Searching for Bills

This chapter discusses how to:

Specify bill search criteria and sort bill search results.
Review bill search results.
Refine bill search criteria.
Use wildcard features to refine bill search queries.
Interpret bill search results.

Specifying Bill Search Criteria and Sorting Bill Search Results

This section discusses how to:

Define search criteria.
Sort bill search results.

Pages Used to Specify Bill Search Criteria and Sort Bill Search Results

Page Name	Object Name	Navigation	Usage
Bills Not Invoiced - Bill Search	BI_BILL_SEARCH	Billing, Locate Bills, Bills Not Invoiced, Bill Search	Search the system for any bill not invoiced that satisfies a unique set of parameters that you provide.
Lines Not Invoiced - Bill Line Search	BI_LINE_SEARCH	Billing, Locate Bills, Lines Not Invoiced, Bill Line Search	Search the system for any bill line not yet invoiced that satisfies a unique set of parameters that you provide.
Bills Invoiced - Bill Search	BI_BILL_SEARCH_INQ	Billing, Locate Bills, Bills Invoiced, Bill Search	Search for any invoiced bills and select bills for reprint.
Lines Invoiced - Bill Line Search	BI_LINE_SEARCH_INQ	Billing, Locate Bills, Lines Invoiced, Bill Line Search	Search for any invoiced bill lines.

Defining Search Criteria

Access the Bills Not Invoiced - Bill Search page or the Lines Not Invoiced - Bill Line Search page.

Business Unit	This field is required.
Bill To	Select Contract or Customer, and in the adjacent field, select from the list of contract or customer numbers. This field is required.
Currency Option	Search by transaction currency, base currency, or euro currency.
Search	Click the Search button to run the search query.
	Click the Header Selection Criteria button to access the Bill Search Criteria page and refine the search criteria. When you click OK, the system runs the search based on these parameters and then returns you to the Bills Not Invoiced - Bill Search or Lines Not Invoiced - Bill Line Search page.
	Click the Bill Search Reset button to reset values to the defaults.

Sorting Bill Search Results

Access the Bills Not Invoiced - Bill Search page or the Lines Not Invoiced - Bill Line Search page.

The Sort field orders the query results and displays them based on these specified sort options:

AA	Invoice amount (ascending).
AD	Invoice amount (descending).
IA	Invoice number (ascending). This is the default value.
ID	Invoice number (descending).
SA	Invoice status (ascending). This value is available only on the Bills Not Invoiced page.
SD	Invoice status (descending). This status is available only on the Bills Not Invoiced page.
JA	Description (ascending). This status is available only on the Lines Not Invoiced - Bill Line Search page.
JD	Description (descending). This status is available only on the Lines Not Invoiced - Bill Line Search page.
L	Invoice line order. This status is available only on the Lines Not Invoiced - Bill Line Search page.
S	Line sequence order. This status is available only on the Lines Not Invoiced - Bill Line Search page.
	Click the Sort button to run the sort.

Reviewing Bill Search Results

The page that displays the search results is determined by the type of query, either bill or bill line, that you initiate.

This section discusses how to:

Review results on the Bills Not Invoiced and Bills Invoiced pages.
Review results on the Lines Not Invoiced and Lines Invoiced pages.

Reviewing Results on the Bills Not Invoiced and Bills Invoiced Pages

Access the Bills Not Invoiced or Bills Invoiced page.

Reprint Invoices	Click to reprint bills that you specify by selecting the adjacent Select field. The system reprints these invoices using the output destination and server preferences that you define on the User Preferences - Billing page. This button is available from the Bills Invoiced page only. Note. If any line on an invoice has a summarization template selected, then a summarized invoice will be printed; otherwise, a detail invoice will be printed.
Bill Search Results	Displays all of the bills that satisfy the search criteria.
Select	Select one check box at a time to activate the links at the bottom of this page. Use these links to navigate to the bill that you select. Depending on the link that you click, the system transfers you to the appropriate bill entry page. To reprint invoices, select one or multiple bills and click the Reprint Invoices button. Note. When you navigate to the selected bill, the system displays the bill in the transaction currency even if you were searching in base or euro currency mode.
Dynamic	The field that is adjacent to the Source field is a dynamic column containing a series of options. When you select from the available options, the system returns all of the values for that option for each of the bills listed. For example, if you select Media, the system returns the media value for each bill. You can change the selection at any time during the display without having to rerun the query. The option is initially set by the value that you select in the Ref (reference) field on the Bill Search Criteria page; you can override this default.
Template Inv Flg (template invoice flag)	Indicates if this is an actual bill or merely a template.
Invoice Amount	Includes all calculated taxes. The invoice amounts and currency codes correspond to the currency that you select in the Bill Search Criteria page. Changing the currency on this page changes the values in the Invoice Amount column and the corresponding currency code.

