Many types of service objects have meters. For example, a car has a trip meter, and a copying machines has a meter that registers the number of copies printed. A meter is in other words is to measure the usage of an object and the usage should in some cases trigger service or invoicing.
To schedule services based on the usage you can use Preventive Maintenance actions, which can generate work orders when an object has been used for a certain amount of time, run a certain distance, or printed a certain amount of copies, etc. And in order to invoice a customer for a certain amount of time, distance or number of copies (if for example you and not the customer owns the object), you can use IFS/Metering invoicing.
The main process for equipment metering invoicing starts with creating a parameter ('meter') in Maintenance Basic Data/Parameters. The parameter indicates what is going to be measured on an object ID's meter. When defining a parameter, the parameter needs to be assigned a value type. The value type can either be Limit or Accumulated. For metering invoicing purposes the Accumulated value type is most common.
After the parameter has been created you need to establish an object ID and connect the parameter to the object in IFS/Equipment. This parameter can be used both in PM actions and metering invoicing.
Thereafter you can define the conditions for the equipment metering invoicing. This is done directly on the object ID, in the Metering Invoicing page (You need to install IFS/Metering Invoice). You can have several meters on the same object, and you can have several metering invoice conditions on the same object meter.
Metering invoicing can either be done at a certain time interval by using the generation type Interval, e.g., Once a month or once in six months, etc or the invoicing can be executed based on the usage (the generation type should be set to Limit), e.g., Every ten thousand copies. For both generation types you can define if the charge should be a fixed price, or if the charges should be calculated based on the usage. If the charges should be calculated based on the usage, the system will retrieve the price based on the sales part connected to the metering invoice line. You can either use the sales part's list price, or define a price list from which the system should retrieve the price. By using a price list you can define graduated prices, i.e., per month of usage. Also, it is only possible to perform advance invoicing.
If the generation type Interval is used you need to define a minimum and maximum value. For example you can invoice the customer once a month for whatever usage has been reported, the minimum charge being $100 and the maximum charge being $5000.
To record the usage of an object, measurements have to be entered against the object's parameter. This can be done in Measurements for Object.
To create metering invoices you can either manually create an invoice directly from the Object id's Metering Invoicing page by clicking the right mouse button option Generate Invoice, or you can use an invoice generation routine that automatically creates invoices for all, or selected customers. This is done by starting an invoice job in the Generation of Metering Invoices assistant. You have the option to define if the job should run on line, or in the background or if it should be scheduled to run at a particular time, or if it should run at a particular time on a regular basis (daily or weekly).
In the assistant you need to specify the generation type, i.e., Limit or Interval. You also have the option to use customer and site as generation criteria. You need to specify the maintenance organization and the authorizer which will be used to process the work orders that are created in the background. If you would like to schedule the job you can also specify the time and how often (daily or weekly) the job should be run.
When the invoicing is done, the system will check if an invoice is due according to a defined time interval (if generation type 'Interval' is used), or usage limit (if generation type 'Limit' is used). If an invoice is due, a work order will be created (for each metering invoice line that is due), along with a work task and a fixed price sales line will be created. The sales line will be transferred to a customer order, which is released. The work task is set to status Finished and follow by finishing the work order as well. This is done automatically in the background. If the order type used on the customer order is defined without stops, the customer order will be processed to status Invoiced/Closed.
To see information about how what has been invoiced and when for a particular metering invoice line, you can click the right mouse option Metering Invoicing History directly from the Object ID's metering invoice line. To see an overview of all metering invoice transactions you can go to Metering Invoice History.
You have the option to correct a meter reading, or define an end or start reading for a meter. This is important, e.g., for a rental car where the trip meter should be read before and after the ride.
Metering Invoice is used in IFS/Service Management.