Price Key
Definition
The Price Key (often just referred to as a “Price”) holds the actual financial variables and scaling metrics utilized in billing calculations. Instead of hardcoding costs into variant programs, prices operate as historical, currency-specific time slices that dictate components like flat-rates, rental prices, or quantity-based block and scale prices.
Business Purpose and Architecture
Price Keys allow utility companies to administer sweeping rate adjustments quickly across millions of customers. A business can adjust a price key globally on a specified date without touching individual installations. Architecturally, they are stored independently with headers detailing billing classes, currencies, and rounding parameters. Price Keys are mapped into the system using Operands, dynamically pulling the right time-sliced financial value the moment the billing engine executes.