Collection Management (FSCM) in Utility companies (FICA).

[sheel1]

Hi Gurus

We have a client that is a utility company. It has implemented FICA where they manage all receivables and customer payment. Only summary  lines are posted to General Ledger and nothing is posted to traditional AR sub-ledger.

Client wants to implement FSCM - Collection management. As per my understanding FSCM collection management is integrated to traditional AR sub-ledger and cannot work with FICA alone.

Is my understanding right. In case it is not possible, what is the other solution we have in utilities similar to collection management.

Thanks

[sheel1]

Thanks Rahul/William

I configured BRF, created event that in turn will trigger action to identify collection step. I assigned Collection strategy to application class and event. I assigned collection strategy to contract in T-Code FPCG. Business partner has open items.

Even then when I am running dunning proposal for the respective business partner using T-Code FPVA, my dunning proposal is empty.

Do you think I am missing anything. Your help will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

Saurabh

[william_eastman]

Saurabh:

there are too many reasons for that, and many of them are legitimate.  Mostly, you need to trace your rules to find out if they are well configured.  Your application log should also give some hint.

regards,

bill.

[sheel1]

Thanks William. I am not finding any trace. I did some search and looks like I have not implemented function modules ZFKK_EVENT_TRACE_BRF_0315 and ZFKK_EVENT_TRACE_BRF_1799. I will get it implemented and try again. I will let you know my findings.

[sheel1]

Looks like I was restricting action with a expression that's condition was not meeting, therefore it was not generating any trace and therefore no dunning proposal was getting created.

Thanks for your help.

[sheel1]

Hi William,

I configured basic dunning functionality and is able to call collection step, create work items and dunning correspondence.

I have a question regarding tables that can be used in expression "Context" in BRF. I know we can use table FKKMAKO and FKKMAZE. Can we use table DFKKMOP also in context?

Basically I want to know if at the time of dunning proposal - Will the program fetch data from table DFKKMOP so that it can be used in BRF expressions like "Decision Tree".

Thanks

Saurabh

[william_eastman]

Saurabh:

You can create an expression in brfplus to read the data you need.  Or you can add logic in event 315 to get the data and pass it in to your application.

regards,

bill.

[sheel1]

Thanks Bill. I am using BRF. I found class 0TB001 using which I can read any table.

[william_eastman]

why are you using BRF?  at this stage customers should only use brfplus.

[rahul_paldiwal2]

Saurabh,

If you want to do collections management for utility customers and are currently using ISU as your billing engine, then you will need to look at Collection Strategy in FICA. It uses Business Rule Framework to define your collection rules.

Regards,
Rahul

[william_eastman]

Collections management is part of FICA - an enhancement of standard dunning process.  It is different than FSCM collections.  You can find information in the help.

[sheel1]

Hi Bill

I am almost finalizing my configuration, however I am having issues with "Area of responsibility". I want to use a field that is not available for filtering work items. Do you know if we can add new field for Collection Units.

Thanks

Saurabh

[william_eastman]

What is the requirement/issue? i dont understand the challenge

[sheel1]

Hi Bill

I am trying to maintain Unit Responsibilities to filter work items for a collection unit. Our client has units based on area i.e. districts. In T-Code FKKCLERK_CM_CUUNIT by default to divide area we have few fields available like Postal Code, City etc. But these fields does not uniquely and correctly identify districts.

There is other field "CITY2" is maintained in BP master data that uniquely identifies these district, however this field is not available in t-code FKKCLERK_CM_CUUNIT.

Is there a way if we can add this field CITY2 as filtering criteria.

Thanks

Saurabh

[william_eastman]

you can use event 2855 and extend the FKKCLERK_CM_BINDING_OBJECTS structure with CI_CLERKFIELDS.