Calculating Volumes 

Use

You use this function to determine the usage volume for which the customer will be billed.

The following functions are available for calculating the usage volumes:

·        Calculating volumes with readings

By reading the counter values, the volume overview records total usage in a billing period. The system normally calculates usage as the difference between the counter values of the current and previous readings. It assigns status Released to the corresponding entry in the volume overview. Prerequisite: the previous entry has status Released or Billed. When the system has set status Released for all the entries in the billing period in the volume overview, prebilling can start for this period.

·        Calculating volumes by estimation

If no billing-relevant reading takes place within a certain period, you can use estimation procedures to calculate usage. You can use Business Add-In (BAdI) Process Estimation Procedures to define estimation procedures in accordance with your requirements. This BAdI is located in Customizing for Customer Relationship Management under Usage-Based Billing (UBB) ® Record Usage ® Business Add-Ins (BAdIs) ® BAdI: Process Estimation Procedures. 

·        Calculating volumes by period-end closing

If no billing-relevant reading has been made for a billing period, but estimation is not allowed, you can wait until a billing-relevant reading is received for a subsequent period and then use action Period-End Closing to merge the periods. More information and an example are available under Period-End Closing.

·        Calculating volumes through manual entries

If you have not entered a reading for a billing period yet, the reading and usage fields are blank. You can enter values manually. If you enter a relevant reading for this entry, the reading then overwrites your manual entries. The usage volume from the reading has the higher priority.

·        Calculating volumes through external usage recording

You can also record usage in an external program through the XIF interface.

If no reading has taken place by a defined time, you can also use the UBB service contract to send reading reminders.

The volume overview records the total usage in a billing period by reading counters or through estimation. The volume overview contains all the usage-related information required for billing.

The system normally calculates usage as the difference between the counter values of the current and previous readings.

The system checks whether the reading is relevant for billing. If so, the system assigns the reading to an entry in the volume overview and uses it to determine the usage volume. If no billing-relevant reading is available at a specific time, you can send reading reminders.

The volume calculation is time-specific, which means you calculate usage for specific periods. These periods correspond to the billing periods that you defined in the contract.

You cannot deduct any shortfall quantities – such as test copies made by a service technician – from the volume for billing. Shortfall quantities are already included in the volume for billing. To refund shortfall quantities, enter a credit for the reading. When you specify test copies as deduction volumes during the reading, the system adds them to the credit overview.

Prerequisites

The following prerequisites must be met:

·        You have recorded usage or recorded the entries in the volume overview manually, externally, or with an estimation procedure.

·        You have configured the required settings for sending reading reminders in Customizing for Usage-Based Billing (UBB) under Record Usage ® Define Output Channel for Reading Reminder and under Record Usage ® Define Reading Reminder Messaging Sequence.

·        You have configured the required settings for determining the usage volume with estimation procedures in Customizing for Usage-Based Billing (UBB) under Record Usage ® Define Estimation Procedures and under Record Usage ® Define Estimation Sequences.

Features

When you have determined the usage volume of a billing period through readings, estimation procedures, manual entry, or external recording, the system automatically starts prebilling for the single contracts. The single contracts are transferred to the billing due list, where you can bill usage and invoice the customers accordingly. For more information, refer to Billing a Single Contract.

For information on pricing and billing for pool contracts, refer to Billing a Pool Contract.