Master with Different Billing Periods

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A master has two black contracts. The finance company for each contract is billed a minimum volume of 10,000 across the contract each month. Every quarter the customer is billed any overs.

 

In this example, the master is set to bill monthly, the first period being 1 March 2019.

 

add master monthly

 

The Black Finance line is charged on a monthly basis (note it has nothing in the Billed field in the second image below) and the black meter is to be billed every quarter. The next time the black meter is due to be billed is 1 March 2019.

 

Periodicities

 

Periodicities1

 

Other things to note are that the overs are hidden to the finance company, so they will only ever see the minimum volume. The standard and unders billing are hidden to the customer on invoice because they will not be charged anything for these amounts. Only the overs quantity will appear on the job, ensuring the maths displays nicely.

 

Another thing to note is that the minimum volume is always specified at the periodicity of the contract, not the meter. This allows the periodicity of the meter to be changed without having to update the Minimum Volume field.

 

As far as the customer is concerned, it is three monthly periods that make up the quarter, so use Leave Unders Open stock (Tools > Options > Contract > Managed Print Services > Leave Unders Available for Clawback). This means one of the Open (OUC, OBC, OUH or OBH) clawback types should be used. In this case the Clawback Open Unders and Overs at Current Rate (OBC) is the method of clawback used.

 

The two child contracts have opening balances of 25,000 and 50,000 respectively. The first period, 30,000 (5,000 pages) and 58,000 (8,000 pages) reads are received. When billing the master, because this is not the end of the period, bill using the Generate Job Unders Open button.

 

Periodicities2

Master Contract Meter Read

 

The following child jobs are created.

 

Periodicities3

Contract 1

 

Periodicities4

Contract 2

 

The pages are split between standard and over pages proportionally. The total number of standard pages billed is 10,000. Both of the over lines have a status of hide because Hide Inv Over has been specified.

 

The master doesn't bill any amounts, but tracks the pages billed on its child contracts.

 

Periodicities5

 

It also has the LEAVE.UNDERS.OPEN stock, which ensures that any unders charged in the next period will claw back the overs charged in this period.

 

The black meter was not billed this time because it is next due to be billed on 1 October 2018, as specified by the meter's Start Date.

 

Invoicing this contract using the system Invoice Meters – Master report, the following results:

 

Periodicities invoice

 

Info

The finance company only sees that 10,000 pages were billed due to hiding the overs, even though there were actually 13,000 billed.

 

The following month 33,000 (3,000 pages) and 63,000 (5,000 pages) reads are received. Again, because this is not the end of the quarter, when billing the master click Generate Job Unders Open.

 

pjob1

Contract 1

 

pojob2

Contract 2

 

For this period, 8,000 pages are billed. This means that the master must bill 2,000 pages in unders. The previous month there were 3,000 pages in overs, so Jim2 claws back 2,000 of those overs this month. It does this on a proportional basis, considering the total overs pages the child contracts have performed over both months.

 

The first contract had performed 1,154 over pages and the second contract had performed 1,846. This means that the ratio of the 2,000 overs clawed back is 1,154:1,846.

 

On the master, the 2,000 pages that are billed in unders are also clawed back.

 

pjob3

 

This time the Invoice Meters – Master report looks like the following:

 

pjobinv2

 

The following month's reads for the child contracts are 39,000 (6,000 pages) black and 70,000 (7,000 pages) colour. This time, when creating the master job, click Generate Job (not Generate Job Unders Open) because this is the end of the quarter.

 

Once jobs have been created for the two children and the master, they will appear as follows:

 

pjob3a

Contract 1

 

pjob3b

Contract 2

 

Because the contract has performed overs, nothing is billed on the master job.

 

pjob3c

Master

 

The invoice displays almost identically to the first month where there were overs as well. The customer's overs jobs are also generated because it is the end of the quarter. Notice its last read is specific to the meter and displays the opening balance of the meter. The MC.BLACK stock has a status of Hide. This ensures that the quantity of 12,353 is not included in the kit header. This keeps the maths at the kit header very straightforward (1,647 X 0.01 X (1 + 10%) = 18.1170).

 

pjob4a

Contract 1

 

pjob4

Contract 2

 

Because of the period of the quarter, the master has gone over its minimum volume, the master again just tracks the volumes billed on its child contracts.

 

pjob4b

 

The customer overs invoice does display the over quantities because they have not been hidden on the jobs.

 

overs invoice

 

How to

Set up a Master Contract

Set up Master with Clawback all Unders at Historical Rate

Set up Master with Clawback All Unders Overs at Current Rate

Set up Master with Clawback Open Unders and Overs at Current Rate

Set up Master with Clawback Open Unders at Current Rate

Set up Master with Meters with Different Periodicities

Set up Master with Multiple Black with A3 and A4 Meter and Min Volume

Set up Master with Multiple Child Contracts

Set up Master with Multiple Children and Minimum Volume

Set up Master with Multiple Children with Different Black Rate

Set up Master or Standalone with Free Pages

Set up Master or Standalone with Prepaid