Billing General Settings

Use these settings to configure how CAIRS bills for your one-time, recurring and call charges. When you install CAIRS, a Unique Communication Representative and your CAIRS administrators determine these settings. There are four columns of information for each setting:

Setting Name* – the setting name.
Category* – the category for these settings is Billing
Setting Value* – displays the actual setting, for example, true, false, etc.
Description* – displays a brief setting description.

The following settings are available:

Allow Negative Funding Amounts for Official – a value of True allows you to enter in a negative amount in the Amount Submitted when applying funds. This is helpful if you have made any clerical errors on funding entries. If set to False, only positive amounts can be entered into the amount submitted.
Auto Fill Install Date for new Assigned Equipment and Services – a value of True will automatically populate the install date of all newly installed equipment and/or service. A value of False requires the user to enter in the install date.
Auto set Delete Date to Installed Date for One-time charges on Equipment/Services – a value of True indicates that when you add an equipment/service with a one-time charge the delete auto-populates with the same date as the installed date. A value of False indicates that you must enter a date in the Delete Date field.
Bill Distribution Folder for SP – If the “Distribute Bills Folder’ setting is set to True, you need to enter the name of the folder that Subscriber Portal will look for to access your bills. This is only the folder name.
Bill Distribution Folder Path from CES – this is the complete path of where CES will distribute the bills to, this is the combination of both the ‘Bill Distribution Folder for SP’ and the Bill Distribution Folder Path from SP’ settings.
Bill Distribution Folder Path from SP – this is the path to the folder name where Subscriber Portal will look for your bills, this works with the folder you listed in the ‘Bill Distribution Folder for SP’ setting, do not include the name of the folder. This setting is designed for an enterprise system to allow for CAIRS to support multiple sites within Subscriber Portal.

– If set to true then CES distributes bills via email, each account assigned an email address gets a bill, if set to false no emails are sent.
Distribute Bills to Folder – determines if you want to send bills generated to a folder you designate in another setting (Bill Distribution Folder Path). If set to True then CES delivers the bills to the folder.
Distribute Bills to Printer – determines whether you want to send the bill generated to a printer. If set to True then CES delivers the bills to the designated printer. This setting is useful if you want to print and mail the bills to your customers.
Enable Automatic Official Billing – determines whether you want CAIRS to generate your bills automatically based on your billing cycle, a value of True turns this on for official billing.
Enable Automatic Unofficial Billing – determines whether you want CAIRS to generate your bills automatically based on your billing cycle, a value of True turns this on for unofficial billing.

The next three settings determine how you want CAIRS to fill your organization information; you must set one of the three to true and the other two to false.

Fill Organization from Call Accounts – this setting determines where the organization information comes from for call records. If set to True the organization information associated within the Accounts for Calls tab is the one used to update the call records. If set to False, the organization associated within the Accounts for Equipment and Services is used.
Fill Organization from Equipment and Service Accounts – this setting determines where the organization information comes from for call records. If set to True the organization information associated within the Accounts for Equipment and Services tab is used to update the call records. If set to False, the organization associated within the Accounts for Calls is used.
Filter Organizations By Account – this setting determines whether you want to filter the organization dropdown box by account number, this means that if you select an account (anywhere in the system), the orgs within the list are only those associated to the account. A true setting filters the list while a false displays the entire list of orgs.
First Official Billing Date – this is the start billing date for all of your official accounts, any charges occurring before this date are not billed.
First Unofficial Billing Date – this is the start billing date for all of your unofficial accounts, any charges occurring before this date are not billed.
Log All Unbilled Account in Billing Cycle – determines whether the accounts that did not generate a bill during the cycle are placed into a log for your review. A value of true generates a log with the accounts that have not bill and a value of false does not generate a log. The log can be viewed after you run the bill in Accounts – Official/Unofficial – Run Bill Requests, double click on any bill to open the General – Billing Cycle window. In the lower right hand corner is the Unbilled pane, any account that are unbilled appear there.
Months to Keep Official Bill Files – this setting works in conjunction with the Distribute Bills to Folder setting, if that setting is set to true, then this setting determines how many months to keep the official bill files before deleting. This defaults to 60 months.
Months to Keep Unofficial Bill Files – this setting works in conjunction with the Distribute Bills to Folder setting, if that setting is set to true, then this setting determines how many months to keep the unofficial bill files before deleting. This defaults to 60 months.
Official Billing System – there are two billing systems that you can choose from: Classic or Dynamic. The Classic is the current billing system and the setting default, where all billing cycles are run progressively from month to month. Meaning you must run April’s bill before you can run May’s bill and so on. The Dynamic billing system allows for billing periods to be run together, amongst several other advantages, to learn more please see the chapter on Dynamic Billing. There is also a Hybrid setting, this allows for you to transition from the classic to the dynamic seamlessly.
Operator Assisted Call Text – allows you to determine the Call Type that you want to use for operator assisted calls. This defaults to ‘Operator Assisted’.
Precision for Minutes Summary in Billing Reports – determines that number of decimal places for the minutes and seconds in your billing reports. The setting can have a value of 0 to 4, the corresponding settings are:
0 – displays minutes only, no second value (1)
1 – displays the minutes and rounds the seconds to a tenth of a second (1:4)
2 – displays the minutes and rounds the seconds to a hundredth of a second
3 – displays the minutes and rounds the seconds to a thousandth of a second
4 – displays the minutes and rounds the seconds to a ten-thousandth of a second
Reset Official Bill Balance Every Bill – determines if you want to carry any balances forward for each billing cycle. If set to True, for each new billing cycle the account balance is set to $0.00. If set to false, any unpaid balances carry to the next cycle.
Reset Official Bill Balance Every Fiscal Year – determines if you want to carry any balances forward for each new Fiscal year. If set to True, for each new fiscal year the account balance is set to $0.00. If set to false, any unpaid balances carry to the new fiscal year.
Return Top Phone Number for Account – when you are viewing an account, there is a yellow status bar directly below the ribbon; this bar contains important account information, including a number field. This setting determines whether the number field is present in the status bar. If set to True, the first telephone found relating to the account populates the field, this may slow down the loading of the complete account details. If set to False, the telephone field is removed from the status bar, this may load the account details quicker.
Update Call Records from Directory Line – as a default, CAIRS updates the call records through the account number. If this setting is set to True, then CAIRS updates the call record information through Set Management. If there are multiple listings, the primary number is used for billing the call records.
Use Funded Program – if set to true the new funded program will become available for use within CAIRS and Subscriber Portal. Please do not turn this setting on without consulting with a Unique Representative first.
Validate New Equipment to Account – determines whether CAIRS will validate the account prior to saving when new equipment or services are added. When a user adds equipment or services, CAIRS will verify that the account that is associated to the record has the appropriate charge type associated. If the charge type is not associated the user will not be able to save the record.