Introduction
The Billing Agreement provides for an expedited approval workflow for electronic rate schedule (eRate) only changes on Executed Give-Up Agreements. The workflow is only available on standard agreements that match certain criteria, as described in the New Rate Approval Workflow article.
Workflow Overview
Changes to eRates under the Billing Agreement workflow do not require any workstream level approvals. The only approvals required are final Execution Phase approval (signatures) from the Executing Broker, Customer, and/or Trader to the agreement. The bill to party of the agreement sets the agreement effective date, at which point the rate amendment is complete.
The below workflow example is for a Standard agreement - Customer version with the Clearing Broker as the agreement bill to party
Fig 1. Billing Agreement workflow
Compared to the regular workflow, there are four fewer approvals required in this expedited workflow.
Fig 2. Billing Agreement workflow compared with regular agreement workflow
Initiate Billing Agreement
On Standard agreements that are eligible for the Billing agreement workflow**, when users select the "Edit" action they will have the option to edit "Workstream", or "eRates Only". When the latter option is selected, only the eRates section of the Rate Schedule Workstream may be updated. Changes cannot be made to any PDF rate schedules on the agreement. Users wishing to use the regular agreement workflow, or make other alterations to the agreement, should select the "Workstream" option.
Fig 3. Edit Workstream Modal with eRates only option
**On agreements that are not eligible to use the Billing Agreement workflow, users will continue seeing the standard Edit Workstream modal.
Where the "eRates Only" option has been selected, there is no "Send for Approval" action available on the Rate Schedule Workstream. Instead, users will see only "Discard & Close" or "Save & Close". When "Save & Close" is selected, a pop-up will alert the user to the selected workflow. This message will appear every time a following agreement is initiated using the Billing Agreement workflow unless the "Don't show this message again" checkbox is selected by the user.
Figure 4. Create New Billing Agreement modal
Review and Send Billing Agreement for Approval
Throughout its lifecycle an agreement can be identified as a a Billing Agreement in a variety of ways:
- In the Agreement Search screen the "Workflow" column will list the agreement as "Billing", "Regular", or "Uploaded"
- On the Agreement page itself, the Agreement ID and Legal Language sections contain a "BA" badge indicating the agreement is following the Billing Agreement workflow
- Via API, a similar indicator in the v2 Agreement Details and Expanded Agreement Details calls indicates the agreement workflow
Newly initiated Billing Agreements will be shown in the Composition state. The only exception is when they are initiated using the Rate Sync functionality, in this case the agreement will automatically be set to an Execution state. For more information, see the article on Billing Agreement workflow and Rate Sync.
While in Composition, edits can be made to the eRates on the Billing Agreement. Once completed, the agreement can be sent for approval by selecting the "Send for Approval" action. This will put the agreement in an Execution state and all approving parties can provide their approvals.
Fig 5. Send Billing Agreement for Approval
Approve Billing Agreement
Once in Execution, users with the Execution Phase Approver permission for agreement parties can Approve or Reject the Billing Agreement. Approvals will sign the agreement on behalf of the party, while a rejection will move the agreement back to Composition.
Since there are no workstream level approvals in the Billing Agreement workflow, the approval matrix in the Parties section of the Agreement page will display pending actions only for the agreement parties required to approve the agreement. The Workstream status widget and columns in the Agreement Search will similarly reflect no actions for workstream level actions, only Execution phase approvals.
When approving a Billing Agreement, Execution Phase Approvers will be shown the language of the Billing Agreement. This is also displayed within the Legal Language workstream, and can be downloaded as a PDF from the "Download Agreement" button.
Fig . Approve Billing Agreement
Set Billing Agreement Effective Date
Once all agreement parties have approved the agreement, it will remain in Execution until the effective date is set. The agreement effective date can only be set by users with the Execution Phase Approver role, for the Bill to Party on the agreement. Firms have the option to set default effective date for billing agreements, available within party settings.
Where the agreement Bill To Party is the Clearing Broker, this effective date action is the only action they need to take on the Billing Agreement.
If the Bill To Party does not wish to set the effective date, they also have the option to reject the agreement. Once the effective date is set, the agreement will automatically move to an Executed state. This new agreement will contain all details of the Billing Agreement alongside the Referenced Give-Up Agreement.
Fig 7. Set Billing Agreement Effective Date
Update Billing Agreement to Regular Agreement workflow
While the Billing Agreement is in-flight it can be updated to the regular agreement workflow. To do so, users can select to edit the Legal Language workstream, or any portion of the Rate Schedule workstream except the eRates section. This action will generate a pop-up asking the user if they would like to update from a Billing Agreement to the regular agreement workflow.
If "Update to GUA" is selected, the workflow will immediately be updated to the regular agreement workflow. Any actions taken on the Billing Agreement will be preserved. Note that this action cannot be reversed. Agreements using the regular agreement workflow cannot be converted to the Billing Agreement workflow.
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