You can upload external files to be used as billing templates for printed bills including balance forward bills, instead of creating a new template. External templates can be any PDF or RTF file. You can upload multiple language versions of the file as needed for a single template. You can upload external files for templates for either summary or detail balance forward bills, but you cannot use an external template to create grouping or to drill down from summary to detail information. After uploading the file, you must map each field name in the template to a content item from a data source view in Bill Presentment Architecture (BPA).

You can assign external templates in Template Assignment.

Follow XML Publisher guidelines when creating a file to be used as an external template in order to have fields that can be mapped in BPA to content items. For instructions on how to create a file that will be accepted by BPA, see: Oracle XML Publisher User's Guide.

General Information

Enter a name and description for the template as the first step in uploading an external file and select a primary data source. Select a supplementary data source if applicable. Select the template file type. You can upload only files in PDF or RTF formats.

You can update the general information for existing external templates. If you change the template type, BPA deletes all mapping information and you must re-map field names to content items for the template. If you change the supplementary data source, the mapping to content items from the supplementary data source is lost, but the mapping to content items from Oracle Receivables is maintained.

File Upload

Add the files you want to upload for this template.

If your environment runs multiple languages, you can add one version of the template for each language installed. Field names must be the same across language versions in order for mapping to work successfully. When printing bills, BPA selects the appropriate template file based on the language associated with the customer's address.

Click Browse to locate the file to upload and enter the language for the file.

You can also update or remove files for a template. If you remove all the files for a template, the mappings are lost and you must re-create the template entirely. If you delete files but retain at least one file, the content mappings will still exist for the template.

Item Mapping

To enable BPA to use your external file as a billing template, map the field names from the uploaded file to available content items in the data source views in BPA.

You can also display itemized tax for each billing line, if available from a supplementary data source.

For balance forward billing, depending on the format you select for your template, you can map field names to content items in the Oracle Receivables Balance Forward Summary Billing Lines View or the Oracle Receivables Balance Forward Detail Billing Lines View. You cannot map to content items in supplementary data source views for balance forward billing templates.

As with other templates, any content items added in Configuration, will be available for mapping to external templates field names. You must unmap a content item associated with an external template field name before you can delete it in the Configuration tab.

Review

Finally, review the item mapping for your uploaded template. The Review page shows the mapped content items grouped by bill sections, header and footer, and lines and tax. It also displays field names that are mapped to content items. Unmapped items have null values.

Interactive Preview for External Templates

You can preview how an external template presents a bill using actual transactions from Oracle Receivables by selecting the Interactive Preview icon for the template.

You can select one or more transactions to print from the interactive preview. Only transactions with the same supplementary data source as the template will be available. The print flag will not be updated in Receivables, and the preview feature does not use template assignment rules to assign the template to the bill. BPA uses the template you selected to preview to format the transaction for printing, not the template assignment rules. Monitor your print requests on the Requests page in Print Management.