Release 40

New Proration on Credit Option Prevents 1 Cent Increases (DEV-10081)

A new client parameter, Proration on Credit Options, has been added to prevent 1-cent increases in prorated amounts after mid-period plan changes using selected Aria APIs including, for example, update_acct_plan_multi_m. The options govern whether or not the unrounded (1) or rounded amount (2) is used during prorated charge/credit calculations. By default, this option is set to use the rounded amount (2) for backward compatibility. To set in the UI, go to Configuration > Billing > Invoice Settings > Proration on credit options. It is strongly advised that this parameter should be set permanently based on a your preferred billing scheme for accounting purposes. 

Ingenico Payment Gateway Is Now Worldline (DEV-10233)

The Ingenico payment gateway is now renamed to Worldline within Aria for payment gateways and collection groups (Configuration > Payments > [Payment Gateways/Collection Groups] to acknowledge the integration of Ingenico with the largest European payment services company and the fourth-largest worldwide.

Click here to learn more about the Worldline payment gateway.

Pay Method Sequence Validation Enhancement (DEV-10269)

Aria has enhanced the Billing Group History screen (Accounts > [search for an account] > Plans > Billing Groups) to display removal of the payment method sequence number. In addition, validation has been introduced to not allow the same payment method sequence number for the account's primary and secondary pay methods while creating/updating a billing group and assigning a master plan.

Also, the following error message will now appear to avoid setting the same pay method sequence number and payment details for both a primary and secondary payment method:

"Both Primary and Secondary payment methods cannot be the same payment source."

Account Updater Fields Added to Collection Group for Chase Paymentech (DEV-10275)

The following Account Updater fields for the Chase Paymentech payment gateway are now honored at the collection group level as part of the Aria integration to support international divisions for clients (Configuration > Payments > Collection Groups):

• AU_Days_Prior_to_Invoice
• AU_Update_Interval
• AU_Cards_to_Update
• AU_Merchant_Company_Number
• AU_Division_Code_US
• AU_Division_Code

Click here to learn more about the Chase Paymentech payment gateway.

Additional Card Validations for Chase Paymentech (DEV-10339)

Aria enhanced our Account Updater feature with Chase Paymentech by allowing configurable actions depending upon your business practices. A new Chase AU Response Code Handler Settings field called Response Code Q Action (with this response code matched to an internal Aria setting) has been added at the payment gateway (Configuration > Payments > Payment Gateways > Gateway Options) and collection group (Configuration > Payments > Collection Groups > Collection Group Options) levels.

The following selections are available at this field:

Click here for more information on the Chase Paymentech payment gateway.

One Cent Service Credit Differences Rounded for Tax Inclusive Services (DEV-10358)

In Aria Billing Cloud, if there are any 1 cent differences (+/-) when 100 percent of service credits are applied on tax inclusive services during invoice generation, those differences will be adjusted to match the original invoice amount. This enhancement works along with Aria’s line-level invoice rounding implementation and will adjust the $0.01 difference after you set the new 
client parameter Force Tax Amount on Full Credit, which works in conjunction with the existing parameters Aria Internal Tax Rounding Preference and Aria Internal Tax Rounding Method. The new parameter is an internal parameter, so it will not be displayed in the UI. To enable this capability in your Aria instance, contact Aria Support. 

New Account Contact Email and Billing Contact Email Queries (DEV-10398)

Advanced account searches in the UI now support new "Email Address" search options under Account Contact Fields and Billing Contact Fields sections of the Search Field dropdown. To access in the Aria UI, go to the Accounts > Search > Search | Advanced Search tab. There is a 50-character limit on email fields. 

Click here to learn more about searching for accounts in the UI.

Service Credit Processing Enhanced to Prevent Tax Inclusive Split (DEV-10404)

Internal tax engines were enhanced to correctly process system-generated service credits for tax inclusive plans. To prevent issues, the tax inclusive split for service credit that was occurring during this process was stopped. This enhancement impacts A6 and Aria Billing Cloud tax inclusive plans and internal tax engines.

"Available Until" Tool Tip Added for Published Reports (DEV-10428)

A tool tip has been added (Analytics and Reporting > Reports > Published Reports) indicating that published reports will be available for viewing until the Available Until column header date, with that date included in a date range specified for automatic report deletion. This tool tip adds explanation as to why reports may not be deleted on the exact specified deletion day.

Click here for more information on viewing published reports in Aria.

