The core objects
BillingCenter has its own view of accounts and policies, optimised for money:
Account- The billing account: who receives invoices and pays. One account can carry many policies, which gives the Danish "one bill for the household" model. Accounts can have parent/child structures for corporate groups.
PolicyPeriod- The billing image of a policy term, linked to its PolicyCenter counterpart.
Charge- An amount owed for a reason: premium, a tax, a levy, a fee. Each charge has a charge pattern (e.g. Premium, Taxes, PaymentFee) that controls how it's invoiced and posted.
InvoiceItem- A piece of a charge scheduled on a specific invoice. A DKK 3,690.75 premium charge on a quarterly plan becomes four invoice items.
Invoice- A group of invoice items for one account and date. Moves from planned to billed (sent) to due.
- Payments
- Money received (direct bill payments), then distributed to invoice items. Money that can't be matched goes to suspense.
- Producer
- An intermediary (agent, bank, broker) with producer codes and commission plans.
Billing instructions
BillingCenter doesn't calculate premium; it receives it. When a PolicyCenter job binds, PolicyCenter sends a billing instruction (BI) with the transactions for that job:
| PolicyCenter job | Billing instruction | Effect in BillingCenter |
|---|---|---|
| Submission (bound/issued) | Issuance | Create the policy period and its charges; schedule invoice items via the payment plan |
| PolicyChange | Policy change | Add positive or negative charges for the premium difference |
| Renewal | Renewal | New policy period and charges for the new term |
| Cancellation | Cancellation | Negative charges for unearned premium; stop future invoices |
| Reinstatement | Reinstatement | Restore the charges |
| Audit | Audit | Charge or credit the audit adjustment |
Plans: configurable billing rules
Most BillingCenter behaviour is driven by plans: admin-maintained rule sets you can version and assign, rather than code.
| Plan | Controls | Danish example |
|---|---|---|
| Payment plan | Down payment, number and frequency of instalments, when items are billed and due | Annual, Half-yearly, Quarterly, Monthly. The customer's chosen frequency. |
| Billing plan | Account-level invoicing: lead time, payment-due interval, fees, low-balance thresholds | Invoice sent 14 days before due; skip invoices under a small threshold |
| Delinquency plan | What happens when invoices go unpaid: grace period and a timed list of events | The legal reminder procedure (see below) |
| Commission plan | Commission rates per producer role and charge type, and when commission is earned | Bank partner earns a % on premium, earned as premium is paid |
| Return premium plan | How credits from negative charges are applied | Credit the next instalments first; refund only a remaining balance |
Billing methods
Direct bill
The insurer invoices and collects from the customer. This is the standard for Danish private customers using Betalingsservice.
Agency bill
An intermediary collects premium and remits it net of commission, using statements. It can be relevant for some broker-placed commercial business.
List bill
One payer pays for many policies, e.g. an employer paying for staff policies or a fleet owner.
Payments and distribution
Incoming money arrives from Betalingsservice settlement files, FI-code payments, card and MobilePay providers, or bank transfers. For each payment BillingCenter must:
- Identify the account, using the customer number on the Betalingsservice mandate or the FI payment reference.
- Distribute the amount to open invoice items in a defined order: oldest first, taxes before premium, or another configured rule.
- Handle leftovers: overpayments become unapplied funds on the account; unidentified payments go to suspense for manual matching.
A Betalingsservice payment can be rejected or reversed afterwards (insufficient funds, the customer revokes it). The integration must create a payment reversal, which reopens the invoice items and can start delinquency.
Delinquency: the Danish reminder procedure
When an invoice is past due and the unpaid amount exceeds a threshold, BillingCenter starts a delinquency process following the account's delinquency plan. Each plan lists workflow events with day offsets:
| Day (after due) | Event | Danish meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 0 | Past due | Payment failed or not received |
| +5 | Dunning letter 1 + fee | rykker / påkrav with the legal warning and new deadline |
| +26 | Cancellation | Deadline passed: BillingCenter asks PolicyCenter to cancel for non-payment |
| +60 | Write-off / collections | Remaining debt written off below a threshold, or sent to debt collection |
Day offsets are illustrative. The real plan must match the Insurance Contracts Act and the insurer's terms, and legal review of the letter texts is essential.
Cancellation for non-payment is a cross-application flow: BillingCenter requests it, PolicyCenter runs a Cancellation job (which also notifies any panthaver or leasing company and, for motor, triggers the Motor Register update), and the resulting cancellation billing instruction comes back to BillingCenter with the credit for unearned premium. If the customer pays in time, the delinquency is closed; if they pay after cancellation, a reinstatement can be requested.
Money going out
- Disbursements: refunds of credit balances to the customer's bank account, often after approval.
- Commission payments to producers, calculated by commission plans.
- Write-offs of small residual amounts or uncollectable debt, within authority limits.
- Tax and levy remittance is normally handled in finance, using BillingCenter's charge-pattern breakdown of what was billed and collected.
- The Issuance BI arrives with a premium charge of DKK 3,690.75 plus tax and levy charges. Her account has the "Quarterly – Betalingsservice" payment plan.
- BillingCenter creates four premium invoice items (922.69 × 3 + 922.68) plus tax items and quarterly fee charges, and plans four invoices.
- Invoices are billed 14 days before each due date and collection data is sent to Betalingsservice.
- In September the debit is rejected. The payment reversal reopens the items, the invoice goes past due and the delinquency plan starts.
- Mette pays after the rykker. The delinquency closes before the cancellation event, so the policy stays in force.
Key takeaways
- PolicyCenter sends billing instructions; BillingCenter turns them into charges → invoice items → invoices.
- Plans (payment, billing, delinquency, commission, return premium) hold the configurable business rules.
- Payments are identified, distributed and, if unmatched, held in suspense; rejected debits create reversals.
- The delinquency plan implements the legal reminder procedure; cancellation is a BC → PC → BC round trip.
- Taxes and levies are separate charge patterns, so they can be reported and remitted correctly.