Overview
Accounts Receivables and Billing (AR/Billing) consists of two modules (Accounts Receivables and Billing) that work together to bill and track invoice and payment activity from the following:
- General Receivables – invoices from University departments
- Sponsored Research – invoices to Federal and non-Federal research sponsors
Business Process Concepts and Terms
To understand AR/Billing business processes and reports you need to be familiar with the following concepts and terminology.
AR Business Unit
AR/Billing uses multiple Business Units to identify major areas of business.
- For General Receivables, the Business Units are: GNREC, GNPAY, GNMER, and GNLNS.
- For Sponsored Research, the Business Units are: SPFED and SPNON.
When invoices are booked in the General Ledger, the GL Business Unit, UMICH, is used. GL reports showing invoice information (e.g., Statements of Activity, AR/Billing Detail) are run using the UMICH Business Unit.
AR/Billing reports (e.g., Statement of Receivables and Aging Detail) are run using an applicable AR Business Unit.
Customer
The Customer represents who is being billed (i.e., sent an invoice) by the University. The Customer is identified by a seven-digit, alpha-numeric code called a Customer ID.
- For General Receivables, the Customer ID begins with GN (e.g., GN12345)
- For Sponsored Research, the Customer ID is the billing Project/Grant (e.g. F123456)
- Standalone Project/Grants use the Project/Grant number as the Customer ID.
- Parent/Sub Project/Grants use the parent Project/Grant number as the Customer ID.
The Customer ID and Name appear on the AR/Billing reports.
Invoice
In the Billing module, the term Invoice represents the bill sent by the University.
- For General Receivables, the department invoice has 6-digits (e.g. 123456)
- For Sponsored Research, the invoice has 7-digits (e.g. 1234567)
The Invoice number (Inv) appears on the AR/Billing Detail report.
Item
In the Accounts Receivable module, the term Item is equivalent to invoice.
The Item number appears on the Statement of Receivables and the Aging Report.