Release 67

Product Catalog Rate Schedule Future Rate Versioning Support (DEV-8266)

This update introduces Product Catalog rate schedule future rate versioning to improve invoicing accuracy when you use negative or positive bill lag days. When enabled, Aria selects the appropriate rate schedule version based on the invoice generation date, ensuring accurate billing for all Aria service types. It also handles retroactive account start dates by defaulting to the earliest available rate version.

Aria created the new client parameter, VERSIONING_ENABLED, to enable future rate versioning. When set to "True", Aria will pick the appropriate service rate to generate invoices, based on product catalog future rate schedule rate changes, ahead of an account’s anniversary date to accommodate negative bill lag days. The actual change will not be reflected on the account until the effective date. When set to "False" (the default), Aria picks the rate current at the time of invoicing.

You can now view two new fields on the Products tab of the Plans Activity log (Configuration > Audit Logs > Plans Activity):

• Prior Future Amount—shows the previous future rate before an update.
• New Future Amount—shows the updated future rate after a change.

• Plan Units: Not available for Plan Unit Instance functionality.
• Sandbox Generator: Only copies current and future rate schedule versions, not historic rate schedule versions.
• Manual Migration Required: Enabling this feature when you are live in production requires a manual migration of current and future rate schedule rates with the assistance of Aria Support.
• Copy Config: This feature is not available.
• Only One Future Rate Scheduled: To create another future rate, the date must surpass the future rate's effective date. Similarly, there can be only one current rate.
• Retain Current Tier Structure: Future rate must retain current rate tier structure.
• Copy Plans: Attempting to copy a plan with future rate change date of "today" or any time in the past will fail with an error.
• Backdated Usage: Aria adheres to the behavior you specified for BACKDATE_USAGE_RATING.
• Future Rate Changes and Negative Bill Lag Days: If Aria has already generated a Negative Bill Lag Days invoice for an account and the rate being changed affects that invoice, you can either:
  • discard the invoice and regenerate it so the new invoice reflects the updated future/current rates, or
  • rebill the invoice, manually passing the updated rates.
• Advance Invoice Proration Behavior for Usage: As a best practice, you should set the client parameter Rollback Usage Records and the Account's Bill Date for Voided Invoice (Configuration > Billing > Invoice Settings) to "True", allowing Aria to automatically delete any future or advance invoices during proration invoice generation related to usage.

CCP: Edit Billing Group (DEV-11599)

Editing and deleting billing groups from the Subscriptions > Billing Groups page has been enhanced to allow direct access to the edit menu by clicking on the Billing Group Name in the first column within the page. Editing and deleting billing groups is also available from the horizontal ellipses row action menu to the right of each line item.

Payment Source Description on Payments & Credits Screen (DEV-11826)

Aria has enhanced the Aria Billing Cloud UI to include a payment type description you can specify, allowing for a more accurate accounting of external payments (e.g., "Visa," or "Cash"). You can record this value in the Aria UI when recording an external payment (Account Search > Account Overview > Payments & Credits > Apply a Payment). The Aria UI will display this value in the Source column of the Payments & Credits screen within an account (Account Search > Account Overview > Payments & Credits).

List And Edit Contacts In CCP (DEV-11861)

You can now edit the CCP Account > Contacts page. To edit a contact, select the horizontal ellipses row actions to the right of the contact line your wish to edit and select Update. This opens the Update Contact drawer which displays the Billing Contacts and the Statement Contacts. Expanding the Statement Contacts section reveals which billing groups use this contact as their statement contact. Expanding a Billing Group Name opens the billing group edit drawer, allowing you to modify billing group details.

Two New Events to Capture Application and Unapplication of Cash Credits (DEV-12068)

This update enables the system to trigger provisioning events when a cash credit is applied or unapplied to an account, whether this happens automatically during creation or manually later, with only one event fired per occurrence regardless of multiple invoices involved. Two new Financial Transactions Class events, "Cash Credit Applied" (956) and "Cash Credit Unapplied" (957), track these actions.

• Event 956: Cash Credit Applied—Triggered when a cash credit is applied to an invoice or charge.
• Event 957: Cash Credit Unapplied—Triggered when a cash credit is unapplied from an invoice or charge.

