Bill Generation : User Story Document (BX01US01)

1. Problem Statement

Pain Points:

For Billing Administrator:

• Lack of visibility into bill generation errors leading to confusion and a "black box" experience
• Inability to quickly fix data issues when errors are identified
• Fragmented workflow requiring switching between multiple screens to complete the billing process
• No clear view of consumer eligibility and data completeness before starting bill generation
• Difficulty tracking billing cycle status and completion rates

Core Problem:

The current bill generation process lacks transparency, error handling capabilities, and a cohesive workflow. This results in incomplete bill generation (e.g., only 600 of 1000 consumers receiving bills), no clear mechanism for resolving data issues, and fragmented information architecture across multiple screens. Users cannot effectively manage the end-to-end process or quickly resolve issues when they arise.

2. Who Are the Users Facing the Problem?

Billing Administrator

• Responsibilities: Day-to-day operation of the billing system including cycle setup, consumer data management, validation, bill generation, and error resolution
• Access Level: Full access to create, edit, and execute billing cycles

3. Jobs To Be Done

For Billing Administrator:

• When I need to create a new billing cycle,
  But I have to navigate through multiple screens to set it up,
  Help me configure all aspects of a billing cycle in one consolidated view,
  So that I can efficiently set up accurate billing cycles without missing critical details.
• When I need to validate consumer data before generating bills,
  But I can't easily identify or fix issues,
  Help me visualize validation errors with actionable resolution options,
  So that I can ensure data completeness and accuracy before proceeding.
• When I need to generate bills for a billing cycle,
  But I have no visibility into errors or progress during processing,
  Help me track generation progress in real-time with error details,
  So that I can identify and resolve issues quickly to maximize successful bill generation.
• When I need to understand why some consumers didn't receive bills,
  But I lack visibility into specific failures,
  Help me access detailed error information with suggested resolutions,
  So that I can systematically resolve issues and ensure complete billing coverage.

4. Solution

The proposed solution is a comprehensive bill generation system with a streamlined, unified interface that guides users through the entire billing process while providing transparency, validation, and error management capabilities.

Key Capability Areas:

1. Unified Billing Cycle Management

• Step-by-step guided workflow for the entire bill generation process
• Centralized billing cycle creation and configuration
• Historical cycle browsing and management with status tracking

2. Consumer Selection and Management

• Filtering capabilities to precisely target consumer groups
• Clear consumer summary statistics by category, status, and division
• Searchable consumer list with key attributes displayed

3. Data Validation Framework

• Pre-generation validation to identify data issues
• Clear error categorization and prioritization
• Quick-fix options for common data problems

4. Real-time Processing Visibility

• Progress tracking during bill generation
• Detailed error reporting with categorization
• Ability to pause and resume processing

5. Error Resolution Workflow

• Actionable error interface with resolution options
• Bulk and individual error management
• Exception handling for special cases

6. Results Analysis and Reporting

• Comprehensive billing summary with success metrics
• Visualization of bill status distribution
• Bill amount analysis by consumer category

7. Notification and Communication

• Status updates on process completion
• Error alerts and resolution recommendations
• Scheduled processing notifications

5. Major Steps Involved

For Billing Administrator:

Creating and Configuring a Billing Cycle

1. Navigate to "Generate Bills" section
2. Click "Create New Cycle" button
3. Enter cycle details (name, period start/end dates, billing type)
4. Select consumer categories and divisions to include
5. View estimated consumer count
6. Choose immediate processing or schedule for later
7. Review cycle summary
8. Save cycle settings

Selecting Eligible Consumers

1. Navigate to "Fetch Consumers" step
2. Apply filters for division, subdivision, consumer category, and status
3. View consumer summary showing counts by category and status
4. Review consumer list with key details (ID, name, category, division, status)
5. Use search to find specific consumers if needed
6. Click "Next" to proceed to validation

Validating Consumer Data

1. System automatically performs validation checks
2. View validation results summary showing passing/failing/exempt consumers
3. Review specific validation errors in the error list
4. For each error, view details and available actions
5. Use "Quick Fix Options" for common issues:
   • Upload meter readings for missing data
   • Calculate average bills
   • Manage exemptions for special cases
6. Re-validate data after fixes
7. Proceed to bill generation when validation is acceptable

Generating Bills

1. Initiate bill generation process
2. Monitor real-time progress with completion percentage
3. View errors as they occur during processing
4. Resolve errors using provided options

Reviewing Results

1. Navigate to "Bill Generation Summary"
2. View overall metrics (consumers count, successful/failed generations, total billing amount)
3. Analyze bill status distribution chart
4. Review billing amount by category chart
5. Examine consumer bill list with generation status
6. Export report of generation results
7. Download all bills if needed

