Billing Lifecycle
What happens to a live service every month, and what happens when the customer says the bill is wrong. Usage collection and mediation, rating against the commercial catalog, the bill run, payment and collections, then a disputed line investigated against its rated record, credited, and proved out by revenue assurance. Every other example in this section ends where this one starts.
Architecture Overview
Billing is a pipeline, not a system: the network reports usage, mediation makes it billable, charging prices it, billing invoices it, and collections pursues it. A dispute runs the same pipeline backwards — from the line on the invoice to the rated event to the usage record that produced it — which is why each stage has to keep its evidence.
Network
Packet core, IMS and access nodes emitting call, session and data records as service is consumed.
Mediation
Collects, normalises, de-duplicates and guides usage records to a subscriber and an agreement. Suspends what it cannot guide.
Charging
Prices each record against the rate plan held in the commercial product catalog, consuming allowances and applying discounts.
Billing
Runs the cycle, adds recurring and one-off charges from product inventory, calculates tax, produces and distributes the invoice.
Collections & RA
Payment allocation, dunning and service control on unpaid balances; reconciliation across the pipeline to find leakage.
Billing Workflow
Step-by-step orchestration flow — click any step to view systems, inputs/outputs, and eTOM mapping.
Flow Diagram
Interactive Flow Steps
Tap any step to view details, systems, and eTOM mapping.
Select a step in the diagram to view its details, systems, inputs/outputs, and eTOM mapping.
All Steps
Step-to-eTOM Mapping
| eTOM L2 Capability | Steps |
|---|---|
| Billing & Revenue Management | |
| CRM & Retention Management |