SAP Billing and Revenue Innovation Management and Utilities – Case 3: Billing Plans

In my introduction post I described the flexible possibilities of integration between BRIM (CI more in particular) and Utilities.  Over the next few weeks, I will show some demo use cases I created for customers to highlight the flexibility of BRM.

The third case is the following situation: as an extra service, we offer to install a battery for customers.  The customer pays a monthly rental fee.  We want to add this fee seamlessly on his commodity invoice.

In this blog, you will find some customizing snippets to show how the integration between ISU and Convergent Invoicing is done, and at the end you will find the demo screens.

Customizing Snippets

Billing Cycle

You must define the billing cycle for your billing plan.  Depending on the requirement there is a big flexibility on the billing cycle: (X-)daily, (X-)weekly, (X-)monthly or yearly.
The start date and end date of the billing cycle can be customized to use fixed parameters, or use information stored at the Contract Account level or the input by an external party.
It is also possible to customize an adjustment of the first period according to following rules:

• Reduce it (so the first period will always be sent)
• Extend it (so the first period will be added to the second period always)
• Reduce it using a minimal length defined in days (if the first period is less then the number of days defined, the period will be added to the second period, otherwise the first period will be sent.

This customizing can be found under Contract Accounts Receivable and Payable->Convergent Invoicing->Basic Functions->Scheduling->Define Billing Cycle

Example of a Billing Cycle

Billing Plan Types

The billing plan Type is used to categorize the Billing Plans on a Header level.  Here the Billable Item Class can be defined, and the Billing Plan Category is defined.
This customizing can be found under Contract Accounts Receivable and Payable->Convergent Invoicing->Enhanced Functions->Billing Plans->Define Billing Plan Type

Billing Plan Item Type

Here all the customising is done on item level.  Multiple items can be added to one billing plan.  Here the identification of the Billable Item Type can be done.  Also the rules for the calculation baseline and the start date can be altered and overwritten.  This customizing can be found under Contract Accounts Receivable and Payable->Convergent Invoicing->Enhanced Functions->Billing Plans->Define Billing Plan Item Type

example of a Billing Plan Type

Assignment of Item Types to Billing Plan Types

Here the allowed combinations are defined between the Billing Plan Type and the Billing Plan Item Type. This customizing can be found under Contract Accounts Receivable and Payable->Convergent Invoicing->Enhanced Functions->Billing Plans->Assignment of Item Types to Billing Plan Types

Example of an Assignment

Demo screens

Manage Billing Plan

The creation and management of billing plans can also be done via a FIORI application.  In the initial screen, when choosing “Create”, the Billing Plan Type that was customized can be selected for a specific Business Partner or Contract account.

The following step is to configure the item or the items linked to the Billing Plan.  The configured Billing Plan Item Type and the Billing Cycle must be defined, together with the amount of the Billing Plan.  This is enough to create the Billing plan.  Once created, the Billing Plan still has to be released first before use.

Once released, we can now generate a billing request. We do this via transaction FKKBIXBIP_S or the Fiori app.  As we take date 31.05.2023 as a keydate, this will generate one billing request. For the first period the amount is lower because of the incompleteness of the month.  The amount only represents 16 days.   The normal process as explained in my previous can now pick up.  You can configure the Process Selection Control to only be picked up with the ISU Budget Billing Plans.

Conclusion

This wraps up the second case of BRIM handling. It shows how easy it is to integrate the GridFee with the ISU invoice. Do not hesitate to share your ideas in the comments!