Introduction To Promises

What is a Promise? A Promise is an agreement with a debtor to pay a specific sum of money on a definite date. A promise may be a single payment, multiple payments or a repeating payment at regular intervals. How do we record these promises in Collect!? Keep track of when the promise is due? Know when it is met or broken?

A Promise may easily be managed in Collect! using a Promise contact. Promise contacts are very useful for scheduling single promise payments, multiple promise payments, or a series of payments promised at a repeating interval. Promise contacts provide a loosely structured " payment plan" with far more leeway that an actual payment plan. If payments are irregular, incomplete or missed, Promise contacts keep track of this and calculate correctly with no extra work on your part.

When you create a Promise contact, the due date of the Promise will be displayed on the Debtor form in the Promise field. The Promise will show up in the Operator's WIP List on that day.

Processing promised payments is controlled by the "Automatically Manage Promises" switch in the Payment Posting Options form. If this switch in ON, Collect! will automatically keep track of whether or not the promise is met, forwarding the date to the next Repeat period when appropriate, or marking the Promise contact as Done, if needed.

When there is a Repeat value, Collect! forwards the contact when a full payment is received for the dollar amount of the Promise contact. The contact's Due Date is advanced to the next Repeat period's date. Normally, the Promise Due Date is advanced one Repeat period when a full payment is received. If you switch ON 'Advance overpayments', the Due Date will advance as far ahead as necessary if a payment is made that fulfills the promise for several Repeat periods.

An unfulfilled promise or partial payment does not advance and stays in the WIP List as delinquent. The Promise field on the Debtor form turns RED when the Due Date passes.

Promises may be automated with contact plans. For instance, you may want to send a letter when you set up a promise on an account, write a line to the debtor's Notes, and maybe print a coupon book. Also, several actions may be taken automatically when a promised payment is received. These are controlled by Promise Contact Actions in the Payment Posting Options form. Payment in Full, Overpayment, Underpayment, NSF Payment and Broken Promises each trigger a contact plan. These may be modified to suit your needs, or you may choose not to run any of them.

Promises With Interest Details

When you are entering Interest Details for an account, you can set up a Payment Period and a Payment Amount in the Interest Detail form. Then, when you create a Promise Contact, Collect! will automatically fill the Repeat value and the Amount on the Promise to match the values you entered in the Interest Detail form.

Billing Tree Module For Promised Payments

The Billing Tree Module enables you to process credit card and ACH payments electronically through Collect!'s Billing Tree connection. This is a full-featured solution for managing single and recurring payments made by credit card or by bank draft. External payments posted at the Billing Tree web site are also reconciled and posted within Collect!. Recurring scheduled payments are fully managed within Collect!'s promised payment system.

See Also

- Promise Contact Topics
- Billing Tree Topics