WFP sudan application portal · 2 © WFP Sudan Country Office Contents Billing System.....4

WFP SUDAN APPLICATION

PORTAL

Billing System

1 © WFP Sudan Country Office

Document Revision History

Date Revision description By 2013.02.19 Initial publication Luis Ortiz

2013.11.28 Second Version combines administrator tools and end user access Luis Ortiz

2014-02-16 Significant changes to release version 3.0 Luis Ortiz

2014.04.17 Additional features added (payments and mobile number assignment update) Luis Ortiz


Contents Billing System ................................................................................................................................................................. 4

1. Finance tools..................................................................................................................................................... 5

1.1. Mobile Bills tools ...................................................................................................................................... 6

a) Mobile Invoices summary ........................................................................................................................ 6

b) Register invoice payment ........................................................................................................................ 9

c) Mobile Invoices by staff member .......................................................................................................... 11

d) Invoice payment status by year ............................................................................................................. 13

e) Invoice payment status by year and provider ....................................................................................... 15

1.2. Other Billing ........................................................................................................................................... 17

a) Category ................................................................................................................................................. 17

b) Staff Invoice ........................................................................................................................................... 18

c) Staff Invoice Summary ........................................................................................................................... 21

d) Register Staff invoice payment .............................................................................................................. 24

e) Staff Invoices by Staff member .............................................................................................................. 25

1.3. Finance Tools ......................................................................................................................................... 27

a) User Management ................................................................................................................................. 27

2. Collaborator Tolls ........................................................................................................................................... 28

2.1. Mobile Billing ......................................................................................................................................... 28

a) Service Provider ..................................................................................................................................... 28

b) Mobile Number ...................................................................................................................................... 29

c) Mobile Number Assignment .................................................................................................................. 30

d) Invoice Approver .................................................................................................................................... 34

e) Import CSV File ...................................................................................................................................... 35

f) Unchecked CSV Bills ................................................................................................................................... 37

g) Manual bills ............................................................................................................................................ 38

h) Update invoice approver ....................................................................................................................... 39

i) Rollback invoice .......................................................................................................................................... 40

j) Service invoice ............................................................................................................................................ 41

3. Main user screen ............................................................................................................................................ 44

3.1. My invoices ............................................................................................................................................ 45

3.2. Pending bills – check for personal calls ................................................................................................. 46

a) Check private calls for automatic bills (from CSV files) ......................................................................... 46

b) Check private calls for manual bills (other than CSV files)..................................................................... 47


3.3. Pending bills to assign ............................................................................................................................ 50

a) Assign calls from automatic bills (CSV files) ........................................................................................... 50

b) Assign calls from manual bills (other than CSV files) ............................................................................. 51

3.4. Approving invoices ................................................................................................................................. 53

3.5. Apply for Invoice Waiver. ....................................................................................................................... 55

3.6. View my invoice for payment ................................................................................................................ 57


Billing System

This system has been developed to have a single platform to issue invoices to staff

members.

The system has also been added with automated tools specifically to deal with telephone

expenses where the system automates most of the process from the import of the received

bills until the staff member is invoiced.

The role of this application ends in the printing of summary of invoices leaving the recovery

process to the finance unit to find the appropriate recovery method.

To access this system, after you login to the WFP Sudan’s application portal

(http://portal.sdn.wfp.org) click the “Billing System” link.

http://portal.sdn.wfp.org/


1. Finance tools

This section will only be enabled to users with the “Administrator” access rights. The finance

tools includes the “Mobile bills tools”, the “finance Tools” (user management) and the “Other

billing” sections.


1.1. Mobile Bills tools

These tools are only for the invoices generated from the telephone bills.

Here you can see a summary of new generated and approved invoices for payment

processing, register invoice payments (and print receipts), view invoices by staff members

and see the status of all invoices generated in a specific year.

a) Mobile Invoices summary

This tool is to generate and to see mobile invoice summaries.

To access this tool, select the “invoices summary” in the left menu.

To generate a new invoice summary, click the “NEW invoice summary” button.

Select the offices for which the summary will apply and click continue

If there are invoices available for the selected offices the system will generate the summary

and display it for printing.

