Create a Billing Group

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Overview

When creating an account in the UI, a billing group is automatically created for each Master Plan Instance (MPI) assigned on the account. You can create additional billing groups by following the steps in this article. Billing groups in Aria allow for more flexibility and customization in how accounts are billed and make payments. Some key benefits of billing groups include:

An account can have multiple billing groups, allowing the account to pay for different services or plans using different payment methods. This is done by associating each billing group with a different collection group.
Billing groups make it possible to invoice an account for multiple master subscription plans together in one statement while still keeping payment details separate for each plan.
Dunning processes and late payment policies can vary by billing group, so accounts with multiple groups can be managed with more granular billing policies and workflows.

Creating a New Billing Group

Use the following information to create or update a billing group that you can associate with an MPI on the account.

Getting Here: Click Accounts > select an account > Plans > Billing Groups

When first opening the Billing Group screen, you will see a list of existing billing groups and at the bottom will be a section called Billing Group History that shows a record of any created or modified billing groups.

Click New.

A screen displays, allowing you to create a new billing group. Refer to the below screenshots and corresponding descriptions when creating a new billing group on this screen.

Billing Group Name: Enter the name of the billing group.
Billing Group Description: Enter the description of the billing group.
Client Defined Identifier: Enter a unique, custom ID for the billing group.
Notification Method: By default, the notification method for all Master Plan Instances associated with the billing group is the same as the notification method defined on the account. Select a different notification method, if desired. After you select an email Notification Method, the Add Statement Recipients link appears. Click on the link to enter the email addresses to which the statements associated with the billing group should be cc'd (carbon copied) and/or bcc'd (blind carbon copied). Separate multiple addresses with a comma.
List Billing Group First in the Master File: Select "Yes" if this billing group should be listed first in the XML or PDF master file.
Notification Template Group: Select the desired notification template group for use with all Master Plan Instances associated with the billing group.
Credit Memo Template: Select the credit memo template for use with all Master Plan Instances associated with the billing group.
Rebill Template: Select the rebill template for use with all Master Plan Instances associated with the billing group.
Statement Template: Select the statement template for use with all Master Plan Instances associated with the billing group.
Credit Note Template: Select the credit note template for use with all Master Plan Instances associated with the billing group.

The Payment Options section of the screen varies depending on whether you are associating the billing group with a payment method (for example a credit card) or a payment term (for example net terms or EAN/GLN). The following graphic shows options for associating the billing group with a payment method.

Payment Options: Select either Method or Term. A "method" is electronic, while "term" refers to the "days until due" of a bill that can be paid via a payment method a customer can select and use at that time.
The following graphic shows the payment options that display if you select Term as a Payment Option, to associate the billing group with a payment:
You can create a Term that requires an EAN or GLN Number: If the payment method you select is associated with European Account Number or Global Location Number (EAN or GLN ), then this field displays and is required;or an EAN or GLN Requisition Number If the payment method you select is associated with European Account Number or Global Location Number (EAN or GLN ), then this field displays and is required.
Payment Method: Select a payment method that already exists on the account, or select Create New from the dropdown menu.
Selecting Create New displays additional fields, prompting you to:
- Define the name of the payment method.
- Provide a description of the payment method.
- Enter a client-defined identifier.
- Enter all payment attributes for the new payment method.
Secondary Payment Method: If collection fails from the Payment Method, it is attempted from the this payment method.
The secondary payment method must match the primary payment method. For example, if the primary payment method is a credit card, then the secondary payment method must also be a credit card. A combination of credit card and tokenized credit card is not acceptable and an error message displays.

For clients using net terms or external payment as a payment method, do not select a secondary payment method.

Select a payment method or select Create New from the dropdown menu. Selecting Create Newdisplays additional fields, prompting you to:
- Define the name of the secondary payment method.
- Provide a description of the secondary payment method.
- Enter a client-defined identifier.
- Enter all payment attributes for the backup payment method.
Collection Group: Select or change the collection group that you want to assign to the billing group. If you want to have payments made using the specified billing group to be processed by a specific payment gateway, assign your chosen collection group to the billing group.

Example: For cost savings or for other reasons, you may choose to have payments made with a particular payment method processed by a specific payment gateway.

You can choose Select if you do not want to assign a collection group to the billing group.
Notes:
Aria will use this order of precedence when selecting the payment gateway to use for processing a payment:
- Collection group assigned to the billing group associated with the master plan instance being invoiced;
- Collection group to which the customer is assigned at the account level.
- Aria allows accounts to have multiple billing groups with different collection groups when using tokenized credit cards that were tokenized outside of Aria. To facilitate multiple payment methods, the billing agreement ID (token) is validated against the specific collection group. When there is no collection group specified, then the agreement ID will be validated against the account level collection group. When no collection group at account level or billing group level is specified, then the agreement ID will be validated against the last processor mapped to that client.
Statement Contact: Select a statement contact or select Create New Contact from the dropdown menu. Selecting Create New Contact displays additional fields, prompting you to enter contact information for the new statement contact.
Taxation Company Code: This code is required for some payment methods for taxation purposes.

The following part of the screen is the same regardless of the payment option you select.

Available Master Plans: A list of the available Master Plan Instances to which this billing group can be assigned. To assign the billing group to any of the available Master Plan Instances, select the checkbox next to the corresponding Master Plan Instance ID(s).
After completing all of the required fields on this screen, click Save. The new billing group displays on the Billing Groups screen.