When defining a billing series you must fill in the fields on the "Efforts" and "Format" tabs.
Billing series code
Enter a code to identify the series.
Description
Enter a brief description of the series and how you'll use it. The billing series code and description identify the series when you're ready to link it to a publication, tracking code, or renewal series.
Send first bill
These options control when the first bill will be issued. You can specify the first bill policy either here on the billing series definition screen, or on the offer definitions, or on the publication definition screen. First bill policies set on the billing series definition take precedence over policies set in the other two locations.
Send first bill immediately
Choose this option if you want to send the first bill for a new order the next time you run the billing update. Otherwise, leave this field blank. (Click here for details on the options for sending first bills.)
Send first bill xxx days after first issue
Choose this option and then enter the number of days you want to delay the bill after you've sent the first issue. If you enter 0 in this field, QuickFill produces the bill when you run the first 'Billing' update after you've sent the first issue. (Click here for details on the options for sending first bills.)
Note: delaying bills for renewal orders
If you would like send bills for renewal orders only after the first issue of a renewal order has been served, check the 'Delay the billing of renewal orders until their first issue has been served' field on the 'Billing' tab of your publication definition.
When the 'Delay the billing of renewal orders until their first issue has been served' field is checked and an "earliest bill date" is specified (in the definition of the offer selected for a renewal order), QuickFill will not produce a bill for the renewal order until its first issue has been served and the earliest bill date has been reached.
Send first bill on earliest date
Choose this option and if you want QuickFill to delay billing until a specific date. Unlike the previous two billing fields, this field does apply to renewal orders. You can use this option, for example, to implement a "renew now and receive no bill until January 1" type of campaign. (Click here for details on the options for sending first bills.)
Use billing control from offer or pub
This is the default setting. Choosing this option causes QuickFill to check the offer definition for the first bill policies. If the policies are not specified there then it checks the publication definition.
Unpaid orders using this billing series...may be automatically linked together and billed as a combination order.
Check this box and QuickFill will attempt to link together orders with the same order date and billing address so that they can be billed together on a single bill. Click here for more information on combination billing.
The following fields are repeated, once for each effort in the series. You can have from one to eight efforts. When you're entering information for each of these efforts, fill in each line in order. Don't skip any lines.
Package
Specify here which package you want to use for each billing effort (click here for details on billing packages).
You can't type directly in this field. Right click and select "Pick package" to select from a list of billing packages you've already defined; select "New package" to create a new billing package; select "Change package" to change the definition of the billing package now in this field (be very careful when using the "Change package" option as the definition of the package will be changed in every place that it is used); or select "Clear" to remove a package from the billing series definition. You would use the "Clear" option to delete a package from a series for which you've decided to use one less billing effort.
Days until next bill
Once you've started sending a billing series, QuickFill knows when to send the next bill by the "days-between-billing dates" you specify. QuickFill uses the number you enter here to determine the earliest date it will generate the next billing effort in the series.
Example: QuickFill generates the first bill for a new order on September 1. You've entered "21" in the 'Days until next bill' field on line 1 of the billing series definition form. You run the 'Billing' update for this publication twice a week. When you run the 'Billing' update on September 20, QuickFill won't generate a second bill for the order. The reason: only 19 days have passed since it produced the first bill. But on September 22, it will generate the second bill. In fact, this date is the earliest it will generate the second bill.
When you run the 'Billing' update, QuickFill adds the number you enter in this 'Days until next bill' field to the date it generated the most recent bill to see whether it is yet time to produce a new bill for an order. So any changes you make in this field affect the 'Billing' update immediately. In the example above, say you changed the number in the 'Days until next bill' field to 19 or less before running the update on September 20. Now, QuickFill would generate a second bill when you ran the update on September 20.
Note: canceling for nonpayment
QuickFill uses the number you put in the 'Days until next bill' field for the last effort in the series to determine when to cancel an order for nonpayment. That is, QuickFill cancels the order with the first 'Billing' update you run after the number of days you enter for this last effort have elapsed. For example, you generate the last bill in the series on September 20. The number in the 'Days until next bill' field for this effort is 30. QuickFill will cancel this subscription the first time after October 20 that you run the 'Billing' update.
If you plan to send a 'Cancel' bill, do not define it on the 'Billing series' screen. The 'Cancel' bill and messages are defined on the publication definition billing tab.
Leave this field blank if you want to send the bill to the bill-to address of a two-party subscription. Check this field if you want to send the bill to the ship-to address of a two-party subscription. For group subscriptions, QuickFill always addresses the bill to the bill-to address. (Of course, it doesn't matter what you enter here as far as single subscriptions are concerned. The bill goes to the only available address.)
The bills for agency subscriptions always go to the agency.
1st message, 2nd message
Use these fields to select the messages you want printed on the bills. Each bill can contain up to two messages (click here to see a sample bill and how the messages are positioned on it).
You can't type directly in this field. Right click and select "Pick message" to select from a list of messages you've already defined; select "New message" to create a new message; select "Change message" to change the definition of the message now in this field (be very careful when using the "Change message" option as the definition of the message will be changed in every place that it is used); or select "Clear" to remove a message from the billing series definition. You would use the "Clear" option to delete a message from a series for which you've decided to send one less bill or use only one message for a particular billing effort.
If you don't enter a message in one or both of these fields, you'll have space on your bill form for preprinted messages.
Suspend at effort
QuickFill lets you cut off issues to an unpaid order while you continue billing that order. After QuickFill generates the billing effort you specify in this field, it stops generating issue labels for this order. (If you have received a partial payment, QuickFill will not suspend the order until all of the issues that the subscriber paid for have been served.)
You can leave this field blank. If you do, QuickFill continues to generate issue labels, until it automatically cancels the subscription for nonpayment when the billing series ends.