Release 39

Hold Usage Billing and Plan Cancellation until Plan Termination Date (DEV-10232)

This update extends the client parameter ‘Hold the usage period billing and plan cancellation until plan termination date’ to cover cases where clients schedule a cancellation via the future queue with an effective date that coincides with a future anniversary date of the plan instance. For example, if the parameter is set to TRUE, the cancellation will not happen earlier with a negative lag day and will be held up to the anniversary date. If on the same day there are any other plan changes scheduled with cancellation, all other changes would be ignored and marked as successful execution (i.e., cancellation takes precedence).

This parameter continues to work for the invoicing batch only in accordance with existing functionality. If a master plan is scheduled for cancellation in this case, all its supplemental plans would also be held up to the anniversary date when negative lag days are specified. However, for cancellation queued via the future queue, all usage invoices will continue to be produced if usage billing interval is less than recurring billing interval.

This change produces consistent behavior, especially when negative bill lag days are used, to hold up the cancellation of the plan until the anniversary date. Prior to this change the plan would be cancelled on the negative bill lag day. In user interface, you will see this in Accounts > search for an account > Plans > Future Plan Changes tab initially. For API, this affects the cancel_acct_plan_m API. 

Account Updater Now Supported for Stripe Payment Processor (DEV-10372)

The Stripe payment gateway now supports the Account Updater for Visa® and Mastercard® card brands. When enabled, the account updater automatically updates your account holders' card information if available. The new field Webhook Secret was introduced at the payment gateway and collection group level (Configuration > Payments > [Payment Gateways/Collection Groups]); this provides an extra layer of security for data verification and message authentication for webhook notifications received from Stripe.

This feature supports Stripe event notification for the below behind-the-scenes events in Aria and updates client billing records:

• payment_method.updated
• payment_method.automatically_updated
• payment_method.detached

Learn more about Aria's integration with Stripe from here.

Activity Loader Provides File Failure Notification (DEV-10382)

The Activity Loader now can send an Email alert for file transfer failures using the SFTP protocol. These alerts are triggered by an SFTP condition, error_code 13014 (can_not_write_local_file), which prevents the processing of one or more files included in the batch. You must select "Email" as the Response Method and enter the address at the Address to Email Responses field (Configuration > Integration > Activity Loader). When the condition is fixed and all files in the batch are successfully transferred, Aria will process the files.

Learn more about the Activity Loader from here.

Enhanced Force Currency Change Validation For Accounts With Contract Rollovers (DEV-10385)

This feature adds system validation in the UI when attempting to force a currency change on an account. If an account has an existing contract rollover behavior configured related to a specific currency that does not match the "force currency change" action initiated via the UI, Aria now throws an error and prevents that action. To complete the action, the contract rollover must be cancelled.

Affected Screens

• [select Account] > Plans > [select Plan] > Replace Plan has the force currency directive
• [select Account] > Plans > Contracts > Create a New Contract allows you to specify a new Rollover Contract

Chase 3DS Exemption for Low Amount Transactions Using DIrect Post (DEV-10392)

For Chase Paymentech, the low value payment exemption for strong customer authentication (SCA) exemption for 3DS-enabled merchants can now be implemented using a Direct Post configuration. This is in support of the Visa ®, Mastercard ®, and International Maestro ® card types.

The allowed values at the SCA Exemption field are as follows:

Learn more about the Aria integration with the Chase Paymentech payment gateway from here.

Status Indicator Honored For Taxation (DEV-10393)

The Status indicator for a selected taxation engine is now honored when calculating taxation during invoice generation. An Active selection means that the tax is generated, and an Inactive selection means the tax is not generated (Configuration > Integration > Taxation Configuration).

Learn more about creating a taxation configuration with mapped services to your tax service group from here.

Stripe Fraud Scoring Available Using DIrect Post (DEV-10406)

The Stripe payment gateway now supports fraud scoring for 3DS-enabled merchants, which allows you to obtain an account holder's fraud score or fraud score assessment. This can be implemented through a Direct Post configuration.

Learn more about Aria's integration with Stripe from here.

