Sap Isu Billing

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Device Reading

Device reading is performed either at regular intervals as part of periodic billing or at irregular intervals as, for example, in the case of control readings, and readings for device replacement, removal, or disconnection, or at the request of the customer. The scheduled dates and the meter reading type are defined in Scheduling. How-ever, you can override this scheduling and create an order for a meter reader in-stead of a meter reading by the customer. In the case of irregular, or aperiodic, meter readings, you can manually prescribe the scheduled dates.

To prepare for a device reading, you first create a meter reading order. If the meter reading results are relevant to billing, you also create a billing order that contains control data for billing. You cannot perform billing without this billing order. Depending on how it is entered, the meter reading order is either printed out in the form of meter reading documents or downloaded to an external entry system. Similarly, the meter reading results are either entered manually or uploaded, val-idated, and corrected if necessary. Finally, they are passed on to Contract Billing.

Fig. 5-12: Execution of a Device Reading

Meter Reading Organization

Street Route You use meter reading organization to define the sequence in which the devices are read. This allows you to optimize the route that the meter reader must cover. You can set up a combined street route for more than meter reading unit.

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A street route is defined within a meter reading unit on the basis of the following criteria:

❑ City ❑ Street

❑ House number (connection object) ❑ Device location

❑ Device

Fig. 5-13: Street Route

Period Consumption

Meter Reading Orders

A meter reading order contains register-specific data and information on the planned meter reading, such as target reading date and meter reader. For each register, you create one meter reading order for a utility company meter reader, for an external meter reading company, or for a reading by the customer.

You can reverse meter reading orders. If meter reading results have already been obtained when the order is reversed, you can either delete them or save them and then use them with a new meter-reading order.

Order Creation You can create meter-reading orders as

❑ Individual orders

Individual orders are generally created for billings at irregular intervals, such as for interim and control billings or if a meter reading unit is transferred to another utility company. However, you can also create individual orders for periodic billings, such as if a single order has to be created again due to an

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You do not create a meter reading order for flat-rate installations, just a billing order, because flat-rate installations do not contain meters counting consumption.

Entry Meter reading results are either entered manually or uploaded to IS-U/CCS from an external entry system. The upload is handled by direct input via an intermedi-ate document interface or IDoc. IDocs are used in electronic data interchange (EDI) between different computers and systems. A Business Application Programming Interface (BAPI) is also available for importing meter reading results.

Manual entry can be subdivided as follows: ❑ Fast entry

Fast entry is used to enter the large volumes of data that occur with periodic meter readings. Fast entry can also be subdivided as follows:

❍ Fast entry without immediate correction

Follow-up correction and release of implausible readings may be neces-sary.

❍ Fast entry with correction

If implausible meter reading results are encountered, the clerk can call up a correction screen.

❑ Individual entry

You can enter meter reading results individually in such cases as: ❍ Control readings

❍ Interim readings

❍ Interim readings with billing

❍ Service territory transfers with billing ❍ Final readings (for move-out)

❍ Periodic readings

Order Output You can output the meter reading order in the following ways: ❑ Print the meter reading documents using the print workbench ❑ Make it available at a raw data interface (RDI)

Using the raw data interface, you can transfer the meter reading order to ex-ternal entry systems, such as mobile data entry (MDE) devices and document readers (downloaded), or you can print it using external print systems.

Meter Reading Results

You can obtain the meter reading result by a variety of methods:

❑ A meter reader from the utility company or from an external meter reading company records the result on a meter reading order or enters it into the exter-nal entry system.

❑ The customer takes the reading and reports it to the utility company. ❑ The system estimates the result.

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Every meter reading result is subject to validation, regardless of whether it is en-tered manually or uploaded. There are two types of validation: fixed and variable.

Fixed validation is mandatory and is performed automatically. Fixed validation checks, for example, that the previous meter reading was plausible or that no consumption is recorded for inactive installations. You can define your variable validation in Customizing. The system supports the following types of variable validation:

❑ Zero consumption

❑ Repeated readings by customers or estimates

This allows you to limit the number of meter readings taken by customers and the number of automated estimates.