Click the type of staff to see from the header (All, SC-SSA, National FT, International or

Other)


Click the “export list to excel” button to download the selected page to an excel file. Once

you click the button it will ask to save the file.

Save and open the file to see the report.

To view old invoices summary, select the year to see and then click the “Show invoices

summary”


The system will show you the invoices summary and to see the complete list click the “view

invoice summary” button.


b) Register invoice payment

This tool is to register an invoice payment and print the receipt

To access it, click the “register invoice payment” in the left menu

Type the invoice number and click the “Show invoice Details”

By default the system will put the complete pending amount to pay as the payment amount

but this can be modified in case the staff member is paying only a partial amount. Note that

the amount should be in SDG.

Once the payment details are OK click the “confirm invoice payment and show receipt”

button and the system will show you the receipt to print.



c) Mobile Invoices by staff member

Useful tool to see the status of all invoices for a specific staff member.

To access it, click the “Invoices by Staff Member” link on the left menu.

Select the staff member and click the “Show” button

You will see the complete list of invoices, even the ones waiting for approval. Note that in

the Paid status column you can see the values: yes, no and partial. In addition, if the

invoice has a payment registered you can click the button “View Payments” and the system

will show the payments in a new window.


If necessary, in this window you will be also able to delete a payment in case it was wrongly

registered by clicking the delete icon next to the payment.


d) Invoice payment status by year

To see all the payment status for invoices in a specific year.

To access it, click the “invoice payment status by year” link in the left menu

Select the year and click the “show result” button.

You will see all invoices and its payment status. You can filter the results by clicking on the

“all”, “paid”, “unpaid” or “partial” links in the top of the page.

Also, you can click the “View payments” button next to the invoice to see its registered

payments.





e) Invoice payment status by year and provider

To see all the payment status for invoices in a specific year and by the selected provider.

To access it, click the “invoice payment status by year and provider” link in the left menu

Select the year, select the provider and you will see the list of invoices.

You will see all invoices and its payment status. You can filter the results by clicking on the

“all”, “paid”, “unpaid” or “partial” links in the top of the page.

Also, you can click the “View payments” button next to the invoice to see its registered

payments.





1.2. Other Billing

This section is to generate invoices for staff members for any other kind of service that

needs to be billed and invoices need to be generated.

a) Category

This list is to manage the Billing categories, such as private use of vehicle, internet use, etc.

To manage this list, click the “Billing Category” link.

To add a new category, click the add icon next to the page title.

To update or remove a category, click the respective icon next to it.


b) Staff Invoice

Here you can add invoices for staff members for any of the categories previously defined.

To access this feature click the “Staff Invoice” link in the main page.

Note that a staff invoice is marked as being prepared until it is submitted and marked

complete.

To continue working on a staff invoice or to delete it click the respecting icon next to it in

the list of invoices being processed.

To add a new staff invoice click the add icon next to the page title.

Type/select the requested information and click the Save button.


Now the invoice detail can be added or update the invoice information by clicking the update

icon next to the page title.

To add invoice details, click the “add new staff invoice Detail”

Type/select the requested information and click the save button. The overall invoice total

will be automatically updated.

Once all detail lines of the invoice are entered, click the “Submit Invoice” button. Once this

is clicked no further updates will be allowed and the invoice will be ready for payment.

To see all invoices generated in a specific month, in the “Staff Invoices” main page click the

year and month to see.


To see additional details, click the view icon next to the invoice to see. Also, the registered

payments for that invoice can be found by clicking the “View Payments” button.

If necessary, the invoice payment can be deleted by clicking the delete icon next to it.


c) Staff Invoice Summary

This tool is to generate staff invoice summaries to be sent for processing.

To access this tool, select the “Staff Invoices Summary” in the left menu.

To generate a new invoice summary, click the “NEW Staff invoice summary” button.

Click the confirmation button to finish creating the staff invoice summary. The system will

generate the summary and display it for printing or to export to Excel.

Click the type of staff to see from the header (All, SC-SSA, National FT, International or

Other)

Click the “export list to excel” button to download the selected page to an excel file. Once

you click the button it will ask to save the file.


Save and open the file to see the report.

