Event

The Event form is used to define actions executed when a contact plan runs. Each Event in a contact plan schedules a contact with the settings you choose in the Event form. The Event form displays fields and pick lists for all the possible settings, allowing you to create any type of contact.

The Event

You can define letters, phone calls, file reviews, status changes, promises, post transactions, write notes to the Debtor record, or make one or more changes to a Debtor record. You can activate or close an account, assign accounts to an operator, set a commission rate or plan. You can even cause another contact plan to be executed on some future date.

Events can be scheduled to occur on certain dates. You can set the number of days delay before an Event in the contact plan occurs. For example, you could schedule Letter 1 to be sent today, and Letter 2 to be sent in 10 days, based on a condition you set.

The Event form is accessed through the Contact Plan form. To activate the Event sub window, click into the Event sub window, or press F5. If this is a new contact plan and there are no events showing in the list, you will be prompted to create one. Select YES. If there are events showing in the list of an existing plan, you may select an Event to view, or press F3 to create a new one.

Type

The Type field sets the type of contact Event that you are scheduling. Press F2 or select the down arrow to view the list of contact types that you can choose.

The Type of event determines a general action. For instance, Letter means print a letter, while Operator means assign an Operator to the account. Other settings on the Event form define the details, such as which letter to print, or which Operator to assign to the account.

Click here for a description of each type.

Event Types

There are several kinds of events, one for each type of contact in the system.

Basically, Event Types fall into two groups:

Operator Assisted Contacts, such as phone calls, requiring Operator intervention. These will appear in the Operator's Work In Progress To Do List.

Automatic Contacts, such as letters, which are automatically processed by Collect! in batches.

Please refer to the Help topic Contact for details about entering settings for of the many types of events.

Description

The Description field defines the details of the Event. The functionality of the Description field changes depending on the Type of Event that is chosen. For example, if you schedule a Letter Event, the Description field becomes a pick list where you can choose the letter you want printed from the list of all reports in the system. Press F2 from the Description field to display the list. For a Note Event, you type the actual text that you want written to the debtor's Notes into the Description field.

Please refer to each Event Type for details about what to enter in the Description field for that type of Event.

Attachment

This field may be used to attach a file to this contact event.

The filed entered here will be entered into the Attachment field of the Contact that is created when the Contact Plan runs.

When you attempt to open the attached file, Collect! will look for a folder for the debtor in the ATTACH folder in Collect\bin\global\masterdb\attach\debtor, provided you have named a file that starts with the debtor's File Number. For example, 1025.123, where 1025 is the debtor's File Number and a file named 1025.123 has been placed in the Collect\bin\global\masterdb\attach\debtor\1000\1025 folder.

If the file is not named with a debtor File Number, or contains the phrase " email", then Collect! expects it to be placed in the STYLES folder, for example, Collect\styles\email5.txt.

Assign To Account Operator

Switch ON Assign to Account Operator if you want this Event to be scheduled for the operator who is assigned to the debtor. When the plan is run on an account, the Operator ID from the Debtor form is entered automatically into the contact's Collector field. The contact will show up in the account operator's WIP To Do List.

To switch this ON, select the radio button next to this field to place a dot in it.

Assign To Current Operator

Switch ON Assign to Current Operator if you want this Event to be scheduled for the operator who is currently signed on. When the plan is run on an account, the Operator ID of the operator who is signed on is entered automatically into the contact's Collector field. The contact will show up in the current operator's WIP To Do List.

To switch this ON, select the radio button next to this field to place a dot in it.

Assign To Specific Operator

Switch ON Assign to Specific Operator if you want this Event to be scheduled for an operator of your choice. When the plan is run on an account, the Operator ID of the operator you selected is entered automatically into the contact's Collector field. The contact will show up in that specific operator's WIP To Do List.

To switch this ON, select the radio button next to this field to place a dot in it. The Operator field will appear. Press F2 to select from the list of operators.

Operator

The Operator field is visible only when you switch ON 'Assign to specific operator'. Press F2 from the Operator field to pick from the list of operators.