❑ Absolute, relative, floating tolerance limits

This allows you to compare current consumption with a comparison period. The consumption must fall within a specific interval.

❑ Usage hours compared with a previous period or a fixed value ❑ Maximum or minimum approved contract demand limit ❑ Meter overflow

Validation checks whether the meter reading is less than the previous reading.

Validation

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In some cases of validation, the meter reading or consumption result is compared with an extrapolated expected value. A meter reading result can be extrapolated for a predefined date based on the following information:

❑ Meter reading results

Meter reading results are given the highest priority with regard to extrapola-tion because they best reflect the consumpextrapola-tion pattern of customers. The peri-od for which the customer’s meter reading results exist must be representa-tive. You define the representative period in the rate in relation to the length of the period. The representative period can be as little as one month or as much as one year.

To calculate the degree to which meter readings are representative of a period, you consider the weighting portions valid for the time period (see below). They are determined by the weighting procedure, which is assigned to the register operands of the rate.

❑ Period consumption

If no previous meter readings exist or if the time period is not representative, the system extrapolates from the period consumption. You can store the peri-od consumption on device installation or customer move-in per register in a device and, of course, make subsequent changes to it if, for example, there is a change in the consumption pattern of the customer.

❑ Reference value

If neither meter reading results nor period consumption exist, the system ex-trapolates using the reference value stored in the rate.

Extrapolation of Meter Reading Results

Weighting Procedures You may use any of the following common weighting procedures: ❑ Linear weighting

❑ Weighting of energy feeding ❑ Weighting of degree days ❑ General weighting ❑ Mixed weighting

Mixed weighting entails adding a total of fixed or percentage portions of lin-ear weightings to the current weighting procedure. This allows you to take a minimum consumption as a basis each month.

❑ Weighting with absolute linear portions

Unlike mixed weighting, this type of weighting allows you to define a time period in addition to a fixed value.

Correction The result of validation determines the status of the individual meterreading re-sults. Depending on the outcome of validation, the meter reading result can be used in billing or submitted for correction. However, you can also correct plausi-ble results.

In some cases, meter reading results have to be checked on site. Where this is the case, you create a new meter reading order, known as a rereading order, with updated data.

Estimation If meter readings and consumption are either missing or implausible, you can calculate the meter reading results using by means of automated mass estimation.

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Monitoring

You can monitor the status of meter reading, billing, and entry. This allows you to check the number of entered, implausible, or billable meter reading results. You can, of course, limit the display to specific business partners, meter reading units, time periods, and so on.

Outlook

The liberalization of the energy market as well as the development of new meter-ing technology have led to new requirements for the utilities industry. These new requirements have been taken into account in the ongoing development of the IS-U/CCS System.

Utility companies today, especially industrial and service enterprises, are starting to meter consumption with electronic, programmable meters called interval meters. These meters measure different units (such as kW or kVAr) in time intervals. An interval is typically 5 minutes to 1 hour, but can be programmed for any period in a day. Interval meters are read by Automated Meter Reading (AMR) systems us-ing different transmission methods. AMR systems store the meter readus-ing data as “interval data.” Such time series of energy consumption readings are also referred to as a load profile. Starting with large industrial customers, the traditional me-chanical meters or first-generation programmable meters are gradually being re-placed by interval meters.

Interval data must be supplied to systems that process the data further. Depend-ing on the company’s role, the interval data can be forwarded to other internal systems (such as billing systems). Alternatively, the interval data can be transmit-ted to third parties via electronic data exchange.

Meter reading data is assigned a unique code within the company, a “delivery point ID,” to ensure correct allocation. The delivery point is usually the custom-er’s point of receipt or a power plant’s point of delivery for the grid. The delivery point can also be the interchange tie point between grids.

