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The Contact form is used to define contacts and other actions scheduled to occur on specific dates. Several different types of contacts may be scheduled. The Contact form displays fields and pick lists for all the possible settings that you can choose.

Contact

Schedule letters, phone calls, emails, and file reviews. Change debtor status, execute a revolving promise payment, post transactions, write notes to the Debtor record, or make one or more changes to a Debtor record. Activate or close an account, assign accounts to an operator, set a commission rate or plan. Schedule a contact plan to be run on some future date.

Contacts may be scheduled to occur on a chosen date. Set the number of days delay before a contact appears in an operator's Work In Progress (WIP) List. Schedule contacts for other operators and they will appear in the operators'' WIP lists on the date and time you specify in the contact.

When you are working your WIP List, the current contact you are working on is displayed on the Debtor form. When you select the Debtor's Contacts tab, the list of contacts will highlight the one you are working on.

Contacts have Type, Description, Due Date and Time, Priority, a Debtor, an Operator or collector, and several other settings. The date and time the contact is completed are recorded. A file can be attached to a contact to include extra details. Contacts appear in a collector's WIP List on the contact's Due Date, the day it is scheduled to be done. For example, you may schedule a phone call for two days hence. Then, when you load your WIP List for today, the contact won't appear. In two days, it will be in your list. Settings for the WIP List determine how many days' worth of contacts are displayed when you load the list.

Often, people mistakenly use the term Contact Plan when referring to a single Contact. The term Contact refers to a single scheduled event, while a Contact Plan is a way to automate your contact management with a sequence of contact Events. It is a very useful and versatile feature of Collect!.

Type

The Type field sets the type of contact 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 contact determines a general action. For instance, Letter means print a letter, while Operator means assign an operator to the account. Other settings on the Contact form define the details, such as which letter to print, or which operator to assign to the account. Depending on the Type you choose, certain fields on the Contact form are visible or hidden. Also, the use of the Description field changes depending on the Type you select in the Type field. Please refer to each Type of contact for details.

Types Of Contacts

When you choose a Contact Type, other fields on the Contact form change according to the Type you select.

The following is a list of predefined Contact Types with details of how your choice of Type affects the Contact form and the way Collect! handles the contact.

Activate

The Activate Contact automatically activates a Debtor when processed. This means the Mode field on the Debtor's account is set to ACTIVE and the Closed Date field is hidden.

This will process all accounts regardless of the current setting of the Mode when you want to set it to ACTIVE by processing

The activation takes place when you process your automatic contacts previously scheduled through Tools, Batch Processing.

Close

The Close Contact automatically closes a Debtor when processed. This means the Mode field on the Debtor's account is set to CLOSED and any pending and incomplete contacts are deleted, removing this Debtor from all To Do lists. Any contacts with the switch "Do not autodelete" are NOT deleted. In progress Promises and Transactions are marked 'Completed'. The Closed Date field appears displaying the current date.

The closing of the account takes place when you process your automatic contacts previously scheduled through Tools, Batch Processing.

Commission

The Commission Contact sets a commission rate on the debtor's account. In the Description field, enter the percentage as a number. For example, 33 means 33% and 12.5 means 12.5%.

The assignment takes place when you process your automatic contacts previously scheduled through Tools, Batch Processing.

Edit

The Edit Contact allows you to modify any field related to the Debtor form. In the Description field, you need to type in the field name and its new value, i.e. field name=some value. For example, the Description would contain Summary=Test note if you wanted Test note to appear in the Debtor Summary line. Or, you could use POE=Fred's Cleaners to put Fred's Cleaners in the debtor's POE field.

The field name is the name that appears on the Debtor form. This works for aliased fields as well. Or, you can use the printable field code for the field. For example, @de.su=Test note

Any field of a related debtor record can be modified. For example, on an interest-bearing account, you can change the date in the Calculate interest from field in the Interest Detail section of the Financial Detail form using the format @id.cifd={date}, for example, @id.cifd=12/12/2003. This can be combined with a transaction that allows you to post the accrued interest on an account. Please see Transaction Type for details.

The field editing takes place when you process your automatic contacts previously scheduled through Tools, Batch Processing.

Email

The Email Contact lets you post an email to this Debtor. Use the Description field to type in the Subject of the email. This description will also be displayed in the Operator's WIP List. By default, email is addressed to the Email Address stored in the Debtor form in the Email field.

When the Send Mail form is opened by selecting the Email field on the Debtor form, the email can be loaded, completed and sent through Collect! using your email program. See Send Mail for information about how the Email feature works.

The Email is sent when you run your daily letter batch.

Email In

This is a Contact Type that can be used to track incoming emails. There is no system functionality linked to this type.

When emails are received from Debtors, you can create a Email In Contact and attach a copy of the email to the Contact.

Tracking incoming emails is useful to avoid over counting Emails with the Contact Control rules, which only look at Email Type Contacts.

Export

The Export Contact schedules the exporting of the records the plan is run on. This can be used in conjunction with the Import/Export module to automate scheduling of export activities.

Letter

The Letter Contact schedules a letter to be queued for printing in your daily batch. Press F2 on the Description field to view the list of all letters and reports in your system. Select the letter to be printed.

When your daily letter batch runs, Collect! uses the Description field of each Letter contact to locate the letter to print. Please be aware that changing the name of a letter may result in Collect! not being able to process a Letter contact when the batch is run.