Reviewing Results on the Lines Not Invoiced and Lines Invoiced Pages

Access the Lines Not Invoiced and Lines Invoiced page.

Sel (select)	Select one check box at a time to activate the links at the bottom of this page. Use these links to navigate to the selected bill. Depending on the link that you click, the system displays the appropriate page in bill entry. Note. When you navigate to the selected bill, the system displays the bill in the transaction currency, even if you were searching in base or euro currency mode.
Line number	Indicates the order of the bill line when it is printed on the document. If the bill has been through the Pro Forma Pre-process or the invoice Finalization process, the system assigned a line number to it.
Seq (sequence)	The natural order in which the system adds the lines onto the bill. A bill line always has a sequence number regardless of whether it has been printed, prepared, or finalized. If the system added lines through the Billing Interface, the sequence number of each line is unique, but order may not be significant.
Desc (description) or Identifier	Elect to display the description field or the identifier code field from the bill line record.
Dynamic column for reference	This field, adjacent to the Descr or Identifier column, is a dynamic column containing a series of options. When you select an option, the system returns all of the values for that option for each of the listed bills. For example, if you select PO, the system returns the purchase order value for each bill. You can change the selection at any time during the display without having to rerun the query. The default is the value that you select in the Ref field on the Bill Search Criteria page; you can override this default.
Dynamic column for date selection	This field, adjacent to the dynamic column for reference, contains a series of options. When you select an option, the system returns all of the values for that option for each of the listed bills. For example, if you select Contract, the system returns the contract date value for each bill. You can change the selection at any time during the display without having to rerun the query. The default is the value that you select in the Ref field on the Bill Search Criteria page; you can override this default.
Gross Ext (gross extended) or Net Ext (net extended)	Select the gross extended amount, which is the unit price multiplied by the quantity, or the net extended amount, which includes any discounts or surcharges that are applied.
Discount, Surcharge, and Tax	An asterisk in any of these three columns indicates that this line has a discount, surcharge, or tax code associated with it.

Refining Bill Search Criteria

This section discusses how to:

Refine bill-header search criteria.
Refine line-level search criteria.

Pages Used to Refine Bill Search Criteria

Page Name	Object Name	Navigation	Usage
Bill Search Criteria	BILL_SEARCH_CRIT	Click the Header Selection Criteria button on the Bills Not Invoiced - Bill Search or Bills Invoiced - Bill Search page.	Refine bill search criteria.
Bill Line Search Criteria	BILL_LSEARCH_CRIT	Click the Bill Line Search button on the Lines Not Invoiced - Bill Line Search or the Lines Invoiced - Bill Search page.	Refine bill-line search criteria.

Refining Bill Header Search Criteria

Access the Bill Search Criteria page.

Billing Currency Option	Search by transaction, base, or euro currency. Use the Currency Value option to restrict the search to a particular currency, such as USD (U.S. dollars). If you leave this field blank, the results can include multiple currencies.
Ref Select (reference selection)	Sets the orientation for the search page. Click the detail button to select a reference code that contains meaningful information in the search context. Reference enables you to qualify which values for the reference that you would like to include. For example, using the default reference Invoice (I), you can enter a search value of OE% in Ref Query Value (reference query value) to search for invoices that begin with the letters OE. The reference that you select also determines the default column value for the dynamic column that is adjacent to the Source field in the search results page's scroll area. For example, if you select Invoice as the reference, the default column value is PO. In the field that is adjacent to Ref Select, specify the search at either the bill header or line level. These references are available only at the header level: Customer (U). Invoice (I). Consolidated Key (K). Consolidated Invoice (N). Note. If you select Contract in the Bill To field on the Bills Not Invoiced page, you cannot elect to search by contract number in the Ref field on the Bill Search Criteria page. Likewise, if you select Customer in the Bill To field on the Bills Not Invoiced page, you cannot elect to search by customer in the Ref field on the Bill Search Criteria page.
Bill Type, Source, and Status	Enter values to narrow the search to specific bill types or sources, or those bills with a specific status. When you access the Bill Search Criteria page from the Bills Not Invoiced - Bill Search page, bills with a status of invoiced or final are not available for selection; this page searches only for bills that have not been invoiced.
Date, Amt Operand(amount operand), and Amount	Enter values to search by an invoice date or amount. Use the Amt Operand field to further refine the search criteria. If you search by invoice amount, specify a corresponding currency code in the field that is adjacent to the Amount field.

