Work In Progress

The Work In Progress (WIP) list displays all the work one operator has to do. If another operator signs on to Collect!, this WIP List would display all of that operator's work.

The WIP List can show as many contacts as you need. There are many possibilities for filtering the list and setting it up to help you organize your work. It is very flexible yet thorough and is directly linked to your entire web of contacts, reviews, and follow-ups. Every contact scheduled for every debtor is accessible from this list.

Work In Progress To Do List

By default, contacts are loaded with today's date at the top and then by oldest to newest dates. Contacts with the same Date are subsorted by Priority, from oldest to newest. Contacts with the same Priority are subsorted by Name and then by Type. Timed contacts always go below normal contacts and are sorted by Time.

Selecting a column heading in the WIP List enables you to sort and subsort contacts according to what you need. You can also select choices to filter the list by Priority, Status, Type or Client.

Supervisors may review the WIP List of any user by selecting the RELOAD button.

If a debtor does not have a pending contact, they will not show up on any operator's WIP List. Accounts missing an In Progress Contact are referred to as "orphaned" accounts.

There is an Internal report which can be located via the menu path "Tools\ Utilities\ Orphaned Account Search" which is designed to generate a report you can review on paper or to file, and which offers you the option to assign these lost accounts to one or more collector WIP lists with a Review Contact containing the Description of "Forgotten".

Learning to use the WIP List efficiently is one of the best ways to utilize Collect!'s robust contact management aspects. There are so many possible ways of building sub-WIP Lists to organize and arrange your work.

Contacts

Collect! calls every interaction that you schedule with your debtors a "Contact." It some other systems this is referred to as a "tickler."

Some types of contacts that can be scheduled include:

* Letter - Put a letter in the Daily Print queue to be printed and sent to a Debtor.

* Review -- Review a Debtor's account.

* Promise -- Set up promised payments from a Debtor.

* Phone -- Set up phone calls to contact a Debtor.

* Other -- Used for any purpose that you can think of.

For an explanation of all the contact types and help on scheduling contacts for your Debtors, press F1 when you are viewing the Contact form.

Contacts And The Work In Progress

Contacts are the backbone of the Work In Progress. From this To Do List, you work your accounts by working contacts. If you wish, you can build a sub-WIP List by filtering the complete WIP List to show only contacts meeting a certain set of criteria. Then you can choose other criteria, and work those contacts.

Each contact has a date and time when it appears in your WIP List, a type which indicates what type of Contact you are dealing with, and a description of the Contact. As you "work debtors" in your WIP List by "working" contacts, you will schedule new contacts, and the contact you are currently working will be marked as 'Done' to indicate that you have completed the task. A contact that is 'Done' disappears from the Work In Progress To Do List.

Only Active accounts appear in WIP Lists. Closed or Suspended accounts do not show even if they have contacts scheduled for the day. These modes are set in the Debtor form's Mode field.

Loading Your WIP List

When you start your WIP List, all contacts that are assigned to your ID will appear in your WIP List, based on the settings used. A Debtor may have several contacts assigned.

For example, a phone call could be scheduled for a collector and then a few days later a review by a supervisor. The contacts will appear in the WIP List of the assigned person.

When you work an account, you run contact plans to schedule contacts for your WIP List. When you use contact plans, your To Do List is actively maintained so that new contacts are entered into the list and appear on the graph as they are scheduled, and completed contacts are removed.

To view new contacts that fall into the criteria, reload.

By default, Collect! starts up by loading Promises, Reviews, Others and Phone calls scheduled for today and the past for your Operator ID from the database. You can change load settings by selecting the Reload button.

List Of Contacts To Work

The part of the Work In Progress form that lists the contacts is called the To Do List. Click on this list to activate it. Each item in the list represents one contact. You can select an item to view the complete details of the contact, work the account, even begin a phone dialing routine if you are setup for Auto Dialer.

Click on black triangle at the extreme right of any WIP field heading which shows this icon to subsort your WIP list as per this column in ascending or descending order.

Work In Progress To Do List

Sub-WIP List

The upper left corner of the Work In Progress screen offers quick filters by way of radio buttons under Priority and drop-down pick lists under Type, Client and Status. Using these filters can build a variety of sub-WIPs for the collector to strategically work accounts in the order that is most meaningful to each individual site.

Using these filters in combination allows the collector to drill down even further when aiming to build a sub-WIP List.