The IS-U/CCS System is being continuously developed to cover the functional scope outlined in the following. However, since development is ongoing, the de-scriptions below have been kept general. SAP AG reserves the right to change the functional scope at any time. IS-U development news and release notes contain more detailed information about release dates.

Meter Reading Warehouse (MRW)

The meter reading warehouse manages not only traditional meter readings but also interval data. According to delivery point or period, different units and inter-vals can be defined and stored. The data is stored via the delivery point ID. Since this process creates a large volume of data, it is important to use a data manage-ment system that optimizes storage space.

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Categorized load profile data for relative periods (such as working days, week-days, or weekdays and months according to season) can be stored instead of real-time interval data. Load profiles with a certain error tolerance can also be stored for a large number of customers using only a small amount of storage space. This is accomplished by assigning the load profile data category to the delivery point ID and by means of a usage factor. The usage factor is relative deviation of me-tered consumption from predefined consumption according to interval data cate-gory. In this way, load profiles can be used for residential customers as well. The MRW not only stores the load profiles, it can also import and store data from external systems or export the data to other systems.

MRW Import Function The import function allows meter readings to be transferred from other systems. It is currently possible to transfer meter readings from traditional meters (see the section on Meter Reading). Automated meter reading systems retrieve the interval data from local interval meters. The AMR systems forward the interval data di-rectly to the MRW without making changes to the data. The MRW stores the inter-val data with the appropriate delivery point ID.

MRW Processing Function The MRW is used predominantly for data processing. Processed data can either be sent to another component of IS-U/CCS or be exported to an external system via electronic data exchange (such as EDIFACT). If new interval data is created during processing, it can be stored in the MRW. The MRW offers the following processing functions:

❑ Validation and, if necessary, correction of meter reading data

❑ Alteration of stored interval data, such as the addition of plausible data when data is missing. The origin of the added data can be indicated.

❑ Conversion of meter readings into billable quantities (energy or demand) for electricity and gas

❑ Creation of new interval data; in order to derive interval data for a future period using metered interval data. The method used to create the new inter-val data can be indicated.

❑ Aggregation of metered interval data in different ways, such as addition, sub-traction, or averaging. For example, interval data added together may serve as a basis for billing a chain of branches of a major customer. Forecasted inter-val data can also be aggregated in order to forecast the total consumption of a chain of branches, for example. The aggregation of interval data in different ways allows for statistical analyses or load profile forecasts of different types. These analyses and forecasts can be carried out dynamically and provided to the requesting units or they can be stored in the MRW with an indicator of creation method.

❑ Analysis of interval data of all types according to typical criteria such as total consumption, maximum, minimum or average demand — according to the specifications of the company requesting the analysis.

❑ Provision of interval data created as above or of interval data analyses in a certain format defined by the company requesting the data (export function of the MRW).

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❑ Check to ensure that the company has authorization to access the data re-quested. The check is carried out based on authorization criteria stored in the MRW for the particular company.

❑ Use of standard electronic data exchange formats (such as EDIFACT) for trans-mission of data as already described to the requesting unit.

Further Processing of Interval Data

The interval data managed in the MRW is processed further by other IS-U/CCS components or by external systems.

Interval data is processed predominantly by the IS-U billing component. The bill-ing component requests the billbill-ing-related consumption data in a certain format from the MRW. The MRW provides the billing component with the requested meter reading or interval data via export functions.

The following additional functions use data from the MRW. However, at this time SAP cannot confirm that these functions will been implemented as further IS-U components.

❑ Billing of RTP (real-time pricing) contracts. RTP contracts require interval-spe-cific evaluation of consumption values for the billing period. The conditions of the evaluations may change from interval to interval. This especially ap-plies to prices that can be defined for each interval, such as those prices deter-mined manually or using the spot price defined by a power pool. When billing RTP contracts, entire sets of interval data are requested from the MRW. A set of data may contain metered interval data from one delivery point, aggregated or derived data. Interval data may be used for describing billing conditions, which are then used during settlement. Such interval data might contain load schedules or information about maximum or minimum consumption. ❑ Analysis of interval data for:

❍ Calculating statistics

❍ Marketing; to determine consumption patters of certain customer groups (market segment analyses) or customer in certain grid areas, for example. ❍ Analyzing interval data for optimization of rates and prices or for costs

analyses.

