In these release notes, you can find packages, requirements, features, enhancements, fixed issues, and known issues for the Billing February '23 release. For documentation updates, see What's New in Billing Documentation.

This documentation may contain descriptions of software features that are optional and for which you may not have purchased a license. As a result, your specific software solution and/or implementation may differ from those described in this document. Please contact your CSM or AE for information on your specific features and licensing.

Packages 

The following packages and dependent packages are required to upgrade to this release to utilize all the new features of this release. These are the minimum required versions; later versions are also supported. Separate prerequisites for each feature can be found in the respective sections. The packages marked as (New) are new packages in this release.

You can register your org for the Conga Upgrade Program. Conga Upgrade Program is an automated tool that upgrades packages available in your Salesforce org (Production or Sandbox) to the latest versions. In addition, it also ensures all the Conga published managed packages are on the latest versions for your registered orgs. For more information, see Registering for Conga Upgrade Program.

Package

Latest Certified Version Name

Latest Certified Version Number
Conga Base Library (New)4.0.2434.243
Conga Billing (New)

9.0.319

9.319
Conga CLM Configuration Integration (New)15.0.017815.178
Conga Configuration & Pricing (New)15.0.206215.2062
Conga Contract Lifecycle Management (New) 

14.0.696

14.696
Conga CPQ API (New)15.1.013115.131
Conga Quote Asset Integration6.5.00146.14
Conga Quote CLM Integration11.1.008211.82
Conga Quote Configuration Integration (New)15.0.039615.396
Conga Quote Management (New)13.0.026313.263

For more information on installing Conga managed packages, refer to Installing Conga Billing. For more information on upgrading Conga managed packages, refer to Upgrading Conga Billing.

System Requirements and Supported Platforms

For information pertaining to the requirements and recommendations you must consider before you proceed with the installation of the Conga product, see System Requirements and Supported Platforms Matrix.

Upgrade Notes

If you are upgrading the Conga Billing package, you must update the Billing Start Date and Billing End Date fields on the Billing Plan object.

For more information, see Upgrading Conga Billing.

New Features

The following features are new to Conga Billing in this release.

Separate APIs to Create a Credit Memo and Calculate Tax for Credit and Rebill

Conga Billing introduces a new API calculateTaxForCreditRebill, which allows you to calculate the tax for credit memos generated through credit & rebill. You must call the calculateTaxForCreditRebill API after calling the createCreditRebill API when:

  • You have defined the TestTaxCallbackWithExternalCallout callback class in Setup > Develop > Custom Settings > Config Custom Classes > Tax Callback Class.
  • You must pass values for both Auto Approve credit memo and Unrate the usage inputs options (True or False).

Previously, the createCreditRebill API generated credit memos through credit & rebill and performed tax calculation. Now, the API calculateTaxForCreditRebill performs the tax calculation.

For more information, see Creating Credit and Rebill Credit Memos and Calculating Tax for Credit and Rebill.

Unrate Usage Inputs for Usage Asset Line Items During Credit & Rebill

You can reverse the usage inputs while performing the Credit & Rebill functionality in the following scenarios:

  • While performing Credit & Rebill: Billing introduces the Unrate the usage inputs checkbox on the Credit & Rebill page. If you select this checkbox and execute Credit & Rebill, Billing will unrate the usage inputs for the respective billing schedules, generate a credit memo, and auto-approve the credit memo. 
  • While approving credit memos of Credit and Rebill type: Billing introduces the Unrate the usage inputs checkbox on the Approve Selected Credit Memos page while manually approving credit memos at All Tabs > Credit Memos. If you select this checkbox and approve the credit memo, Billing will unrate the usage inputs for the respective billing schedules while approving the credit memo.

In both scenarios, Billing changes the status of billing schedules and the corresponding usage schedules to Pending Billing. Billing unrates all associated usage inputs for the respective billing schedules and changes the Fee Amount on billing schedule and usage schedule to 0.00. If there are more than 1000 usage inputs, Billing performs unrating of usage inputs in an asynchronous batch mode.

For more information, see Credit and Rebill and Managing Credit Memos.

Control the Effect of the Global Custom Setting “No Proration on Renewal”

Conga Billing introduces a new setting Ignore Renewal Proration Setting at Billing Preference to control the effect of the global custom setting No Proration on Renewal on the associated asset line items.

