Using Recurring Bill Date

The related topic Calculating Billing Periods and Billing Dates explains how billing dates for recurring contract line items are calculated by applying a contract line item's Billing Term soft date to its First Bill Date. However there might be some situations where you cannot achieve the billing dates you want using Billing Term. For example, you might want your billing periods to start on the first day of the month so your Billing Term soft date is MB, but you want to bill on the last day of the month which requires the soft date to be ME.

The Recurring Bill Date field on contract line items gives you greater flexibility for calculating billing dates. Recurring Bill Date is a soft date like Billing Term, but it is independent of Billing Term. So for example, you can keep the Billing Term on a contract line item as MB, but set the Recurring Bill Date to ME.

If you do not set a Recurring Bill Date, the contract line item's billing dates are calculated using Billing Term, as explained in Calculating Billing Periods and Billing Dates.

The examples below illustrate some common scenarios for how you might want to use Recurring Bill Date.

For more information about soft dates, see Soft Dates.

Notes:

You cannot edit a contract line item's Recurring Bill Date if the contract is "Active".

You cannot delete a soft date that is in use as a Recurring Bill Date.

Example 1: Bill at the End of the Calendar Month (Monthly Billing Periods)

In this example billing periods are calculated using a Monthly soft date (+1M). You want to bill at the end of each month.

Start Date	Billing Term	First Bill Date	Recurring Bill Date
February 1 2022	+1M	February 28	ME

Without a Recurring Bill Date, after the first bill date, the billing dates recur on the twenty-eighth day of each month. By setting the Recurring Bill Date to ME, each future billing date falls on the last day of the month regardless of how many days there are in the month.

Billing Periods	Billing Dates based on Billing Term	Billing Dates using Recurring Bill Date
February 1 - February 28	February 28	February 28
March 1 - March 31	March 28	March 31
April 1 - April 30	April 28	April 30

Example 2: Bill at the End of the Calendar Month (Month Beginning Billing Periods)

In this example billing periods are calculated using a Month Beginning soft date (MB). You want to bill at the end of each month.

Start Date	Billing Term	First Bill Date	Recurring Bill Date
January 15 2022	MB	January 31	ME

Without a Recurring Bill Date, after the first bill date, the billing dates recur on the first day of each month. By setting the Recurring Bill Date to ME, each future billing date falls on the last day of the month regardless of how many days there are in the month.

Billing Periods	Billing Dates based on Billing Term	Billing Dates using Recurring Bill Date
January 15 - January 31	January 31	January 31
February 1 - February 28	February 1	February 28
March 1 - March 31	March 1	March 31

Example 3: Bill on a Specific Day after the Billing Period

In this example billing periods are calculated using a Month Beginning soft date (MB). You want to bill on the fifth day of the following month in order to bill in arrears.

Start Date	Billing Term	First Bill Date	Recurring Bill Date
January 15 2022	MB	February 5	MB+4D

Without a Recurring Bill Date, after the first bill date, the billing dates recur on the first day of each month after the billing period. By setting the Recurring Bill Date to MB+4D, each future billing date falls on the fifth day of the month after the billing period.

Billing Periods	Billing Dates based on Billing Term	Billing Dates using Recurring Bill Date
January 15 - January 31	February 5	February 5
February 1 - February 28	March 1	March 5
March 1 - March 31	April 1	April 5

Example 4: Bill on a Specific Day during the Billing Period

This is the same as Example 3 but with a different first bill date to illustrate the impact that the first bill date can have on future billing dates. In this example the first bill date falls in the current billing period.

Start Date	Billing Term	First Bill Date	Recurring Bill Date
January 15 2022	MB	January 15	MB+4D

Without a Recurring Bill Date, after the first bill date, the billing dates recur on the first day of each month. By setting the Recurring Bill Date to MB+4D, each future billing date falls on the fifth day of the current billing period.

Billing Periods	Billing Dates based on Billing Term	Billing Dates using Recurring Bill Date
January 15 - January 31	January 15	January 15
February 1 - February 28	February 1	February 5
March 1 - March 31	March 1	March 5

Example 5: Bill Every Two Billing Periods in Arrears

In this example billing periods are calculated using a Month Beginning soft date (MB). You want to bill every second billing period in arrears.

Start Date	Billing Term	First Bill Date	Recurring Bill Date
January 1 2022	MB	January 31	+2M

Without a Recurring Bill Date, after the first bill date, the billing dates recur on the first day of each month. By setting the Recurring Bill Date to +2M, future billing dates fall on the last day of every second billing period.

Billing Periods	Billing Dates based on Billing Term	Billing Dates using Recurring Bill Date
January 1 - January 31	January 31	January 31
February 1 - February 28	February 1	March 31
March 1 - March 31	March 1	May 31

Example 6: Bill at the Beginning of the Month in which Traditional Quarter Starts

In this example billing periods are calculated using a Traditional Quarter Beginning soft date (TB). You want to bill at the beginning of the month in which the traditional quarter starts.

Start Date	Billing Term	First Bill Date	Recurring Bill Date
January 1 2022	TB	January 1	QB+2M

Without a Recurring Bill Date, after the first bill date, the billing dates recur on the first day of each traditional quarter. By setting the Recurring Bill Date to QB+2M, future billing dates fall on the first day of the month in which the traditional quarter starts.

Billing Periods	Billing Dates based on Billing Term	Billing Dates using Recurring Bill Date
January 1 - March 24	January 1	January 1
March 25 - June 23	March 25	March 1
June 24 - September 28	June 24	June 1
September 29 - December 24	September 29	September 1

Example 7: Billing Dates not Aligned with Billing Periods

This example is included to show how recurring billing dates can be out of alignment with their billing periods. It is the same as Example 6 but with a start date and first bill date close to the start of the second billing period.

Start Date	Billing Term	First Bill Date	Recurring Bill Date
March 15 2022	TB	March 15	QB+2M

Using the Recurring Bill Date of QB+2M, the billing date for the second billing period would fall on March 1 but that is earlier than the first bill date (March 15). Therefore the recurring bill dates all move on one and instead of March 25 - June 23 being billed on March 1 (as in Example 6) it is billed on June 1.

Billing Periods	Billing Dates based on Billing Term	Billing Dates using Recurring Bill Date
March 15 - March 24	March 15	March 15
March 25 - June 23	March 25	June 1
June 24 - September 28	June 24	September 1
September 29 - December 24	September 29	December 1

Warning:

If a contract line item's billing periods and billing dates do not fall on the dates you expect, do not manually edit the billing schedules. Instead, make your amendments via a change request.