Billing Tree Module

The Billing Tree Module is an interface developed by Comtech to provide transparent connectivity to Billing Tree, one of our approved partners, who is a electronic payment processing company. The module provides integrated communication between Collect! and Billing Tree.

The module provides you with the ability to process Credit Card and ACH (Automated Clearing House) payments electronically for both single transactions and recurring payment schedules. Authorization letters and Notices can be automatically scheduled to be compliant with EFT regulations.

External payments posted at the Billing Tree website are also reconciled and downloaded into Collect! provided the debtor has used their Collect! file number as their account number. There is also unmatched payment handling/exception reports created for any transaction which cannot be matched to a debtor file.

If you utilize the 'Auto-manage Promise' system preference setting, then recurring scheduled payments are fully managed within Collect!.

For information on pricing to license your site for this module, contact us at 250-391-0466 or email us at sales@collect.org.

To use this module, you must be operating at Collect! Version 11.3.4.1 or higher and licensed in the United States. Older version users please contact us for information on how to upgrade your system.

The following is a synopsis of how the module functions. There are two main types of electronic payments:

• Credit Card Payments
• ACH Payments

Credit Card Payments

Your Billing Tree Representative provides you with a USA ePay account that will allow you to connect via our module.

Credit card payment access and preferences are set up via the menu path "System\Preferences\ Credit Card Setup". There is also a software switch in each client that requires setting if your site will be charging Convenience fees. This check-box is located in the Advanced Client Settings window and must be set for each client you wish to charge Convenience fees for.

If you have many clients to enable for Convenience Fee charges, contact our Technical Services department for assistance with a simple writeback report to set the switches en masse for a tagged list of clients.

For additional details on specific fields to assist with your setups, press F1 from any field to be taken directly to the page(s) where that field is described in detail.

There are two types of credit card payments that may be submitted through the module; single and recurring:

Single Credit Card Transaction

Single, current-dated credit card payments are processed immediately. When you submit the payment, it is confirmed immediately. If the transaction is later dishonored, the reversal will be downloaded via Reconciliation. The payments will appear in the Transaction Tab on the debtor account along with a separate transaction if convenience fees were applicable.

Recurring Credit Card Payments

When you schedule recurring credit card payments for processing, payments are not stored in Collect!'s transaction tab; the whole schedule is stored on the Billing Tree Gateway and individual payments will be downloaded as they come due and are approved/processed.

The reason is PCI Compliance - all of the credit card information needed for the arrangement may only be stored with the payment processing company (Billing Tree) and not in the agency database.

Every evening, Billing Tree submits all requests to USA ePay and the transaction results are then available for download via Reconciliation the following morning.

Convenience fees, if allowed in your region and by your client may only be charged on the FIRST transaction of a recurring series. This is as per the Visa/MasterCard guidelines. The module functions in compliance with this regulation.

Deleting A Recurring Schedule

Click the Credit Card button on the lower right of your main Debtor window to enter the Recurring Credit Card Payments screen. Click the Delete Recurring Schedule button located at the bottom of the popup screen to remove an existing recurring arrangement.

If you have set up and enabled EFT authorization and notification letters for your recurring payment schedule, the act of deleting the arrangement will also remove any remaining authorization and notification letters from your letter queue.

Reconcile Credit Card History

The 'Reconcile' function is an integral part of the module. It brings in the successful payments from the single and recurring schedules, informs you of any declined cards, and posts any external payments debtors may have made themselves directly at the Billing Tree portal that your office is as of yet unaware of.

Debtors MUST use their Collect! file number as the account number when making a credit card payment on the portal. We recommend that system-wide batch Reconciliations be run a minimum of once per day.

ACH Payments

Your Billing Tree Representative provides you with a ACHNow Web account that will allow you to connect via our module.

ACH payment access and preferences are set up in the ACH Setup menu in via the path "System\Preferences\ Billing Tree Setup". There is also a software switch in each client that requires setting if your site will be charging Convenience fees located in the Advanced Client Settings window.

If you have many clients to enable for Convenience Fee charges, contact our Technical Services department for assistance with a simple writeback report to set the switches en masse for a tagged list of clients.

For additional details on specific fields to assist with your setups, press F1 from any field to be taken directly to the page(s) where that field is described in detail.

Single or Recurring ACH transactions may be posted through the module:

Single ACH Payment

When you submit a single ACH payment, it is processed immediately. When you reconcile your system with Billing Tree, any ACH payments which have failed to negotiate for any reason such as NSF, will be reported back to you. The convenience fee will also be reversed, if applicable. If you have recurring ACH transactions in your system, these are uploaded to Billing Tree as they come due and confirmation of the transaction clearing will be downloaded via Reconciliation.

Clearing days may vary depending on your agreements directly with Billing Tree.

Recurring ACH Payments

When you schedule recurring ACH payments, the act that submits them to the Gateway for processing is Reconciliation. We recommend that this be run daily to keep your records up-to-date. Transactions for each convenience fee are separately posted with their own transaction type code, if applicable.

Recurring ACH payments are stored in Collect!, not on the Billing Tree Gateway. You will not see the details of a recurring ACH arrangement on the Billing Tree ACH website portal. The post-dated transaction details are stored in the Collect! Transaction Tab.

Reconcile ACH History

The reconcile function is an integral part of the module. It finalizes the ACH transactions whose pay dates have come due, downloads any NSF notifications and posts any external payments made by debtors directly at the ACH Gateway.

We recommend that you run Reconcile ACH History daily.

Users of CV11.6.2.7 and higher who are also licensed for the Scheduler Module now have an enhanced automation with the addition of the Reconcile process being added to the Scheduler Task list of options. The functionality to run this process unattended with your other auto Scheduler operations has been added. Contact us at sales@collect.org for Scheduler Module pricing.

EFT Notices

In compliance with EFT requirements, the module enables you to automatically schedule authorization letters and EFT notices for recurring credit card and recurring ACH payments. The EFT Notices Setup enables you to set the number days prior to payment for letters to be sent. Sample letters are shipped with Collect! and are intended as Sample ONLY. It is each site's individual responsibility to ensure that letters are compliant in form and content for the legislation in the region(s) you service.

EFT notices are set up in the EFT Notices Setup menu off the path of "System\Preferences\ Billing Tree Setup". Letters must already exist in your Report Definition list.

For additional details on specific fields to assist with your setups, press F1 from any field to be taken directly to the page(s) where that field is described in detail.

View EFT Notices

Billing Tree Access Rights

The Billing Tree Module creates Transactions, Contacts, and Cosigners, as needed, even if the Operator that you are signed in as does not ordinarily have the access rights to create these records manually. This enables you to continue to use your permissions without having to make any changes in order to utilize this module.

See Also

- Billing Tree Topics