Understanding Billing Prorates-5003

Prorates are a portion of the full Monthly Recurring Charge (MRC)
 

• For every prorate, there is a completed corresponding work order  
   
• When adding, removing or disconnecting service, a prorate generates for the amount of time service is active
   
• The only time a prorate does not generate is when a change is made on the first day of the customer's bill cycle
   
• Splitting / combining bill statements and changing payment due dates also creates a prorate
   
• Look at the customer’s statement in BOLT when explaining prorates, so you see what the customer sees

• Bill Statement: prorates appear in a separate section entitled One Time & Prorated Charges
   
• General Ledger: prorates appear at the top of the ledger as a separate line item 
   
  • The full Monthly Recurring Charge appears after the prorated amount 
     
  • The Transaction Type pull down menu sorts by type

• Tell your customer the prorated amount they can expect to see on their next bill when making a change in ICOMS
   
• The prorated amount appears above the Sales Rep number on the Order Entry Services [ES] screen
   
• It also appears on the ICOMS Order Summary [OS] screen

• Go to the ICOMS Work Order [WO] screen and click View 2 
   
  • Prorated amounts display on the lower right  
     
•  In BOLT, go to the Work Orders Tab and find the corresponding work order
   
  • Click the Bill Comparison button on the statement to see services changed month over month 

Off-cycle billing can happen on the first bill after install, reconnect, or disconnect, generating prorated charges 

• Charges remain in unbilled money and prevent late fees from charging when the regular bill generates 
   
• The first month bill is generally forced off-cycle so the first bill arrives within 5 days after install
   
• This does not trigger if the customer's bill day is on the next cycle scheduled to run
  
   

• The from and to dates appear to be a full month bill, even though the transactions display as prorated charges
   
• Final bills at disconnect are forced off cycle at work order completion 
   
• Prorated amounts are created through stop bill date, even though off-cycle bills show service dates for the full bill cycle
   
• Go to the General Ledger or Work Order for the Stop Bill Date
   
• Balances not paid by the time the regular cycle arrives generate another bill showing charges up to the Stop Bill Date

• When changing equipment service codes, each piece of affected equipment generates prorates
   
• Because we bill by subscription, not subscription per piece of equipment, the service charges on a single occurrence 
   
• When adding services, prorates charge on one occurrence and generate zero-rated prorates on all other occurrences
   
• Zero-rated ledger detail does not print to the bill

• Differences with bill proration in a customers final promo month in former WOW!/AAB service area may appear as follows
   

WOW!/AAB companies:

• Use prorate method Always - whenever a promo as added, the customer receives the exact duration of the promo
   
  • WOW promotions came over to Astound exactly as-is during conversion, using prorate method Always
     
  • For example, if the customer bills from the 15th to the 14th of the month and they add the promo on the 2nd
  
  
  • When the promo expires it will end on the 2nd of the expiration month
  
  
  • The customer sees the promotional rate from the 15th to the 2nd, then a prorate for the rest of the period at the non-promotional rate
     
• As customers repackage using the Astound standard promo sets, this campaign prorate method changes to Extend
   

All other Astound companies
 

• Use prorate method Extend - when this is used the promotion extends past its expiration date to the end of the bill period. This helps to avoid prorates and customer confusion
   
  • In the same example as above, the system would extend the end date for the remaining days in the bill cycle
  
  
  • The customer would see the promotional rate the entire bill period with no prorate
  
  
  • Then they would see the non-promotional rate on the next bill