Account Installment Terms

Overview

An installment term enables your customers to purchase high-priced products by spreading the cost across multiple payments. Currently, this capability is exclusively available for Non-Subscription Offerings (NSO) and requires pre-configuration in your product catalog. More information is here.

Core Functionality 

Installment term is an option that any self-pay account can utilize when purchasing an order. When a customer selects installment term, the system creates an installment schedule that breaks down an invoice line-item cost into multiple due dates, due amounts, notify dates, etc. Each invoice line item with an installment term has its own installment schedule. There are different installment schedule statuses:  

• Active: The installment schedule will be initiated starting upon invoice creation is active. 
• Completed: The installment has been paid in full (through payoff or write-off). 
• Cancelled: The Installment has been canceled mid-period and is due immediately. 

There are two types of Installment Terms:

1. Aligned with master plan instance: The installment schedule (bill/notify dates, due dates) follows the master plan instance (associated with the NSO) anniversary date. The installment due amount is included in the master plan instance (MPI) statement as non-invoice transactions. 
2. Independent: The installment schedule has its own bill/notify dates and due dates. Aria notifies customers through a new communication class (IDR—installment due reminder) of the upcoming due amount.

Customization and Modification 

Upon assigning an installment term to an order you have the flexibility to customize the installment term attributes defined in product catalog. The attributes can be modified in the middle of the period or cancelled in the middle of the period. This may trigger immediate collection attempt (if payment method) and if collection fails, and dunning threshold is reached, it will put the master plan instance that the item is mapped to into dunning. 

The system supports "bill lag days" and "days until due" for installments. When those values are updated in the middle of installment period, here's how the updates work: 

• Aligned Installments: If these values are updated during an installment period, the installment schedule is automatically updated to reflect the changes. 
• Independent Installments: The installment schedule is only updated if explicitly specified in the API call when updating the account billing group. 

Communication 

Depending on the type of installment (aligned or independent), the installment due is communicated via a customer's anniversary statement (aligned) or an 'Installment Due Reminder' class (independent). Aria uses loops and replacement strings to communicate the installment due information on those two type of communications; please contact your Aria representative for more information. 

• Statement Status 'Installment Due Paid' indicates all due charges (both installment and non-installment) are paid on the statement. This status is accessible via the Aria UI (CCP and Aria Billing Cloud, under Accounts > [search for account] > Account Overview > Statements & Invoices > Statements [Status column]) and via Aria APIs. Note: When an account statement includes an installment, Aria uses the installment due date to determine if the statement is late or if the statement status needs to be updated. If payment is collected on time, the statement status will be updated to ‘Installment Due Paid’. If the installment due is not paid, the statement is marked as ‘Late’ or ‘Late ok’. 
• Account Comments display when an installment is created and when an installment schedule status is updated.  
  • Installment Created: “<installment_type>installment<Installment_no>created for<service_name> - <service_no>on invoice<invoice_no>" 
  • Installment Schedule Status Updated: “<installment_type>installment<installment_no>status for<service_name> - 
    <service_no>on invoice<invoice_no>was updated to:<schedule_status>" 
• Event Notifications related to when an installment is created on an account and when an installment schedule status is updated have been introduced. 
  • Use a new event for installment creation and trigger the event with the appropriate payload (XML, Name-Value Pair, and Email)—Account Installment Created  under Accounts and Master Plan Instances. 
    • When the installment is successfully assigned, event 760 (shown below) will be triggered (against the destination account) and the payload will be generated.