❍ Load forecasting to aid energy procurement or simulation of grid load or capacity

❍ Calculating transmission losses

❑ Forwarding of interval data to end customers for purposes of information or demand side management

Support of the business processes in energy trading by managing and pro-cessing the various load profiles required during those trading processes

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Contract Billing

Contract billing is the core of IS-U/CCS. It allows you to perform billing for your company’s utility services and other services. The functional scope and flexibility of IS-U/CCS enable you to bill nonresidential and residential customer contracts in a single system. IS-U/CCS also provides a range of procedures with a variety of selection and control options for billing contracts. Examples include:

❑ Annual consumption billing and periodic monthly billing cycles ❑ Billing for different divisions

❑ Numerous bill forms ❑ Simulation of billing

❑ Validation of billing documents and bills

Due to the complexity involved, the following section discusses only the basics of billing.

Billing Master Data

Billing master data controls contract billing. This master data stores the rate struc-tures that contain the your company’s billing rules and the contractual provisions. The most important element of billing is the rate, which contains one or more rate steps. The system processes a variant program for each rate step. Variant pro-grams define how billing-related quantities (such as measured consumption or demand) are to be processed and valuated. When defining a rate, you select the appropriate variant programs and specify the sequence in which they are to run. Many predefined variant programs are available to you, including:

❑ Multiply or divide with factors

❑ Valuate demand or quantities with a price ❑ Discounts on prices

❑ IF conditions ❑ Flat-rate billing ❑ Rental price billing

In addition, you can create customized variant programs.

The input and output parameters for the variant programs are the operands. Val-ues, such as prices or demand, are assigned to the operands at billing program runtime.

The billing rate is obtained through rate determination and is a combination of rate category and rate type. The rate category is stored in the installation. The rate

type is generally stored in the installation structure because it defines the rate allocation of the registers. However, the rate type can also be stored in the rate category or the installation in the case of flat-rate installations. You can also arrive at more than one rate by combining rate category and rate type in rate determina-tion. This allows you to run comparison bills. You can use those rates to execute

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This method of indirect rate allocation using a rate type offers a number of advantages: ❑ When you want to access new rates using an installation’s rate types, you only have to enter one new rate category for the installation. You do not have to make time-consuming changes to the rate types for each individual regis-ter.

❑ In the case of mass changes, you only have to change the rate determination – not the rate data for the installations in question.

Rate steps are processed in a particular sequence. You define that sequence in the

billing schema. The results of a rate step can be passed through operands to the next rate steps to be processed.

Benefits of Indirect Rate Allocation

Fig. 5-15: Master Data in Contract Billing

You define the billing master data described above in Customizing under rate

structure.

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Prices are allocated to the following four price categories: ❍ Quantity-based prices

❍ Time-based prices

❍ Rental prices, for example, for rental of devices and meters ❍ Flat rates

For any of the prices, you can specify special rounding rules and price

adjust-ment clauses that control the price adjustment factor. This factor is multiplied by the basic price or added to the basic price to arrive at the current price. You can also define blocks or scales for quantity-based and time-based prices. In the case of quantity-based prices, you can adapt the blocks to the billing period. ❑ Rates

Among other things, rates define:

❍ How meter reading results and consumption values are extrapolated and prorated

❍ Which reference values are billed ❍ Which prices are used

❍ Which constants, factors, and variables are included in the calculation ❍ The general ledger accounts to which the results of the calculations (billing

line items) are posted

❍ How the billing line items are handled statistically

❍ How the time portions of the periods to be billed are calculated (to the day or month-related)

❍ The divisions and billing classes to which the rate is allocated. ❑ Rate categories

Rate categories contain data that controls billing for multiple rates. Rate cate-gories:

❍ Define which billing schema is used

❍ Control period-end billing and floating backbilling ❍ Define the outsorting checks

❍ May contain additional data relevant to billing (such as quantities, demand values, prices, or flat rates agreed on between the utility company and customers).