The following scenarios trigger the new events:

• Cash Credit Creation with Immediate Application—When a cash credit is created and automatically applied to an open invoice, Event 956 fires.
• Delayed Cash Credit Application—If a cash credit is created without an invoice to apply to, no event fires. When an invoice is later generated and the cash credit is applied, Event 956 fires.
• Credit Memo and Reapplication—When a cash credit is applied (Event 956), then unapplied due to an invoice-based credit memo (Event 957), and later reapplied to a new invoice (Event 956).
• Cash Credit Void—When a cash credit is applied (Event 956) and later voided, causing unapplication (Event 957).
• Automated Refunds—During plan cancellation or downgrade, if a refund is created based on client parameters (REFUND_FOR_PRORATION_CREDIT_ACTION set to 1 or 2, NET_NEGATIVE_PRO_RATION_ACTION set to 2 or 4), Event 956 fires when the cash credit is applied to the refund charge.

• Manual Application/Unapplication: via move_payment_m API/UI (e.g., Accounts > Payments > Apply a cash credit > Unapplied Payments or Accounts > Payments > Unapply a Payment).
• Automatic Application:
  • Cash credit creation with unpaid charges.
  • Invoice, dunning charge, or balance transfer creation with an open cash credit.
  • Voiding charges (e.g., invoice, refund) when another unpaid invoice exists.
  • Invoice-based credit memo creation with another unpaid invoice.
  • Voiding an invoice-based credit memo, causing an invoice to be paid with an open cash credit.
  • Applying a prompt payment discount.
• Automatic Unapplication:
  • Voiding a cash credit or invoice.
  • Creating an invoice-based credit memo.
  • Rebill of an invoice (creates an invoice-based credit memo).
  • Voiding an automatic proration refund.

Payment Plans Phase 2 (DEV-12094)

In Phase 2 of Payment Plans, Aria enhances payment plan creation with support for balance under a billing group, ability to specify multiple plans, lump sum, and custom sequence; improves payment handling by supporting voiding and bulk unapplication of payments, and ensures Dunning logic correctly removes paid plans from collections with updated statuses; and fixes balance calculations and due date issues, ensuring accurate and reliable data for payment plans. 

• Payment Unapplication: Enhanced logic to support voiding and moving payments applied to payment plans, including bulk unapplication scenarios.
• Immediate Dunning Exit for Payment Terms MPIs: Updated Dunning logic to immediately remove Payment Terms MPIs from Dunning upon payment plan creation, with related Dunning history comments.
• Statement Status Updates: Ensured that Aria correctly updates statement statuses (e.g., to "late ok") when payment plan creation pushes due dates into the future, and that Dunning exit occurs when balances fall below a specified threshold.

New Credit Memo Updates In CCP (DEV-12116)

You can now create new credit memos from the Transactions > Credits > Credit Memos tab page within CCP. To create a new credit memo, click the New Credit Memo button at the top right corner of the page. Upon successful creation of a new credit memo, the drawer will automatically close and refresh the Credit Memos page to display the newly created credit memo data.

Service Accounts for M2M and Billie Connect (DEV-12156)

Support has been added for creating & editing Service Accounts in Aria Billing. Service Accounts, similar to Dashboard Users, are intended to only be used for external applications to communicate with Aria. Instead of authenticating via passwords, Service Accounts use generated keys to authenticate.

emandate_signature Added for Buckaroo Smart Payments (DEV-12159)

The e-mandate signature field is now included when entering a payment method as part of Buckaroo's Smart Payments integration. This has been added when saving or updating a Direct Debit or Tokenized Direct Debit SEPA pay method. This field is now provided to enhance processing of customer chargeback requests.

This is included at the following locations in the Aria UI:

• Creating an Account
• Adding a Payment Method to an Account
• Making a Payment
• Plans (Primary and secondary payment methods)
• Billing Groups (Primary and secondary payment methods)

International Maestro Authorization Reversal for Chase Paymentech (DEV-12164)

Authorization reversals are now supported for the International Maestro debit card brand, sending the transaction type as 7 (this is null for all other card brands). This applies to Chase Paymentech integrations for both legacy and Smart Payments.

PayPal Now Included in Smart Payments Integration (DEV-12179)

Aria has added the following functionality included in its PayPal Smart Payments integration:

• Soft Descriptors
• Level 2/Level 3 Data Support
• Transaction Logging for Credit Card and Tokenized Credit Card payments

Aria's has implemented the ability to set a description that will appear on customers' bank statements for Credit Card and Tokenized Credit Card transactions. The soft_descriptor field has been added at the Payment Gateway (Configuration > Payments > Payment Gateways > Field Options tab) and Collection Group Configuration > Payments > Collection Groups > Advanced Options tab) levels. The maximum number of supported characters for the soft descriptor value is 22, and any additional characters will be truncated before being sent to PayPal. The order of precedence for soft descriptors is as follows:

• API level
• Collection Group level
• Payment Gateway level

Aria's PayPal Smart Payments integration now includes Level2/Level 3 support for the USD currency type (providing this data allows certain merchants to benefit from discounted processing fees for U.S. domestic payments). The Send Level2/Level3 Data in the payment request field has been added at the Processing Options tab for PayPal Payment Gateways and Collection Groups. If set to Yes, the Level 2/Level 3 data is sent (default is No). This applies to Credit Card (pay method 1) and Tokenized Credit Card (pay method 13) payments (for the Visa and Mastercard card types). Data will be truncated based on maximum length column values. The maximum invoice line item length is 100 in accordance with PayPal requirements.