New Invoicing Parameter For MPI Change in Billable/Non-Billable Status (DEV-10446)

Aria has added a new client parameter to automatically honor invoicing behavior (including bill lag days) when resetting billing dates and changing the master plan instance status from non-billable to billable (Configuration > Billing > Invoice Settings titled Invoicing Behavior For The Stack When MPI is changed from Non-Billable to Billable). When the parameter values is set as "0 - Do not modify", Aria will not modify the invoicing behavior. If the setting is "1 - Treat next invoice after bill dates reset as initial invoice," then, while resetting the billing dates and changing the status from non-billable to billable, Aria will modify the invoicing behavior; that is, the next anniversary invoice will honor any activation fees as well as bill lag days.

Learn more about changing an invoicing setting from here.

Query Times Improved for Invoice Batch Processing (DEV-10483)

Invoice batch processing has been improved because the procedure to deactivate accounts that were cancelled/suspended was optimized to ignore the status updates of previously deactivated accounts, which had been creating longer query times. This enhancement does not affect functionality.

Zero-Dollar Balance Transfers Created From Child To Parent-Pay Accounts (DEV-10489)

Aria now automatically generates zero-dollar balance transfer transactions (0.00) from a child account to an account with parent-pay responsibility whenever there is no unpaid balance amount on the invoice for the child MPI. This increases the efficiency of invoice processing for accounts with large numbers of balance transfer transactions.

Click here for more information on generating statements and invoices within Aria.

New Currency Configuration "Currency Scale" (DEV-10530)

When some payments are sent to payment processors, the processor honors multiple decimal places for the affected currency used for payment during the collection. As an example, a payment processor honors two decimal places for the IDR (Indonesian Rupiah), even though the currency does not have decimal places. An issue arose where the payment processor accepted a payment with this currency type as having two decimals per ISO (16.40), which the processor interpreted as 100 times the intended amount ($1,640).

To resolve this, Aria has introduced a field called Currency Scale in the Currencies screen (Configuration > Billing > Currencies). This sets the currency scale for the respective currency, rounding the transaction based on the scale. The allowed values are Null or Empty (default), 0, 2, 3, and 4 decimal places.​ If the drop-down list is empty, the default currency scale for this currency defined within Aria will be used.

Application Fixes 

• Previously, for Chrome and Microsoft Edge browsers, when using the View & Print button to print an invoice in the Pending Invoices screen (Accounts [search] > Statements & Invoices > Pending Invoices > [Approve/View]), the browser pop-up dialog that opens would not display its Print button. This issue has been fixed for the current version of Aria Billing Cloud. (TICKET-18461)
• As an enhancement to managing Master Plan Instances, when changes are made to an account’s allotted Plan Units mid-cycle, the intermittent screen under the Plans tab now includes an Alternate Pro-ration Start Date field. Updating this field during change assignments generates a prorated invoice based on the input date. [TICKET-18652]
• The identical list of published reports now appear both in the center Published Reports dialog as well as the left navigation column (Analytics and Reporting > Reports > Published Reports). (TICKET-18663)

New Service Type Values for <line_type> Output For Aria APIs (DEV-10150)

To provide additional granularity in service charges, the following service type values are now returned in Aria APIs noted below:

• 7 – For Recurring Arrears Service
• 8 – For Order Charge Service
• 9 – For Surcharge Service

This applies to the following APIs and associated output fields:

Ingenico Payment Gateway Is Now Worldline (DEV-10233)

The Ingenico payment gateway is now renamed to Worldline within Aria for payment gateways and collection groups to acknowledge the integration of Ingenico with the largest European payment services company and the fourth-largest worldwide. This impacts the <processor_id> field in the record_alternative_payment_m API.

Click here to learn more about the Worldline payment gateway.

Pay Method Sequence Validation Enhancement (DEV-10269)

The Aria UI now displays the removal of the payment method sequence number using the remove_acct_payment_method_m API. In addition, validation has been introduced to not allow the same pay method sequence number for the primary and secondary pay methods while creating/updating a billing group and assigning a master plan from the following APIs:

• assign_acct_plan_m
• create_acct_billing_group_m
• create_acct_complete_m
• update_acct_billing_group_m
• update_acct_complete_m
• update_acct_plan_multi_m
• update_payment_method_m

Also, the following error message will now appear to avoid setting the same pay method sequence number and payment details for both a primary and secondary payment method:

New Account Contact Email and Billing Contact Email Queries (DEV-10398)

The Object Query API get_account_details_m now supports new "email" and "bill_email" query parameters. These parameters will allow you to search for accounts with the account email address and any listed billing email addresses. There is a 50-character limit on email fields.  

Assigning Custom Rates to Plans Process Optimized (DEV-10473)

For Aria Billing Cloud, the update_acct_plan_mult_m API process execution time has been optimized when assigning plans with custom rates. This was accomplished by focusing the query only on relevant table conditions data, in the "ACCT_RATES" view.