How To Setup Transaction Types

This document explains the concept of Transaction Type in Collect!. It will help you use existing transaction types in the right way and create your own.

Transaction types are an integral part of Collect!, and are used for recording and organizing financial information. The Financial Type field in the Transaction form determines how Collect! will process a transaction. Payments, Fees, Interest, Adjustments, Legal are examples of these Financial Types.

For convenience and reporting, Collect! organizes Transaction Types into groups of 100, with the 100, 200, 300, 400, 500 and 600 codes actually reserved as titles for the group they represent. Each series roughly represents one of the Financial Types. For instance, the 100 series is reserved for Payment types. However, it is the Financial Type setting that actually determines how a transaction is processed.

Financial Type Setting Determines Transaction Type

Transaction types are used when printing client and debtor trust account reports. The reports provide a dated summary of financial transactions, and then show a breakdown of the financial activities, usually organized by Transaction series, such as 100's, 200's and so forth. Using these groups will help you with the organization of your own reports.

For example, Group 100 defines all basic transactions such as payment from a Debtor to the agency by cheque or cash, payments from the Client to the agency and other details.

Several groups are predefined, including Original Principal and Interest, Legal Expenses, Interest and Other Expenses.

The Demonstration database in Collect! ships with many predefined transaction types. You can copy any of these to the Masterdb database.

Viewing The List Of Transaction Types

The following list contains all the transaction types provided for you by Collect! You can modify these if you need to or add your own, depending on your business needs.

Codes And Descriptions

100 PRINCIPAL AND INTEREST

101 Payment By Check
102 Payment By Cash
103 Closing Fee received
104 Money Order
105 Returned NSF Check
106 Payment of Agency NSF Fee
107 Check Payment Taken By Phone
108 Debtor Over Payment
109 Credit Card Payment
110 Monthly Payment
121 Legal Advance Fee Received
122 Legal Fee Advance Recovered
150 Down Payment
151 Payment Plan Payment
160 Monthly Billing Amount
193 Payment Plan Initial Discount
194 Judgement Principal - don't modify
195 Judgement Interest - don't modify
196 Original Principal - don't modify
197 Original Interest - don't modify

200 LEGAL EXPENSES

201 Legal Fees
202 Taxable Cost
205 Legal Fee Advance Request

300 OTHER EXPENSES

301 NSF Charge Due Agency
302 Closing Fee
303 Locate Fee
310 Service Charge
320 Payment Plan Late Fee
321 Down Payment
350 Payment Plan Service Charge
351 Late Fee - don't modify
397 Client Fee
398 Debtor Fee
399 Collection Fee - don't modify

400 INTEREST

401 Interest Adjustment
499 Total Accrued Interest

500 ADJUSTMENTS

501 Adjustment by Client
502 Adjustment by Court Order
599 Adjustment through Upgrade

600 INTERNAL EXPENSES

601 Agency Internal Expenditure

Each one of these transaction types has its own settings, set in the Transaction Type form for that type.

To view the settings for these transaction types, pull down the System menu and choose Financial Settings, Transaction Types. The complete list of transaction types available to you will be displayed. Click on your choice to open the Transaction Type form and view the settings.

You should leave code 100, 200, 300 and 400 etc. as titles for the group they represent. Then use codes 101, 201, 301, 401, 501, 601 as the starting points for the transaction types you want to list in the group. You can also create your own groups and codes and then build reports that reference transactions with these codes.

Please note that Collect! internally creates and uses the following transaction types when building its reports.

194 Judgement principal

195 Judgement interest

196 Original principal

197 Original interest

399 Fee for Agency Commission

499 Total Accrued Interest

If these codes do not appear in your Transaction Type list, then they will appear as numbers in your trust reports, rather than with text titles. You should create these codes in your Transaction Type list if they are not there. These Transaction Type codes are required, and should not be changed. Most of the others can safely be modified.

Print A List Of All Settings

To view all of the transaction types available in Collect!, pull down the System menu and choose Financial Settings, Transaction Types. A list will display. You could pull down the Print menu and choose Quick Print from the list of choices. When prompted, say "Yes" to details. This will give you a complete list of the transaction types and their settings.

Record Navigation Buttons

Another way to view different transaction types is to open the first Transaction Type in the list and use the FORWARD [>>] button to scroll through the forms for the different types. It is a convenient way to examine the settings. Use BACK [<<] to move back up the list.

Using The Predefined Transaction Types

Press F1 from the Transaction form and the Transaction Types form to get Help on the fields in these form. Using this information and the list above, pick the transaction types that you need.

Examine the settings of these transaction types to be sure they will act as you expect them to. Most of the types can be modified. However, you should be sure of what you are doing when you make changes to existing Transaction Type settings. These settings have been chosen to perform in a certain way.

Creating Your Own Transaction Types

The easiest way to create a new transaction type is to copy an existing type, or heading, give it a new Code number, in the same general group, and a new Description. Then modify the settings to suit your needs.

