Summary

Once invoices and/or payments have been processed, late fees can be assessed against accounts that are not paid on time. The first step in generating delinquency letters is creating a past dues batch and generating past dues.

Step by Step

1     Create a new Past Dues batch.

• Enter a Batch Month and Batch Year. These fields will default to the current fiscal period and fiscal year. These values are used for reference only, and are not necessary the fiscal month and year the transactions in the batch will be posted to. The fiscal period the transactions are posted to is determined by the journal Entry date entered when creating the GL Distribution List report.
• Type in a batch number and click the Save icon or press ENTER to create a batch in the current batch month and year.
  • To automatically create a batch with the next available batch number (the highest batch number used in the present month plus one), click the Generate icon  .
• The batch number is used to identify a specific batch. Batch numbers are limited to five digits and must be unique with the batch month of the batch year.
• You can have more than one open batch in a process at a time.
• If there is an open batch, the batch with the lowest batch number and fiscal period will open. Select a batch from the drop-down menu at the top of the palette.
• You can delete batches by selecting a batch and pressing DELETE.

2     Generate a Past Dues batch.

• Open the Generate Past Dues window (AR> Past Dues> Generate).
• Select the Billing Cycles that contain the customers you want to generate past dues for.
• Select aging options in the Settings section.
  • The Aging Date tells the system to ignore all transactions after the date entered in this box.
  • The Transaction Date is the transaction date that will be associated with the new penalty charge being generated.
  • The Due Date is the date that the new penalty charge being generated is due.
    • The Transaction and Due dates can also be used for calculating penalties in future Past Due batches. If an account included in the current Past Due batch remains unpaid, the transaction or due date specified here can be used in a future Past Due batch to calculate a new past due penalty that includes the past due penalty generated from the current batch. This will require that the Include previous penalties in past due amount toggle is checked and the past due penalty fee code applied in the current batch includes an attached late fee (AR> Maintenance> Fee> Late Fee field).
  • The Minimum Age will cause the process to ignore all transactions with an age less than the minimum age. Enter the minimum age in days.
  • The Maximum Age will cause the process to ignore all transactions with an age greater than the maximum age. Enter the maximum age in days. If you want to include all transactions enter 999 in the Maximum Age field.
  • Click the Age From drop-down menu to specify Due Date, Post Date, or Transaction Date as the age from date.
    • This field will determine which date the system will use when filtering accounts by the minimum and maximum ages specified above.
• There are three rounding choices in the Round drop-down menu.
  • Round Up will round all amounts up to the next increment you have specified in the Round to the nearest field. If you round to the nearest dollar and a penalty is calculated at $1.01, Round Up will make that a $2.00 penalty. A penalty calculated at $1.99 will also round to $2.00.
  • Round Down will round all amounts down to the previous increment you have specified in the Round to the nearest field. With this choice, if you have specified $1.00 in the Round to the nearest field, and the penalty is calculated at $1.99, it will round down to $1.00. Also, a penalty calculated at $1.01 will round to $1.00.
  • Select Off to round consumption up if the consumption decimal amount is 0.5 or greater and down if the decimal amount is less than 0.5.
• If your penalties use percentages to calculate you can control how the system rounds the penalty amounts. The Round To field allows you to determine if you want the system to round to the nearest penny, five cents and so on. If you round penalties to the nearest dollar, put 1.00 in the Round to the nearest field.
• Check the Accumulate rates for each tier toggle to accumulate rate amounts that fall across individual rate tiers.
  • For example, you might set up a late payment penalty fee tier system that looks like this:
    • 0 - 15 days late = $1 per day
    • 16 - 30 days late = $2 per day
    • 31 - 45 days late = $3 per day
  • If the Accumulate rates for each tier toggle is not checked, a penalty fee for a bill that is 40 days overdue would be $120 as it falls into the 31 - 45 days late tier (40 days x $3 per day).
  • If the Accumulate rates for each tier toggle is checked, a penalty fee for a bill that is 40 days overdue would be $75 as it is spread over all three tiers (15 days x $1 per day + 15 days x $2 per day + 10 days x $3 per day).
• Check the Include previous penalties in past due amount toggle and the past due amounts on which the penalties are calculated will include any previous penalties that are past due.
  • This toggle will only affect the new past due penalty calculations if the original penalty fee code applied to the account includes an attached late fee (AR> Maintenance> Fee> Late Fee field).
• Check the Include uncommitted payments toggle to include payments that have not yet been committed in the Past Dues batch.
• Check the Force penalty amounts to zero toggle if you would like to generate the past dues batch for informational and notification purposes only.
  • When this toggle is checked, the Past Dues process will use the settings specified above to calculate past due amounts and generate notifications, but NO PENALTIES WILL BE GENERATED.
• When finished, click the Confirm icon  .