Aria Introduces Generic Taxation v3.0 (DEV-10556)

​Aria has introduced the new tax version 3.0 for generic taxation, which will send the MasterPlanInstanceNo and ServiceTypeCd parameters for each line in the generic tax module only when the Generic Tx version is configured as 3.0. Clients can use this ServiceTypeCd to determine the Surcharge line in the invoice and use the MasterPlanInstanceNo to get the destination contact for taxation (for A6, the MasterPlanInstanceNo xml tag will not be sent).
​
Below is a list of ServiceTypeCd values sent in the invoice line to the Tax endpoint:
SC - Surcharge
RC - Recurring
TX - Tax
RA - Recurring Arrears
US - Usage
AC - Activation
MS - Miscellaneous
CN - Cancellation
OR - Order Based
MN - Minimum Fee

Application Fixes 

• When using Copy Config and importing product fields that are mapped to an Item, Plan, Usage Type or Service the import will now complete as expected. (TICKET-18491)

• When new usage services are queued for addition to an account, and the account has multiple instances of the same plan the new service will be added as expected. (TICKET-18558)

• After performing the following steps:
  • Create an account with a usage-based service.
  • Create a contract on the usage plan with the end action of “Terminate service and billing and prorate final invoice.”
  • Record usage and generate initial invoice and statement.
  • Record unbilled usage to appear on a prorated invoice and allow for contract completion.
  The invoice/statement created upon contract completion now includes the service period against the unbilled usage charge line item. Also, when running the get_invoice_details_m API, the <date_range_start> and <date_range_end> output parameters are populated to include the service period of both the anniversary invoice and prorated invoice upon contract completion.
  Note: As a prerequisite, the "Generate invoice for unbilled usages on contract end date" contracts setting must be set to True (Configuration > Billing > Contracts Settings). (TICKET-18568)

New Output Parameters Added To get_invoice_cm_details_m API Call (DEV-10064)

This feature adds three new output parameters to the API call get_invoice_cm_details_m:

1. to indicate whether a charge line is tax inclusive or not (<orig_charge_tax_inclusive_indicator>);
2. the maximum amount of the net charge that could be credited on a credit memo (<max_on_charge_credit_amount>); and
3. the maximum amount of the tax charge that could be credited on a credit memo (<max_on_tax_credit_amount>).

Invoicer Enhanced to Issue Error When Processing Invoice with Same Billing Group (DEV-10105)

The gen_invoice_m API was enhanced to better handle processing conflicts when in multi-thread mode. Specifically, when the invoicer is checking to see if an active session is already in the process of generating an invoice for the same billing group, it issues the following error message: "3108: The invoice for this account cannot be generated at this time, since there is another invoice in progress for the same billing group."

Enhanced Execution for New Rate Schedules for Rollovers via Contract (DEV-10160)

Aria has been enhanced so that when you queue a new rate schedule for rollover for a plan instance (PI) via contract, then the rollover will be executed on the next day of contract end day by batch process. Simultaneously, the system will remove the custom rates of that PI, that is, if any exist.

If you wish to go back to standard rates from custom rates for the existing rate schedule via contract, then when creating the contract with the create_instance_contract_m API, pass the existing rate schedule in <rollover_rate_sched_no> input without the <rollover_plan_no> input.

Transaction Reference Code Now Included for Refunds in Aria APIs (DEV-10161)

The get_acct_trans_history_m and get_family_trans_history_m APIs now return the reference code of the outgoing payment/check number. This is populated in the <transaction_ref_code> output parameter for an external refund for transaction type 13 (Check Refund Disbursement).

The following values can be returned:

• External payment's reference code
• Outgoing payment's reference code
• External refund's check number

New Output Parameters Added To get_unapplied_service_credits_m API Call (DEV-10213)

This feature adds four new output parameters to the API call get_unapplied_service_credits_m to present more information, if known, about the invoice and line items to which credits are related:

• <svc_credit_source_invoice_no> The invoice number where the original charge (against which service credit is being created) was billed;
• <svc_credit_source_line_no> The sequence number of the original line item against which service credit is created;
• <svc_credit_source_trans_id> The transaction number of the original line item against which service credit is created;
• <svc_credit_source_service_type> The transaction type of the original line item against which service credit is created. This is to to indicate whether the original line was a tax line item or any other charge (e.g., recurring/ usage etc.)

Performance Enhancement to manage_pending_invoice_m API (DEV-10380)

The manage_pending_invoice_m API has been enhanced to operate more efficiently, greatly improving response time performance. Improvement will be most notable when disregarding or regenerating pending invoices (selecting values 2, 3 or 4 for the <action_directive> input parameter).

Enhanced Force Currency Change Validation For Accounts With Contract Rollovers (DEV-10385)

This feature adds system validation in the following API calls when attempting to force a currency change on an account. If an account has an existing contract rollover behavior configured related to a specific currency that does not match the "force currency change" action initiated via API, Aria now throws an error and prevents that action. To complete the action, the contract rollover must be cancelled.

