Batch Processing

Batch processing lets you manage many accounts at once, quickly, reliably and easily.

Several account management tasks may be handled from the Batch Processing form. Select the option you would like to perform. Assign accounts to a client, an operator, or a range of operators. Run contact plans or prepare a batch of accounts for credit bureau reporting. Group accounts together, undo completed contacts, or process scheduled contacts.

When you select Next, you are able to enter settings specifically for the option you have chosen.

If you use automated contact management in Collect!, you should normally process automatic contacts on a daily basis. Assigning accounts, running batch contact plans, credit bureau reporting preparation, and processing TCN call campaigns may be done as needed.

Batch processes may tax the system heavily, simulating the actions of one hundred users at a time! You can speed this up if you run batch processes from your Server.

Accessing Batch Processing

The Batch Processing menu may be accessed in many ways. Providing you have access to the various menus and forms, you can use one of the following ways to get to the Batch Processing form.

1. Using the menu bar at the top of Collect! select Tools to display the drop-down menu. Select Batch Processing from this menu and the Batch Processing menu will appear.
2. Or, you can access Batch Processing from the Main Menu. Select the Daily Administration button to display the Daily Administration menu. Select the Daily Batch Processes button to display the Daily Batch Processing menu. Select the Batch Processing button to display the Batch Processing menu.

Batch Processing

Process Automatic Contacts

Select this to Process Automatic Contacts that were previously scheduled. This process can change the Debtor status, change Operator assignment, close or activate accounts and write notes to a Debtor's file.

For example, imagine that one of your Contact Plans sends a letter on Day 1 and that 10 days later you want the file activated, an Operator assigned and a review Contact to appear in the Operator's Work In Progress (WIP) list. You would build a Contact Plan that schedules these events. Then, as they become due, this function will process these items as necessary.

You may select DEBTORS from the Process pick list to process your Debtor contacts or CLIENTS to process your Client contacts.

Press NEXT to display the Select Contacts To Process form where you will further define the batch process.

Group Accounts Together

You can group accounts based on any set of fields on the Debtor record using logical AND and OR conditions.

This process checks for matching accounts based on your conditions, such as Name, Social Security Number, Address and Home phones. If a match is detected, the process groups accounts together.

The search by Social Number must be an exact match for accounts to be grouped together.

The Name field search must match on both the Last Name and the First Name. Middle initial and other extraneous information is ignored.

When accounts are grouped, new accounts that don't have an Operator ID will be assigned to the Operator of the first matching account found.

It is typical to run this process immediately after importing a batch of accounts or after manually data entering your day's new business.

Assign Accounts To Operators

This process assigns an Operator to accounts.

You may select DEBTORS from the Process pick list to process your Debtor contacts or CLIENTS to process your Client contacts.

DEBTORS: Any pending contacts for the Operator previously assigned to the account will be rescheduled for the new account Operator.

Contacts scheduled for Operators other than the original account owner are not affected. That means you can have supervisors and legal desks all working this file and then assign a new Operator without affecting the other work going on.

If you choose a Team to assign accounts, the new accounts are distributed across all collectors on the team. Accounts are distributed to balance the number of active accounts in each Operator's queue, and equalize the total dollar value of all active accounts in each queue.

You can assign a contact plan to run automatically on each account where the batch process changes the Operator. This option is set in System->Preferences->Options, Sounds and Colors.

CLIENTS: The Operator ID you select will be entered into the Client Settings for the Clients you choose. This Operator ID will be assigned to all new accounts entered for this Client on a go forward basis. It does not affect the Operator ID for Debtors already listed in the system.

Press NEXT to display the Select Accounts To Process form where you will further define the batch process. From this point forward, Collect! will display forms that are based on this choice so that you can fill in further details of the batch process.

Run Contact Plans

Collect! allows you to set up your own contact plans to automatically process hundreds of accounts per minute.

This function runs a Contact Plan on any number of accounts.

You may select DEBTORS from the Process pick list to process your Debtors or CLIENTS to process your Clients.

You can pick accounts by listed date or currently assigned Operator, use search criteria to select accounts in almost unlimited ways, and even tag individual records to be processed.

Press NEXT to display the Select Accounts To Process form where you will further define the batch process. From this point forward, Collect! will display forms that are based on this choice so that you can fill in further details of the batch process.

Prepare Accounts For CBR

Switch ON this option to Prepare Accounts For Reporting To Credit Bureau. You can report credit history on many accounts in one quick step. After preparing the accounts for reporting, (you can prepare many different groups of accounts), you'll want to be sure the settings in the Select Bureau Report Details form correctly display the details you set for reporting to credit bureaus.

*** NOTE : Select Tools from the top menu bar and then select Credit Reporting to check your default settings.

If you have Debtors in your search criteria that belong to Clients who are not set to report to the bureau, Collect! will skip these debtors during the preparation phase. Only Debtors belonging to Clients setup to report will be prepared for CBR reporting.

Press NEXT to display the Select Accounts To Process form where you will further define the batch process. From this point forward, Collect! will display forms that are based on this choice so that you can fill in further details of the batch process.

Undo Completed Contacts

Select this to undo a specific batch that you processed and unmark the contacts 'completed.' This is very useful if unforeseen circumstances render your batch unusable and you have to redo it. Since contacts are marked done when a batch is run, this option allows you to 'undo' the completed status. Contacts are now 'active' again and in process. You can redo your batch as if you had never run it.

You may select DEBTORS from the Process pick list to process your Debtor Contacts or CLIENTS to process your Clients Contacts.

Press NEXT to display the Undo Completed Contacts form where you can choose the types, dates, times and operators of contacts to unmark.

Assign Accounts To A Client

This process assigns accounts to a Client.

The client information on the Debtor form displays the new client's Name and Client Number.

Press NEXT to display the Select Accounts To Process form where you will further define the batch process. From this point forward, Collect! will display forms that are based on this choice so that you can fill in further details of the batch process.

Reset Debtor Interest

This process resets the interest rate on Debtors.

This can be used when changing the rate on multiple accounts. It can also be used if you simply want to have the system post the '499 - Accrued Interest' transaction on multiple accounts.

In this process, if the New Annual Interest Rate is left as zero, the existing rate will be maintained.

Press NEXT to display the Select Accounts To Process form where you will further define the batch process. From this point forward, Collect! will display forms that are based on this choice so that you can fill in further details of the batch process.

Process TCN Campaign

Select this to process your TCN call campaigns. You can schedule a new campaign or process results from previously scheduled campaigns. This option is only visible if your Collect! license enables this add-on extension module.

Please refer to Help topic, How to Schedule a TCN Call Campaign and the topic How to Process Results from TCN Call Campaigns for details.

Process

Select either DEBTORS or CLIENTS from this pick list. If you select DEBTORS, all batch processing functions you select will be performed on your Debtor accounts. If you select CLIENTS, all batch processing functions you select will be performed on your Client accounts.

This pick list is visible when the Client Management option is enabled in Collect! Features and you have selected a batch processing function that may be run on either your Debtors or your Clients.

Help

Select this button for help on the Batch Processing form and links to related topics.

Close

Select this to cancel the batch process setup and return to the previous form.

Next

Select this button to proceed with setting up the batch process. The form that will be displayed depends on the type of batch you are processing. Refer to help on each type of batch process for more details.