Usage Recording with Counter Readings

You record usage by entering counter readings. For information about the generic features of counter and readings, see Counters and Readings. The following describes the features that are available for usage-based service contract processing.

Prerequisites

You have made the following settings in Customizing for Customer Relationship Management:
- Defined the general characteristics of counters and readings, and ensured that the reading validation check meets your requirements
  These settings are described in Counters and Readings and can also be made in the section Transactions Settings for Contracts Additional Settings for Service Contracts Settings for Usage-Based Service Contracts .
- Determined, if necessary, in which sequence readings will be used to determine usage, if there are multiple readings with different origins for the same counter in the same settlement period.
  You make this setting in the activity Transactions Settings for Contracts Additional Settings for Service Contracts Settings for Usage-Based Service Contracts Usage Recording Define Priority Sequence for Reading Origin .

For each contract item, you have specified the validation rule and origin sequence for readings (if required), in the Control Data assignment block
To enable counters to be used as templates for generating unique counters for objects in service contracts (see Generation of Counters for Objects below), you have done the following:
- Defined counters on the Counters page and assigned them to products on the Products page in the Counters assignment block
  Note that this assignment block is only available if the relationship type “Counters” is assigned to the product category to which the product belongs.
- Ensured that the objects that require counters in your service contract have a base category with the relationship type “IOBMP”
  This relationship type ensures that the counters assigned to the object are displayed. You make this setting on the Product Hierarchies page.

Features

Generation of Counters for Objects

When a service contract is activated (incepted), the counters assigned to a product in its master data are used as templates to generate unique counters for the unique object that is assigned to the same product in the object item of the service contract. The counters that are generated have the attributes of the template counters assigned to the product.

You can see the counters that have been generated in the Counters and Readings assignment block in the service contract item (not in the object subitems).

Usage Determination

If a reading is relevant for billing, it is included in the usage overview of the relevant service contract item. For more information about setting up checks for readings to determine whether they are relevant for the usage overview, see Usage Determination.

Credits for Shortfall

To refund shortfall quantities, such as test copies made by a service technician, you can enter credits on the Readings page. Credits entered this way are included in the credit overview of the relevant service contract item.

Changing Readings

Once you have saved a reading you can no longer change it. You can only cancel it, provided that:

Billing has not yet taken place for the reading date
Prebilling has not taken place for a related pool contract

Reading Reminders

You can send reading reminders if no reading is entered by a defined time. For more information, see Reading Reminders.

Prebilling

Once you have entered error-free readings for all counters of a device for a billing period, the prebilling process starts for that billing period, provided you have released all the previous periods.