To view old invoices summary, select the year to see and then click the “Show invoices

summary”

The system will show you the invoices summary and to see the complete list click the “view

invoice summary” button.



d) Register Staff invoice payment

This tool is to register an invoice payment and print the receipt

To access it, click the “register invoice payment” in the left menu

Type the invoice number and click the “Show invoice Details”

By default the system will put the complete pending amount to pay as the payment amount

but this can be modified in case the staff member is paying only a partial amount. Note that

the amount should be in SDG.

Once the payment details are OK click the “confirm invoice payment and show receipt”

button and the system will show you the receipt to print.


e) Staff Invoices by Staff member

Useful tool to see the status of all invoices for a specific staff member.

To access it, click the “Staff Invoices by Staff Member” link on the left menu.

Select the staff member and click the “Show” button

You will see the complete list of invoices, even the ones being prepared. Note that in the

Paid status column you can see the values: yes, no and partial. In addition, if the invoice

has a payment registered you can click the button “View Payments” and the system will

show the payments in a new window.





1.3. Finance Tools

a) User Management

This list defines the users that will have access to this system and their access level.

To manage the user list, click the “User Management” link.

To add a new user click the add icon next to the page title and select the following:

- Staff Member Name: to grant access to.

- Collaborator: these users will be able to access the tools under the “Mobile Billing”. This

is more designed to be given to Finance staff members.

- Reports: This will give access to the user to the Reports section of the system

- Administrator: This will give access to the user to all the sections of the system

To update or delete a user click the respective icon next to it.


2. Collaborator Tolls

These are the tools to be used by the switchboard operators

2.1. Mobile Billing

This is the section where all telecommunications costs are to be recorded for staff members.

a) Service Provider

This list will have the service providers for communication costs, which can include mobile

phones, satellite phones, satellite links and any other communication cost that needs to be

tracked in the office.

To manage the service provider list, click the “Service Provider” link.

To add a new service provider, click the add icon next to the page title and type the

description.

To update or delete a service provider click the respective icon next to it.


b) Mobile Number

This list will have the mobile numbers used in the office. It is important to note that in order

for the system to accurately match the number with the imported bill, it is necessary to

enter here the number the same way it comes from the service provider’s bill.

To manage the mobile number list, click the “Mobile Number” link.

To add a new mobile number, click the add icon next to the page title and select the service

provider and type the number.

To update or delete a mobile number click the respective icon next to it.


c) Mobile Number Assignment

This section is the core for the bills to be correctly assigned to the staff members.

To manage the Mobile Number Assignment click the “Mobile Number Assignment” link in the

main menu

There are two types of assignments: individual and group assignment

- Individual number assignment

This is when a number is used only by one staff member in one billing period (i.e. in one

month). When a bill comes for the number assigned individually to a staff member, the

system will automatically assign all the calls to the staff member and will make them

available to check for private and official calls.

To add an individual number assignment click the “Add new individual number assignment”

button on the top of the page

Select the following information:

- Available mobile numbers: This is the list of mobile numbers that are not assigned to

anyone, either individual or group.

- Assigned to: staff member who will receive the bill once imported in the system.

- Allowed official calls limit USD: The limit amount in USD that the staff member can

select as official calls. Any amount over the limit will be automatically added to be

paid by the staff member.

- Full invoice private: This is setup as yes if the staff member will not be allowed to

check for official calls and the entire amount of the bill will be automatically added to

an invoice for the staff member.


- Internet rate: the amount that the staff member needs to pay for internet use. This

is the amount the staff member will pay, if the internet rate is official, you need to

enter a 0 amount here.

- Processing fee (%): This is the overall processing fee that will be applied to the total

of the invoice.

Once all information is completed, click the “Save SIM Assignment” button.

Note that you cannot update a mobile number assignment since information is being

replicated in several sections of the system. If you want to amend an individual number

assignment, first delete it and then create a new one with the correct information

- Group number assignment

This is when a number is used only by more than one staff member in one billing period

(i.e. in one month). When a bill comes for the number assigned to a group of users, the

system will automatically assign all the calls to the staff member Owner of the number and

will make them available to assign the calls to the respective number user for them to check

for private and official calls.

To add a group number assignment click the “Add new group number assignment” button

on the top of the page


- Available mobile numbers: This is the list of mobile numbers that are not assigned to

anyone, either individual or group.

