A Data Source is a unique source of input data for TheBill.

A Cost Centre consists of a group of users whose activities are reported together. Cost Centres may form a hierarchy, with one cost centre logically owning another cost centre.

Detail Data is detailed information about each individual job or transaction. It is extracted separately for each data source and is summarised for that data source. It resides in the database addressed by the DDNAME DBILL. Database names are xxxx, xxxxSUM and SUMMARY, where xxxx is the prefix that uniquely identifies the data source, eg. JOBS.

Monthly Data is a summarisation of the detail data. It resides in the database addressed by the DDNAME MBILL.

Yearly Data is a summarisation of the Month to Date data. It resides in the database addressed by the DDNAME YBILL.

A Billing Unit is an individual chargeable item within a Data Source and includes the charging rate to be applied to that item.

Cost Allocation is the calculation of the cost of a unit of work as represented by a data source. The cost is the sum of all the Billing Unit values times the Billing Unit rates. Cost may be calculated at the detail level for each observation, or at the detail summarised level.

MXG is Merrill's Expanded Guide to Computer Performance Evaluation, and is the primary source of input data for TheBill.

File Definitions.
TheBill consists of several datasets which form an inter-relationship, .

THEBILL, SOURCLIB, MXGLIB, DBILL, MBILL, YBILL and Monthly Tape Backups of closed databases.
THEBILL is the database that provides the control data for the day to day operation of TheBill.
SOURCLIB contains all source code used by TheBill and will be a concatenation of datasets containing modified code, generated code and original code.
MXGLIB contains formats used by MXG which may be required by TheBill.
DBILL contains the Detail data generated by TheBill
MBILL contains the Month to Date data generated by TheBill
YBILL may contain the Year to date data generated by TheBill