In some cases, you can override data by making individual entries in the in-stallation.

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You can define discounts and surcharges as percentages or as absolute values. They can relate to a quantity, a price, a demand, or an amount. You have flexible control over the application of surcharges and the granting of discounts. Discounts and surcharges can apply to several contracts (for example, for one rate), or you can structure them individually for individual contracts.

All discounts and surcharges appear as separate billing line items in the docu-ment and can therefore – given an appropriate bill form layout – appear separate-ly on the bill.

Discounts and Surcharges

Fig. 5-16: Discounts and Surcharges

Multiple-Contract Billing (Release 4.51 and Later)

Companies that have concluded several contracts with a utility company for in-stallations in their local branches are interested in conditions that account for the total quantity of demand sold and calculate the relevant discount. These calcula-tions can be made either as each individual contract is billed or as applied to all contracts jointly (as a collective bill).

As a result of deregulation, provisions of this kind can also be agreed on a multi-ple-territory basis for the installations of a company in the service territories of several energy distribution companies. For example, in these territories one ener-gy dealer meets the total enerener-gy requirements and concludes corresponding trans-mission service contracts with the distribution companies.

Various procedures are available for determining discounts: ❍ Combined blocking or scaling of consumption

❍ Analysis of the billing documents for the contracts in question with calcu-lation of the discount using a customer report

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Automatic Billing and Simulation

In standard cases, the system automatically executes billing as a background task. Manual, online billing is also possible with Release 4.51. However, a contract can only be billed either automatically or manually within any given period.

You can reverse or change all forms of billing on the basis of manual credit memos or backbilling. In all cases, a billing document is created that, together with other documents, is used in invoicing to produce the bill.

Basic Principle of Billing Automatic billing comprises the following stages: 1. Data collection and analysis

All data required for billing is collected and prepared for valuation. 2. Proration

If changes are made during a billing period to duties, prices, or taxes, the quan-tities relevant to billing (such as consumption) must be prorated starting from the date on which the data was changed.

3. Quantity conversion

Billable quantities are determined from the quantities read. Register factors, transformer factors and conversions for thermal gas billing, for example, are taken into account.

4. Quantity valuation

Quantity valuation is the actual contract billing. Rates with their variant pro-grams are processed based on the billing schema.

5. Validation of the billing results

After valuation, the billing results are checked for plausibility.

Fig. 5-17: Basic Principle of Billing

Not only can you perform automatic billing for contracts, you can also simulate and test them. Specifically, you have the following options:

❑ Billing

To execute billing, you must have a billing order, which is deleted following successful billing. In the event of a reversal, you can regenerate the billing order and bill it again.

❑ Billing simulation

Billing simulation allows you to give customers information about the expect-ed amount of their bills. The prerequisites for a billing simulation are a billing order and existing meter reading results.

❑ Simulation

You can run a simulation for any given period without a billing order. If no meter reading results exist for the period in question, the system extrapolates Billing, Simulation,

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❑ Overall check

Overall checks examine billing in a way similar to simulation. Unlike the oth-er procedures, an ovoth-erall check ignores minor oth-errors. Those oth-errors are collect-ed in a log to be uscollect-ed in a comprehensive status analysis. Serious errors, on the other hand, result in premature termination of an overall check.

You can, of course, execute these functions not only for individual contracts but also for a large number of contracts. You can run mass billing and mass overall checks in the background overnight, for example. You select the contracts based on a variety of criteria, such as:

❑ Contract accounts ❑ Portions

❑ Billing procedure (periodic billing, period-end billing, service territory trans-fer, and so on)

❑ Division ❑ Company code

With the individual bill function, you can not only execute billing for individual contracts, you can also perform invoicing, and print or display the bill at the same time. You can also simulate this individual bill.

