Field Services: Optimized Retrieval of a Billing Cycle

In previous versions of MYOB Acumatica, during an appointment or service order billing process, complicated system logic governed the processes of obtaining and applying the billing cycle settings to a service order or an appointment.

The billing cycle setting was specified both on the Customers (AR303000) form and on the Service Orders (FS300100) form. When the billing process was run, the system checked the billing cycle specified in the service order and compared it with the billing cycle specified for a customer. This behavior could cause data inconsistencies. In some cases, the system could not determine which billing cycle should be applied to a service order or appointment being billed, so that the document could not be processed.

Also, if a user updated a billing cycle in the customer settings on the Customers form, it caused serious system performance issues because the system had to update all the related service documents in the database.

In MYOB Acumatica 2024.1, the service document billing functionality stays unchanged, but significant improvements have been made to the logic the system uses to apply billing cycle settings to service documents.

New Billing Cycle Retrieval Process

In MYOB Acumatica 2024.1, when the billing process is run for a service order or an appointment, the system only uses the billing cycle settings specified for the customer on the Customers (AR303000) form.

When the billing process is run on the Service Orders, Run Service Order Billing, Appointments, or Run Appointment Billing forms, the system selects the billing cycle as follows:

  • If the Manage Multiple Billing Options for Customer check box is selected on the Service Management Preferences (FS100100) form, the system uses the billing cycle associated with the applicable service order type on the Service Billing tab of the Customers (AR303000) form.
  • If the Manage Multiple Billing Options for Customer check box is cleared on the Service Management Preferences form, the system uses the billing cycle specified for the customer in the Billing Cycle box on the Billing tab of the Customers form.

If no billing cycle is specified for a customer, the system will show a warning message indicating that one must be specified.

Changes Made to the User Interface

To support the improved retrieval of billing settings, the following changes have been made to the MYOB Acumatica user interface:

  • On the Service Orders (FS300100) form, the listed changes have been made:
    • In the Summary area, the Billing By box (see Item 1 in the following screenshot) has been removed.
    • The Billing Documents tab (Item 2) is now always displayed. It shows all documents that are shown on the same tab of the Appointments (FS300200) form in all appointments of this service order. For example, if an invoice has been generated for an appointment of a service order, then this invoice is shown on the Billing Documents tab of the Appointments form, as well as on this tab of the Service Orders form in the related service order.
    • On the Financial tab, the Billing Cycle box (Item 3) has been removed.
Figure 1. Changes on the Service Orders form


  • On the Appointments (FS300200) form, the listed changes have been made (as shown in the following screenshot):
    • The Billing Documents tab (Item 1 in the screenshot) is always displayed.
    • On the Financial tab, the Billing Cycle box has been removed.
    • On the Financial tab, the Run Billing For box has been renamed to Billing By (Item 2).
Figure 2. Changes on the Appointments form


New Warning Messages

A new informative warning message has been added to the Service Management Preferences (FS100100) form. When an administrative user selects or clears the Manage Multiple Billing Options per Customer check box on the General tab, the system displays the following warning message: After modifying this setting, ensure that billing cycles are specified for all customers.

Also, a new warning message has been added to the Customers (AR303000) form. For an existing customer, if a user tries to modify the value in the Billing Cycle box on the Billing tab, or in Billing Cycle column on the Service Billing tab, the system displays the following warning message: Note that at the time the billing process is performed, the system uses the billing cycle specified in this box. If you change the billing cycle, the system will use the newly specified billing cycle to process the customer's service orders and appointments that have not been billed yet, and to process any service orders and appointments whose billing documents will be corrected and for which billing will run again.
Note:
The Billing Cycle box on the Billing tab of the Customers (AR303000) form is used when the Manage Multiple Billing Options for Customer check box is cleared on the Service Management Preferences (FS100100) form. The Service Billing tab is used when the Manage Multiple Billing Options for Customer check box is selected on the Service Management Preferences form.