3     Edit the past dues.

• Open the Edit Past Dues window (AR> Past Dues> Edit).
• The Edit Past Dues window displays all of the currently generated past dues. You may edit these charges by simply modifying the amounts listed in the New Charges column.
• When finished, click the Save icon   to save your changes.

4     Print an Aging Report.

• Open the Print Aging Report window (AR> Past Dues> Aging).
• Select the billing cycles you would like to include in the report in the Billing Cycle section.
  • You must select at least one cycle or your report will be blank.
• The Report Type drop-down field is used to determine the amount of detail included in the report.
  • The Summary report will display the customer number, customer last name, account number, balance forward, invoices filtered by age and report totals of all number columns. The report will also include a note in the header about whether or not the Include uncommitted payments toggle was checked.
  • The Detail report will display everything included in the Summary report as well as the invoice number, post date, initial balance, and invoice description for each line item in the report.
• The Aging Date and Age From fields will default to the aging date options previously selected in the Generate Past Dues window.
• Select which transactions you would like to include in the report in the Minimum Age and Maximum Age fields.
  • This will filter the report to only include the age of transactions selected. The age of the transaction is determined by the date entered in the Aging Date field and the Age From date type selected.
  • If you filter the report by transaction age, the Balance Forward column in the report will only include the transactions of the age specified.
• Select the order you would like the report to print in the Sort By drop-down menu.
• Enter a value in the Minimum Balance field if you want to filter the report by a minimum amount. The report will only include customers with a balance forward greater or equal to the amount entered in this field.
• Check the Include zero balance accounts toggle to display accounts that have a true zero balance.
• Check the Include negative balance accounts toggle to display accounts that have a negative balance.
• The Include previous penalties in past due amount and Include uncommitted payments toggles are disabled as these options must be set in the Generate step above.
• Click the Print icon   to process the report immediately or enter a date and time in the field next to the Print icon to schedule the report to generate at a later time. You can view the progress of the report on the Job Viewer window (SS> Utilities> Show Scheduled Jobs).
  • Click the Print icon drop-down menu and select Print Preview to preview the report before printing.
  • Click the Print icon drop-down menu and select Excel to export the report data to an Excel spreadsheet as unformatted data.
  • Click the Print icon drop-down menu and select Excel (Formatted) to export the report data to an Excel spreadsheet that includes much of the Springbrook formatting found on the printed version of the report.
  • Once the report is generated, you can also display the report using the View Reports window (SS> Utilities> View Report).

5     Print a Proof List.

• Open the Print Proof List window (AR> Past Dues> Proof List).
• The Summary Report displays the Transaction Date, Customer Name, Account Number, Description, Amount and Report Total.
• The Detailed Report displays the information from the Summary report and also includes the Fee Code, Debit Account, Credit Account and Fee Amount.
• Click the Print icon   to process the report immediately or enter a date and time in the field next to the Print icon to schedule the report to generate at a later time. You can view the progress of the report on the Job Viewer window (SS> Utilities> Show Scheduled Jobs).
  • Click the Print icon drop-down menu and select Print Preview to preview the report before printing.
  • Click the Print icon drop-down menu and select Excel to export the report data to an Excel spreadsheet as unformatted data.
  • Click the Print icon drop-down menu and select Excel (Formatted) to export the report data to an Excel spreadsheet that includes much of the Springbrook formatting found on the printed version of the report.
  • Once the report is generated, you can also display the report using the View Reports window (SS> Utilities> View Report).