Priority

The Priority field allows you to enter a priority for this contact Event. Priority may be used to organize your WIP List, or to alert an operator to the importance of a particular contact. In the WIP List you can easily display contacts in order of priority.

Priority levels in the WIP List are as follows.

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

No Autocomplete

In WIP Options, the setting 'Automatically mark contacts done' can be set so that Collect! marks contacts as Done when they are worked from the WIP List. To override this global setting for a particular contact Event, switch ON 'No Autocomplete'.

To switch this ON, select the check box next to this field to place a check mark in it.

Do Not Autodelete

Switch ON 'Do not autodelete' to prevent auto-deletion of this contact Event. This is useful for overriding events in other contact plans with 'Delete pending contacts' selected. There may be cases where you do not want pending contacts of this type to be deleted when one of your other contact plans is run.

To switch this ON, select the check box next to this field to place a check mark in it.

This also affects behavior when an account is closed manually. Contacts with "Do not autodelete" switched ON are not deleted. However, Promises and Transactions will be marked done when accounts are closed, regardless of this switch setting.

Mark Done Immediately

Switch ON 'Mark done immediately' to mark the contact done immediately after it is created. This is used to record an event in the debtor's history. For instance, you might want to keep track of the fact that a phone conversation was held on a particular day. The contact will never appear in a WIP List.

To switch this ON, select the check box next to this field to place a check mark in it.

Prompt To Confirm Details

Switch ON 'Prompt to confirm details' to allow the user to check and edit details of the contact before it is saved. This enables the user to change any setting of the scheduled contact. For example, for a Phone contact, the user might modify the Due Date. Or, for a Transaction contact, the Amount may be entered. For a Review, a particular Description might be typed in.

To switch this ON, select the check box next to this field to place a check mark in it.

This switch is ignored in batch processing.

Delete Same Type Contacts

Switch ON 'Delete same type contacts' to delete any pending contacts of this same contact Type when the plan is run. This is useful to prevent mistakenly scheduling two same type contacts for a debtor, or to update a certain contact to the current date.

For example, if a debtor has a Phone contact scheduled, you could create another Phone contact when a Phone contact plan is run. This might result in a second unintended phone call to the Debtor. To make sure this doesn't happen, switch on 'Delete same type contacts' in your phone Event. When the plan is run, Collect! checks the Debtor's scheduled contacts, and any pending Phone contacts will be deleted when the current one is scheduled.

To switch this ON, select the check box next to this field to place a check mark in it.

If a contact has No Autodelete enabled, this option will not delete the contact.

Same Description Only

Switch ON 'Same description only' to limit the pending contacts that are deleted when a plan is run. Now the contact will only be deleted if the Description in the existing contact is exactly the same as the contact you are about to schedule.

This switch only works when 'Delete same type contacts' is enabled. Same type contacts are not deleted if the Description is not identical.

To switch this ON, select the check box next to this field to place a check mark in it.

Allow All Users To Delete

Switch this ON with a check mark if you want to ensure that this contact is deleted no matter who runs the contact plan.

WARNING: Careful! This switch overrides access rights. That means ANY user level who runs this plan will delete same type contacts on the account, even if their access rights level does not allow editing or deleting contacts.

Advance Promise On Overpayment

When you create a Promise Event, you can switch ON 'Advance promise on overpayment' to control how Collect! manages promise overpayments. The corresponding switch on the Promise Contact will be set when the contact is scheduled.

This setting causes Collect! to consider overpayments of promises as prepayments against future promises. For instance, if a Debtor promises to pay $100 per month, and actually makes a payment of $200, the contact's Promise Date will move ahead two payment periods when the transaction for $200 is posted. If 'Advance promise on overpayment' is switched OFF, the Promise Date moves ahead only one period whenever an overpayment is posted.

To switch this ON, select the check box next to this field to place a check mark in it.

Record Event History

Switch this ON if you want Collect! to create a contact on the account when this event is executed. This is useful for recording the event as history on the account for reporting purposes. Certain types of events, such as Letter, Review, Phone, Export, Email and Other have this switch set to ON by default

For example, you may want to change the account Status using a contact plan. To record this event on the account for tracking purposes, you would switch ON 'Record event history' in the Status event. Or, you may want to print a letter on an account without creating a letter contact. In that case, you would switch OFF 'Record event history' in the Letter event.

