This topic explains how the Billing Term soft date
Salesforce refers to soft dates as "relative date values". The soft date is resolved to an actual date. For example, Billing Central would resolve "ME-5d" as 5 days before the end of the month. is used to calculate billing periods and billing dates for billing schedules. For an introduction to soft dates, see Soft Dates.
A contract line item with a Billing Type of "Recurring Fixed" or "Recurring Variable" has a Start Date, First Bill Date, and a Billing Term:
- The Start Date and First Bill Date default from the contract header but can be overridden on the contract line item.
- The Billing Term is a soft date which defaults from the Plan Term if the contract was created from a plan. It can be overridden on the contract line item.
When you generate billing schedules for a contract, the Billing Term soft date on a contract line item is used with:
- The contract line item's Start Date to calculate billing periods for the schedules
- The contract line item's First Bill Date to calculate billing dates for the schedules.
Example 1
A +1M soft date means that dates will recur monthly after the date specified.
| Billing Term | Start Date | First Bill Date |
|---|---|---|
| +1M | November 5 2019 | November 15 2019 |
The billing schedules for this contract line item will have monthly billing periods starting on the fifth day of each month (from November 5, 2019), and monthly billing dates on the fifteenth day of each month (from November 15, 2019).
|
Billing Periods |
Billing Dates |
|---|---|
| November 5 - December 4 | November 15 |
| December 5 - January 4 | December 15 |
| January 5 - February 4 | January 15 |
When using the +1M soft date with the end of the month, the calculated dates vary depending on the month's duration. See Soft Dates for more information.
Example 2
A MB+16d soft date means that dates will recur sixteen days after the beginning of each month.
| Billing Term | Start Date | First Bill Date |
|---|---|---|
| MB+16d | November 21 2019 | November 29 2019 |
The billing schedules for this contract line item will have monthly billing periods starting on the seventeenth day of each month and monthly billing dates on the seventeenth day of each month. Because the contract line item starts on November 21 and the first bill date is November 29, the first billing schedule will use those dates. After the first period, the billing dates and billing periods align with the soft date.
|
Billing Periods |
Billing Dates |
|---|---|
| November 21 - December 16 | November 29 |
| December 17 - January 16 | December 17 |
| January 17 - February 16 | January 17 |
Example 3
This is the same as Example 2 but the first bill date is November 12, 2019.
| Billing Term | Start Date | First Bill Date |
|---|---|---|
| MB+16d | November 21 2019 | November 12 2019 |
The result is that the customer is billed twice before the start date, and then a whole month in advance. Billing Date 3 (December 17) covers the period starting January 17.
|
Billing Periods |
Billing Dates |
|---|---|
| November 21 - December 16 | November 12 |
| December 17 - January 16 | November 17 |
| January 17 - February 16 | December 17 |
Example 4
This is the same as Example 2 but the first bill date is December 22, 2019.
| Billing Term | Start Date | First Bill Date |
|---|---|---|
| MB+16d | November 21 2019 | December 22 2019 |
Using the MB+16d soft date, the second billing date would fall on December 17 but that is earlier than the first bill date (December 22). Therefore the billing dates all move on one and the customer is billed in arrears.
|
Billing Periods |
Billing Dates |
|---|---|
| November 21 - December 16 | December 22 |
| December 17 - January 16 | January 17 |
| January 17 - February 16 | February 17 |
Understanding which Billing Periods will be Billed
When you bill a contract by clicking Create Billing Documents, you must enter a date range (or a specific date) for use by the billing process. These dates do not relate to billing periods; they relate to billing dates. Only billing schedules with a billing date that falls within this date range (or on the specific date) are billed.
Let's illustrate this using Example 4:
- If you choose to bill everything On or Before December 20, 2019 nothing is billed because there are no billing dates for the contract line item before that date.
- If you choose to bill everything On or Before January 20, 2020 then first and second periods are both billed because their billing dates fall before that date.