6     Print a GL Distribution Report.

• Open the Print Past Dues GL Distribution window (AR> Past Dues> GL Distribution).
• The report displays the Batch Number, Fund, Account Number, Description, Debit Amount and Credit Amount. By default the report will subtotal by Fund and give you a grand total of debits and credits.
• Click the Print icon   to process the report immediately or enter a date and time in the field next to the Print icon to schedule the report to generate at a later time. You can view the progress of the report on the Job Viewer window (SS> Utilities> Show Scheduled Jobs).
  • Click the Print icon drop-down menu and select Print Preview to preview the report before printing.
  • Click the Print icon drop-down menu and select Excel to export the report data to an Excel spreadsheet as unformatted data.
  • Click the Print icon drop-down menu and select Excel (Formatted) to export the report data to an Excel spreadsheet that includes much of the Springbrook formatting found on the printed version of the report.
  • Once the report is generated, you can also display the report using the View Reports window (SS> Utilities> View Report).

7     Print Past Due Statements.

• Open the Past Due Statements window (AR> Past Dues> Past Due Statements).
• Select the Report Type from the drop-down menu.
  • The Summary statement displays the original fee code description of the line item on the invoice that is past due, the invoice number, invoice date, due date, invoice amount, balance due on that invoice, penalty charged and the total due.
  • The Detailed statement adds the original description, balance due and penalty charged for the invoice line item to the information on the Summary statement.
  • The Reminder statement will display the past due amounts by line item but does not display any past due charges.
• Use the Printer Adjustment field to adjust where the first line of the statement will print. If you adjust the alignment you may want to print a test statement before printing a large batch.
  • Zero is the system default. Adjusting the value up will move the first line of the statement up on the printed page and adjusting the value down will move the first line down.
• Select how you want the logo to display in the Logo Options field.
  • Select All Pages to display the logo on all pages of the statements.
  • Select First Page Only if you would like to display the logo on the first page of the statement only. If the statement is more than one page, the logo will not display on the second page and the space where the logo normally prints will be blank, shifting all fields on the second page up.
  • Select Don’t Print and Leave Room if you would like to leave the space that the logo normally prints in on the top of every page, but leave the logo off the statements. If the statement is more than one page, the spacing on the second page will be the same as the first. Choose this option if you are using pre-printed statement stock with a logo at the top of every page.
  • Select Don't Print and Don't Leave Room if you would like to print the statements without logos or blank spaces.
• If more than one statement is being printed, select how the statements are sorted in the Sort By field. The statements can be sorted by invoice number, account number or customer number.
• Check the Print Perforation Line toggle to include a perforation line at the top of the returnable section of the invoice.
• In the Message box, type a global message you want to print on all of the past due statements. This message will appear at the top of the statement.
• Click the Print icon   to process the report immediately or enter a date and time in the field next to the Print icon to schedule the report to generate at a later time. You can view the progress of the report on the Job Viewer window (SS> Utilities> Show Scheduled Jobs).
  • Click the Print icon drop-down menu and select Print Preview to preview the report before printing.
  • Click the Print icon drop-down menu and select Excel to export the report data to an Excel spreadsheet as unformatted data.
  • Click the Print icon drop-down menu and select Excel (Formatted) to export the report data to an Excel spreadsheet that includes much of the Springbrook formatting found on the printed version of the report.
  • Once the report is generated, you can also display the report using the View Reports window (SS> Utilities> View Report).

8     Commit the Past Dues.

• Open the Commit a Past Dues batch window (AR> Past Dues> Commit).
• The Journal Entry Date field determines which fiscal period the journal entries will be posted to. This field will populate with the journal entry date entered when creating the GL Distribution report. If you want to change this date, you will have to return to that step and change the JE date.