billingflatfile 1.0.1

Generate the required fixed width format files from delimited files extracts for EMR billing purposes

billingflatfile

Generate the required fixed width format files from delimited files extracts for EMR billing purposes

How to run the program

How to install the program

For Linux and Windows, download the latest version from here (look under the "Assets" section) and run it on your system, no need to install anything else.

The program can also be installed from the Python Package Index:

pip install billingflatfile

See below how to install from source.

Configuration file

In order for the program to know how to transform your delimited file into a fixed-width file, you will need to provide a configuration file describing the length and type of values expected for your output file.

An example configuration file can be found at tests/sample_files/configuration1.xlsx

A configuration file is a simple Excel .xlsx file in which each row represents a single field expected in the output file (the fixed-width file), and at least these 3 column headers, i.e. the first line in your Excel file:

• Length
• Output format
• Skip field

The Length value is self-explanatory: it represents how long the field will be in the generated fixed-width file. If the value in the input file is shorter than this defined length, it will be padded with 0s or spaces, depending on the type of Output format (see next section).

The Output format defines how the input value must be treated and transformed. The following values are supported:

• Integer
  • A numeric value that gets padded with 0s added to the left
  • Example: "123" becomes "000123" if a length of 6 is defined
• Decimal
  • Decimal numbers get sent as "cents" instead of "dollars", rounded to the nearest cent. (yeah, weird explanation -- better have a look at the example...). Also padded with 0s added to the left.
  • Example: "123.458" becomes "00012346" if a length of 8 is defined
• Date (DD/MM/YYYY to YYYYMMDD)
  • A date sent as input format "day/month/year" becomes (without spaces ) "year month day". Day and month can omit the leading 0, if need be.
  • Example: "21/06/2020" becomes "20200621" if a length of 8 is defined
• Date (MM/DD/YYYY to YYYYMMDD)
  • A date sent as input format "month/day/year" becomes (without spaces ) "year month day". Day and month can omit the leading 0, if need be.
  • Example: "06/21/2020" becomes "20200621" if a length of 8 is defined
• Time A time sent as hour:minutes (with or without colon in the input data) will be sent out without the colon
  • Example: "20:06" becomes "2006" if a length of 4 is defined
• Text
  • The value gets sent without format changes (such as those outlined above for date and time), with spaces added at the end, on the right of the string
  • Example: "Hello" becomes "Hello     " if a length of 10 is defined

Finally, setting the value of the Skip field column to "True" allows to send a field as blank in the output file, respecting the field size and padding type: 0s or spaces depending on the defined output format.

Running the program

Open a Command Line window cmd and indicate your input file name and configuration file to use. You will also need to indicate a number of arguments needed to generate the metadata file, such as the Application ID and the Run ID. You can additionally indicate if your input file uses a specific field separator (default is ,), textual field wrapper (default is "), if you want to skip a specific number of header or footer files from your input file, a description for this billing run and the type of billing.

See the Program help information section below for details on how to populate these arguments.

An example run of the program could look like this:

billingflatfile.exe --input data\input_file.txt --config data\configuration_file.xlsx --application-id AB --run-id 456 --skip-header 1 --skip-footer 1 --delimiter "^" --run-description "Nice description" --billing-type "H"

Program help information

usage: billingflatfile.exe [-h] [--version] -i INPUT -c CONFIG [-dl DELIMITER] [-q QUOTECHAR]
                          [-sh SKIP_HEADER] [-sf SKIP_FOOTER] [-o OUTPUT_DIRECTORY] [-x] -a APPLICATION_ID
                          [-ds RUN_DESCRIPTION] [-b BILLING_TYPE] -r RUN_ID [-fv FILE_VERSION] [-d] [-v]

Generate the required fixed width format files from delimited files extracts for EMR billing purposes

optional arguments:
  -h, --help            show this help message and exit
  --version             show program's version number and exit
  -i INPUT, --input INPUT
                        Specify the input file
  -c CONFIG, --config CONFIG
                        Specify the configuration file
  -dl DELIMITER, --delimiter DELIMITER
                        The field delimiter used in the input file (default ,)
  -q QUOTECHAR, --quotechar QUOTECHAR
                        The character used to wrap textual fields in the input file (default ")
  -sh SKIP_HEADER, --skip-header SKIP_HEADER
                        The number of header lines to skip (default 0)
  -sf SKIP_FOOTER, --skip-footer SKIP_FOOTER
                        The number of footer lines to skip (default 0)
  -o OUTPUT_DIRECTORY, --output-directory OUTPUT_DIRECTORY
                        The directory in which to create the output files
  -x, --overwrite-files
                        Allow to overwrite the output files
  -a APPLICATION_ID, --application-id APPLICATION_ID
                        The application ID. From the vendor specs: the first character will be filled with
                        the first letter of the site that is to be invoiced, and the second character will
                        be filled with a significant letter to describe the application. Must be unique
                        for the receiving application to accept the files. Max 2 characters.
  -ds RUN_DESCRIPTION, --run-description RUN_DESCRIPTION
                        The description for this run. Free text, max 30 characters.
  -b BILLING_TYPE, --billing-type BILLING_TYPE
                        The billing type. Must be 'H' (internal billing), 'E' (external billing) or ' '
                        (both external and internal billing, or undetermined). Max 1 character.
  -r RUN_ID, --run-id RUN_ID
                        The ID for this run. Must be unique for each run for the receiving application to
                        accept it. Numeric value between 0 and 99999, max 5 characters.
  -fv FILE_VERSION, --file-version FILE_VERSION
                        The version of the output file to be generated. Only 'V1.11' is currently
                        supported. Max 8 characters.
  -dr DATE_REPORT, --date-report DATE_REPORT
                        The column number of a Date column to report on in the metadata file. Numeric value
                        between 0 and 99999.
  -d, --debug           Print lots of debugging statements
  -v, --verbose         Be verbose

Development information

How to install from source

Create the environment:

cd devel/billingflatfile/
python3 -m pip install --user pipenv
pipenv install

If you want to develop the script, replace that last command by pipenv install --dev

Activate the virtual environment:

cd devel/billingflatfile/
pipenv shell

You can also run the script using pipenv run billingflatfile.py instead of python3 billingflatfile.py without having to set up a subshell (which has some problems in Windows, with the history not being accessible with the up arrow)

When done:

exit

Update the dependencies:

pipenv update

Install a new dependency

pipenv install <package_name> [--dev]

Update the list of dependencies:

We're still creating a requirements.txt file for RenovateBot to be able to run the test suite after each new version of our dependencies.

pipenv lock -r --dev > requirements.txt
pipenv lock -r > requirements-no-dev.txt

Building the executable

Run the following command in your virtual environment:

pyinstaller --onefile billingflatfile.py

The executable that gets created in the dist folder can then be uploaded to Github as a new release.

Packaging the source and publishing to the Python Package Index

Follow the instructions mentioned here, namely:

python3 setup.py sdist bdist_wheel
python3 -m twine upload dist/*

Changelog

These are the changes brought in each versions:

v1.0.1 (2020-09-16)

Other changes:

• Reduce the number of dependencies

v1.0.0 (2020-09-14)

Non-breaking changes:

• New --date-report argument

Other changes:

• Changes to the development toolchain and test suite

v0.0.1-alpha (2020-09-10)

• Initial release