opens when you click on the display of the current entries. Furthermore, on the right side of the row there is a field for searching within the table. This is a full-text search over all columns of the table, unless they have their own filter. The search is therefore only carried out in the columns without filter option. In columns with filters, the number of entries can be reduced via the filters.

To the right of the setting of the number of entries you will now find a plus and a pen, as well as two different export buttons. You will only receive the ad if a month has not yet been finally accepted. By pressing the button you can add another entry for the selected month, with the button you can change a current entry. It is not possible to delete an entry. If entries are not to be settled, they can be "excluded" for the corresponding month after opening a position. This would not settle the position for this month.

Afterwards you will find two export buttons. The left of the two buttons with the white symbol creates a draft as a .csv file. This enables you to control the content of the Collector Jobs rule, i.e. the actual billing run of the month, on an Excel basis in order to then adjust, exclude or add items. The frequency for designing the export is not limited. After pressing the button, the a status bar appears, which remains during the creation of the export:

On the other hand, press the right button with the black symbol , so you close the month finally. In this case, the final invoice-accompanying documents (RBU) are generated and the status of the month changes to final billing. It should be noted that one month of the final billing can not be modified afterwards. Should changes nevertheless occur subsequently, a correction posting may have to be made in the following month. The display for the settlement export also appears during execution.

As soon as the final settlement has been made by pressing the Final Export Button, the top line of the table changes and only a final export is available.

Add Custom Cost

In addition to the billing of service and change orders from the service and product catalog, on a monthly or one-time basis via the billing service, there may be requirements for other types of orders that are to be billed. These orders can be, for example, project orders for which a previously undefined settlement sum exists (e.g. on a time and effort basis) and can therefore only be entered at the end of the work, when the final scope and thus the sum to be settled has been determined. Furthermore, these may also be penalties or credits that arise in the context of the provision of the service. These can only be one-time. Recurring bookings with monthly uniform amounts are only possible via a service and its order.

For these types of orders to be billed, there is the possibility to add settlement items. Please note that you can only add items if the selected month has not yet been finally settled. Adding this item is done via an input mask that opens when you click on the (+) icon on the Billing page. The following figure shows the input mask:

The following table shows how to fill in the fields:

Input / Selection field / Display	Description
General
Name	The Name field is a free text field in which a name that speaks as much as possible about the "content" or the object to be supplied can be entered.
Group	The entry Group is also a free text field and is used in the services to create the group assignment to the catalog groups. Reference can be made to these groups, or any entry can be made.
Source	The Source field is also a free text field. In the regular billing from the catalogs, it is automatically noted here whether this item comes from the Catalog service or the change catalog. For a manual position, a reference to the "order" should be used here, e.g., a ticket number from another ticket system or an e-mail.
Prices
Quantity	The Quantity parameter is used to specify the number of items or hours delivered.
Price	The price indicates the unit price that is valid for this position. The price can also be negative for a manual credit.
sum price	The total price is a multiplication of the quantity and the price and represents the settlement amount.
Assignment
Colleague	In this field, the required employee for this order is assigned to the order from a selection list.
Telephone number	A phone number can be selected if a phone number is assigned to the selected employee and the order requires a reference to it.
Organizational unit	The organizational unit is also a selection field and displays all available organizations.
Cost center	The cost center is also a selection field and displays all available cost centers.
Order	The Order field is again a free text field and can be used as desired. The recommendation is to specify a specific order number, ticket number, etc.
Last modified
from	This field indicates who made the last change to this position.
on the	The entry shows when the last change was made, \<day, time>.
Justification	Justification contains the information entered by the person who made the last change. This must be entered by the respective processor.

The mandatory fields for a manually added item are the quantity, the price, the assigned employee, the cost center, and the justification. As soon as you have created these fields and press Apply changes, the corresponding item is created. Nevertheless, it is advisable to provide a title and a reference for each position so that it can be traced afterwards.

The item then appears in the overview / in the table of settlements for the current billing period. The following figure shows an example of a manually added location.

