Working With Collect!

Now that you have Client and Debtor information entered, you may be wondering what to do next. This is the most common question new users ask. This topic should help you answer this question.

When you begin to use Collect!, a fair amount of planning is necessary. What do you want your operators to do? How will you take care of financials and accounting? Who will be in charge of keeping everything running smoothly? In these three areas, operators, accounting and management, you will want to have a plan of action.

Operators

Your first priority should be to get your operators working. This is the bottom line to keep your business productive and lucrative. When your collectors are using Collect! effectively, then you can move on to organize your accounting tasks and month end processes.

Training operators to use Collect! is the easiest of your tasks if you keep the steps simple. Don't bombard them with rules and demands for using Collect!. Introduce collectors to Collect! in ways that make it easy for them to get on with the next account. Let them see what the screens look like, how to make notes, how to make a follow-up contact. As they familiarize themselves with Collect! simply, you can work on making it easier for them. The faster they can work, the better it is for your business. When your users get frustrated, the whole process slows down.

Everyone needs to know how to use the WIP List, to find debtors, to make notes and schedule a follow-up contact. Accounting and management tasks are more specialized and require further training.

Accounting

Accounting is separate, as it may be a task given to operators who never contact a debtor. The accounting topics are for the management team. Preparing statements, reviewing commissions, outside agency costs and fees, for example, are generally handled by the accounting staff.

Management

Management topics deal with giving direction to operators, feeding them tasks in an orderly way so that their work is efficient and on schedule. Your management team should be responsible for planning the functions of your operators so that their work is steady and productive with a minimum of interference in areas they do not need to be involved in.

Summary

When you begin to use Collect!, a fair amount of planning is necessary and you will want to have a plan of action. It can be as simple as this. Operators make contacts, accounting staff takes care of the financials, and management assesses the processes, fine-tuning and automating them to keep everything running smoothly.

See Also

- How To Use The WIP List
- Working A Debtor
- Accounting Topics
- Management Topics