Simulations allow you to perform the following extrapolations and forecasts: ❑ Extrapolation of billing with existing meter reading results

❑ Extrapolation of billing with the meter reading result estimated automatically ❑ Forecast of billing for a different rate structure (later release)

Extrapolations and Forecasting Billing Procedures The following billing procedures are supported:

❑ Periodic billing

Periodic billing is consumption billing that is performed on a regular basis; this can be every month, every two, three, four, or six months, or annually. ❑ Floating backbilling

Floating backbilling is a form of monthly periodic billing. The past months of a billing year are recalculated month for month and backbilled with a current value.

❑ Period-end billing

Period-end billing is performed separately following the end of a billing cy-cle. This cycle generally covers one year, but may also be for two, three, four, or six months. If necessary, the system recalculates periodic billings and per-forms backbilling.

❑ Interim billing

Interim billing is not subject to the scheduling function. You can initiate it at any time in response to a customer inquiry. The subsequent periodic billing begins at the time of the interim billing. Interim billing is not possible for floating backbilling or period-end billing.

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Billing Periods The billing period for which the utility company bills the customer for a service can be calculated for an exact number of days or on a month-related basis. In the case of month-based periods, the system distinguishes between the following pro-cedures:

❑ Month-based using a key date ❑ Month-based using an interval

In the case of a move-in or move-out, you can bill for an exact number of days even with month-related procedures. In addition, you can control whether leap days are taken into account.

Functions of Billing

Multiple-Division Billing Functions

There are certain common aspects in billing regardless of the division concerned. You can therefore use the following approaches to billing – with some restrictions – in all divisions:

❑ Billing using energy prices ❑ Billing using demand prices

❑ Billing using basic and service prices ❑ Billing using rental prices

❑ Billing of usage hours ❑ Best-rate billing

❑ Billing using block prices, scale prices, or pricing quantities ❑ Billing using seasonal values

❑ Billing using seasonal variant programs ❑ Decision variants

Functions for Individual Divisions

Billing supports the following divisions with special functions: ❑ Electricity

❑ Gas (see section on Special Functions) ❑ Water or waste water

❑ District heating

❑ Public lighting (electricity or gas)

The following functions apply to public lighting:

❍ Mass management or individual management of the lights ❍ Variable connection loads depending on operation type ❍ Billing using energy prices

You can measure or calculate lighting consumption. You can use a burn-ing-hour calendar for calculation. The calendar contains the daily or month-ly lighting duration of the lights.

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IS-U/CCS supports the flat-rate procedure for billing household waste disposal charges (Release 1.2 or 4.51). The basis for the calculation is the container, which is emptied by a waste disposal company either periodically or on request.

Flat-Rate Example Flat-rate charge for a given period: A flat rate is charged for a specific period

re-gardless of the actual quantity of waste and the actual number of collections (for example, x $/year per container).

Other requirements for calculations based on actual collections, weight, or fill lev-el are modlev-eled in Service Management.

In addition to billing, the system supports the following functions: ❑ Service orders for the collection of containers to order

❑ Route planning with dispatching and scheduling systems

This area is described in greater detail in the section Waste Management.

Waste Management

Other Services In addition to their standard services, many utility companies offer their

custom-ers other services, for example:

❑ Installation of a service connection

❑ Maintenance and repair of technical equipment ❑ Sales

To process these additional services, IS-U/CCS uses the Materials Management, Sales and Distribution, and Service Management components of the standard R/3 System. For more information, please refer to the sections on Work Management and Business Processes. By including the billing documents, you can invoice the additional services in IS-U/CCS together with the utility services (Release 4.51).

Other Billing Functions IS-U/CCS provides a number of additional billing functions:

❑ Consideration of register relationships

❑ Consideration of duties and charges in variant programs ❑ Employee billing

Employees can be billed on favorable conditions. These favorable conditions may apply, for example, to prices, flat rates, or free quantities.

