Bill Codes Vs. Billing Items... What You Need To Know, And How They Make Your Life Easier!

With all the vacations and graduations each summer, it’s easy to forget that a new Billing Year is probably starting!  That means you’ll most likely be copying or creating Bill Codes and Billing items.  Before you begin though, let’s talk about what they are and how using them makes your life a lot easier in the world of Student Billing.


First, let’s cover the differences between Bill Codes and Billing Items.


Bill Codes:

• 
  
• Bill Codes are Table entries
  

• 
  
• They link Billing Items and Student records
  

• 
  
• They have dates tied to them telling the system when they are in effect
  

Billing Items:

• 
  
• Billing Items contain the most important billing information like an Amount, GL Distribution, and Schedule Dates
  

• 
  
• They can be added manually, but are often generated at once based on the Bill Codes they are associated with
  

Here’s an example of a 10-Pay Scheduled Tuition Item that has an associated Bill Code.  When creating the Billing Item, just select the appropriate Bill Code from the dropdown.  NOTE: Bill Codes can only be associated with Automatic Scheduled Items, not Flat Rate Items or Per Usage Items.




On the Student Record below, I’ve added the Tuition10PAY Bill Code associated with the above Billing Item.  I initially created the Bill Code in Configuration, Tables, Bill Codes.  NOTE: They can be associated with either a Billing Cycle or specific dates.




At this point, I could run Generate Transactions Automatically to add the 10-Pay Tuition Billing Item to this Student’s Record!  This works because the Bill Code is associated with the Item, and since we’d be generating for the 2014-2015 year, the system adds any Billing Item with a Bill Code for that year.


Sounds easy right?  It is!  What’s also easy is adding Bill Codes globally!  There’s a built in feature for this, and we’ve created Help Guides for the most common uses, such as How to Globally Add Bill Codes or How to Copy Bill Codes.  You can also Copy both Billing Items and Bill Codes at once if your organization uses Billing Cycles.  Just access that section from Configuration, and when copying, choose to bring over prior years’ Billing Items and Codes!


It’s helpful to focus on three main points when comparing Bill Codes and Billing Items:

• 
  
• Bill Codes are just Table Entries with Dates; Billing Items contain the specifics for Billing
  
• When combined, they enable users to complete Automatic Billing
  
• We can add them both manually, or create them using a Global Process
  

Have questions? Let me know in the comments below!