  • If you select the new Ignore Renewal Proration Setting checkbox, Billing does not apply the effect of No Proration on Renewal to the asset line item during the progressive ABO operations. Billing considers No Proration on Renewal as False for that asset line item. 
  • If you do not select the new Ignore Renewal Proration Setting checkbox, Billing applies the effect of No Proration on Renewal (only if this custom setting is enabled at Billing System Properties) to the asset line item during the progressive ABO operations.

For more information, see Billing System Properties and Setup Billing Preference.

Create Billing Schedules and Invoice Line Items Using Custom Billing Plan with 0.00 Fee Amount

The feature of generating 0.00 Fee Amount billing schedule is optional now. Conga Billing introduces a new setting Create 0 FeeAmount BS at Billing System Properties to control the generation of 0.00 Fee Amount billing schedules.

  • When you select this checkbox, Billing generates billing schedules with 0.00 Fee Amount for both normal billing schedule generation and billing plan.
  • When you clear this checkbox, Billing does not generate billing schedules with 0.00 Fee Amount for both normal billing schedule generation and billing plan.

For more information, see Billing System Properties.

Billing Schedules for Decremented and Merged Asset Line Items

For Decrement & Merge, Conga Billing now supersedes the old billing schedule and creates a new billing schedule for the remaining quantity. When a Sales Representative decreases the quantity of an asset:

  • If the billing schedule is "Pending Billing", Billing supersedes the old billing schedule and creates a new billing schedule for the remaining quantity.
  • If the billing schedule is "Invoiced", Billing creates a negative billing schedule to refund the amount.

For more information, see Billing Schedules for Decremented Assets.

Enhancements

The following section describes the existing features that are changed (or are no longer supported) in this release.

Flexibility for Populating Ready for Invoice Date and Validation of Dates for "Fixed" Billing Plan

As a sales representative, while defining a "Fixed" billing plan, you want to set the "Invoice Date" of the first installment with a date earlier than the period start date of that installment.

Current Behavior

For a "Fixed" billing plan, what you select for the "Billing Start Date" and "Billing End Date" governs the ability to define the periods and set the invoice dates on the billing plan installment lines. This feature has some limitations.

  • The ability to set the "Ready for Invoice Date" of the first installment with a date earlier than the start of the service is not supported.
  • It is possible that you can potentially advance or delay the billing before or after the overall service period resulting in approval or audit concerns and potential collection problems.

New Behavior

As a part of the change, the fields Billing Start Date and Billing End Date are non-mandatory. You can choose to enter or skip these fields. If you enter the date fields and proceed, the behavior of the billing plan will be the same as the “current behavior” as described above. If you keep them blank and proceed, this is where the “new behavior” comes in. This will avoid the problems stated in the “current behavior” and will offer the flexibility to advance the “Ready for Invoice Date” for the first installment. The following are the highlights of this “new behavior.”

  • Because you chose not to enter the “Billing Start Date” and “Billing End Date” while defining the plan, the Billing engine will auto-determine the “Period Start Date” of the first installment and “Period End Date” of the last installment from the “Start Date” and “End Date” of the selected line items.
  • By reading the "Payment Term" on the transaction, Billing allows you to populate the "Ready for Invoice Date" outside the billing period for that installment. For example, if the number of offset days in the Payment Term is 30 days, the Ready for Invoice Date can be in the range of [Period Start Date – 30 days, Period End Date + 30 days].
  • There are several use cases possible based on the dynamics of date population. For more information, see Use Case: Validation on Period Start Date and Period End Date and Use Case: Validation on Ready for Invoice Date.

If you want the billing plan to be defined in the current method, you can achieve it by populating the "Billing Start Date" and "Billing End Date."

Key Criteria to Use the New Functionality

  • Upgrading to the current release
  • Using Conga's "Payment Term" (and not a custom Payment Term)
  • Populating the field Offset Early Invoice Date (Days) on the "Payment Term" that will be used for that quote transaction. The offset days must match the number of grace days allowed for that payment team. For example, if the Payment Term is 30 days, Conga recommends that the offset days must be 30 or less but not more than 30. Not following this guideline creates an early revenue forecast followed by unwanted collection problems later.
  • Selecting Conga's "Payment Term" at Account, Quote Header, Quote Lines, or at the Billing Plan Line Level.

