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Multi-threading support for bill runs and payment runs

Zuora

Multi-threading support for bill runs and payment runs

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We are no longer accepting requests to enable multi-threading support. For alternative options, see Performance Booster and Performance Booster Elite.

Multi-threading support allows you to parallelly process bill runs and payment runs, which shortens the processing time leading to the following benefits. Each additional thread provides capacity for concurrent processing.

  • Improve operational efficiencies by 
    • Reducing the need to manage parallel bill runs
    • Reducing processing lead-time during business hours
  • Maximize cash flow by
    • Having invoices ready for downstream processes 
    • Processing payments within a time window to increase the success

Multi-threading types

You can use multi-threads in the following operations for bill runs and payment runs.

Bill run
  • Rating Concurrency - Use multi-threads in rating/drafting of invoices. Typically, the majority of processing time is tied to rating and drafting.
  • Posting Concurrency - Use multi-threads in posting of each drafted invoice. While negligible at smaller volume, posting time becomes material as the volume of transactions processed by each bill run increases.
Payment run
  • Payment Creation - Use multi-threads in the initial creation of payment records.
  • Payment Processing - Use multi-threads in API calls to the gateway.

Assessment and provisioning

Provisioning of the threads will follow an assessment process. Get prepared for the following questions.

Billing
  • How many parallel bill runs do you manage today?

    Zuora currently supports up to 20 parallel bill runs. Redistribution of threads automatically is not supported. Zuora will allocate the same number of threads for each bill run regardless of the transactional volume. To avoid overloading, the number of parallel bill runs times bill run threads should be equal to or below 20.

  • Tax solution (Zuora Tax, direct Avalara integration, Configurable Tax Connector, external)
    • Does the tax engine provider allow concurrent processing? If so, how many threads are allowed? 
    • Do you have an agreement with the tax engine provider to allow this?
Payment gateways
  • Does the gateway provider allow concurrent processing? If so, how many threads are allowed?  
  • Do you have an agreement with the gateway provider to allow this?

Considerations

Consider the following factors when using the multi-threading support:

  • The number of threads to enable might be bound by the agreement that you have with your tax engine providers and payment gateway providers.
  • To maximize the benefits of multi-threading support, you can update the following:
    • Bill run or payment run scheduling
    • Billing account updates
    • Retiring any customization logic, such as Zuora Workflow, which manages batches