> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.methodfi.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Billing Lifecycle and Data Availability

> How a cardholder's billing stage determines which fields come back in an Update.

## Billing Lifecycle and Data Availability

Financial institutions determine which data fields are returned for Updates based on the cardholder's billing lifecycle stage. The four common cardholder states:

* **Bill Created**: A new statement has been generated. All billing fields are available.
* **Bill Due**: A payment is owed. Balance, minimum payment, and due date are present, but no last payment information has been reported yet.
* **Bill Paid**: A payment has been made. Last payment amount and date are available, but the next due date has not yet been generated.
* **Dormant**: The account is open but shows minimal activity. Typically only balance (and sometimes available credit) is returned.

| Field                          | Created | Due | Paid | Dormant |
| ------------------------------ | :-----: | :-: | :--: | :-----: |
| available\_credit              |    ✓    |  ✓  |   ✓  |    ✓    |
| balance                        |    ✓    |  ✓  |   ✓  |    ✓    |
| last\_payment\_amount          |    ✓    |     |   ✓  |         |
| last\_payment\_date            |    ✓    |     |   ✓  |         |
| next\_payment\_minimum\_amount |    ✓    |  ✓  |   ✓  |         |
| next\_payment\_due\_date       |    ✓    |  ✓  |      |         |

*Approximate distribution across states: Bill Created 28%, Bill Due 10%, Bill Paid 31%, Dormant 10%, Other 20%.*

The distribution across these states varies significantly by issuer. Each financial institution presents data differently, resulting in different extraction profiles.