Refining Line Level Search Criteria

Access the Bill Line Search Criteria page.

Ref

Select a reference code that contains meaningful information in the search context to set the orientation for the search page. Selecting a reference enables you to qualify which values for the reference that you want to include. For example, using the default reference, Invoice (I), you can enter a search value of OE% to see only invoices that begin with the letters OE. The reference that you select also determines the default column value for the field that is adjacent to the Descr or Identifier column on the Lines Not Invoiced- Bill Line Search page. For an invoice reference, the default column values are I (identifier), F (charge from), and N (net extended amount).

Date

Various dates are tracked at the bill line level and may be useful in identifying billing activity. The system stores these dates at the line level:

Charge From Date (F).
Contract Date (N).
Order Date (O).
Charge To Date (T).

Use the amount operands field to further refine the search criteria.

Amt (amount)

You can enter search criteria for bill lines by their dollar amounts. In the adjacent field, you can search by:

Gross Extended Amount (G): Without discounts or surcharges applied.

Net Extended Amount (N): With discounts or surcharges applied.

Use the amount operands field to further refine the search criteria, or enter an actual date or dollar amount in the open field for the comparison search.

Using Wildcard Features to Refine Bill Search Queries

Generally billing search engines support standard wildcard features for the Ref, Bill Type, and Bill Source fields. Unless you enter one of these wildcards, PeopleSoft Billing assumes that you want an exact match:

%	Match one or more characters.
*	Match one or more characters.
_	Match any single character.
?	Match any single character.
!	If first character, negate the operator (not equal or not like).
~	A blank character. Do not use this character with any other characters or wildcard symbols.
\	Escape character. Do not treat the next character as a wildcard.

For example, you could search for a blank in the Ref, Bill Type, and Bill Source fields by entering a tilde (~) in each field. If you leave these fields empty, the system selects all values for that field.

Within Bill Search, there are exceptions to the wildcard approach. Exceptions occur in these instances:

When you select Invoice in the Ref field, a blank reference value returns rows with any invoice value (because you can never leave the Invoice field blank).
When you do not select Invoice in the Ref field, a blank reference value returns only rows where the referenced field is blank.

To see the inverse condition where the referenced field is not blank, select a combination of wildcards that mean not blank (! or ~). The Bill Type and Bill Source fields operate in this manner also. PeopleSoft Billing search engines support all standard wildcards.

Interpreting Bill Search Results

In the search results scroll area of the search pages, the number of rows is expressed in three numbers, X To Y Of Z, where Z is the total number of rows that meet the search criteria specified, and X and Y are the rows that appear in this query chunk.

Use the scroll bar to scroll through the rows of bill header data. Click the next chunk button to obtain the next chunk of data. You see the values for X and Y change accordingly, but Z stays constant until you change search parameters and rerun the query.

The invoice amount totals appear next to the number of selected rows. These are expressed as A/B, where B is the total dollar value of all invoice amounts that meet the search criteria, and A is the total dollar amount of the invoices that appear in the current chunk. When the set of results includes invoices with varying currencies, A/B does not appear. Instead, the system displays a mixed currencies message.

The rows that are selected in a chunk are closely tied to the sort criteria that you specify. For example, if the sort order is AA (amount ascending) and you run the query, the first chunk of rows that appears is equal to the number of bills that you specify in the Bill Entry Max Rows field on the Installation Options - Billing - General Options page. Bills with the lowest invoice amounts appear. If, for example, you enter 15 in the Bill Entry Max Rows field, the 15 bills with the lowest invoice amounts that match the rest of the query parameters appear. If you run the query again with the same search parameters but instead specify the sort order as AD (amount descending), the 15 bills with the highest invoice amount appear.

Conversely you can change the sort order without rerunning the search query by clicking Sort. The system does not invoke the query again; it resorts the rows in the current chunk. The dollar total of the chunk does not change when you change the sort order without re-invoking the query.

Note. If you resort a chunk of information, you must refresh the search to retrieve further chunks. The sort command invalidates related chunks.