Settings

The configurations of the SP-Invoice microservice are made on the only Settings tab. These are used to control the cost collector, the billing module and to define the general service parameters. Furthermore, the manual start of the Cost Collector job for the current month can be executed on the settings page. The result of the last job is then displayed in the lower part of the tab, which divides the settings page into two areas. These are the actual configurations and the collector information. There is no other tab for the billing document.

You can access the settings of the billing document (SP-Invoice) via Settings -> Services -> Billing. The following illustration shows the Billing Settings page.

Cost Collector Configuration

The Cost Collector configuration regulates the behavior of the collector job, with regard to the content data as well as their changeability and the billing period, as well as the time (time) at which the monthly rule job should run.

The following table explains the configurations of the billing service in terms of content, changeability, and process control:

Parameter	Description
Display name	This allows the service to be called "Billing" so that it is displayed in used menus and titles with the configured name.
Invoice abbreviation	With an entry in this field, the invoice number is extended by a preceding text. If the invoice number was 1001 and the text is Damovo, the invoice number would be RBU-Damovo-1001. This can be found in the RBU Export column RBUID (RBU – Invoice Accompanying Documents).
Accounting period	This parameter is used to determine from which day of the month to which day of the same or subsequent month, the settlement is to be carried out. You can choose from the 1st – 31st (last day of the month) or from the 16th to the 15th of the following month.
Collector Job Time	Here you can set the time at which the collector job should run after the end of the billing period. This always runs on the following day of the last day of the set billing time. This is either the 1st or the 16th of a month. This is necessary in order not to have "wrong" bookings or already bookings from the following month in the billing. Subsequently, no more bookings will be added to the billed month. From this point on, this can only be done manually in the Billing tile.
Employees can be changed Phone number can be changed Organizational unit can be changed Cost center can be changed	If one of these items is checked, the corresponding field of a settlement item can be changed or corrected after the final collector job. If the respective position is not selected, the entry cannot be adjusted.
Bill for the first month	With the ticking of this option, the monthly service amount is already billed in the first month. If the option is not checked, the monthly service billing does not start until the second month. However, the one-off amount will still be billed in the month of service provision.
Last month bill	Similar to the previous point, the last month in which the termination took place is billed or not. One-time costs are not relevant to this setting.
Initial zero costs	By ticking this function, the one-time free services are included in the billing or not.
Monthly zero costs	As in the previous point, however, this configuration point is monthly recurring free services.

As soon as you have made your specifications and made your configurations, you can save them with the Save button. The new configuration then applies to the next collector job, regardless of whether it is triggered manually for the current month or whether it is the job rule.

Afterwards, but also at any time, you can manually trigger a collector job via the Start Collection Job button (MMM YYYY ). Depending on the number of entries, this may take some time. After triggering, you will receive the following message:

The manually triggered job is always for the current, not yet completed, billing period. The current period is displayed in the button with MMM YYYY .

You can see the result of the jobs in the Collector Information after completion of the job.

Collector Information

The collector information provides information about the last job, or about the last successful collector job or whether a job is currently being executed. With this information, you can thus check when the last successful billing may have taken place, which errors may have occurred in the respective job or whether a job is currently being executed. The following figure shows an example of this collector information:

The following table explains the information displayed behind the corresponding list item:

Status	Indicates whether a collector job is running or complete.
Start last attempt	Provides information about the start time of the last job performed (date and time).
Report of the last run	Name of the billing run of the last collector job. This is stored in the database and can be viewed on the Billing tile (statistical information).
End of last successful run	Specifies information about the end time of the last successfully completed job (date and time).
Report of the last successful run	Name of the billing run of the last successful collector job. This is stored in the database and can be viewed on the Billing tile (statistical information).
Added entries	This point indicates the number of additional bookings added to the existing bookings.
Error list	Displays the errors that occurred in the last Collector Job. This contains the faulty positions (SID) and, as far as possible, detected error.