Custom Action to Apply Change Requests

You can implement customizations to apply change requests automatically. You can do this programmatically via the API, or you can do it without writing code by invoking the following Apex action from a Salesforce flow:

Category

 Apex Action Apex Class Purpose
Billing Contract Apply Change Requests ContractsServiceActionApplyChangeRequest

Takes a change request ID and applies it to the active contract. Input options determine whether billing schedules are generated, and whether draft credit notes are created if refunds are due.

The process runs synchronously but multiple change request IDs can be passed to the Apex action at once. For example, you might have a list view of billing contracts with Type=Change Request. By updating the Approval Status of multiple change requests to "Approved", multiple change request IDs will be passed to the Apex action simultaneously. For information about how many change requests might be updated via the list view, see Volume Information.

Input Parameters

The Apply Change Requests Apex action has the following input parameters for each change request passed to it.

Parameter

Required or Optional

Description
Change Request ID to be applied Required ID of the change request to be renewed.
Disable creation of credit notes when applying the change request Required

Boolean to specify whether draft credit notes should be created for the active contract if refunds are due when the change request is applied.
Generate Billing Schedules using a batch job that runs asynchronously Required

Boolean to specify whether billing schedules should be generated for the active contract when the change request is applied. When true, billing schedules are generated via a batch job.

Warning:

Depending on the context in which you invoke this Apex action, platform restrictions might prevent a batch job from being launched in the same execution context. For example, if you have a batch job to approve change requests and trigger this flow, that batch job cannot start another batch job so it will report failures if this boolean is true. In this situation, leave the boolean set to false and allow billing schedules to be generated by the GenerateBillingSchedulesSchedulable Apex job. See Setting up a Job to Generate Billing Schedules.

Output Values

Errors from the Apply Change Requests Apex action are not recorded in logs. If you want to capture errors and notify the user (for example, by email or Salesforce task) you can store the return values in resources which are available to other flow elements. You can notify the user of credit notes that have been created in the same way. For an illustration of how to do this, see Sample Flow to Apply Change Requests.

When configuring the action in a flow, click Advanced and select the Manually Assign Variables checkbox to store the following return values.

Output Variable

Description
Change Request ID that the action tried to apply ID of the change request that the action has tried to apply.
Credit Note ID created by applying this change request ID of a draft credit note created when applying the change request.
Error while applying this change request

Assign this to a text variable which can be used to store the error message so that an Action element can email it to the user. If multiple lines on the change request have errors, the error message for the first failure is returned. The number of the failed change request line and its active contract line are included in the message.
Has Errors Assign this to a boolean variable to store the outcome of the action, so it can be used by a Decision element later in the flow.

Permissions

To configure a Salesforce flow to use this Apex action, you must be assigned a permission set that includes access to the corresponding Apex class. The class is included in the following packaged permission set:

  • Billing Central API

For more information about creating Salesforce flows, see the Salesforce Help.

Sample Flow to Apply Change Requests

For an illustration of how a flow can be configured to use this Apex action, see Sample Flow to Apply a Change Request on Approval.

Note:

The sample flow description does not give step-by-step instructions on how to create the flow. The information is intended for administrators who are already experienced at creating Salesforce flows. Refer to the Salesforce Help if you need information about how to create flows.

Volume Information

When updating the Approval Status of multiple change requests to "Approved" via the list view, we have found that Billing Central (when not using any customizations) can handle:

  • 30 contracts with 10 lines each when schedule generation is disabled
  • 20 contracts with 10 lines each when schedule generation is enabled
  • 100 contracts with 1 line each when schedule generation is disabled
  • 90 contracts with 1 line each when schedule generation is enabled

The contracts used for this testing had year long "Recurring Fixed" lines with a monthly billing term. No lines had usages, and proration policies were not applied.

The exact number of contracts that Billing Central can handle will vary depending on whether any customizations are implemented in your org, the size and complexity of your contracts, and platform limits. If you experience difficulties, try updating your change requests in smaller groups.