PayPal Smart Payments now includes transaction logging for Credit Card and Tokenized Credit Card payments, as shown in the table below:

Enhanced Tokenization for Buckaroo SEPA Smart Payments (DEV-12181)

To support SEPA tokenized payments for Buckaroo Smart Payments (for pay method 37, Tokenized Direct Debit), the token is now created immediately during the online payment flow. This circumvents the initial step of requiring approval of the Direct Debit mandate from an initial invoice prior to submitting a second invoice for payment within the same Billing Group.

refund_descriptor_prefix Added for Buckaroo Smart Payments (DEV-12190)

To support refund transactions for Buckaroo Smart Payments, the field “refund_descriptor_prefix” has been introduced at both the Payment Gateway and Collection Group levels (Configuration > Payments > Payment Gateways/Collection Groups). This value is stored at the Field Options tab for the Payment Gateway setting and the Advanced Options tab for the Collection Group setting (Collection Group takes precedence). This field is a prefix to the soft descriptor as part of the refund action, also appearing at the Payment Details UI (Accounts > [search for an account] > Account Overview > Payments & Credits > Refunds). The combined value (refund_descriptor_prefix + soft_descriptor) appears on the customer's bank or credit card statement when a refund is issued (e.g., <Invoice_ID> + Refund:).

Billie CUI and Billie Connect Enhancements (DEV-12237)

• New slash command /estimate_a_service_credit” [Account No.]—Estimate a service credit for a specific account
• New slash command /estimate_a_service_credit” [Client Account ID]—Estimate a service credit for a specific Client Account ID
• Navigate Slash Commands with Keyboard—You can navigate the list of slash commands using your keyboard up and down arrows to select commands without using your mouse. 
• Prepopulate Account Number—When you are on an account in CCP (not on Home Page) and use a Slash “/” command that uses “Account No” we prepopulate the Account number into the prompt and the user can simply use the [tab] key to accept the Account No into the prompt.

• Stop Message Generation—You can now abort Billie's message generation to cancel an errant command or prompt.
• Disclaimer Text—The Billie interface now permanently displays the disclaimer, “These responses are AI-generated. Please validate before acting to avoid potential errors that may lead to real-world impacts or unintended consequences.” 

• The new client parameter, BILLIE_CREATE_CASH_CREDIT_REASON_CODE, defines a default reason code for Cash Credit creation by Billie. When Billie creates a Cash Credit and no reason code is specified, Billie will automatically use the configured default reason code from the client parameters. This ensures consistency and reduces manual input errors when processing Cash Credits without an explicitly provided reason code.
• The new client parameter, PLAN_RECOMMENDER_PLAN_EXCLUSION_PERCENTAGE_THRESHOLD, specifies the minimum savings percentage required for plan recommendations made by the Plan Recommender Agent, a Billie Connect and Billie CUI Specialty Agent. When the Plan Recommender Agent suggests plans, we exclude any plans that do not offer at least the specified percentage of savings. This ensures that only plans delivering meaningful cost benefits are presented to clients.

  Note: The exposure of these client parameters in the Crescendo UI is set for a future release.

CCP: Manage Child Accounts Update (DEV-12241)

The Account > Child Accounts page has been updated to include new Assign Child Account and View Account Hierarchy buttons. The following options can now be completed directly from the Child Accounts page: Assign Child Account, View Account Hierarchy, Unassign Child Account, and Go To Parent Account.

Product Catalog Rate Schedule Future Rate Versioning Support (DEV-8266)

This update introduces Product Catalog rate schedule future rate versioning to improve invoicing accuracy for clients using negative or positive bill lag days. When enabled, Aria selects the appropriate rate schedule version based on the invoice generation date, ensuring accurate billing for services like recurring, usage, and cancellation fees. Aria enhanced several APIs, listed below, supporting this feature.

The following APIs can result in proration and support this new feature by using dates you specify in the API call for performing the action:

• assign_acct_plan_m
• replace_acct_plan_m
• update_acct_plan_m
• cancel_acct_plan_m
• update_acct_plan_multi_m
• update_acct_complete_m
• edit_acct_plan_queued_change_m

If you pass a value of "true" for <include_rs_summary>, get_plan_details_m will return full Rate Schedule details, including future rates and tier data. The table below lists the new fields.

