Budget billing line items

Accounts that sign up for budget billing for a particular bill type will be billed the same amount each cycle, regardless of the actual amount of the charges. Because the amount of each bill, called the budgeted amount, is fixed, the line items on each bill must add up to the budgeted amount. For bills to be generated correctly under a budget billing plan, you must set up line items for budget billing, and then add them to the appropriate bill types.

The first step is to indicate which line items are eligible to be included in the budgeted amount. Because budget billing is only used for utility services with varying consumption levels, such as water, this functionality is only available for service-based line items. To indicate that a service-based line item can be included in the budgeted amount, open the line item and select Include in Budgeted Amount under Budget Billing.

Selecting this check box only indicates that a line item can be included in the budgeted amount. A line item will be processed under budget billing rules if an account is on a budget billing plan for a bill type with which the line item is associated. Otherwise, the line item will be calculated as normal.

In addition, line items that are included in the budgeted amount can be either variable, meaning that the amount charged under a budget billing plan can be different from the actual amount, or non-variable. For example, non-variable line items would include fixed charges such as connection fees and taxes. These do not vary from one bill to the next, so they can be billed at their actual amounts. All consumption-based line items, such as a line item for a metered water service, will be variable.

To mark a budgeted line item as variable, select Allows Variance under Budget Billing. The variance is the difference between the amount charged for the line item under a budget billing plan and the actual amount of the charges. If a line item is variable, Infor Public Sector tracks the cumulative variance so the customer can be billed periodically for this amount.

The process of billing an account for a variance is called settlement. When Allows Variance is selected, a line item type must be selected in the Settlement Line Item field. A settlement line item is a special type of one-off charge that is used to settle a variance. To create a settlement line item, create a new one-off line item and select Settlement from the Type list.

See Creating a one-off line item type.

No rate code or value is required for a settlement line item, because the amount of the line item will be the amount of the variance for the service-based line item with which it is associated. The account might have been charged either more or less than the actual amount, so the variance can be a negative or positive number.