What are ZAB Automations?

Within ZoneBilling, there are many processes that run in order to facilitate core ZoneBilling capabilities, including Execute Rating, Create Transactions, and Create Renewal Estimates.

• ZAB Automated Processes allow you to schedule a process to run at specific intervals on an automated basis, trigger the process via the ZAB API, or manually kick off the process at any time.
  • This allows users to define and manage the process to run and submit specific records to the selected process by providing a Saved Search for processing.
• Additional ZAB Automation Properties may be assigned to the automation to define specific properties to be applied on top of the Saved Search criteria to determine which records should be processed.

List of Available Processes to Run

For each process, the user must select a Saved Search to define the population of records, and the search must be based on a corresponding record type.

• Execute Rating
• Create Transactions
• Execute Rating, Create Transactions
• Create Renewal Estimates
• Convert Renewal Estimates to Subscriptions
• Update Revenue Details
• Generate Delayed Charges

Create a ZAB Automation Record

To set up an automated process go to Setup > ZoneBilling Setup > Automated Processes > Click New ZAB Automation.

Select the Process

• Only out-of-the-box ZAB Processes are supported.
• The process selected here will define which Search types are allowed and which optional ZAB Automation Properties may be assigned.

Specify the Saved Search

• Select the Saved Search that defines the population of records for this process. The Search must not use Summary Criteria or Summarized Results. You must include a column in your results that includes the Internal ID of the record.
  • If the search is being used with the Execute Rating or Create Transactions, Execute Rating Process, the search must be a ZAB Subscription or ZAB Subscription Item.
    • When utilizing a ZAB Subscription Item search, only the specified records returned in the search results will be rated.
  • If using the Create Transaction Process, the search must be a ZAB Subscription, ZAB Subscription Item, or ZAB Charge Search. When utilizing a ZAB Subscription Item or ZAB Charge search, only the specified records returned in the search results will be billed.
  • If the search is being used with the Create Renewal Estimates Process, the search must be a ZAB Renewal Search.
  • If using the Convert Renewal Estimates to Subscriptions Process, you must use a ZAB Renewal Estimate Search.

Delay Population Search

• The ‘Delay Population Search’ checkbox determines whether the Saved Search is run at the time the process batch is queued or is run at the time of processing. 
• This improves performance by not having to load additional records that may no longer meet the search criteria by the time it processes, and ensures the search contains the most up-to-date results.
• It is always recommended to select this setting for scheduled Automations.

Scheduling Frequency and Interval

• If the Frequency, Interval, and Start Date fields are not filled in, the process will not run automatically.
  • Instead, a user would need to click the ‘Run Now’ button on the Automation record to manually kick off the process.
• The Frequency, Interval, Start Date, and End Date fields are used in conjunction to determine a schedule at which this Automation should run. The combination of these dates determines the ‘Next Run Date’ for scheduled automation processing.
• The End Date is optional - if the Frequency, Interval, and Start Date fields are set but the End Date is blank, the Automation will continue running at that schedule indefinitely.

Next Run Date

• The Next Run Date is dynamically calculated based on the Start Date plus the Frequency and Interval.
• For example, if the Frequency and Interval are set to ‘1 Days’ and the Start Date is 03/02/2021 11:42:56 am, the Next Run Date will be calculated as one day later (03/03/2021 11:42:56 am).

Last Run Date

The Last Run Date automatically displays the last date this Automation was run (either based on the schedule or if kicked off manually).

ZAB Process Record

Review Process Records to learn about the status and completion of the process along with other details. Learn more about the ZAB Process Record here.

Snapshot of the ZAB Process post-run

Snapshot of ZAB Process Results, exposing error details