Wireframe

Link

6. Flow Diagram

7. Business Rules

General Rules

1. All billing cycles must have a defined start and end date
2. Billing cycles cannot overlap for the same consumer groups
3. All consumers must belong to a defined category and division
4. Bill generation requires complete consumer contact information
5. Meter readings must be within the billing cycle date range
6. Previously run bill cycles must be logged in recent cycles tab
7. View details must open the detailed view of bill cycle
8. Clone must recreate that cycle with all prefilled data and editable.
9. Billing data must the difference between start data and end date
10. Billing types:
    1. Regular Monthly Billing
    2. Quarterly Billing
    3. Supplementary Billing
    4. Special Billing
11. Consumer Category, Division, Sub Division dropdown values should be fetched from onboarding
12. Estimated consumers should be count based on chosen filters mentioned above
13. Process Immediately should generate bills at the end of the flow
14. Schedule for later should add the cycle to the scheduled list
15. Cycle summary should reflect all the data input above
16. Validation Page should show count of Total Consumers in cycle, Consumers Passing Validations, Consumers with Exemptions
17. In Validation Errors section, Account Number, Consumer Name, Error Type, Error Details, Actions
18. Revalidate All should run the validation again.
19. Use average billing should generate average bills for all the consumers with missing readings
20. Upload Meter Readings should allow user to download file of consumers with missing meter reading and fill in the meter reading and then upload it again
21. Manage Exemptions should allow user to generate bills excluding the users whose bill cannot be generated.
22. Processing Status should be
    1. Not started, In Progress, Completed for respective stages
23. Estimated Completion time should reflect the time taken for completion of bills
    1. Processing Rate: Number of bills generated per second
    2. Estimated Time = Total Consumers in the cycle after the validation/ Number of bills generated per second
24. All the errors while generation of bills should be logged in the section of Generation Errors.
25. Bill Generation Summary should show
    1. Total consumers in the cycle (Count of consumers in the starting of the cycle)
    2. Successfully Generated Bills
    3. Failed Bill Generations
    4. Total Billed Amount
26. Bill Status Distribution
27. Billed Amount by Category
28. Consumer Bill List with the list of consumers whose bills are generate with the option to view and download bills of each consumer or all consumers.
29. All the bills generated should be logged in the run tab of schedule side menu including with the cycle information.

Validation Rules

1. Consumers must have at least one meter reading within the billing period
2. All required consumer data fields must be present
3. Consumers with "Inactive" status should not be included in bill generation
   1. Tariff data must be available for all consumer categories-w0
4. Calculation parameters must be valid for all consumer types

8. Acceptance Criteria

1. The system must display a step-by-step workflow for the entire bill generation process
2. The system must allow users to create, view, and manage billing cycles from a central location
3. The system must provide filtering capabilities to select specific consumer groups by division, category, and status
4. The system must display summary statistics showing consumer counts by relevant categories
5. The system must perform data validation before bill generation and clearly display results
6. The system must categorize validation errors by type and severity
7. The system must provide quick-fix options for common data issues
8. The system must track bill generation progress in real-time with percentage completion
9. The system must allow users to pause, resume, or cancel bill generation
10. The system must display detailed error information during bill generation
11. The system must provide actionable resolution options for generation errors
12. The system must generate a comprehensive summary after bill generation is complete
13. The system must visualize bill status distribution and amounts by category
14. The system must allow export of bill generation reports
15. The system must enable bulk download of generated bills
16. The system must notify users when bill generation is complete
17. The system must maintain a searchable history of all billing cycles
18. The system must support scheduling of bill generation for future execution
19. The system must handle exceptions with appropriate approval workflows
20. The system must ensure all consumer data is validated before proceeding to bill generation

9. Process Changes

10. System Design Details

New Components

1. Billing Cycle Manager: Centralized component for creating and managing billing cycles
2. Consumer Selection Engine: Filtering and selection system for targeting specific consumer groups
3. Validation Framework: System for checking consumer data completeness and correctness
4. Quick-Fix Module: Tools for resolving common data issues within the validation flow
5. Real-time Processing Monitor: Component for tracking bill generation progress
6. Error Management System: Framework for categorizing, displaying, and resolving errors
7. Results Dashboard: Visualization and reporting component for generation outcomes

Affected Existing Components

1. Consumer Database: Updated to include validation status flags
2. Billing Engine: Modified to support pausing and resuming
3. Reporting System: Enhanced to include new metrics and visualizations
4. Notification System: Updated to provide process status alerts

Integration Points

1. Consumer Data System: For fetching and validating consumer information
2. Metering System: For accessing consumption data
3. Tariff Management: For retrieving pricing information
4. User Management: For role-based access control
5. Reporting Engine: For generating billing reports

11. Impact from Solving This Problem

12. User Behavior Tracking