❑ Plant and company consumption (Release 4.51 at earliest)

The utility service consumed by a utility can be divided into plant consump-tion and company consumpconsump-tion. Both types of consumpconsump-tion can be billed, and the amounts can be assigned to cost centers for company-internal cost allocation.

❑ Small power producers or cogenerators

Alongside the large utility service providers, there exist a number of smaller providers, such as water, wind, or solar plants. Those producers are subsumed under the name of small power producers. Energy purchases by a utility com-pany are billed according to criteria similar to those that apply to energy sup-ply. You create bills for energy purchases the same way as you create bills for energy supply.

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Special Functions

Gas Billing In gas billing, the measured operating volume of a gas is assessed to determine the actual billing quantity. This is done by allocating to every register of an in-stalled gas meter a procedure defining how the assessment is made. The follow-ing gas billfollow-ing types are supported:

❑ Standard cubic meters

The measured operating cubic meters are converted to standard cubic meters using the gas volume correction factor.

❑ Thermal

The measured operating cubic meters are converted to a heat quantity using the gas volume correction factor and the calorific value.

❑ Volumetric

The measured operating cubic meters are billed directly.

Note With these gas billing types, IS-U/CCS supports the major standard procedures, as defined in national standards, for billing gases in specific states (for example, as spec-ified in DVWG sheet G 685 for Germany and the AGA standards for the US). The system calculates the gas volume correction factor with a volume correction factor procedure, and it calculates the calorific value with a calorific value procedure. The volume correction factor procedure takes into account the following factors: ❑ Temperature

❍ Fixed temperature

m Arithmetic annual average m Weighted annual average

m Arithmetic average for the billing period m Weighted average for the billing period ❑ Air pressure

❍ Annual air pressure

❍ Air pressure recorded monthly

m Arithmetic average air pressure for the billing period m Weighted average air pressure for the billing period ❑ Gas law deviation factor

The gas law deviation factor is the quotient of the real gas factors in operating conditions and in normal conditions. It can be predetermined for a device or calculated using pressure and temperature. This procedure is similar to the supercompressibility factor used in North America.

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The calorific value can be calculated using the following averaging types: ❑ Weighted monthly average

❑ Arithmetic monthly average ❑ Weighted annual average ❑ Arithmetic annual average

❑ Arithmetic average for the billing period ❑ Weighted average for the billing period.

The calorific value to be billed for a specific calorific value procedure is main-tained manually for billing.

Disconnection Periods In billing, you can suppress the calculation of time-based quantities for periods of

disconnection relevant to billing.

Franchise Contract A franchise contract specifies the fees that a utility company must pay to a

polit-ical entity. In exchange, the utility company is given the right to supply customers in the area of that municipality directly and, in the process, to use public traffic routes for laying and operating power lines. Billing uses the franchise contract to calculate the franchise fee to be paid.

Manual Billing (Release 4.51)

Manual billing is an alternative option to automatic billing if, for example, you want to override automatic rate determination.

Manual billing is supported by automatic price determination, consideration of franchise fees or prorations as a result of tax, fee, and price changes.

Credit Memo and Backbilling

Manual credit memos and backbillings are carried out as additions to automatic or manual billing. They allow you to correct billings in cases where a reversal is not possible or where no bill exists. Examples include backbilling as a result of an incorrect meter reading or a credit memo because of a water pipe break. You can enter as many credit memos and backbillings as you want for any given contract. You can either include credit memos or backbilling in the next consumption bill-ing – in which case the amount is included in the amount of the bill – or you can create a distinct, separate bill.

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Outsorting

Fig. 5-18: Automatic Outsorting and Manual Release

You can outsort billing documents and print orders as a result of the following validations:

❑ Amount check for the net amount

❑ Absolute deviation from the budget billing amount ❑ Percentage deviation from the budget billing amount ❑ Estimation

❑ Existing billing line items ❑ User-defined validations

Billing Reversal

You can reverse any form of billing with the billing reversal function. Reasons for using billing reversal include an incorrect meter reading or a defective meter. You can select the documents you want to reverse based on a number of different cri-teria.

