Planning a billing run only decides what the run will do. Nothing changes until the run executes. This article explains what execution changes for certifications and applications, including a few results that are easy to miss.
Execution Starts on Its Own
Rhythm checks every five minutes for billing runs that have reached their scheduled execution time and starts them automatically. After you schedule a run, nobody needs to press a button to begin execution. Because Rhythm uses that five-minute cycle, a run can start up to five minutes after its execution time.
If the run's status does not allow execution, Rhythm will not start it. For example, if someone tries to start a run that already executed, the run ends in error instead of doing the same work again.
Every Kind of Action Runs Together
When a run executes, it carries out every pending action it planned at the same time. That includes reminders, drops, activations, expirations, and forecasts, rather than finishing one type of work before starting another. Two rules decide exactly what the run acts on:
- Only actions still marked pending are carried out. If a later refresh marked an action no longer eligible, the run skips it.
- Records are not re-checked at the moment of execution. If a certification or application changed after the plan was last refreshed, the run still acts on the record as planned. It uses what was true when the action was planned or last refreshed, not what is true at the instant it executes.
Renewal Reminders
A renewal reminder sends an email to the certification holder and records the date the holder was reminded. The recorded date is today's date, not the date the run is scheduled for.
Rhythm records that date before it sends the email. If the email fails afterward, the certification still shows that a reminder was sent, even though the holder did not receive it. A renewal reminder is not added to the certification's own notice history, so staff will not see the reminder listed there.
Dropping Lapsed Certifications
A drop changes a lapsed certification's status to Inactive and records its termination and lapse dates as the run's date. That date can be different from the day the drop is actually carried out. A drop billing run only includes certifications with an expiration date in the date range configured for that run. A certification that expires outside that window is not included, even if it otherwise looks eligible.
When the run sends a drop notice, the notice is not recorded in the certification's notice history.
Sending a Certification Notice
When a run sends a certification notice, it sends the notice only to the certification's own contact. If an organization owns the certification but the certification itself has no contact, Rhythm has nobody to send the notice to. It does not use another contact from that organization instead.
Forecasting a Renewal Price
Forecasting looks up the fee the holder would pay under a renewal or reinstatement process they are eligible for, then records that price on the certification. If the holder is eligible for more than one such process, Rhythm prices the forecast from whichever process comes first. It does not deliberately choose among the available options.
Activating Approved Applications
Activation turns an approved application into a new or renewed certification through the same activation process staff use directly, so the usual activation rules apply.
Warning
If a run is set to send an activation notice, the run does not actually send that notice when it activates applications. The applicant is not notified by the run itself, even when an activation notice was chosen for it.
Application Reminders and Expirations
An application reminder sends an email and records the reminder on the application through the normal Applications process. That process can refuse the notice-history update even when the reminder email still goes out. The date recorded on the application is the run's date, unlike renewal reminders, which record today's date.
Expiring an application closes it out directly, without using the usual Applications validation. The run also does not re-check the application's status first, so an application approved after the run was planned can still be expired if it was already in the plan.
When the expiration action includes a notice, Rhythm sends it to the applicant's own contact and records it on the application's history through Applications. Applications can refuse the history update on its own terms.
A Run's Work Stays in One Account
From the moment a run is planned until it finishes executing, every record it reads and every change it makes stays inside the Rhythm account where the run was created. A billing run never reaches into another Rhythm account or changes records there.
Related
For what a run considers when it decides which certifications and applications to include in the first place, see How a Billing Run Selects Its Records. For setting up and scheduling a run, see Create a Billing Run. For keeping a certification out of a run's drops entirely, see View and Protect Certifications During Billing Runs.