1) When Consolidating, it seems to consolidate on monthly periods based
on the MAexpire date. Are there any other factors it consolidates on?? I'm
asking this question because I've noticed some strange things when
consolidation happens. On our test SQL server, one user had about 1 1/2
months of calls consolidated into one month. He was created on the 2/20/97
and is listed as expiring on the 5/20/97. Consolidating calls today created
two entries in the call history. One starting the 3/20 and one starting the
4/20 . The hours listed for the 3/20 was approximately the number of hours
he'd done from the start of the account to today!! The time for the 4/20
entry was approximately the time from the 4/1 to today.
Also, there were about 200 or so calls still in the call table after
consolidation ... which leads to my next question ...
2) Is Emerald supposed to consolidate calls for previously completed
months or will it consolidate all calls?? I.e if someone expired on the
4/15/97 and I ran consolidation today, will it consolidate calls after the
4/15 ?? If a part month is consolidated, will it be billed??
From the testing I've done on a spare SQL server here, it looks like
partial months are consolidated and billed for that partial month. With
most of our plans, people get a fixed number of hours per month for a flat
fee, and are then charged a per hour rate in excess. You can see why
billing for a partial month is a bad idea here!! If a person is billed for
a partial month, then this will totally upset the excess charging. Dale's
up and coming feature for consolidating between specified dates is not much
of a help here either because expiry dates are not all the same for everyone.
Just as a note, all this was done with the 2.1.11 Emerald client.
Maybe I'll clear up things if I explain how I think the invoicing works:
* Every week, run a batch renewal, specifying a date two weeks ahead to
create invoices for people who are going to expire within two weeks. This
creates renewal invoices that ONLY has fixed monthly account charges (i.e
the entry in the "Cost" section of the "Service Types" in the Emerald Admin.
* Then run a call consolidation. This will consolidate calls and add it to
the cumulative amount in the call history table. The consolidation is done
on monthly boundaries with the expire date used as the boundary
specification (ie if someone expired on the 12/25/97, then he would have
call data in his call history for the periods 1/25/97 - 2/25/97, 2/25/97 -
3/25/97, etc).
* Then run invoicing. This will then create invoices for people who have
completeted months in the call history. I.e it will only bill someone on
the hours accumulated on their previous monthly boundary (based, of course,
on their expiry date).
Some issues to deal with:
- Prorating. This is only for Service Types that MUST expire on a certain
date (ie the first of every month). It will not only charge a percentage of
the Cost, but will optionally do a percentage of the standard hours in the
rates.
- Canceling an account before the expiry date. Consolidation will have to
be done on the hours used for that person only, and then an invoice created
specifically for that user. Maybe the "Invoice Next Term" option might do
the specific invoice, but it certainly dosen't do the "per user consolidation".
Well ... that's all I can think of. Sorry about the size of this e-mail.
If anyone has the patience to read through this and then send a reply, I'll
not only be totally grateful but completely surprised <grin>.
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David Khoury | "Where's the KABOOM ??
Technical Manager & Comms Engineer | There was supposed to be an
dave@flex.com.au | earth shattering KABOOM!!"
http://www.flex.com.au/~dave | Marvin the Martian
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