Priority

Choose the priority of the contacts to display. Choosing ALL ignores the contact Priority and displays contacts regardless of Priority.

You can set a contact's priority level when you schedule or edit a contact, and for individual events within a contact plan when you set up the plan.

Priority levels are as follows:

66 to 99 - High
34 to 65 - Medium
1 to 33 - Low

All

This selection displays ALL contacts regardless of Priority. Choose contacts by priority to create Sub WIP Lists. Press the Spacebar to select.

By default contacts are listed regardless of Priority.

High

Choose High to display contacts with Priority from 66 to 99. Choose contacts by Priority to create Sub WIP Lists. Press the Spacebar to select.

By default contacts are listed regardless of Priority.

Medium

Choose Medium to display contacts with Priority from 34 to 65. Choose contacts by priority to create Sub WIP Lists. Press the Spacebar to select.

By default contacts are listed regardless of Priority.

Low

Choose Low to display contacts with Priority from 1 to 33. Choose contacts by Priority to create Sub WIP Lists. Press the Spacebar to select.

By default contacts are listed regardless of Priority.

Type

Pick a Type of contact from the drop-down list to filter for only contacts of that Type in your To Do List. Use your Up and Down Arrow keys to move the highlighted bar to your choice and press the Enter key to select it.

If you can't find the contact types you are looking for, select the Reload button and check the Types you are loading by pressing WIP Filters to ensure you have selected the Type you are attempting to locate in your WIP list.

Client

You can create a sub-WIP List for a specific Client. Simply select the down arrow to the right of the field to select a Client. When you select a Client in the Client list, your To Do List is automatically filtered to display only contacts for that Client's Debtors.

Status

Click the drop-down arrow to pick a Status Code.

When you pick a Status Code, the To Do list will only display contacts with that specific status. The list is updated as soon as you make a choice.

To clear the status code selection, place your cursor in the Status field and press the Spacebar.

A yellow 'S' will display in the status bar at the bottom of the Collect! screen, when the To Do List you are viewing is a sub-WIP List and not the complete list of contacts.

Date Range

You can view contacts scheduled for a single day, or the date range of your choice.

This option is set in the Reload Work In Progress List. Radio buttons are there to select Contacts for today and past (i.e. priors), Contacts for today only, Search all dates or Search by Date Range.

The graph on the main screen of the WIP list displays the Total/Today/Past/Done stats of your current list.

From

This is the month of the earliest contact.

It's set to the first day of the month of the earliest contact found.

To

This is usually today's date, and is the most recent date the system has searched for contacts.

Start And End Dates

These dates are set automatically by Collect! depending on the date range (see above). When you change one of the dates, the other will change appropriately, depending on the range setting. Use the arrow buttons to the right of the dates to change the dates.

Total

This field displays the total number of contacts in your WIP List. This is the number of accounts loaded into the list. The To Do List may contain a Sub WIP, which will contain only some of the items loaded based on your selection of Dates, contact Types, Status and Priority.

Graph

This list shows the contacts you have loaded from the database.

Total includes all uncompleted contacts for today, past, and the future if you've loaded those too. Contacts are also shown by basic type. Note that promises for the past are broken promises while promises for today are due today.

Work In Progress

The To Do List displays pending contacts assigned to you. You can select which contacts are displayed by choosing the various criteria shown at the top left of the Work In Progress form or using the Reload command. Press F5 to move to the To Do List and then press the Enter key to open the Debtor form associated with the contact or, select a contact to open the Debtor form. Press F1 for help on the To Do List when it is activated.

Press Escape to exit from the To Do List and move onto the criteria selection controls in the top half of the Work In Progress form.

Reload

Select this button to reload your current contact list and load contacts for date ranges you specify, for other operator IDs, for specific clients or other settings.

WIP Reload Filters and WIP Options are both accessed through the Reload Work In Progress List form that opens when you press the Reload button. You can also control the behavior of the WIP List, for instance dial phone settings.

Exit

Select this button to close the Work In Progress form. You will return to the Main Menu or the Welcome to Collect! screen depending on your Access Rights.

If your supervisor has modified your system startup defaults, a dialog may pop up stating that you have no rights to leave this database.

See Also

- How To Start Using Collect!
- How To Use The WIP List
- How To Setup The WIP List
- How To Manage Contacts
- Reload Work In Progress List
- To Do List
- WIP Reload Filters
- WIP Options
- Auto Dialer Preferences