Create Payment Plan
Application component: Invoicing
App type: SAP GUI
Description:   You use the Payment Plan component to manage payment plans. In the payment plan, the utility company and the customer decide the amount to be paid with each bill. Instead of paying the actual bill amount, which varies according to season, the customer then has either a fixed payment plan or a payment plan in which the fluctuation of the amount is kept to a minimum. The utility company records the difference between the payment plan amount and the actual bill amount and charges it at a later date.   Depending on the settings that you defined in Customizing , you can either enter an amount for a predefined period (generally 12 months) in the payment plan, or you can use the previous bills to calculate an average value for the current bill. Within the payment period, the Balance Forward Amount cumulates the positive and the negative deviations between the calculated payment plan amount and the actual bill amount.   Depending on the category to which the payment plan belongs, or depending on the settings in the contract, the difference amount is reimbursed or charged to the customer when the payment plan expires or, at the very latest, when the customers moves out of the premise.  Consumption billing must take place for every due date of the payment plan. Because of this, the payment plan is not comparable to a statistical budget billing plan or a partial bill, in which the relevant amounts are charged in between two periodic bills.  
Key features:  Payment Plan Procedure  The following payment plan categories exist:   Budget billing plan (BBP)   An average amount is calculated from billing from a specific number of months defined in Customizing.  The payment plan amount is determined from the amount of the previous bill period using one of the following procedures:  The amount from the previous bill period is adjusted by a factor of the expected increase in consumption and price.  The amount from the previous bill period is adjusted using weighting and adjustment factors.  The customer pays this average amount for a period of 12 months. At the end of this 12 month period, a new average amount is calculated for the next period. The first payment plan can also be valid for a period of less than 12 months.  In addition to the payment plan, the supplier carries out actual billing every month, the results of which are stated on the bill. The system also calculates the difference between the actual consumption amount and the average amount, performs monthly updates and also displays the results on the bill.  You can determine the bill period as well as whether the payment plan amount is requested from the customer in the last month or whether only the balance forward amount is charged or reimbursed. You can also make a number of other settings regarding credit and receivables.  See Defining Payment Plan Types     Average monthly billing (AMB)   With this payment plan, the budget billing amount to be paid is determined each month or for every new bill. The amount determined from the mean value of the previous bill period. This mean value is determined using one of the following procedures:  The mean value is the arithmetic mean (average value)  The mean value is adjusted using weighting and adjustment factors  In Customizing, you can define whether the balance forward amount is charged at the end of the payment plan period or whether it is updated until the payment plan is ended completely.  See Payment Plan Customizing  Note  You can only create payment plans from category BBP. Payment plans from category AMB are not actually created but are managed as virtual payment plans in the system based on the start month or alternative start month defined in the contract. When the monthly bill is created, the payment plan data is evaluated and included in the calculation of the payment plan amount.