You can also switch this OFF to prohibit creating a contact, provided you are scheduling the event to occur immediately. If the check box is UNCHECKED, the event will occur but there will be no Contact record on the account.

When scheduling events that do not occur immediately, Collect! needs a contact to process the event. Also, when scheduling Reviews, Phone contacts and other events for your work queues, Collect! needs a contact. In these cases where a contact is necessary for your event to execute, Collect! will switch ON Record Event History with a Read Only check mark. This will ensure that a contact is created as required.

Schedule Immediately

Switch ON 'Schedule immediately' to schedule the Event as soon as you run the plan. The effect of this depends on the Type of event. For example, if you are scheduling a Review, the contact is created right away for today's date. For a Transaction, the Transaction is posted immediately. For a Plan within the plan, the second plan is run immediately. For Note, the debtor's Notes are written to immediately.

To switch this ON, select the radio button next to this field to place a dot in it.

Print Now

Switch ON 'Print now' to print a letter immediately as soon as you run the contact plan. This overrides any delays set in the plan.

This switch is visible only when you are scheduling a Letter Event and have enabled 'Schedule immediately'.

To switch this ON, select the check box next to this field to place a check mark in it.

When you select "Print now," the "Create metafile" check box becomes visible.

Create Metafile

Switch this ON to create and attach a METAFILE to the Letter Contact when this Letter Event is executed.

This field is visible only if you have selected "Print now."

To create and attach a METAFILE, you must also ensure that "Record event history" is switched ON.

When a letter is printed via a "Print now" contact event with the "Create metafile" switch enabled, the METAFILE will be created and attached to the Letter contact, just as it would if the report had been printed manually. This also applies to letters printed to Email.

Collect! will not create a METAFILE if the Client Settings switch "Disable metafiles" is switched ON unless you are printing your Scheduled Batch Letters.

No Note To File

Switch this ON with a check mark if you do not want Collect! to print a line to the Notes when this Letter event is executed. This will override the "Write note to file when printing" setting in Screen and Messages.

This field is visible only if you have selected "Print now."

Delay Days

Switch ON 'Delay days' to schedule the Event to occur a given number of days after the contact plan is run. For example, if you enter a 7 day delay, when the Contact Plan is run, this Event will be scheduled for 7 days later.

To switch this ON, select the radio button next to this field to place a dot in it. This will make the 'Days' field visible. There you can enter the number of days to delay the Event.

You can further control this by switching ON 'Prompt for start date' on the Contact Plan form. Then the user will be prompted when the plan is run. The date the user enters will be used as a reference date. In the example above, the contact would occur 7 days from the date entered by the user when the plan is run.

Days

Enter the number of days to delay the Event, for example, 30. This field is visible only when 'Delay days' is enabled.

Day Of Month

Switch ON 'Day of month' to schedule the Event for a particular day of the month. For example, if you enter 15 as the day of the month, when the batch process is run on the 15th of the month, the contact Event will occur.

If the current date is after the 15th already, then the Event is scheduled for the 15th of next month. Since this is an absolute day of the month, it will not be affected by setting the 'Prompt for start date' for the contact plan.

To switch this ON, select the radio button next to this field to place a dot in it. This will make the 'DOM' field visible. There you can enter the day of the month you want the Event to occur.

Dom

Enter the day of the month you want the Event to occur. This field is visible only when 'Day of month' is enabled.

Delay Months

Switch ON 'Delay months' to schedule the Event to occur a given number of months after the contact plan is run. For example, if you enter a 3 month delay, when the Contact Plan is run, this Event will be scheduled for 3 months later.

To switch this ON, select the radio button next to this field to place a dot in it. This will make the 'Months' field visible. There you can enter the number of months to delay the Event.

You can further control this by switching ON 'Prompt for start date' on the Contact Plan form. Then the user will be prompted when the plan is run. The date the user enters will be used as a reference date. In the example above, the contact would occur 3 months from the date entered by the user when the plan is run.

