CG-STUG-001 Issue 1.28-August 4, 2006

The Billing process includes daily processing of service orders for account creation and updating, collection of usage to be applied to an account, calculation of charges for usage and services to be applied to an account, and issuance of a bill to the CLEC. The Billing process is a continuous cycle, but a billing period can be viewed as a completion of one cycle of the entire billing process. The billing period begins with the aggregation and calculation of usage charges, recurring charges, and non-recurring charges. The billing period ends when a bill is transmitted to the customer. BellSouth has 20 billing periods, grouped by accounts. The CLEC will be assigned a billing period, which will remain constant.

CLEC billing takes place in either the Customer Records Information System (CRIS) or the Carrier Access Billing System (CABS). CRIS processes billing information for resale services sold to CLECs. CABS processes billing information for access services sold to Interexchange Carriers (IXCs) and central office access services sold to companies such as CLECs without central office access to the customer but needing access to the customer along the "final mile".

Billing can be divided into six, distinct sub-processes; however, from a high level it is helpful to categorize the billing sub-processes into Daily Processing and Bill Period Processing. Daily Processing is a continuous process and functions independently of bill periods and customers. Daily Processing includes Daily Service Order Processing and Message Processing. Bill Period Processing is account-specific and is the set of processes that occurs during an actual billing period, including Bill Calculation, Bill Format, Bill Verification, and Bill Distribution.

Examine the descriptions below for a better understanding of each sub-process.

Term	Definition
Daily Service Order Processing:	This sub-process receives and processes completed service orders on a daily basis from BellSouth's Service Order Control System (SOCS) and updates customer accounts in CRIS and CABS with the appropriate services and billing indicators.
Message Acquisition and Processing:	This sub-process collects usage data, edits and validates the usage, then packages and routes the usage to the appropriate billing system (CRIS or CABS) for processing and guiding to the appropriate account.
Bill Calculation:	This sub-process identifies and collects all customer data that is scheduled for billing. Bills are calculated based on the service on the account, fractional month charges when appropriate, usage, surcharges, and taxes. This sub-process also applies aggregation rules and discounting.
Bill Format:	This sub-process produces variable sized and formatted invoices (e.g., face page, bill messages) based on specific customer criteria or industry standards.
Bill Verification:	This sub-process checks for accuracy of bill content and format in order to catch billing problem trends. Bill Verification occurs daily and problem trends that are detected are investigated and corrected.
Bill Distribution:	This sub-process prints and distributes billing invoices through electronic media and paper.

For more detailed information on the billing process, please refer to the BellSouth Interconnection Services Web site at http://www.interconnection.bellsouth.com/reference_library/guides/html/billing.html
Billing