Biller Period

Period

The Period view presents all created periods, i.e. the time periods that are used for invoicing and reporting purposes.

The periods must be ordered chronologically and are defined one at a time with start date, end date and break date. There may not be days between periods and the periods may not overlap. You can choose to create periods automatically; monthly or quarterly.

From the start date a scheduled process will run every night, to update and aggregate data. The period is closed and given the status aggregated in the period view on the defined break date. If you want to reaggregate a period after the break date, e.g. if errors are discovered that need to be corrected or to include a late import in the period results, you need to open the period. When that is done, the period can be reaggregated.

All costs that occur between the start and end dates are associated with the period. When setting prices, it is important to keep in mind that all subscriptions are debited once per period.

If you have different main groups (e.g. customers) with different period lengths, you must define periods according to the shortest period length. When creating reports, you can then choose several periods.

Example: Customer A has a period of one month, and customer B uses quarterly periods. The shortest period would then be a month, and you would use reports covering three periods for customer B.

How to - Show Periods

1. Click on the role Invoicing in the navigation menu
2. Click on Periods > Manage periods

   • A list of periods is displayed to the right
   • If there are many periods, they are displayed on several pages with numerals above the table (e.g. 1 2 3...). Click a numeral to go to the corresponding page.

How to - Add a Period

1. Click on add
2. Enter a name
3. The start date cannot be changed, it is always defined as the day after the end of the previous period
4. Enter an end date
5. Enter a break date after which the period should be closed
6. Click on save

Note: It is highly recommended to always use the same period length, e.g. month or quarter.

How to - Automatically Create Periods

To let Pro 9 automatically create periods (months or quarters), follow the instruction below.

1. Create the first period manually (according to the description above) to use as a starting point for the automatic creation of periods
2. Check the automatically create box at the top of the Periods view
3. Select if you want to create monthly or quarterly periods
4. Select what day of the month you want the period to start on
5. Select what day of the month you want the period to break on, i.e. on what day the break date should be placed
6. Click save to save the settings

   • The automatically created periods are named after the month or quarter it starts in

Note: If you want to adjust a period, e.g. to let the Q4 period end January 10th, you have to manually create two periods to fit the automatically created periods. One period from October 1st to January 10th and one from January 11th to March 31st. The automatic generation of periods will then continue with creating a period starting April 1st.

How to - Open a Closed Period

1. Click on edit next to the appropriate period
2. Uncheck the box aggregated
3. Click on save
4. Make the appropriate changes

   • The period will be automatically reaggregated the following night or can be manually reaggregated (see instruction below)

Note: Do not open a closed period if the data has already been exported to any external systems.

How to - Reaggregate Period

1. Open the closed periods that you want to reaggregate (see instruction above)
2. Click on Reaggregate periods in the Links menu

   • A list with the open periods is shown

3. Select an aggregation option. Choose between:

   • All - Both cost and quality - This option should be used if you want to update call data (e.g. number of calls and call costs) and quality data.
   • Cost - All aggregation levels - This option should be used if you want to update all levels of cost data (e.g. traffic data and services) and organization changes. Quality will not be affected.
   • Cost - Only top period cost aggregation level - This option should be used if you want to update top level, only changes regarding organization and services will be affected. Quality and traffic data will not be affected.
   • Quality - Only - This option should be used if you want to only update quality, cost data and organization changes will not be affected.

4. Click on reaggregate to begin

   • The periods that have passed their break date and are open will be reaggregated

Note: The reaggregation may take quite some time. Avoid performing other tasks while the reaggregation process runs.