Affected APIs

• update_acct_plan_m, update_acct_plan_m Error Messages
• replace_acct_plan_m, replace_acct_plan_m Error Messages
• update_acct_complete_m, update_acct_complete_m Error Messages
• update_acct_plan_multi_m, update_acct_plan_multi_m Error Messages
• create_instance_contract_m, create_instance_contract_m Error Messages
• create_acct_complete_m, create_acct_complete_m Error Messages
• modify_instance_contract_m, modify_instance_contract_m Error Messages

Chase 3DS Exemption for Low Amount Transactions Using APIs (DEV-10392)

With this release, the following Aria APIs support low value payment exemption for strong customer authentication (SCA) for 3DS-enabled merchants for Chase Paymentech:

• authorize_electronic_payment_m
• update_payment_method_m
• validate_acct_fraud_scoring_m

This is in support of the Visa ®, Mastercard ®, and International Maestro ® card types.

The allowed values at the <proc_field_value> input parameter are as follows:

Learn more about the Chase Paymentech payment gateway from here.

Stripe Fraud Scoring Available Via API (DEV-10406)

The Stripe payment gateway now supports fraud scoring for 3DS-enabled merchants, which allows you to obtain an account holder's fraud score or fraud score assessment. This can be implemented through the validate_acct_fraud_scoring_m API.

Learn more about Aria's integration with Stripe from here.

Input <offset> Character Limit Removed for get_acct_plans_all_m (DEV-10425)

The three-character limitation in the string length of the <offset> input parameter for the get_acct_plans_all_m API has been removed. As a result, you can now retrieve the entire set of plan instance information for accounts that have a number of plan instances that exceed the prior limit. 

Usage API Calls Enhanced With Outputs Specifying Related Plan Instance (DEV-10426)

This feature enhances the usage-related API calls get_unbilled_usage_summary_m and get_usage_history_m with new output fields to identify the plan instances related to the usage types retrieved.

• get_unbilled_usage_summary_m
  • <client_plan_instance_id> (in the <unbilled_usage_rec> array): The client-defined identifier of the plan instance (can be either a master or supplemental plan).
  • <client_plan_instance_id> (in the <unit_threshold_details> array): The client-defined identifier of the plan instance (can be either a master or supplemental plan).
  • <usage_type_cd> (in the <unit_threshold_details> array): Client-assigned identifier for the type of usage being recorded.
• get_usage_history_m
  • <master_plan_instance_no> (in the <usage_history_recs> array): The client-defined identifier of the Master plan instance.
  • <client_master_plan_instance_id> (in the <usage_history_recs> array): The Master Subscription plan instance number.

API Fixes 

• The get_plan_instance_information_m API was updated so that it will now display the <client_billing_group_id> output field as expected. (TICKET-18048)

• The manner in which the system allows the user to edit a multi-plan contract that has rollover custom rates (Accounts > Plans > Contracts > Multi-Plan Contract Scope option) has been overhauled so that it processes input data and populates all resulting fields correctly. To enable this functionality, all the existing rollover plan/schedule details are now pre-loaded to be submitted for proper data handling in the contract modification screens. In addition to this primary enhancement, the following items were also implemented to support this item: 

  • Implementation logic for the Default Currency Format Mask client parameter was added to support EUR currency format for cases with multi-plan customer rollover rates. To set the Default Currency Format Mask in the user interface (UI), go to Configuration > Client Settings > Miscellaneous Settings. 
  • The modify_instance_contract_m API was amended so that it works in a consistent manner with the create_instance_contract_m API; that is, the <rollover_plan_no> and <rollover_rate_sched_no> fields are optional. So, if the first record in the array is configured with <rollover_plan_no> and the second record has only <rollover_rate_sched_no>, then the application will no longer issue the error message, 16025 “The contract rollover target plan no is ineligible because it must be supplemental plan,” because it is not expecting the second record also to have <rollover_plan_no>. The previous behavior was that when the first record had <rollover_plan_no>, it expected all subsequent rows also to have <rollover_plan_no>.
  • To ensure proper functionality when creating custom rollover rates for specific services alone (i.e., not for all services for an MPI), the catalog rates now along with the existing contract custom rates will be pulled for any new service added to the catalog. 
  • Instead of the UI using API logic to pull rollover configuration from a catalog when submitted, the rollover information from UI will now get saved at this point (without checking the catalog configuration) rather than when the contract is created/modified from the UI. (TICKET-18065)
• When placing an order with the create_order_m API and a discount rule that had been generated via Copy Config, the system will no longer throw an error and the order will generate as expected. (TICKET-18341)
• Calling the subscribe_event_class_m API on an event class to which a client is already subscribed no longer removes all events subscribed for that client. (TICKET-18371)