Category: (2) TAM Application Type
Application Identifier: 5.9.1
Maturity Level: 4
Overview
Accounts Receivable (A/R) Management applications provide necessary tools to maintain the customer account receivable. This includes managing balances as well as posting of payments and other financial activities.
Functionality
The purpose
of A/R Management is to maintain the outstanding balance or receivable,
including consideration of the age of the outstanding balance (e.g. 30, 60, 90,
... days). A/R Management interacts with billing on bill cycle run. A/R
management also manages payment posting and other financial activities. It
includes:
- Posting of invoice charge items from Billing.
This process posts
invoice charges in Accounts Receivable based on billed charges. It can be
invoked by any billing system. Invoice charges accepts information on new
charges and credits billed to customers, and updates their account balance
accordingly.
- Application of Payments
This process receives customer payments
from various sources and applies them to customer account balances. It also
performs activities, such as:
- Payment Allocation to balances
- Transfers of funds between accounts
- Deposit Management.
Deposit
Management manages amounts held as a guarantee of payment. Interest may be accumulated on this
deposit amount. If payment is not
made in a timely manner, a portion of this deposit may be applied to the
outstanding balance. Based on
business policy, deposits may be refunded with applicable interest after some
period of time. Deposit
Management maintains and executes on these
policies.
- Financial Account Management
Financial Account Management
supports the financial activities that relate to customer accounts. These
activities includes:
- Refunds
- Disputes
- Adjustments / Credits
- Write-offs.
- Advance Payment Acceptance
Advance Payments are accepted before
initiation of service - usually
at time of ordering. Interest is
not accrued on advance payments.
- Bill preparation - AR calculates and sends to the Bill Calculation
application the required information for accounts that are going to be
processed. This information includes:
- Financial activity information to be presented on the customer
bill.
- Credits and fees, such as Late Payment Fees (LPF), dishonored
checks for which invoicing should bill the customer.
Supported Business Services
