Summary

The Fee Code Maintenance window is used to create and maintain fee codes. Fee codes are used to charge fees, such as billable service requests, or create deposits on UB customer accounts.

Fee codes can also be grouped together on an adjustment type code (UB> Maintenance> Adjustment Types) in order to create an adjustment on a transaction (UB> Adjustments and Fee> Input), or charge a Past Dues penalty (UB> Past Dues> Generate).

Step by Step

1     Open the Fee Code Maintenance window (UB> Maintenance> Fee Code).

• The Fee Code Maintenance window is similar to many of the other maintenance windows in application. Select a record in the left section of the window and the Edit section of the window will populate with the information of the selected record.
• Click the Excel Export button in the data grid if you would like to create an MS Excel spreadsheet of the information that displays in the window. This allows you to create a report of the fee codes including the fee code amounts and other basic fee code information.
• Select a fee code and click the Delete button to delete the fee code. You will not be able to delete a fee code that is attached to the history lines of customer accounts.
• Click the Create button   to create a new fee code.

2     Create a new fee code.

• Enter a Fee Code. The fee code can be up to six alphanumeric characters long.
• Enter a Description. The Description can be up to 20 alphanumeric characters.
• Enter a Flat Amount if the fee is a flat amount. Flat amount fee codes can be used to charge deposits or connection charges. For example, if a customer is charged a $25 dollar deposit when they establish a new account, enter $25 in this field. You can apply the deposit to the customer account using the Connection Charges step of the New Account Wizard. Enter the amount of the deposit or the connection charge in the Flat Amount field.
• Enter a Percent Amount if the fee should be calculated based on a percentage of an amount. Enter the percentage amount as a whole number (100% = 100).
  • The Percent Amount field is generally used when assessing Past Due fees (UB> Past Dues). When Past Dues are generated, the fee code will be applied based on the percentage of the past due amount. For example, if the past due amount is $45.00, if the percentage amount is 10.00, the past due charge will be $4.50.
    • If this fee is going to be used in the Past Dues process, the selection in the Against Balance toggle will affect the functionality of this field.
  • The Percent Amount field is also used when factoring interest on deposit fee codes from the Factor Deposit Interest window (UB> Adjustments and Fees> Factor Deposit Interest). When interest is factored, the interest on the deposit amount will be calculated using the value in the Percent Amount field as an annual percentage rate. For example, if you enter 3.50 in this field and you are factoring a year of interest on a deposit of $50, the calculated interest on the deposit will be $1.75 (.035 X $50).
    • If you do not enter a value in the Percentage Amount field, the deposit fee code will not display in the Factor Deposit Interest window (UB> Adjustments and Fees> Factor Deposit Interest).
• The Past Due Minimum field is used to enter a minimum dollar amount of a past due before the fee code will be applied.
  • Past dues are generated (UB> Past Dues) using an adjustment type that the fee code is attached to. The fee code will not be applied if the past due amount does not exceed Past Due Minimum.
  • If you would like to assess a minimum charge on all accounts included in a Past Dues batch, enter a value in the Minimum Charge field on the Generate window (UB> Past Dues> Generate) when the past dues are generated.
• The Service to Charge field is used to select the UB service that will be charged when the fee is assessed.
  • If you are modifying an existing fee code, it is recommended that you do not change the service selected in this field once you have generated transactions on the fee code. Rather than changing the fee code, create a new one with a different service.
  • If this is a deposit fee code, the service selected in the Service to Charge field must be attached to the customer account the deposit is being created on. Some customers create a separate service for deposits.
• The Calculate Charges From field is used to select how the fee will be calculated if it is set up as a percentage amount. This field generally applies to fees that will be used in the Past Dues process because it also affects which balances will be included in the Past Dues batch.
  • When a Past Dues batch is generated (UB> Past Dues), an adjustment type is selected to assess the past dues fees. The fee codes attached to the selected adjustment type define which GL accounts will be used in the transaction and how penalty charges are assessed on the customer accounts. The fee codes attached to the adjustment type will also determine which customer accounts are pulled into the Past Dues batch based on the services attached to the fee code. Only the balances on UB services that are attached to the fee code will be included in the Past Dues batch.
  • The entire balance of the customer accounts will only be pulled into the Past Dues batch if all of the services that are attached to the customer accounts are also attached to the fee code used to assess the penalties. Only the account balances on services that are attached to the fee code used to assess the Past Due charges will be pulled into the batch.
• Enter the GL accounts on the fee code.
  • The GL accounts that will be used in a specific transaction are determined by how the adjustment type is set up.
• Check the Deposit toggle if the fee code is used to create a deposit on UB customer accounts.
  • When a new account is created using the New Account Wizard, attach this fee code to the new account to create a deposit. When the New Account Wizard is complete, the fee code will be processed in an Adjustments and Fees batch (UB> Adjustments and Fees) in order to create the billing line item for the deposit amount. If the Deposit toggle is not checked on the fee code, the billing line item will be created in an Adjustments and Fees batch, but when the money is received it will be processed like a standard fee rather than a deposit.
  • Most organizations will use a deposit liability GL account in the Revenue Account field when setting up a fee code with the Deposit toggle checked.
• Check the Default Overpayment toggle if overpayments should be applied to this fee code by default.
  • If a customer makes an overpayment to a service that does not have an attached service rate, the overpayment will be applied to the fee code with the Default Overpayment toggle checked.
• The Against Balance toggle only applies to percentage based fee codes used to generate Past Due charges.
  • The Against Balance toggle is used to set up how the percentage entered in the Percentage Amount field will be calculated. If the Against Balance toggle is checked, the past due penalty amount will be calculated using the balance forward on the UB customer account. If the Against Balance toggle is not checked, the percentage will be applied based on only the past due amount.
• Check the Used in Transfers toggle if the fee code will be used in the transfers process.
  • The transfers process allows you to transfer an account or deposit balance of a customer account to the account balance or deposit balance of another customer account. Transfer fee codes will display on the generate step of the transfers process (UB> Transfers> Generate> Cash Adj Type and Bill Adj Type fields).
  • When creating a transfer fee code, you will need to confirm that you have specified a CASH account in both the Revenue Account and the Cash Account fields. This will prevent an unnecessary journal entry from being created when the transfer is committed.
• The Assistance Program toggle is used to flag the fee code as part of the Assistance Program. Assistance Program functionality will be released in an upcoming service pack.

3     Save the Fee Code.

• Click the Save button. The fee code has been created.