Aria has introduced the following three new output fields to several APIs:

• <future_rate flag>
• <future_rate_change_date>
• <future_rate_per_unit>

The following table details field usage for each updated API:

Enhancement to record_external_payment_m API to Include Payment Source Description (DEV-11826)

Aria has enhanced the record_external_payment_m API to include a payment type description you can specify, allowing for a more accurate accounting of external payments (e.g., "Visa," or "Cash"). You can record this value in the new input field <payment_source_description> in the API.

Payment Plans Phase 2 (DEV-12094)

In Phase 2 of Payment Plans, Aria introduces a new API get_payment_plan_details_m to retrieve detailed payment plan schedules, including due dates, amounts, and transaction details while fixing event payload data for accuracy. In addition, we improved the get_acct_balance_m and create_payment_plan_m APIs.

The new Core API get_payment_plan_details_m API retrieves detailed payment plan schedules, including sequence-level due dates, amounts, paid/remaining balances, transaction lists, and payment application details.

The get_acct_balance_m API now includes output fields to expose account and master plan instance past due balances, enabling accurate payment plan creation for overdue amounts.

The create_payment_plan_m API now includes expanded input options for payment plan creation, including support for multiple master plan instances and lump sum configurations (amount, type, date, days until due).

emandate_signature Added for Buckaroo Smart Payments (API)(DEV-12159)

The e-mandate signature field is now included when entering a payment method as part of Buckaroo's Smart Payments integration. This has been added when saving or updating a Direct Debit (pay method 26) or Tokenized Direct Debit SEPA (pay method 37) pay method. This field is now provided to enhance processing of customer chargeback requests.

This input field is formatted as follows:

This input field is now included in the following APIs:

• assign_acct_plan_m
• collect_from_account_m
• create_acct_billing_group_m*
• create_acct_complete_m
• create_order_m
• create_order_with_plan_m
• manage_pending_invoice_m
• settle_account_balance_m
• update_acct_billing_group_m
• update_acct_complete_m
• update_acct_plan_multi_m
• update_payment_method_m

*-The existing input field <mandate_signature_date> has been added for this API.

The <mandate_signature_date> field that was honored for Direct Debit payments is now honored also for Tokenized Direct Debt payments. This applies to the following APIs:

• collect_from_account_m
• create_order_m
• create_order_with_plan_m
• manage_pending_invoice_m
• settle_account_balance_m

PayPal Now Included in Smart Payments Integration (API)(DEV-12179)

Aria has added the following functionality included in the PayPal Smart Payments integration:

• 3DS Authentication for API Processing
• SCA Payment Indicators for CIT/MIT Processing

PayPal's Smart Payments integration includes 3D Secure authorization for Credit Cards using the following APIs:

• authorize_electronic_payment_m or update_payment_method_m for challenge form submission
• authorize_3dsecure_m for creation of the authorization

At the 3DS Authentication Settings section (under the Processing Options tab for the Payment Gateway and Collection Group levels), PayPal supports the Return URL option for the authorization in which you will be redirected after completing 3DS authentication. This can be specified at the following field:

You need to specify the Merchant website URL in the Payment Gateway/Collection group UI screen (which will get invoked when the shopper challenge is complete) based on need. By default, it will be redirected to the PayPal’s official website’s Home URL if no termination URL configured.

PayPal supports CIT/MIT processing for supported card brands by sending requested information in *SCA indicator fields, including the <rpm_ind> input field for the Aria APIs noted for 3DS Authentication. This applies to Credit Card and Tokenized Credit Card pay methods for the following card types:

• American Express
• Discover
• Mastercard
• Visa

When the <rpm_ind> value is sent via the API, it will override default system settings.

*-Strong Customer Authentication

refund_descriptor_prefix Added for Buckaroo Smart Payments (API)(DEV-12190)

For refunds via Buckaroo's Smart Payments, the issue_refund_to_acct_m API contains the existing <soft_descriptor> input. In the event of refund processing, clients should not override the existing <soft_descriptor> API value via this API when processing a refund. In most cases, the original <soft_descriptor> value configured at the time of payment should be retained. The order of precedence for honoring the refund soft descriptor in Buckaroo will be:

• API input
• Original payment soft descriptor
• Configuration value (Payment Gateway/Collection Group setting)

Cash Credit Application Details Now Returned in get_payment_applications_m for CCP (DEV-12206)

The get_payment_applications_m API has been enhanced to return accurate and complete invoice information required by the Cash Credit Application Details Drawer in the Customer Care Portal (CCP). This is enabled by four new output parameters, as follows: