Coral MSP Glossary

Search for the meaning of the most useful Coral MSP terms across our glossary:

Actualize Remittance. Actualizing a Remittance is the final step in the remittance upload process. After all accounts and products in the Remittance have been accurately mapped and validated against the database, the user may actualize the remittance.  This changes the status of a Product from accrued or “Estimated”, to “Actualized”. If a product is actualized, it means that the subcount was reported by the Distributor and is now fully reconciled.

Adjustments. Adjustments represent the revenue created during a bill calculation, or the entry of a manual adjustment by a user. Adjustments are separated into three main categories.

• Original.  An Original Adjustment is a revenue adjustment created for a specific Bill Month for the first time. Original Adjustments are created when a new Product is launched for the first time, or for existing Products during the month-close when a new Bill Month is created. Original Adjustments are system-generated.

• Manual. A Manual Adjustment is a user-generated revenue adjustment created for various reasons or any scenario where the system cannot generate the revenue adjustment on its own.

• Journal Entry is another type of a Manual adjustment.

ADFS (Active Directory Federation Services) is a software component developed by Microsoft that can be installed on the Windows Server operating systems to provide users with single sign-on to systems and applications outside of the organization. It uses a claims-based access control authorization model to secure applications and implement federated identity. Claims-based authentication is the process of authenticating a user based on a set of identity claims contained in a trusted token.

In ADFS, identity federation is established between two organizations by establishing trust between two security realms. The federation server on one side (the accounts side) authenticates the user with standard AD DS and then issues a token containing a series of claims about the user, including their identity. On the other hand, from the resource side, the other federation server validates the token and issues another token to the local servers to accept the claimed identity. This allows the system to provide controlled access to its resources or services to a user who belongs to a different security domain without requiring the user to authenticate directly to the system, and without the two systems sharing a database of user IDs or passwords.

In practice, this approach is usually perceived by the user as follows:

• User logs into his local computer (as usual when he starts working in the morning).
• The user needs to get information on the partner company’s extranet site, such as pricing or product information.
• The user navigates to a partner company’s extranet site, such as coralmsp.com.
• The partner website no longer requires a password – instead, user credentials are sent to the partner extranet site using ADFS.
• The user is now logged into the partner site and can interact with the authorized site.

А/R Only. Products of thie Bill Type are usually used to re-allocate Revenue from a Billable product to a special A/R Only product. This Bill Type allows internal revenue re-allocations when Revenue is recognized at a different level from where it was Billed. Every A/R product can be an integrant (a part of the billable product), but it cannot be divided into parts of itself.

Batch Invoice. Batch invoice describes the method of invoicing when Invoices are created for every single Distributor in CoralMSP, based on the individual Distributors’ Invoice Preferences. This method of invoicing is typically done directly after a Month Close.

Bill Period. Bill Period is the actual invoice month where subscriber and/or revenue activity occurred.  If a Product was launched as of 9/15/2015, it was launched in the Bill Period of September 2015. Bill Period is very important when it comes to reporting subscribers and revenue at the Distributor level.

Billable. A standard payable product / a product for which payment will be made. You can specify Allocation Rules for this product Bill Type only. The Billable product can be “one-piece” or can contain several A/R products (i.e., be the “package” product).

Billing Reconciliation. As a part of the standard Cash management, Reconciliation of (aged) payments is an accounting process that compares two/several sets of records to check that figures are correct and in agreement. It is particularly useful for explaining the difference between two financial records or account balances. A user (e.g. a Financial Account Manager or a FAM) can find irregularities in billing across many distributors and months and resolve them easily in one place using the Billing Reconciliation analysis functionality.

Calcs. A Calc should occur after subcounts or contracts have been updated or changed. A calc takes the subscribers under a Distributor, calculates the appropriate rates from the Contact, and arrives at the correct revenue by creating adjustments. A Calc may begin when a user starts an on-demand Calc, or on a regular schedule as designated by the System Administrator.

Channel Lineup. A list of TV Channels available to a consumer through a Distributor, with each channel being represented by a number.

CIO. In MSP, one distributor can buy or sell a portion or all of the systems/properties they own to another distributor. This process is Change In Ownership or CIO. CIO is done after the actual event has occurred in real life. When creating a CIO, the user must select the effective date for when the change in ownership should be.

Collections. This grid contains all open and partial invoices of distributors, and debts of these invoices, represent aging in the context of the invoices and systems.

Contract. A contract includes the terms of the Agreement between a Programmer and a Distributor via the applicable rate card, and covers parties, terms, contacts, documents and notes.

Contract Reassignment. Billing goes from one contract to another (Contract amendment or CIO).

CRM. Customer relationship management functionality in MSP that includes management of account and account hierarchies, contracts and offices.

Custom remittance template is a rule (or several rules) which helps to create a mapping between a source file (sent by Distributor) and a target Universal Remittance Template (URT).  Custom template transforms the source file automatically to match MSP.

Device. For digital satellite TV signals, a dedicated commercial satellite decoder/receiver is needed for each channel that is to be distributed by a cable system. These devices are usually rack-mountable receivers located at a physical headend next to a large satellite dish. They decrypt the encrypted television signals so that they may be distributed to the end-consumers.

Direct Remittance. A Direct remittance is received when a Distributor pays via Wire Transfer, with an accompanying electronic remittance, usually in Excel format. The data in the Excel document may then be massaged by the user so that it can be uploaded into CoralMSP during account reconciliation. The format that is uploaded into CoralMSP is referred to as the “URT”, which stands for Universal Remittance Template.

Distributor. An entity that makes available for purchase multiple channels of video programming.

DNI. “Do not invoice”. Names of the non-invoicing invoice groups.

GL Period. A GL period is the fiscal month where subscriber and/or revenue activity occurred. If a Product was launched as of 9/1/2015 on 10/10/2015, it was launched in the GL Period of October 2015. GL Period is very important when it comes to tracking revenue at the corporate level.

GL Period Close. A GL Period close is the date upon which a GL Period ends. GL Period close dates are designated by the corporate Finance department, and typically occur within 3-5 business days of the Month Close. If revenue needs to be changed or generated between the Month Close and the GL Period Close, users must use Journal Entries instead of Adjustments.

GL Period vs. Bill Period. Bill Period is the actual invoice month where activity occurred, whereas GL Period is the real-world fiscal month where activity occurred. Several Bill Periods may be affected during a single GL Period. A GL Period typically closes directly after a month-close has completed, which is the exact point at which a new GL Period begins. GL Period is pre-defined by a company’s corporate fiscal calendar.

Headend. A Headend is a type of an account in the hierarchy where users perform signal authorization. It is usually identified by a Primary Service (Location) Area, includes attributes such as bandwidth and holds the inventory of devices. One headend account may have a relationship to multiple lineup accounts. If a headend has only one channel lineup, it should be created as a headend/lineup type of account.

Hierarchy. An account structure of organizational relationships.

Hints are brief informational texts that are found throughout the application by using mouse hover over functionality. Hints are there to guide the user through various processes, by providing the definition of terms with detailed explanations and examples.

Invoice Template. An Invoice Template is the pre-defined format for a Programmer’s physical invoice. In CoralMSP, the user may customize the template’s information, including payment addresses, legal info, website information, company logo, and accent color. Users may control which Distributors receive a physical Invoice via the Invoice Preferences menu.

Job. In MSP, all Jobs are subroutines that currently can exist within the main program (Pinger) only, i.e. they are Pinger entities.

Lineup Account (System). A Lineup is a type of an account in the hierarchy where subscribers are captured. Users on the Programmer side can optionally maintain channel lineup and consumer packaging (tiers) information. A lineup may be a physical or logical entity. Usually a different lineup will be created if/when broadcast networks are received from different affiliates. If this granularity is not required by the business, the lineup accounts can be combined for simplicity. In the flat hierarchy, lineup and headend may be created as one entity.

Localization. Front-end Localization is the process of translating a product into a different language. In MSP, localization interface allows users to make front-end changes to re-label objects (columns, fields, messages, etc.) in various interfaces. Users can localize names of the objects contained in the Localization grid only, since names of the objects are often hard-coded and can be translated/localized by the developers only.

Macros are a built-in feature of Excel. MSP opens a source file in Excel, transfers the macrocode to this file, Excel executes it and returns results. Macros enable user to record different tasks and apply them over on some another portion of the data.

Manual Remittance. A Manual remittance is created when a Distributor pays via physical check and includes a paper remittance with the payment. It is up to the user to convert this paper remittance to the appropriate electronic format that can be uploaded to CoralMSP or manually entered via the History widget. If converted to Excel format and uploaded to CoralMSP, the final Excel document must be formatted into the “URT”, which stands for Universal Remittance Template.

Mock Close. The Mock Close is a practice-run of the Month Close, and typically occurs the night before the true Month Close (and can be scheduled manually). A Mock Close is used to get an up-to-date representation of the Subscribers and Revenue that will be generated during the true Month Close. Test variance analyses are typically conducted to compare Actuals to Estimates and Actuals to Budget.

Month Close. A Month Close is the date upon which a Bill Period ends. If September 2015 Bill Period ends on 9/24/2015 at midnight, 9/24/2015 is the Month Close date. Month-close dates are designated by the Finance department, and all accounts should be reconciled and all revenue generated prior to the Month Close date. Invoices are typically generated within 48 hours of the Month Close for the Bill Period that was just created.

Network. A Television Channel or a Service that consists of linear programming. A network may represent a broadcast network such as CBS, NBC, and ABC, a non-broadcast cable network such as MTV, ESPN, and CNN, or a non-broadcast pay-cable network such as Showtime, HBO, and Starz.

Network Feed. Each Network can have multiple Satellite, Fiber or VOD feeds.

Non-Billable. Product of this Bill Type type does not generate Revenue and is used for Reporting Units (subscribers) only. Such a product can be launched, its Units (subs) data is recorded in History, but no Revenue is generated, and no Payments are made for it. No Rate can be set for this product in the Rate Card, but such products can be added to the Rate Card via the Non-Billable rule and specified as Universe in the Penetration component. Non-Billable products can also be used in calculating the Rates and Revenue of other products (Billable ones). Use Non-Billable products within a Rate Card when you want to allow carriage of these products even though they do not carry a Rate or generate Revenue..

One-Off Invoice. A One-Off Invoice describes the method of invoicing when a single invoice is created for one Distributor. This is used during scenarios when a Distributor was invoiced incorrectly, or was not invoiced at all.

Payment Source. It is a paying bank in the system / bank to fulfill the payment in the system. Quantity of payment sources depends on the user. Payment sources can be named whatever the Programmer wants. It can be same as the actual bank name, or use a portion of it. If user wants, each Payment Source name can be actually referencing a bank lockbox account and he can has them designated as such.

Permissions specify availability of any functionality for the User. Permissions are set by Global Admin for each User Role individually within the Security policy.

Primary Service Area (Location). In combination with Account Alt Name a PSA (Location) is used to uniquely identify a Headend, System or Property account.

Product. A product is a predefined collection of attributes for capturing contractual rates. A product can be associated to network feed(s), or defined as a package of multiple products.

Product Category. A product category groups and helps organize the various Product Types, while providing a definition. Examples include Technology, Delivery, and Billable Units.(Method, Right, Subtype)

Product Type. A product type is a more granular way to organize products for reporting purposes, usually describing the method or technology by which the Product is delivered to the consumer. Examples include Linear, SMATV, VOD, Online, etc. 

Programmer. A Content Provider with one or multiple network offerings.

Rate Card. A Rate Card is the highest level of organization for pre-defined information such as rates and rules that tell the system how to accurately calculate rates and revenue. A Rate Card reflects the exact contractual terms outlined in an Affiliate Agreement.

Region. A user-generated classification based on geographical location that is used to group Distributors into geographical groups for reporting purposes. Examples include United States, Puerto Rico, Canada, and Caribbean.

Remit. A Remit may best be described as the type of account for aggregated lineups, used solely for billing. A Remit may cover the subscribers for multiple Headends and Lineups, where all the channel lineups are typically identical.  Remits will be used in several of the larger distributors who remit aggregated subscriber and revenue information.

Remittance is a report on subscribers, monthly generated and sent by a Distributor to a Programmer. This report summarizes their subscriber counts, rates, and revenue owed to a Programmer for a specific Bill Period. Remittance typically accompanies a payment, whether it be by physical check or wire transfer.

Revenue adjustment allows recurring monthly revenue adjustments that are part of a contract, such as Marketing Support or Launch Incentives. You can increase, decrease the Amount, or leave it the same for the date ranges you set. This is particularly useful as you can avoid repetitive user input, and have recurring adjustments built into the actual deal. Another example of Revenue adjustment is a manual Bad Debt write-off process so that unpaid debts can be written off during the account inactivation process manually. This creates a manual adjustment to write-off the Bad Debt with a reason code/justification and approval.

Revert is a feature that allows the Programmer user to undo or revert changes in the Remittance, if the Programmer/Distributor has created and accidentally processed some Remittance (e.g., for October, though it was meant for September). Bill Units will be brought back to their original status and numbers, and further changes can be made if required.

Roll-Forward. During a Month Close, a new Bill Period is created, consisting of subscribers, rates, and revenue. The subscribers for this new Bill Period are created by a roll-forward process, whereby the most recently actualized subscribers are carried forward and used to create the new subscribers. These new subscribers are created in Accrued/Estimated status, and will be updated once the appropriate remittance arrives.

Rules. Rules are the primary entities within a Rate Card, as they are meant to reflect the exact contractual terms outlined in an Affiliate Agreement. A Rate Card must have a Baseline Rule, and then other rules are added that may alter the Baseline Rule. Additionally, Custom Rules may be created in order to match a new contractual term, which has never been encountered before.

