What happens when a product is discontinued?
Background: Products in the billing system are valid from the date on which their first charge policy comes into effect, and valid until the date on which they are discontinued. If a product is not valid on a particular date, it may not be used on that date. This is not only to ensure that the policy governing the product is enforced, but also because ContactsLaw will be unable to determine the basis on which the product is to be charged.
When a product is discontinued, you indicate a date on which the discontinuation comes into effect; typically, this date should be on or after the date you decide to discontinue the product. The effect of discontinuing a product changes according to the date you select:
- If you set the discontinued date to a point in the future, no existing files will be affected by the change. It will not be possible to include the product in the cost estimate for any new files.
- If you set the discontinued date to today's date, you will need to review any files that were created earlier in the day; if the product was included on any of those files, you must amend the cost estimate(s) and nominate replacement product(s), or members will be forced to do this prior to billing the file.
- If you set the discontinued date to a point in the past, any files bearing a cost agreement date* which is on or after this date will be affected; it will not be possible to bill these files according to their cost estimates. Members will be forced to nominate replacement products when they next bill the files. If any of these files have already been billed, the charge policy for the product will no longer be displayed on the bill. You should consider carefully before retrospectively discontinuing a product.
* - See below.
Effect of statutory scales
Products charged according to a statutory scale will have their validity and charge policy determined by the date of the bill instead of the cost agreement date. As such, discontinuing a product will prevent its inclusion in any bill subsequently posted. You should only mark a product using a statutory scale as having been discontinued if it ceases to be an item on the scale.