Understanding Billing Prorates-5003


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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

     
First Bill Key Points

 
  • 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


Article ID: 221
Created: February 2, 2024
Last Updated: February 14, 2024
Author: [shekhar.bhanot@teamhgs.com]

Online URL: https://agentx-astound-kb-qa.hgsdigital.com/article.php?id=221