Charge Log is the financial step that turns reconciled airings into pending invoice items. After you reconcile a log with play evidence, you open Charge Log to review every billable airing, confirm amounts, and execute the charge. Charging locks the log, creates an immutable charge receipt, and populates pending invoices that the billing staff can review and finalize.
Charge Log is a preview first, then a deliberate financial action. The initial view shows what would be charged without writing anything. Only when you confirm and execute Charge Log does the system post pending invoice items and lock the log.
Before you start#
- The log has a complete saved generation and saved reconciliation evidence.
- The reconciliation evidence is current (not outdated).
- There are no unresolved missed or extra items that would block charging. All reconciliation decisions must be saved.
- You have a role that grants access to Commercial Logs and the action.
Open Charge Log#
Navigate to Logs > Commercial Logs#
Select the station and date whose log you want to charge.
Open the log#
Choose Review Draft Log or Edit Draft Log to open the saved draft.
Start Charge Log#
In the editor, open the Convert-Log menu and choose Reconcile Schedule-Log with Play-Log if you have not yet reconciled. After reconciliation is saved, or if the log is already reconciled, click Charge Log on the saved log toolbar or from the editor.
The Charge Log panel opens in a popup window. If the log has already been charged, the button reads Review Charged Log and the panel opens in read-only mode.
Preview the charge#
The Charge Log preview shows:
- Station name and broadcast date
- Schedule revision and reconciliation number
- Every billable airing with customer, order, line, play time, Copy ID, description, source, unit amount and invoice period
- Total airing count, gross amount and distinct invoice group count
A unit amount comes from the current station rate for the log station at the time of charge. It is priced once per airing. Invoice-level discounts, commissions, taxes and credits are calculated separately when the invoice is finalized.
Review blocking issues#
If charging is blocked, a list of issues appears above the action buttons. Common blockers include:
- Missing or outdated reconciliation evidence
- Unresolved missed or extra items in the latest reconciliation
- Missing station prices for one or more order lines
- Unsupported order types or copy modes
Resolve the issues in the log editor and reconciliation panel, then reopen Charge Log.
Execute the charge#
Enter a charge reason#
Type a reason in the Charge reason field (up to 1,000 characters).
Confirm review#
Check the confirmation box: "I have reviewed these airings and amounts. Charge Log will lock this log and add the displayed items to pending invoices."
Charge the log#
Click Charge Log. The system executes a secured transaction that:
1. Rechecks permissions for the action
2. Validates the latest reconciliation evidence
3. Creates one sealed charge receipt with the input signature and reason
4. Creates pending invoice items at saved station prices
5. Groups items by order, station and billing period
6. Locks the log by changing its workflow state to **Charged**
The charge is atomic: if any step fails, the entire transaction rolls back. There are no automatic retries. After a successful charge, the preview banner changes to Charged. The log and its billed airing evidence are protected.
What charging does not do#
Charging does not:
- Issue a final invoice number or post to Accounts Receivable. Those steps happen later in Billing > Pending Broadcast Invoices.
- Apply taxes, fees, discounts or commissions. Those are calculated on the pending invoice draft before final issue.
- Create a trial invoice. Trial invoices are printed from the pending invoice draft after charging.
- Allow further log editing. Once charged, the log is locked and the draft editor becomes read-only.
Review Invoice Drafts#
After charging, click Review Invoice Drafts to open the pending invoice groups created from this log. This shows a list of invoice drafts linked to the charge. Select one draft and click Open Invoice Draft to review its items, print a trial invoice, or proceed to final issue.
Invoice drafts are editable until they are finalized. Changing current customer or order settings after charging does not affect already-charged items. Amounts, copy labels and times are frozen in the charge snapshot.
Close or Cancel#
- Before charging, click Cancel to close the preview without writing anything.
- After charging, click Close to dismiss the review. The charge is already saved.
Trial invoice is not issuance#
From the pending invoice draft, you can print a Trial Invoice to preview the final output. Trial invoices use current customer billing details and explicit tax/fee definitions but do not allocate invoice numbers or post receivables. They are read-only previews.
Four trial formats are available: Detail, TimesRates, Times and Summary. Changing format or refreshing clears the previous download. Printing recaptures current permissions and rejects a stale signature. See Issue Invoices for the full invoice workflow.
Handoff to Billing#
After Charge Log completes, the workflow continues in Billing:
- Go to Billing > Pending Broadcast Invoices.
- Open the pending group for the customer and period.
- Review items, print a trial invoice, verify log coverage, and finalize.
The charge snapshot ensures that later changes to order prices, copy assignments or customer data do not affect already-charged airings.
Stale-context and recovery#
During the charge review#
If the parent log or your account context changes while the Charge Log panel is open, actions are refused with a message to reopen the review. Save or cancel any pending parent changes before opening Charge Log.
After a lost response#
If you click Charge Log and the response is lost (network failure, browser timeout), do not submit a new charge request. Reopen Charge Log from the log. If the charge completed, the preview will show as Charged and the log state will be locked. If the log is not shown as charged, review the current preview and run Charge Log from that same review. Neural Log recognizes a replay of the original request and returns its saved result instead of creating a second charge, so never try to charge the airings through a different log or route.
Parent refresh#
After a successful charge, the parent Broadcast Log screen may still show the old Charge Log button. Use Refresh on the parent Broadcast Log screen, which then shows Review Charged Log and Invoice Drafts.
Charged evidence protection#
Once a log is charged, its evidence is protected across the system:
- The draft log is read-only in the editor.
- Broadcast events on the log cannot be deleted or edited.
- Invoice draft items linked to the charge cannot be added, removed or modified through generic list actions.
- The charge receipt, charge snapshot and reconciliation history are append-only.
Limitations#
Charging supports ordinary broadcast orders with normal copy and current per-broadcast station prices. See Special invoices for package and non-broadcast billing. This guide does not describe charge reversal.