You can use adjustment reversal to bill invoiced billing documents again without canceling the invoicing. This is useful if more than one billing document is includ-ed in the invoicing document and only one of those billing documents neinclud-eds to be reversed. The adjustment reversal thereby allows you to create a type of correc-tion bill for a bill that already exists.

Following billing and invoicing, you can outsort billing documents or orders for bill printout from automatic processing. Outsorted billing documents and print automatically initiates outsorting.

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Invoicing

Invoicing links contract billing with the Contract Accounts Receivable and Payable component. Invoicing:

❑ Creates accounting documents for bill receivables or credit memos from bill-ing documents

❑ Settles accounting documents against down payments received, in particular budget billing payments

❑ Formats the data for bill printout ❑ Creates new budget billing plans ❑ Supports the calculation of taxes

Billing sends billing documents, credit memos, backbillings, and the basis for bud-get billing plans to invoicing. You can also use documents from billing in the Sales and Distribution application component as of Release 1.2 and from non-SAP bill-ing systems as of Release 4.51. Invoicbill-ing then sends accountbill-ing documents and budget billing plans to the Contract Accounts Receivable and Payable component, which reports open items back to invoicing.

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Invoicing Execution

Invoicing Units In invoicing execution, you create bills for the contracts of a contract account. You either invoice the billing documents of selected contracts or create bills for budget billing amounts (debit entries). You can combine the contracts that belong to a contract account to form invoicing units according to the following criteria: ❑ Contracts whose documents must be invoiced together. (They share a

com-mon budget billing plan.)

The billings for these contracts should always appear together on a single bill (for example, the contracts of a residential customer for electricity, gas and water).

❑ Contracts whose documents can be invoiced together and for which budget billing payments can be requested together.

❑ Contracts whose documents must be invoiced individually or for which bud-get billing payments are requested on separate bills.

The goal is to create a bill that includes as many of the customer’s contracts as possible.

Fig. 5-20: Joint Invoicing

Budget Billing

When budget billing payments are requested, you can create debit entries in Contract Accounts Receivable and Payable, or you can process budget billing pay-ments that have no effect in the general ledger (statistical postings).

Scope of Business Functions

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When billing documents are invoiced, budget billing payments that have been made or budget billing requests are taken into account for each contract and tled against the receivables from the billing documents. The bill items can be set-tled during invoicing against other line items in the customer account and cleared. If the customer still has a credit after settlement, you can either pay out that credit or settle it against other receivables.

Bill Creation and Printout

You can select bills for printout according to a number of different criteria. During bill creation, the billing line items are transferred to the layout, which you can design yourself. You can control the following:

❑ The formation of logical bill blocks (for example, forming blocks for each contract)

❑ The sequence of the bill items and how they are to be represented ❑ The calculation of taxes and fees

In addition, you can use other data (such as business partner, contract, installa-tion, and budget billing plan) in bill creation. The actual printout, or the transfer of the data for external print systems to a raw data interface is handled by the Print Workbench (FI-CA-BF-PW) component.

Calculation of Taxes The system calculates legally mandated taxes during billing. If, however, there

are changes during the course of a billing period, the system takes those changes into account in invoicing and includes them in the bill.

IS-U/CCS supports the calculation and levying of the following taxes: ❑ Value-added tax

❑ Consumption and sales tax

This type of tax is applicable in the US, for example. For North America, you can also specify those taxes with jurisdiction codes. The system also supports third-party tax modules that are authorized by SAP.

❑ Municipal tax

❑ Other taxes (for example, dog tax)

Billing documents that qualify for joint invoicing are transferred in an accounting document to the Contract Accounts Receivable and Payable component, where data from the individual billing documents is summarized according to fixed criteria for that component and other controls defined by the company (such as account determination, transaction determination).

Simulation You can initiate a bill simulation (simulation of invoicing) on the basis of a posted

billing or a simulated billing.

Transfer to Contract Accounts Receivable and Payable

Reversal Full reversal – of both billing and invoicing – is possible.