For more information, see Upgrading Conga Billing, Payment Term, and Creating a Billing Plan.

Data Model Changes

The following objects and fields are introduced to or changed in the system or data model in this release.

Object

Fields

Description

System/User

New/Changes

Billing Schedule
Represents a billing schedule for a product or serviceUserChanged

Legacy record?

Indicates to the Billing engine that the billing schedule record is a legacy record, which is invoiced elsewhere.

In February '23, do not use this field, which is added in preparation of a future functionality.

UserNew

Fixed Issues

The following table lists the issues fixed in this release. If any actions are required, they will be listed in this table.

Case NumberConga Internal IDDescription
00822767BIL-3823

After the Billing administrator upgrades all packages to September '22, the Apttus_Billing package 8.1.299.3 still has classes 30 or below.

Resolution Info: All components with the API version below 45 are moved to 45.

00821828BIL-3818

When you are using the Credit and Rebill feature, Conga Billing does not populate product IDs on credit memo line items.

Resolution Info: When you are using the Credit and Rebill feature, Conga Billing can now populate product IDs on credit memo line items.

00810454BIL-3808

In a bundle scenario where you must bill the option and invoice it to the customer, if the option product has a price of 0.00 and has a billing plan associated with it, Conga Billing does not create the billing schedules for that option. As a result, the customer cannot get an invoice for the option product. This is not the case when the billing plan is not used.

Resolution Info: Conga Billing now creates the billing schedule(s) for the option with a price of 0.00 and a billing plan. Customers can now get an invoice for that option from Conga.

00810454BIL-3797

When you use a custom billing plan with 0.00 Fee Amount, Billing does not create billing schedules and invoice line items.

Resolution Info: Conga Billing introduces a new setting Create 0 FeeAmount BS at Billing System Properties to control the generation of 0.00 Fee Amount billing schedules. For more information, see New Features.

NABIL-3768

Conga Billing does not create a "Superseded" billing schedule for decremented asset quantity.

Resolution Info: For Decrement & Merge, Conga Billing now supersedes the old billing schedule and creates a new billing schedule for the remaining quantity. For more information, see New Features.

00806815BIL-3762

When a credit memo with Type as “Line Level Credit” is created for an invoice and has a partial credit amount (that is, the credit amount is less than the available credit for the corresponding invoice line item), and if a second credit memo with Type as “Full Credit” is created for that invoice, Billing displays an incorrect credit amount on the second credit memo.

This happens when the invoice is created for a bundle asset line that has multiple options underneath it, and the bundle has billing schedules with the Type value as “Informational.”

NABIL-3743

When an external callback class is defined under the Config Custom Classes (TestTaxCallbackWithExternalCallout), the billing schedule, usage schedule, and usage input information are getting impacted.

Resolution Info: Conga Billing introduces a new API calculateTaxForCreditRebill, which allows you to calculate the tax for credit memos generated through credit & rebill. You must call the calculateTaxForCreditRebill API after calling the createCreditRebill API when you have defined the TestTaxCallbackWithExternalCallout callback class. For more information, see New Features.

00798740BIL-3742When you perform the Credit & Rebill action on an invoice, if the Auto Approve credit memo check box is not selected for credit memo, Conga Billing does not trigger the Tax Callback.
00805441BIL-3716

You cannot set the Ready for Invoice Date before "Fixed" type billing plan start date.

Resolution Info: By configuring the Offset Early Invoice Date (Days) field on "Payment Term" and having the same Payment Term at Account/Quote Header/Quote Line Item/Billing Plan Line Item, you can now select the Ready for Invoice Date before the Period Start Date and after the Period End Date based on the number of days (or tolerance) configured in the Payment Term record. For more information, see Enhancements.

Known Issues

The following table provides the cumulative list of known issues up to this release.

Conga Internal IDDescription
BIL-3839When multiple amendments are linked with a billing plan, if some billing schedules are "Pending Invoice", the Asset TCV does not match the total billing schedule Fee Amount.

DOC ID: BILFEB23RNREVA20230208