Months

Enter the number of days to delay the Event, for example, 3. This field is visible only when 'Delay months' is enabled.

Next Month Same Day

Switch ON 'Next month same day' to schedule the Event for next month on the same day of the month that the plan is run. For example, if you run the plan on the 15th of November, when you run your batch process on the 15th of December, the contact Event will occur.

This is actually a very powerful control. Imagine a contact plan with a Plan Event that calls the same contact plan on the same day next month. This results in a repeating contact plan. With conditional contact scheduling as described below you can create a high level of automation this way.

To switch this ON, select the radio button next to this field to place a dot in it.

If a contact is scheduled to occur on the 31st day of the month, and a month does not have 31 days, the event will occur on the last day of that month.

Timeless

This switch is ON by default. No specific time is set for this Event.

To switch this ON, select the radio button next to this field to place a dot in it.

Delay

Switch ON 'Delay' to schedule the Event to occur after a given amount of time has passed. For example, if you entered 1:00 in the time, and you invoke this Contact Plan at 3:26:43 PM or 15:26:43 hours, the resulting contact will be scheduled for 4:26:43 PM or 16:26:43 hours.

Collect! uses a 24 hour clock.

To switch this ON, select the radio button next to this field to place a dot in it. This will make the 'Minutes' field visible. There you can enter the number of minutes or hours to delay the Event.

Minutes

Enter the number of minutes to delay the Event. For example, 40 means 40 minutes, while 1:00 means 60 minutes or 1 hour. This field is visible only when 'Delay' is enabled. The contact will be scheduled for the current time when the plan is invoked, plus the number of minutes specified here for delay.

Time Of Day

Switch ON 'Time of day' to schedule the Event to occur at a particular time. For example, if you enter 18:35 for the time, this contact Event will be scheduled for 6:35 PM.

Collect! uses a 24 hour clock.

To switch this ON, select the radio button next to this field to place a dot in it. This will make the 'ToD' field visible where you can enter the time of day for this Event.

Tod

Enter the time of day when you want this Event to occur. The number of hours and minutes must be entered in HH:MM format.

Time of day is in 24 hour format. In other words, if you type 4 it's 4 AM. Type 16 for 4 PM, 18 for 6 PM and so on. You can set the time to the minute. For example, you could type 16:25 and the call will pop up at 4:25 PM.

Collect! uses a 24 hour clock.

Schedule If

The 'Schedule if' field is used for specifying a condition to base this Event on. Type in Collect!'s field code for the field you want to use for your conditional test or press F2 from the 'Schedule if' field to select from the list of available fields.

Fields on the Debtor form work well for setting conditions.

Refer to How to Use Schedule If Based on User Level of Debtor Collector for information on configuring a contact plan to only run on the user level of a collector, instead of the user level of the operator who runs the plan.

Please refer to Conditional Event Scheduling below for important considerations when using this feature.

If

The 'If' field holds the condition that you are using for your test. Press F2 when you are in the 'If' field to choose from the list.

Your choices are:

= Equal to
> Greater than
< Less than
<> Not equal to
.. Within a range
>= Greater than or equal to
<= Less than or equal to

Value 1

Enter the value that the 'Schedule if' field is compared to. When the 'If' field has "Within a range" selected, the 'Value 1' field is the minimum value of the range.

This must be the same data type as the field you are comparing to. Please refer to Conditional Event Scheduling below for further information.

This field has a character size of 23.

Value 2

Enter the maximum value that the 'Schedule if' field is compared to. This field is visible only when the 'If' field has "Within a range" selected.

This must be the same data type as the field you are comparing to. Please refer to Conditional Event Scheduling below for further information.

This field has a character size of 23.

Repeat

The Repeat field allows you to automatically repeat a contact Event. The repeat period is written to the contact. Collect! reads it when the contact Event occurs and forwards the contact to the next period. This can be used, for example, to repeat printing a letter or posting a promised payment. You can also use conditional scheduling to determine whether or not to process the Event. Repeat occurs when you print a letter, post a promised payment or batch process previously scheduled contacts.