- Number Ownership: staff member who will receive the bill once imported in the

system to assign the calls to the number users.








- Internet rate: the amount that the staff member needs to pay for internet use. This

is the amount the staff member will pay, if the internet rate is official, you need to

enter a 0 amount here.


of the invoice.

Once complete save it and the system will allow you to add more staff members as “users”

of the number

To add a new user click the “Add new user for this number” button:

Complete the following information:

- Staff Name: staff member who is a user of the mobile number.







- Internet rate SDG: the amount that the staff member needs to pay for internet use.

This is the amount the staff member will pay, if the internet rate is official, you need

to enter a 0 amount here.



of the invoice.

Once all information is completed, click the “Save” button.

Note that you cannot update a mobile number assignment group user since information is

being replicated in several sections of the system. If you want to amend an individual

number assignment group user, first delete it and then create a new one with the correct

information

Hint: Sometimes there is a number that gets reassigned in the middle of the month to

another staff member. To handle this you can assign the number as a group number and

select the switchboard operator as the owner of the number and the mobile number users

as users of the number. Then when the bill arrives, the switchboard operator can easily

select the portion of the bill to the correct user of the number.

- Updating number ownership

The system also allows you to update the number ownership for individual and group

numbers by clicking the “Update Owner” button.

Select the new owner and confirm the rest of the information. Once information is correct

click the “save new number owner” button.

Note that if the change of ownership is done to a group number, all mobile number users

will be migrated to the new mobile number ownership and there will be no need to redefine

the mobile users again.


d) Invoice Approver

This list defines the users that will be available to be selected when choosing the staff

member to approve an invoice. This list usually contains the supervisors and heads of unit.

To manage the user list, click the “Invoice Approver” link.

To add a new user click the add icon next to the page title, select the staff member and

click the “Save” button.

To delete a user click the respective icon next to it.


e) Import CSV File

This is the section to import CSV Files in the system

To upload a new CSV click the “Import CSV File” link in the main menu.

Select the file and format and click “Import File”

Warning: It is very important to have the file in the correct file format. It must be CSV and

the file content should follow the correct order of columns and data inside columns.

Before the system importing the file it will show you a preview of the file, just as a final

verification of the information to be correctly imported.

You must verify the following:

- From number: this is the column showing the number from which the call was made

from

- Number Dialed: This is the number called

- Destination: usually has some description of the call but is common to have it blank


- Date and time should be in the format of year-month-day (space)

hour:minute:second.

- Duration: must be in the format of hour:minute:second

- Cost SDG: must have a numeric value with up to 5 decimals.

- Cost USD: must have a numeric value with up to 5 decimals which is the cost SDG

divided by the exchange rate for the bill month.

Important: The system will automatically pick the exchange rate for the month of the first

call found in the bill. If the first call is for the previous month you need to rearrange the

calls in the bill for the first call in the bill to be for the correct month.

Once you click the import button the system will start the import process and will indicate

the number of calls imported. Note that only calls with value greater than 0 will be

imported.


f) Unchecked CSV Bills

This report will show the detail of the calls that have been imported and they haven’t been

checked for private calls.

This report has 3 sections:

Section 1: Unassigned bills- these are the bills in the system that contain numbers that

have not been assigned to any staff member. These bills will be hanging in the system until

the number is assigned to a staff member or the bill deleted from the system

Section 2: Pending bills to be checked by staff members for personal calls: These bills are

the ones waiting for staff members to check for private calls.

Section 3: Pending to be assigned by a staff member to phone users: these numbers are

waiting for the group number owner to assign the calls to the correct staff members. Once

the calls are assigned and published, you will see the list of users who need to check for

private/official calls in section 2.

At any time you can delete calls, assign all the bill as official or assign all bill as private.


g) Manual bills

The system also allows you to enter “manual bills” which are bills that cannot be exported to

a CSV format (like PDF files)

To manage the list of manual bills click the “Manual Bills” link in the main menu

To view all manual bills for a specific year, click the displayed year.

To add a new manual bill click the add icon in the top header.


- Mobile number assignment: here you have the individual and group number

assignments to choose from

- Provider invoice number: the service provider invoice number (for reference only)

- Invoice year

- Invoice month

- Total invoice amount SDG: this is the amount in SDG. If the bill comes in USD, you

need to do the conversion to SDG before importing.

