How To Implement Your Business Recurring Rate Plans in SAP BRIM?

In SAP BRIM solution there are two ways how you can configure and build the monthly recurring rate plans for your business model. Let’s see these two implementation ways and how can they fit you.

Monthly Recurring Charge Plans in SAP CC - SAP CRM (SOM)

In pure SAP BRIM solution, the SAP Convergent Charging is the core-module for rating and charging. SAP CC provides the functionality of charge plans. A charge plan defines the charging conditions to access or consume goods or customer services sold by a service provider. A charge plan consists of one or more customized charges.

There are three types of charges that can be configured in SAP CC:

• One-time shot charge
• Usage rate charge
• Recurring rate charge

Charge plans must be used and combined as part of a commercial product in a CRM application. The integration between charge plan and the configurable product is done in SAP CRM via cross-catalog mapping. Charge plans are then activated in the provider contract creation. Using recurring charges in SAP CC to generate the monthly fee, you can define when and how frequently the customers should be charged, billed and invoiced. At the same time, you can define the mode of billing customers as it can be prorated upon contract creation, and then the monthly fee can be advanced or regular.

The business use case could be when the end-user (customer) signs a new contract with an internet provider. The customer has to pay an installation fee of 30 Euros, prorated the first month, and then a regular monthly fee of 25 Euros. For this, you may configure one charge plan with two charges. Each charge will generate the billable item containing the all information about the amount, billing period. We will expect two billable items on the first cycle:

• One billable item for the installation fee of 30 Euros
• One billable item prorated amount of 25 Euros, depending on the date of contract creation only on the first month

On the second cycle and afterward, one billable item of 25 Euros is expected, which represents the regular monthly recurring fee.

SAP CI Billing Plan for SOM Subscription Contract Recurring Fee

SAP Convergent Invoicing - CI provides the functionality of the Billing Plan. You can use the Billing Plan to implement your logic of monthly recurring fees for any products and services. Using billing plans in Convergent Invoicing, you define when and how frequently an invoice is produced and for which amount. For this reason, the billing plan divides itself up into plan items, billable items that have already been generated, and reference items.

The plan items contain the rules and information for creating billable items, for example:

• Amount to pay
• Billing Cycle

The runtime of payment could be predefined with a start and an end date or unlimited as per provider contract duration.

Upon contract creation via SOM, the billing plan including details about the amount to pay, billing cycle, runtime payment is set. A periodic request run in SAP CI uses these rules and this information to generate billable items. After that, the billable items can be billed and invoiced.

The business use case could be when a house owner has to pay 30 Euros monthly for the electricity and 45 Euros quarterly the gas. For this, you may configure and implement one billing plan with two plan items. Each plan item contains the respective information about the amount to pay, duration of contract life-cycle (predefined or unlimited), and frequency of payment.

On billable item expected date for each plan item, the request run will generate billable items:

• One billable item for the electricity 30 Euros monthly
• One billable item for the gas 45 Euros quarterly

Both implementation ways are best practices from SAP. In case your business model is a hybrid model, meaning that you need to charge your customer not only a recurring fee but also usage, SAP CC charge plans are the solution.