Rule Categories. Rules have been organized into nine distinct categories, all of which are defined below:

Dates Rules. Users may choose one of the three preset date-range formats for a Rate Card, or create custom date-ranges.

• Baseline Rules. Baseline is meant to be the foundation of every Rate Card, with at least one Baseline Rule required for all contracts. This is by far the most common category, with Fixed Rate being the most widely used “Baseline” rule. Additionally, we’ve included Volume-Based, Penetration-Based, Product Count-Based, and Non Billable.

• Replacement. This category is for those situations where the user would like a Rule to completely override a Baseline Rule, and hence “replace” it during calculation. An example would be if a certain volume of subscribers is reached, the Rule would override a Fixed Rate Rule and replace it with a brand-new Rate value.

• Revenue Adjustment. This category is for recurring monthly revenue adjustments that are part of a contract, such as Marketing Support or Launch Incentives. The amount can increase, decrease, or remain the same for the date-ranges you choose. This is particularly useful as you can avoid repetitive user input, and have recurring adjustments built into the actual deal.

• Discount. This category is for those situations where your customer will receive a discount based on such variables as subscriber volume, penetration, or product count. A Discount subtracts from the baseline rate.

• Penalty. This category is the opposite of Discount, with these rules covering those situations where your customer will receive a rate penalty based on such variables as subscriber volume, penetration, or product count. A Penalty adds to the baseline rate.

• Guarantee. This category is very useful for those situations where a customer cannot drop below a specific threshold, whether it involves Revenue, Subscriber-Penetration, Rate, or Subscriber counts. CoralMSP will maintain the assigned value level, even if the measure drops below it during the account’s monthly calculation.

• Tax. These rules can be used when the users needs to add a specific percentage to the revenue via the Sales Tax option, or subtract a specific percentage from the revenue via the Withholding Tax option.

• Custom Rule. This category will allow the user to create custom rules that may not exist within the other Rule categories. This allows for a great amount of flexibility for Coral’s users, especially for new rules that have never been encountered before.

Segment. A user-generated classification that is used to group Distributors into pre-defined  groups for reporting purposes. Examples include National, Regional, Independent, etc. (Key Account, Second Tier, Other)

Service Area. The area of service being covered by a particular headend, system or property account. It is also sometimes called “Community Served”. Service Areas are based on the US and Canada Zip Code database.

Setup. Setup in MSP is reserved for creation of the data elements like products, networks, etc. which will be used by the users to perform functions such as remittance processing, invoicing or signal authorization.

Signal. Network Feeds at a headend. Signal represents some Channel Transmission (Network Feed) to the physical Device (transformer substation, e.g.). Signal goes to the Device via Controller (sometimes, the Uplink definition is used) specified at the Channel level. CoralLink, CoralTranslator and CoralPinger micro-services serve to change physical State of the Signal. MSP supports two Signal States: Authorized – transmission is going on; Unauthorized – transmission is missing or stopped.

Signal Source. The way Cable Television programming content is delivered to the Headend. Signal Source can be: Direct via Satellite, Direct via Fiber, Transport via HITS, Transport via Fiber etc.

Statements. These documents are similar to invoices, they are also built on templates, but are intended simply for information. Documents are sent from Collections module>Email wizard.

Technology. A user-generated classification that is used to group Distributors by the primary technology used when delivering content to their end-consumers. Examples include Cable, Telco, IPTV, and SMATV.

Tier. A grouping of TV Channels in a Channel Lineup sold together as a consumer package. Standard Tier Types are: “Lifeline”, “Limited Basic”, “Expanded Basic”, “Digital Basic”, “PPV” etc. (“Analog Basic”, “Digital Basic”, “Total Basic”)

Unit. Subscriber or Download or Stream (depending on the product).

URT. (Universal Remittance Template) is a standard Excel format required by CoralMSP to upload remittances. The format consists of several required pieces of data that are used for account mapping and revenue generation, as well as several optional pieces of data, which may be useful for reporting purposes, but are not required to accurately map the account or generate revenue.

WALF. Weighted average license fee is calculated by the Remittance Wizard in the “Rate” column, and the “Estimated Amount” is calculated based on the “Bill Units” entered, along with a row for “Total” representing the Total amounts for “Bill Units”, and Total amounts for “Estimated Amount”.

Widgets. Widgets are Coral MSP UI containers with common properties and functionality. Widgets can be moved around, removed and added back, maximized. Some widgets have slide-out panels: Settings and Layouts, etc.