Bill Code Maintenance

Each bill item that is charged to a client is assigned to a bill code, which is then used in the invoicing process.

In Rates and Rules, bill codes are used in the configuration of bill agreements whereby the bill codes are used to map pay codes, which are output by the pay agreement interpretation process, to the corresponding bill codes that will be used during invoicing.

Bill codes can also be used as manual items. Manual items represent allowances or re-imbursements that payees can claim under the conditions of the pay agreement under which they are covered. If a bill code is used by a manual condition of a pay rate rule within a bill agreement, the bill code appears as a selectable manual item on timesheets for job orders to which the agreement applies.

The following types of bill codes can be created within Rates and Rules:

• timesheet

• manual.

Timesheet bill codes represent bill items covered by a bill agreement and are applied as a result of the Rates and Rules interpretation process. Manual bill codes are bill codes used in the manual invoicing process within the Billing application.

In order to define create a bill code, the following attributes must be defined:

• bill code type (for timesheet bill codes only)

• unit type (for timesheet bill codes only)

• rate (for manual bill codes only)

• tax exemptions

• linked pay codes (for timesheet bill codes only).

Each of these are described below.

Bill Code Type

The bill code type determines the type of bill item to which a bill code corresponds. It is used as a means by which to group similar bill codes. The bill code type can be one of the following:

• ordinary – groups bill codes corresponding to billing of regular work hours

• overtime – groups bill codes corresponding to billing of overtime work hours

• allowance – groups bill codes corresponding to billing of allowance payments/manual items

• leave - groups bill codes corresponding to billing of leave/absences.

Unit Type

The unit type determines if the bill items assigned to the bill code are counted in terms of hours or units. For example, bill items that correspond to hours worked by a payee are counted in hours. Bill items that represent allowances/manual items claimed by a payee are counted in terms of units (for example: taxi fare x 4).

Rate

The rate determines the per hour/per unit monetary rate that applies to bill items invoiced against the bill code.

Tax Exemptions

Each bill code must be assigned to a country. The country to which a bill code is assigned determines which taxes may be applicable to bill items invoiced against that bill code. You can flag a bill code as being exempt of any of the taxes applicable to the country to which the bill code belongs, if appropriate. This prevents the exempted tax from being applied to bill items invoiced against the bill code.

The applicable taxes for each country configured within your system are created via the Taxation Maintenance option in the Billing application.

Linked Pay Codes

When timesheets are paid according to standard rates as opposed to agreement rates, each pay item that is defined in the standard rates matrix on a job order must be linked to a corresponding bill code so that a bill amount can be calculated for each pay item. Therefore, a bill code can be linked to one or more pay codes to determine which bill code corresponds to a pay code when a given pay code is defined within the standard rates that apply to a job order.