Recurring Billing for Legacy Assets

Recurring billing refers to the uniform distribution of the net amount of a contract over a period of time, based on the chosen billing frequency.

The net amount is distributed over a series of Billing Schedules for recurring products. Each schedule displays the amount that may be invoiced for a specific duration based on billing frequency and the date when payments are due based on the payment term. In addition, Conga Billing generates an "Informational" billing schedule for the amount already invoiced in the legacy system.

If you have not billed the customer in a consistent fashion in the legacy system, Conga Billing creates a redundant billing schedule to introduce a "Catchup amount". For more information on the catchup amount, see to Understanding "Catchup" schedule in the Legacy Billing Period.

Prerequisites

• The object and fields required to support legacy billing for legacy asset line items are configured. For more information, see Understanding Billing Schedules and Billing System Properties.
• The following minimum criteria are met: 
  • The Is Legacy for Billing checkbox is set to True.
  • The Price Type is not Usages.
  • The Billing Frequency is not One Time.
• The Original Start Date, Start Date, End Date, First Billing Date, Remaining Billable Amount, TCV, Selling Term, and CPQ Pricing fields (Base Unit Price and Net Price) are captured accurately on the asset line record.

• The asset line item is billed in a recurring fashion in the legacy system. This implies that the asset has been billed consistently in the legacy period where the remaining billable amount is in accordance with the formula: 

  remaining billable amount= (net unit price * quantity * billing term).

• If the billing is not done in a recurring fashion, Conga Billing creates a catchup amount and a corresponding redundant billing schedule.

To bill a recurring legacy product

Follow the following steps to create a recurring billing schedule.

1. Define an asset as per the guidelines given for "Recurring" products by CPQ. For more information, see  Recommendations to Import Legacy Products into Conga CPQ.

2. Perform the CPQ flow to generate Asset Line Item, Order, and Order Line Item.

   

   Make sure to disable all the functionalities associated with the auto-activation of the Order in your org. This ensures that the Order is not auto-activated once you accept the Proposal.

3. Make sure that the below data points are populated in the asset line item record.
   
   • Remaining Billable Amount = (Net Unit Price * Quantity * Billing Term)
   • Is Legacy for Billing
   • First Billing Date.
4. Activate the order manually. If the Initiate Billing on Order Activation custom setting is set to True, you must initiate billing by populating the Ready for Billing Date field on the corresponding order line item or order.
5. Conga Billing creates a number of billing schedules depending on the billing term. The first billing schedule is for the legacy period,  with the Type field set to "Informational" and the Status field set to "Invoiced". On subsequent normal billing schedules, the Type field is set to "Contracted" and the Status field to "Pending Billing".

Use Case: To understand recurring billing with an example

Suppose you are a billing administrator of a company selling computer hardware with a TCV of $5400 for a 36-months billing term. You have already invoiced the customer for $2400 over a billing period of 16 months and the remaining billable amount is $3000 to be billed over 20 months. The legacy contract was started in 2018 but the last known major price or config happened on 7/20/21. So the asset's start date is 7/20/21. The first Billing Date is 11/20/0222. The legacy in Conga should have details as mentioned in the table.

Upon activating, Conga Billing creates 21 billing schedules, BS-001 for the already billed amount in the legacy system with the Type field set as "Informational" and assigns the status as "Invoiced", BS-002 onwards are normal billing schedules with the Type field set as Contracted and status as "Pending Billing" for 20 months.

Conga Billing creates an informational billing schedule for the legacy period and other normal billing schedules for the rest of the billing tenure in Conga if the invoicing is done in a recurring manner in the legacy system.