- Upload scanned bill: it is mandatory to upload a scanned bill for staff members to be

able to indicate their private calls amount.

Click save and this will automatically make the manual bill available to indicate the private

bill amount by the individual number owner, or the group number owner to indicate which

users have used the number for those users to later indicate their private and official

amounts.


h) Update invoice approver

In case the invoice approver was mistakenly selected by the staff member, they can contact

the system administrator and they can update the invoice approver from the list of

approvers.

To access this tool, click the “Update invoice approver” link in the main menu.

The system will show you all invoices currently waiting to be approved. To update the

invoice approver, just click the update button next to the invoice you want to update and

click save.


i) Rollback invoice

This is a very powerful tool and should be used with care. The correct process to void a

generated invoice is to request the selected invoice approver to reject the invoice. This will

make the bills (either manual or from CSV) to be available for the staff member to check for

personal calls one more time.

If absolutely necessary, to rollback an invoice click the “rollback invoice” from the menu.

Type the invoice number and click “show Invoice details”. If invoice number exists you will

see the following

To continue rollback the invoice, type the reason why the invoice needs to be rollback and

click the “proceed and revert (void) invoice)” button. Note that the collaborators of the

system regularly print invoice summaries to process the recovery from staff members. If

the selected invoice has been already printed for recovery and you still need to rollback it,

the system gives you the invoice summary number and you should contact any collaborator

for them to update their records as well.


j) Service invoice

This is a tool that allows the office to keep track of other communication costs for the

country office and are not assigned to a staff member, such as VSAT or internet connection.

To add a new service invoice click the “Service Invoice – Add” link in the left menu.


- Servicer provider

- For Office: list of offices

- Invoice from Year/month

- Invoice to year/ month

- Description

- Amount

- Currency.

Once complete, click the “proceed to next step” button and the system will show you the

invoice breakdown per month to confirm the details. Note that if the selected currency is

different than SDG, there must be an operational exchange rate defined in the system for

the selected from year/month, otherwise you will see an error message.


To save click the “Confirm and save new invoice” button.

To view (and update) service invoices, click the “Service invoice – view” link in the left

menu.

Select the year and click the “show invoices” button


The complete list of invoices will be displayed. You can view detail, rollback (void) invoice or

update the invoice for which the costs are for.


3. Main user screen

This is the main screen that all users will have enabled and includes a section to see all

invoices, see assigned numbers, check for private calls and assign calls for shared numbers.


3.1. My invoices

To view your invoices, either approved or waiting for approval click the “mi invoices” link in

the left menu.

You can also see the payment status for all invoices and all payments registered by clicking

the “View Payments” button. Also, you can see a copy of your invoice by clicking the “View

invoice” button. If the invoice is still waiting for approval you will only be able to see a

summary or amounts but not the complete invoice.


3.2. Pending bills – check for personal calls

Here you will see the automatic (from CSV files) bills to check and the manual bills pending

for you to check for private calls.

IMPORTANT: the system is configure in a way that any bill that has not been checked for

personal calls in 14 calendar days (2 working weeks) it will automatically set all the bill as

private and generate an invoice. If is a shared bill and the staff member did not assign the

calls to the respective users, the bill will be all personal to the owner.

a) Check private calls for automatic bills (from CSV files)

If you have pending automatic bills to check you will see the following in the detail of the

pending bills:

To check for private calls, click the “check private calls” button

The system will ask you to select a sorting method how the calls should be displayed. Select

the one you need and click next.

This is the main screen to check for personal calls. If you identify a personal call, check the

box next to it.

The system will show you the list of calls in pages, 50 calls per page.


In the top there is also the option to “check previously identified numbers as personal”. If

you click this button, the system will search for the numbers that you identified as personal

in previous bills and will automatically check calls for those numbers as personal.

In the bottom of the page you have the following options:

- Previous page: to go back to the previous page This will set the calls in the current

page as checked

- Nest page: to go to the Next page. This will set the calls in the current page as

checked

- Save and continue later. This will set the calls in the current page as checked and

will allow you to continue checking for private calls later without losing what has

been already checked.

