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Business operations

Lender billing workflow

Connecting completed work, customer agreements, and billing review.

Client project

Workflow design · Commercial data · Billing review

Billing review workflow

Schematic

  1. Completed work

    Product accounts and report requests arrive in a verified daily snapshot.

  2. Customer terms

    Account mappings, agreement periods, included usage, and prior billing establish what is eligible.

  3. Ready for review

    Only positive candidates with complete, validated inputs enter the Billing Queue.

Missing information has its own place.

Missing billing inputs stay visible on Customers; mapping issues stay visible in Customer Account Map. Those customers stay out of the queue until the inputs are resolved.

Schematic of the billing review workflow. Client identity withheld.

The operating problem

Make the billing decision traceable.

A completed report does not tell the whole billing story. The decision also depends on which customer owns the account, what the agreement includes, and which reports have already been billed. Outermost is helping build a workflow that brings those inputs together for a lender-reporting business.

The workbook connects product activity with customer terms and explicit account mappings. It calculates eligible usage after included coverage and prior billing allocations, then presents positive invoice candidates for review.

The team can inspect the basis for a candidate, resolve missing inputs where they are maintained, and record a review against the calculation they actually checked.

What a reviewer needs to know.

The review follows the commercial relationship, the work performed, and the evidence behind the amount.

  1. CustomerWhich agreement applies?

    Explicit mappings connect one commercial customer to its product accounts.

  2. CoverageWhich reports are billable?

    Completion, period, included usage, and prior allocations determine eligible usage.

  3. InputsIs anything unresolved?

    Incomplete terms or mappings need correction before a customer can enter the queue.

  4. ReviewIs this the result checked?

    A changed calculation requires a new review.

Systems and responsibilities

A narrow sync. A visible review process.

Product evidence, commercial rules, and review
Lender billing workflow: source data, customer terms, and review DigitalOcean publishes a verified daily snapshot of product accounts and report requests from a read-only connection. Google Sheets combines that evidence with explicit customer mappings and agreement terms to calculate positive eligible review candidates. Missing inputs remain visible outside the queue. Xero is a separate financial ledger for invoices, payments, and receivables. This workflow does not create invoices. SOURCE EVIDENCE COMMERCIAL RULES BILLING REVIEW Missing inputs Product snapshot Read-only accounts + requests Validated daily publication DigitalOcean → Google Sheets Customer terms + mapping Agreement dates, coverage, rates Explicit customer account links Prior billing allocations Google Sheets Billing Queue Positive eligible candidates Complete, validated inputs Review tied to the calculation Google Sheets Resolve outside the queue Customers Customer Account Map Correct the inputs before review Xero Invoices, payments, receivables External financial ledger Invoice creation is a separate step IF VALIDATION FAILS The last verified snapshot remains. Its timestamp shows the data’s age.

DigitalOcean publishes a validated daily snapshot from a read-only product connection. Google Sheets holds commercial terms, mappings, calculations, and reviews. Xero retains the financial records.

Providers and responsibilities

  1. Product reporting connection

    Read-only access supplies product accounts and report requests, including completion state. The source product is not changed.

  2. DigitalOcean · Daily publisher

    Accounts and requests are extracted together, validated, and published in one Sheets update with sync metadata. A failed validation leaves the previous verified snapshot in place.

  3. Google Sheets · Commercial inputs

    Customers holds current agreement terms. Customer Account Map records the explicit relationship between commercial customers and product accounts.

  4. Google Sheets · Billing Queue and Queue Reviews

    Formulas calculate positive eligible candidates using completed usage, current terms, and prior allocations. Reviews are tied to calculation signatures, so changed inputs require another review.

  5. Xero · External financial ledger

    Invoices, payments, and accounts receivable remain in Xero. Invoice creation and Xero write access are outside this workflow.

The publisher updates source data without inferring commercial relationships. The workbook applies the billing rules. Xero is shown as the separate financial ledger; this workflow does not create invoices.View the full diagram →

Operating decisions

Make the assumptions inspectable.

Keep commercial relationships explicit.

A product account is not necessarily a billing customer. The customer-to-account mapping is maintained deliberately; the daily sync does not guess or overwrite it.

Separate candidates from missing inputs.

The billing queue is for positive amounts ready for review. Missing terms, coverage, currency, or mappings remain visible in the input tabs, where the team can resolve them.

Tie the review to the calculation.

An approval refers to a calculation signature. Changes to the supporting inputs require review again, so an earlier approval cannot silently cover a different result.

Keep the last verified source usable.

Validation happens before the snapshot is published. A failed check leaves the workbook unchanged, and the last successful sync time makes the age of the source data visible.

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