Usage pools

This option allows you to use pooled mileage functionality to consolidate and calculate mileage across units and issue a single invoice.

Given the number of methods of calculating pooled mileage, and the possibility of additional calculations being added in the future, the approach taken to handling these calculations is to allow vehicles in non-standard pools to be flagged as pooled but with an additional identifier that show that Enrich does not have to carry out any pooling calculations.

Enrich will produce a simple report that captures all of the key pooling information for the non-standard pools. The report will be sorted by customer and pool and will show the inclusive mileage amount and actual mileage for each vehicle within the pool. The report may then be downloaded and used by the billing team to calculate the pooled mileage bill for each customer.

Contract sections added to non-standard pools will be ignored by the billing calendar and billing engine. Enrich will exclude them from all billing calculations.

Units may be grouped into a pool where the pool is defined at the customer level. Each customer may have any number of arbitrary groups. The group itself defines the billing parameters and rates to be used by the group, essentially overriding any billing parameters (such as rates) defined at the unit level.

The validations performed when units are added to a pool will be performed regardless of the standard pool flag.

It is important that the utilisation sections are defined consistently for all units within a given pool. Specifically, the sections must all have the same metric type, the same unit of measure, and the same free utilisation option. Additionally, the free utilisation option must match the option set on the billing group. These restrictions will be checked when a unit is added to a pool.

The contract schedule A screen, which lists the units on a contract, will have an indicator that pools exist on the contract. This will help to remind the administrator that pools are in effect and that, when adding a new unit, it should be considered whether the unit should be added to a pool.

Rates defined for the pool will not be included in the Enrich CPI escalation processing. The rates defined at the unit level, however, may be included even though that unit/section is part of a pool. The result is that the unit rates may differ from the pool rate over time.

A report is available to identify differences between the pool rate and the unit rates. This report will compare the unit-level rates to the pool rate for all units in the pool and list the units where the rate is different. After reviewing the report you may decide to change the pool rate. The change will be made manually.

Note that CPI processing has not been changed. This includes the CPI letters. Therefore, customers may still receive a letter showing that their distance charge rate was escalated; however, the customer would be aware that the unit would be billed at the pool rate. When the pool rate is changed manually a letter will be issued, manually, to inform the customer that the rate will be changed.

The Billing Calendar will define the frequency of the calculation for the pooled mileage billing. This will typically be an annual process. The cycle will likely be on the anniversary of the pool effective date.

The calculation of the pooled mileage consists of the following:

1. Calculate the sum of the unit-level free amounts. For each unit this value is defined by unit, but prorated by the portion of time the unit was in the pool for the current billing cycle. The prorate calculation is: days in pool / days in period * free utilization amount.
   1. Verify that this is renewal
   2. Roll or not
   3. Miss billing if no reading
2. Calculate the sum of the actual mileage for the units within the pool for the period. For each unit this value is determined by subtracting the reading as of the start of the cycle from the reading as of the end of the cycle. If the unit was not in the pool for the full cycle, the readings at the point where the unit was added or removed from the cycle will be used. If a reading is not found for the date at which it entered or left the pool, the reading obtained will be prorated according to the reading date. (By making it mandatory for the user to enter readings upon adding/removing units from the pool, a reading should always be found.)
3. If the difference is such that the mileage exceeds the allowed mileage, a charge will be calculated by multiplying the pool rate by the difference between the sum of the mileage and free amounts.
4. If the difference is such that the mileage is the same or less than the allowed mileage, no credit is issued.
5. The pool rate is the effective rate relative to the billing period.

A report exists to support the pooled excess calculation. The report shows the calculation at the unit level. The pooled excess billing run updates the unit-level billing details even though the charges are invoiced to the customer at the pool level. The pooled excess calculation consists of an over/under calculation for each unit. A contract billing record is written for each unit representing the charge or credit amount for the unit. If the sum of these values is a charge, an invoice is issued for the sum.

One use of the billing detail report is to show where units are being over- and under-utilized by the customer. This may be used as a tool to suggest the relocation of the customer equipment, swapping the under-utilized equipment with the over-utilized equipment.

Add usage pool or back to Customer Master