- Save and generate invoice. This will set the calls in the current page as checked and

will show you the page to select the supervisor to approve the bill. Note that all calls

in a bill need to be checked for the invoice to be generated, even if you don’t have

private calls, you have to go page by page until you reach the last page and

generate the invoice.

If all pages are checked and you click the “save and generate button” the system will ask

you to select the approver.

Select the approver and click the “yes, generate invoice” to send it to the supervisor for

approval and to complete the checking for private calls process.

b) Check private calls for manual bills (other than CSV files)

If you have pending manual bills to check you will see the following in the detail of the

pending bills:

To view the manual bill (usually a PDF) click the “View bill” link next to the bill

To check for private calls, click the “check private calls” button


The system will show the complete bill detail. First select if you want to check the bill in USD

or in SDG.


In here you should enter the amount private, the amount official, the approving staff

member and the scanned certified bill where the private/official calls are somehow identified

(i.e. highlighted personal calls) and the amount for personal and private are indicated.

Once all information is complete click the “save” button to generate the invoice and make it

available for the supervisor to approve it.


3.3. Pending bills to assign

You will have items under this list if there are bills for shared numbers where you are the

owner of the number.

a) Assign calls from automatic bills (CSV files)

If you have pending automatic bills to assign calls, you will see an item in the list like this

one:

Click the “assign calls” to proceed and assign the calls.

Choose the sort method and click “Proceed to assign calls”

The system will show you the list of calls and the last column indicating “assigned to”, which

is the staff member who will have to check that call if it was private or official. The system

by default indicates the owner of the number as the selected staff member but you can

change it by selecting the correct staff member from the dropdown box.

In the bottom you have the following options:

- Previous page: to go back to the previous page This will save the current page and

set the calls in the current page as checked

- Nest page: to go to the Next page. This will save the current page and set the calls

in the current page as checked


- Save and continue later. This will save the current page and set the calls in the

current page as checked and will allow you to continue assigning calls later without

losing what has been already checked.

- Save and finish number assignment. This will save the current page and set the calls

in the current page as checked and will show you the page to confirm the bill

publishing. Note that all calls in a bill need to be checked for the bill to be published.

If all pages are checked and you click the “Save and finish number assignment” the system

will show you the following screen to confirm the bill publishing:

Click yes and the users that you selected with calls will have their portion of the bill

available to check for private calls as explained earlier and the bill will not be waiting to be

assigned anymore

b) Assign calls from manual bills (other than CSV files)

If you have pending manual bills to assign, you will see the following:

To see the manual bill click the “View bill” link next to it.

To assign the bill click the “assign bill” button next to it.


In this section the system will show you the complete list of users defined as that number

users. To assign the manual bill to one (or more) of them, check the box next to them and

click “save and publish bill”

The manual bill will be published and staff members will be able to check for private calls as

explained earlier.


3.4. Approving invoices

If you have pending invoice to approve, you will see it in the main page like this:

Click the view invoice to see further details

If it is an invoice from a manual bill you will see the following

If the staff member is requesting for a waiver, the amount and description will be displayed.

It is possible to approve a different waived amount by updating the requesting total.

Where you can click the “click here” to see a copy of the certified bill

If is an invoice from an automatic bill (CSV) you will see the following:


You can then click to see a further detailed list of private and official calls.

To approve the invoice, click the “Approve this invoice button” this will make the invoice

available to be printed in an invoice summary and also to register its payment.

To reject the invoice, click the “reject this invoice” button. After the invoice is rejected the

staff member will have to go in and check for private calls once again.


3.5. Apply for Invoice Waiver.

An invoice waiver is an amount that is requested to be deducted from the total of the

invoice for any reason. This waiver is also needed to be approved by the staff member’s

supervisor.

To make a waiver request, as soon as the invoice is generated go to my invoices

Click the “Add Waiver” button. A new window will show asking to fill the amount and the

description.

Fill the details and click the save button. The system will take you back to the previous

screen showing the new total if waiver is approved.



3.6. View my invoice for payment

To view an approved invoice for payment, click on my invoices

In the second section “You have the following approved mobile bill invoices” or the third

section “Active invoices” click the view invoice button or the view icon too see (and if

necessary print (the invoice).


Documents

WFP sudan application portal · 2 © WFP Sudan Country Office Contents Billing System.....4