Use service contract payment schedules
to configure different installment amounts for different periods of time in the contract.
For example, as shown in Figure 1, a 12-month contract has a payment schedule that specifies a monthly
installment amount of $15 for the first 3 months, $10 for the next 3 months, and $5 for the
remaining 6 months.Figure 1. Payment Schedule
The payment schedule can also specify a final amount to be applied in the last cycle of the
contract.
Note: The final amount is in addition to any installment amount configured for that
cycle.
The payment schedule is configured in My MATRIXX and
selected on the contract revision. The payment schedule has one or more ranges to represent
the different time periods in the contract. Each range in the payment schedule includes the
following attributes:
Name — A unique name to distinguish the range.
ID — (Optional) A unique name to distinguish the range.
Upper Bound — Upper boundary of the current range. Semantics for the range boundaries
include:
The lower boundary of the range is not explicitly configured, it is implicitly the
upper boundary of the previous range. The lower boundary of the first range is always
from the contract start.
The upper boundary of the range is inclusive. If the upper boundary is specified as
INFINITY, the range is up to the end of the contract, or forever if the contract is
set to open term.
There are no gaps in ranges, however, ranges must cover the entire term of the
contract; the last upper bound must align with the contract term or be specified as
INFINITY to denote end of contract.
The units for the upper boundary are implicitly the same as that of the contract
recurring cycle period. For example, if the recurring cycle period is based on months,
for example 3 months, the unit for the upper bound value is month, and if the
recurring cycle period is based on weeks, for example 1 week, the unit for the upper
bound value is week.
Amount — The installment amount for the range. The balance (unit) for the amount is the
same as that of the balance class ID selected on the contract with which the payment
schedule is associated.
In addition to the ranges, the payment schedule includes the following attributes:
Last Amount — (Optional) Specifies an additional payment to be applied in the last cycle
of the contract. The balance (unit) for the last amount is the same as that of the balance
class ID selected on the contract with which the payment schedule is associated.
Delay Charge — Indicates whether the recurring charge for the current cycle must be
delayed until the start of the next cycle.
For more information about configuring a service contract payment schedule, see the
discussions about creating a service contract and creating payment schedules in My MATRIXX.
Normalizing on a Payment Schedule
If a service contract offer is associated with a payment schedule, the recurring charges
can normalize on MtxPaymentScheduleNormalizationInfo. Fields from this container can be used
as the scale basis for formulas in the recurring charge components of the contract offer or
can be used in normalization in recurring discount components of the contract offer to allow
different discount percentages to be applied for different cycles from the payment schedule,
as shown in MtxPaymentScheduleNormalizationInfo Fields.
Name of the range from the payment schedule. The recurring cycle being
processed falls within the boundaries of this range.
RangeId
unsigned int32
Optional
Id of the range from the payment schedule. The recurring cycle being
processed falls within the boundaries of this range.
LowerBound
decimal
Optional
Lower range boundary derived from the upper boundary of the previous range.
The lower boundary is exclusive, and the first range value is set to 0.
UpperBound
decimal
Optional
Upper boundary of the range from the payment schedule. The upper boundary is
inclusive.
Amount
decimal
Optional
The installment amount from the payment schedule configured for this range.
For the last recurring cycle of the contract, the final amount (if any) from the
payment schedule is also added to this amount.
PaymentCount
unsigned int32
Optional
The installment payment number that the recurring cycle being processed
corresponds to. This information is included in the recurring event.
TotalPaymentCount
unsigned int32
Optional
The total number of installment payments in the payment schedule. This
information is included in the recurring event.
For more information about normalizers, see the discussion about normalizers in My MATRIXX Help.
Configure Pricing to use Payment Schedules
Payment schedules are specified in the contract at pricing time. The payment schedule
pricing object is referenced by ID in a service contract, and the service contract is then
referenced in the catalog item with the offer or bundle template.
Note: If Delay
Charge is enabled on the payment schedule associated with the service
contract offer, the offer cannot be purchased as part of a bundle.
The payment schedule is associated with the contract offer at purchase, and is used for all
subsequent recurring payment processing. The schedule associated with the offer cannot be
modified, and any modifications to the payment schedule in the contract (in pricing) do not
affect contract offers already purchased.
The payment schedule associated with the purchased offer is returned in the purchase
response and in the subscriber query response.
At purchase time, the purchase charge type is set to full amount by default because the
charges in the payment schedule are not prorated.
