Payment

The client Payment tab is used to store payments received from Clients as a result of your invoicing them for collection services rendered. The tab is located in the lower portion of the Client screen with the other sub-file tabs ( Debtors, Invoices, Notes, Contacts, Attachments).

You may also post other charges to the Client's account, such as legal costs, collection fees, and other incidental charges as per your agreements with your clients. Charges to the client are applied by using a negative sign in front o f the amount to be charged, as this will add to their balance forwards for that remittance period.

Client Payment Screen

Payments are accurately reflected in your month end Statements/ Invoices.

The Payment is credited to the Client's account.

The Payment tab on the Client screen is NOT used for Debtor payments. To apply Payments from Debtors, use the Transaction tab on the Debtor screen. This can be accessed on a per debtor basis or via the menu path" Daily Administration\ Payments and Charges\Debtor Payments and Charges".

If Collect! finds a single unpaid invoice, and you have 'Enable split payment' checked on the Company Detail form, Collect! will pre-fill the payment record with the invoice information from the unpaid invoice. You can then edit the payment as needed.

Client

This is the name of the Client for whom you are about to post this current payment or charge. If this is blank, press F2 OR click the drop-down arrow to pick from your Client list. If you are posting from the Payment Tab on a specific client screen, you should see the current Client's name already populated in this field.

Date

This field displays the date you received and deposited the payment. Press F2 OR click the calendar icon at the right of the field OR manually input the date. This date will be used when generating statements.

By default, the current date is displayed.

It is very important to NOT back-date a client payment into a month or other statement cycle that you have previously finalized by generating/printing your Statements and Checks for. The system has no way to include a new transaction line item into the accounting for a period if that period is already considered closed.

Amount

This field shows the amount of the Client payment or charge to the Client account. Please note positive entries are credits to the Client's account while negative entries are debits.

Description

This is a brief description of the payment or charge for your internal records.

Client Payments appear on statements prefixed with "Client Payments Processed".

Attachment

This field will display an Attachment File Name if you have created an Attachment for this payment. It will remain empty if there is no Attachment for this payment.

Payment attachments are files that can be 'attached' to payments. This is a very handy way of keeping track of scanned original invoices, MS Excel spreadsheets or any other appropriate file type associated with a payment.

To the right of this field there are four buttons. You can use these buttons to perform the following actions.

- Select a file from the Attach folder
- Open a file
- Print a file
- Delete a file

To ATTACH AN EXISTING FILE to this payment select the Magnifying Glass button. This feature lets you attach any kind of file to your payments in Collect! As long as Windows is set up to handle that file type, you can instantly display any type of original information about any payment.

To CREATE AN ATTACHMENT, select the Open button and the Text Editor will start. Enter text as needed and then press F8 to save and exit.

If you put a URL in this field, Collect! will use your web browser to go to the web site when you select the OPEN button.

To PRINT THE DISPLAYED FILE, select the Print button.

To DELETE THE FILE, select the button with the stylized X on it. This prompts you to delete the file.

Payment attachments created by Collect! are text files stored in the ATTACH folder. They are named {client#}.### where client# is the Client Number and ### is a sequence number. A single client can have up to 999 attachments.

You can also select other file types, as long as Windows knows how to display the types you choose.

Collect! stores payment Attachment files by default in the bin\global\\attach\client folder.

Invoice Number

This field stores the invoice number of the invoice that this payment is associated with. On the Invoice/Statement record, the field that this is linked to is the COUNTER field.

Check No

This field allows you to store the check number if the payment received was via a check. This is a number only field.

Delete

This button is visible on the list of all Client payments. Selecting this button will delete the highlighted record from the database.

Edit

This button is visible on the list of all Client payments. Selecting this button will allow you to edit any data on an existing record.

New

This button is visible on the list of all Client payments. Selecting this button will save any data you have entered and create a new record.

Help

Press this button for help on the Payment screen and links to related topics.

Cancel

Selecting this button will ignore any data you have entered and return you to the previous screen.

OK

Selecting this button will save any data you have entered and return you to the previous screen.

<<

Selecting this button will take you back to another record.

>>

Selecting this button will take you forward to another record.

Importing Client Payments

You can import and export Client Notes, Client Attachments, Client Contacts and Payments. This requires that you are licensed for the optional Import/Export module.

Sample import maps are shipped with Collect! and are available for download from the Member Center.