Each group heading has default settings that generally apply to the whole group. You can copy the heading as a template for your new type and the basic settings will be set already.

Copy A Transaction Type

1. Choose System, Financial Settings, Transaction Types to display the list of types in your system.

2. Use the up and down arrows to locate and highlight the type or heading that you wish to copy.

3. Make sure it is highlighted and press CTRL+C. You will be informed that you have copied data.

4. Press OK and then press CTRL+V. The list will now contain a duplicate copy of the transaction type or heading that you copied.

5. Click on one of the copies to open the Transaction Type form for you to modify.

6. Give your copy a new Code number and a new Description to begin to create your own transaction type.

Create A Transaction Type Group

To add group 700, for example, to the Transaction Type list:

1. Open the Transaction Type List.

2. Press F3 to create a new Transaction Type.

3. Enter 700 as the Code to identify the group.

4. Type in a general Description that applies to each transaction type in this new group.

The Description you use to label the group is used in trust account reports as the title of the Transaction group.

5. Choose the default settings that will generally apply to transaction types in this group. These settings can be modified for each individual transaction type that you create in the group.

6. Press F8 to save your work.

Now, when you view the list of transaction types, this new group will display.

Create A Transaction Type

As described above, you can copy an existing type or heading and modify it.

Or, you can press F3 when you are viewing the transaction type list or an individual transaction type. This will display a new blank transaction type form for you to fill out. (Or press the NEW button on the toolbar or the NEW button at the bottom of the transaction type list.)

Transaction Type Settings

Each Transaction Type has its own unique settings. These control report printing options, calculations, commission rate, perhaps running a Contact Plan, assigning operators and sales persons to transactions.

There are over twenty settings on the Transaction Type form that you can choose from to setup a particular Transaction Type. The ability to select a Contact Plan to run offers many more choices as well. (This means that once you know what your business needs are, you can create uniquely customized transaction types to automate your transaction posting operations.)

Each section heading in the Transaction Type list has default settings that generally apply to any new transaction type that you create in that category. You can use these settings as a starting point when you create your transaction types.

1. From the Transaction and the Transaction Types forms, press F1 for Help about the fields on both of these forms. You should be aware of how closely they are connected with each other.

2. Use the information available from Help to fill in Code, Description and Copy description to transaction. You can also use the default settings in the header sections to get you started.

Remember that this Transaction Type should be meaningful to you and fit the way you do business. It enables you to categorize your transactions but you must decide what categories mean something to you.

3. Make choices in the Financial Type section as needed, using the F1 Help results to guide you. The Financial Type determines how the transaction is processed and totaled.

4. The second column of the Financial Type section pertains to the Transaction and Debtor forms. The choices set the way information is displayed and calculated. A payment can be categorized and broken down into Interest, Fees, Adjustment and Principal in any order you need.

If you want to see the payment breakdown for this Transaction, switch ON "Payment breakdown" in the Transaction Type form. Several fields on the Transaction form are only visible when this switch is turned on. These fields relate to Principal, Fees, and Interest. Review help on those topics.

The Help available when you press F1 from the Transaction form will give you a good explanation of these payment breakdown aspects. Categorizing your transactions using payment breakdown gives you very detailed information for reporting and tracking purposes.

5. The Processing section allows you to change the defaults for adding transaction information to statements and reports.

6. The Commission and Tax tabs give you choices for Commission and Tax calculation.

7. The Display section can hide To Us or Direct fields on the Transaction form. This makes it easier for the user to know where to enter the dollar amount when a transaction is posted. Also, Collect! can create an Invoice or Receipt number automatically if you switch on these settings for a particular Transaction Type. Please refer to the Help available on Transaction for more information about numbering receipts and invoices.

8. Choose an Operator and transactions of this type will be posted to this Operator. This may be used for calculating Operator commissions. Press the arrow in this field to display a list of operators in the system.

9. Choose a Sales ID and transactions of this type will be posted to this Sales person. This may be used for calculating Sales commissions. Press the arrow in this field to display a list of Sales IDs in the system.

10. Choose a Contact Plan to run when transactions of this type are saved. Press the arrow in this field to display a list of available contact plans.

POST PAYMENT EVENT SEQUENCE

The sequence of events when you post payments is:

1. A transaction record is created.

2. Debtor totals are recalculated.

3. The default payment posting Contact Plan is run.

4. The Transaction Type specific Contact Plan is run.

This plan is run AFTER any Contact Plan you use in the "default payment posting" options setup form. This means that you can use this plan to set up a custom schedule for promised payments received or NSF checks.

Summary

Several basic transaction types are needed to handle the transactions that you post every day. You may find that Collect! has already provided the types and settings you need to begin using transaction types.

If your needs are not met by the predefined transaction types, you can modify existing types or create your own. Please have an idea of the transaction types that you need and the particular settings you would like to apply before you begin to construct your own system for organizing your accounts.