Click the Repeat field to select a repeat period. When you select a value, additional fields become visible. When you select "Custom," the Number of Days field becomes visible.

Max Intervals

This field is visible when you select a REPEAT period. It will be written to the Contact and Collect! will use it to determine the number of times this Event is repeated.

Number Of Days

Enter the number of days to forward this contact. When the contact Event occurs, this number of days will be added to the Due Date of the repeating contact. This field is visible only when 'Repeat' is set to "Custom."

Create Copy On Repeat

This field is visible only when there is a value in the Repeat field.

Switch this ON with a check mark to create a completed copy of the Contact every time it is forwarded. This allows you to track a past history of the Contact. If the Contact is a Letter, Collect! will attach a Metafile to the completed Contact if you have Metafiles enabled.

This switch is referenced when Promises are forwarded, when previously scheduled transactions are batched, when letters are batch printed, or when contacts are worked through the WIP List.

This switch will also be referenced whenever you process automatic contacts previously scheduled. All automated types of contacts are handled. This includes Activate, Commission, Rate Plan, Transaction, Plan, Status, Operator, Sales, Edit, Note and Close.

Log Repeat To Notes

This field is visible only when there is a value in the Repeat field.

Switch this ON with a check mark to write a line to the debtor's Notes every time the Contact is forwarded.

The note is in the following format:

[Type] type contact [Description], due [Date] processed by [Op ID]

This switch is referenced when Promises are forwarded, when previously scheduled transactions are batched, when letters are batch printed, or when contacts are worked through the WIP List.

Promise

This field is visible only when the Event Type is Promise. Enter a percentage amount for the Promise. Then specify whether this is percent of Owing or percent of Settlement.

Promise Event

Of Owing

This field is visible only when the Event Type is Promise. Select this to calculate the Promise percentage based on the amount in the Debtor's Owing field.

Of Settle

This field is visible only when the Event Type is Promise. Select this to calculate the Promise percentage based on the amount in the Debtor's Settle field.

Delete

This button is visible only on the list of all Events. Select this to delete the highlighted item from the list.

Edit

This button is visible only on the list of all Events. Select this to open and modify the highlighted Event.

New

Select this button to save your changes and open a new blank Event form.

Cancel

Select this button to discard any changes you made and return to the previous form.

OK

Select this button to save any changes you have made and return to the previous form.

<<

Select this button to go to the previous Event in the contact plan's Event list.

>>

Select this button to go to the next Event in the contact plan's event list.

Help

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

Conditional Event Scheduling

Conditional Event scheduling lets you put your own intelligence into your contact plans. Events can be executed based on a condition that you specify using the 'Schedule if' field on the Event form. This feature gives you great flexibility and the power to have Collect! make decisions for you automatically.

When you enter a SCHEDULE IF expression in the Event form, the Event is evaluated based on this expression when the plan is run. If the condition is not true, the Event is skipped.

To compare two fields of the same data type

SYNTAX: Schedule if: de.li < @de.ch

In this example, de.li is chosen from the pick list for the 'Schedule If' field. Less than [<] is chosen from the pick list for the 'If' field and @de.ch is entered manually in the Value 1 field. Conditional comparisons only work if both fields are the SAME DATA TYPE, for instance, both dates, or both currency.

When using conditional scheduling, it is very important to test your contact plan thoroughly so that you are sure it is performing as you expect.

Fields on the Debtor record work well for setting conditions. To conditionally create a contact based Client number, don't use the code @cl.cl. Use @de.cl to reference the Client associated with the contact's Debtor. The code @cl.cl picks whatever the last Client's ID was, rather than the Client belonging to the contact being processed.

Schedule If User Level

You can also schedule events to trigger on the User Level of the Operator who owns the Debtor you are running the plan on. Select os.ul from the Schedule If pick list and for your criteria, use the number of the User Level or range of numbers of User Levels.

Examples of conditional events can be found in the contact plans in the Demonstration database shipped with Collect!.

Also, please refer to the Help topic How to Use Contact Plans which lays out the exact order in which events are executed when a Contact Plan is run on an account. It makes a difference if you are running complex plans!