Summary

UB Direct Debits is a premium feature. Please contact Springbrook Support for information on Premium Features.

The Direct Debit process in the Clearing House module (CH> Direct Debits) is used to withdraw funds from a customer bank account to pay the account balance or billings generated in a New Billings or Final Billing batch. To use the direct debits process, enter bank account information on a UB customer account in the Account Maintenance window (UB> Maintenance> Account> Account tab> ACH Info sub-tab). After a New Billing or Final Billing batch is committed, you can go to the Direct Debit process in the Clearing House module and pull the direct debit transaction into the Clearing House module.

Create a pre-note batch in the Direct Debits process (CH> Direct Debits> Generate Pre-Note) after you have entered bank account information on customer accounts. A pre-note batch is used to verify that the bank account information entered on the customer accounts is correct. No amount will be charged when a pre-note batch is processed; the batch is only used to verify that the bank account information is correct on the customer accounts included in the batch.

Customer accounts are selected for a pre-note batch by billing cycles, but only accounts that have not been processed in a pre-note batch will be included in the batch. When customer accounts are processed through a pre-note batch, the Clearing House Pre-Note toggle is checked on the customer account (UB> Maintenance> Account> Account tab> ACH Info sub-tab). Customer accounts with this toggle checked will not be included in a pre-note batch.

The pre-note batch will generate an export file that contains the bank accounts of the customer accounts included in the batch. This is the file you will submit to your ACH processing bank. The format of the export file will vary depending on your processing bank, so make sure you obtain guidelines from your bank regarding the format of the file they require. Your processing bank will reject the export file if it is not in the correct format.

After your bank has processed the pre-note batch it will notify you if the bank accounts were incorrect. After you have corrected any incorrect bank account information you can either process the modified bank accounts through another pre-note batch, or you can leave the Clearing House Pre-Note toggle checked on the customer account (UB> Maintenance> Account> Account tab> ACH Info sub-tab) and process the corrected bank accounts through an actual direct debits batch.

After the bank account information has been entered on the customer account, billings are generated but the billing statements will indicate that the amount on the statement has been paid. The statement will only display as paid if the bank account information was entered on the customer account before the billing batch was generated and the Display Auto Pay message toggle is checked on the billing statement (UB> Utilities> Statement Setup). Generate a Direct Debits batch (CH> Direct Debits) after the billing batch is committed.

The Generate step of the Direct Debits process will determine if bank accounts will be processed in the batch.

The amount of the direct debit charged on the customer accounts depends on the UB module payment settings (UB> Utilities> Setup> Payment tab> Direct Debit Amount drop-down).  If Lesser of Billing and Balance Forward is selected, the process will debit the customer bank account the billed amount, or the current balance forward on the account if it is lower than the billed amount. The current balance forward will include any payments or charges posted after the billing batch was committed. If there are payments posted to the account after the bill is committed, the current balance forward on the account could be less than the billed amount. If Current Balance Forward is selected the current balance forward on a customer account will be debited. The current balance forward will include any payments or charges posted after the billing batch was committed. If Balance Immediately After Commit is selected, the process will debit the customer bank account for the balance forward on the UB account directly after the billing was posted to the UB account. Select this option if you do not want payments and charges posted to the customer account after the billing has been committed to affect the direct debit amount.

Send the export file generated by the Direct Debits batch to your processing bank. The processing bank will process your transactions and deposit the transaction amounts into your organization’s bank.

Step by Step

1     Set up the Utility Billing module for the Direct Debits process.

• Open the UB Setup window (UB> Utilities> Setup> General tab).
• Check the CH Interface toggle to enable the Clearing House module interface.
  • The CH module will be used to process the transactions and create the ACH transaction file.
• Open the Payment tab to set up the amount of the direct debit transactions.
• The Direct Debit Amount field is used to select how much of the balance will be billed on the customer bank account when a direct debits batch is processed. This is the dollar amount that will be withdrawn from a customer’s bank account. When Direct Debits are generated in the Clearing House module you will be able to edit the amount of the direct debit, but the Direct Debit Amount field allows you to set up the default amount.
  • Select Current Balance Forward to withdraw the current balance forward from a customer’s account.
    • Most users select this option so that customers will consistently have a zero balance on their accounts and adjustments made after the New Billing has been committed will be included in the direct debit amount.
  • Select Balance Immediately After Committing to debit the amount generated during a committed New Billing batch.  For example, if UB> New Billing generated a bill amount of $25 and the current balance forward becomes $80, this option will on debit $25. Adjustments made after the New Billing has been committed will not be included in the direct debit amount.
  • Select Lesser of Billing and Balance Forward if you would like the process to compare the first two options above and debit whichever is the smaller amount.
  • Press ENTER or click the Save button   when complete to save the changes.
• Open the Statement Setup Selection window (UB> Utilities> Statement Setup) if you would like to set up the billing statements to display an auto pay statement on customer accounts with bank information attached to the Account Maintenance window (UB> Maintenance> Account> Account tab> ACH Info sub-tab).
  • Select the billing statement that prints in the New Billing and Final Billing processes. This will open the Statement Setup Maintenance window.
  • Open the Miscellaneous tab and check the Display auto pay message toggle.

2     Create a customer bank.

• When bank information is attached to a customer account (UB> Maintenance> Account> Account tab> ACH sub-tab), a bank is selected and the customer’s bank account number is entered. The bank is set up in the SS module's Bank Maintenance window (SS> Maintenance> Bank) and the record contains the routing, transit and check digit of the bank. Every customer bank that you would like to process direct debits on must be set up.
• Depending on how you will be processing ACH transactions, you may also have to set up an origin and destination bank. Depending on the format of the export file your bank requires, these banks may need to be included on the export file generated by the Direct Debits process.
• Open the Bank Maintenance window (SS> Maintenance> Bank).
  • The Bank Maintenance window will display all banks that have been set up in the database.
  • Press INSERT or click the Create Bank button to create a new bank.
  • Enter the bank information in the window.
• Press ENTER or click the Save button when complete to save the changes to the window.

3     Create a UB Direct Debit bank account.

• The UB bank account will be used when generating the export file in the Direct Debits process. The bank account name will display on the export file.
• The GL cash account attached to the bank account will not be used in the journal entry created by the Direct Debits process. The Cash accounts debited by the process are the GL cash accounts attached to the service rates and fee codes processed in the batch.
• Open the Bank Account Maintenance window (SS> Maintenance> Bank Account).
  • You can have only one UB direct debit bank account set up in the Bank Account Browse window. If you do not have a UB direct debit account already set up, create a new one.
  • Press INSERT or click the Create Bank button   to create a new bank account.
  • Check the UB toggle. This toggle can only be checked on one bank account.
• Press ENTER or click the Save button   when complete to save the new bank account.

4     Enter bank account information on customer accounts, process a pre-note batch, generate a billing and then process a Direct Debits batch.