Letter In

This is a Contact Type that can be used to track incoming letters. There is no system functionality linked to this type.

When letters are received from Debtors, you can create a Letter In Contact and attach a copy of the scanned letter to the Contact.

Tracking incoming letters is useful to avoid over counting Letters with the Contact Control rules, which only look at Letter Type Contacts.

Metro

The Metro contact is scheduled when you choose to report a debtor to the credit bureaus.

The Description field contains various codes representing the choices you made describing the debt type, association code and associated details for a Debtor. Collect! updates the Description automatically whenever a reportable change is made to the account. For more information, please refer to How to Read the Metro Contact Description.

When you send a credit report, Collect! scans the list of Metro contacts and reports all Debtors with pending Metro contacts. You must then set the contacts to Done, when the reporting process has created its file for the bureau. For more information, please refer to How to Setup Credit Bureau Reporting.

Note

The Note Contact writes one line of notes into the Debtor notes. In the Description field, enter the text you want written into the Debtor's notes. Open a new attachment file if you want to include more text.

The note line is written when you process your automatic contacts previously scheduled through Tools, Batch Processing.

If an asterisk [*] is the first character in the Description, an asterisk will be placed at the beginning of the note line causing it to be at the top of the Notes.

ODBC

The ODBC Contact is a special type of contact used in the ODBC Sync extension module. This is a licensed add-on module. Please refer to Help topic, How to Use ODBC Sync for details.

Operator

The Operator Contact sets the operator assigned to the debtor. Any pending contacts on the account that were assigned to the previous operator will be assigned to the new operator. The Collector field holds the Collector ID to be assigned to the Debtor.

The assignment takes place when you process your automatic contacts previously scheduled through Tools, Batch Processing.

Operator Viewed

On the Operator Security form, if you have Log Viewed Accounts and Create Contact enabled, Collect! will create an Operator Viewed Contact when you leave the Debtor.

The Contact will contain the date, time, and operator that viewed the account along with how long the operator was on the account.

Other

For general use, write a note in the Description field.

Phone

Use the Phone Contact to schedule a phone call to the debtor. A drop-down list arrow appears in the Description field allowing you to choose from available phone locations for this Debtor. When you choose Dial A Number from the Tools Menu, Collect! reads the Phone contact's Description field and the phone number is displayed automatically.

This number will be dialed automatically when you enter this Contact when working your WIP (if you have the Auto Dialer option).

You can also manually type in a phone number if you want, or you can even type in text if you want.

Phone In

This is a Contact Type that can be used to track incoming calls. There is no system functionality linked to this type.

When calls are received from Debtors, you can create a Phone In Contact and attach a copy of the call recording to the Contact.

Tracking incoming calls is useful to avoid over counting Phone Calls with the Contact Control rules, which only look at Phone Type Contacts.

Plan

The Plan Contact runs a contact plan. This is useful for scheduling a contact plan to run at some future date. Press F2 on the Description field to select a Contact Plan to run.

The Plan is run when you process your automatic contacts previously scheduled through Tools, Batch Processing.

Promise

The Promise Contact schedules a promised payment due on a specific date. In the Amount field, enter the dollar amount of the promise. Use the Description field for other details.

When a payment to the Debtor is posted, the transaction will automatically display the amount of the promise. When the promise date passes without a payment, this promise continues to appear in the WIP List as a delinquent promise.

The 'Repeat' field enables you to schedule revolving promise contacts. When a full payment of the dollar amount of the promise is received within the selected Repeat period, Collect! automatically forwards the contact. Additional options are available for tracking the Promise history.

The 'Create copy on repeat' creates a completed contact every time a Promise is forwarded.

The 'Log repeat to notes' writes a line to the debtor's Notes every time a Promise is forwarded.

The 'Advance overpayments' check box enables you to manage overpayments. Switch it ON to consider overpayments as fulfillment of future promises. Leave it switched OFF to forward the Promise Due Date only one Repeat period, no matter how much is overpaid.

When an account is CLOSED, In Progress Promise contacts are marked 'Completed'.

Rate Plan

The Rate Plan Contact sets a Commission Rate Plan on the debtor's account. Press F2 in the Description field to choose a commission rate plan ID.

The assignment takes place when you process your automatic contacts previously scheduled through Tools, Batch Processing.

Review

The Review Contact schedules a review of the file. Enter a Description which will appear with this contact in the Operator's WIP List. Open a new attachment to add more information.

Sales

The Sales Contact changes the Sales Team ID assigned to the debtor. Press F2 in the Collector field to select the Sales ID. This is very powerful, providing for flexible commission rates.

The assignment takes place when you process your automatic contacts previously scheduled through Tools, Batch Processing.

Sms/Text

Use the SMS Contact to schedule an SMS message to the debtor. Results of the message can be imported back into Collect! and stored on this record.

Sms/Text In

This is a Contact Type that can be used to track incoming texts. There is no system functionality linked to this type.

When texts are received from Debtors, you can create a SMS/Text In Contact and attach a copy of the text to the Contact.

Tracking incoming texts is useful to avoid over counting texts with the Contact Control rules, which only look at SMS/Text Type Contacts.

Status

The Status Contact changes the debtor's Status Code. Press F2 in the Description field to pick the Status Code to assign.

The assignment takes place when you process your automatic contacts previously scheduled through Tools, Batch Processing.

Transaction

The Transaction Contact posts a Transaction to an account. Press F2 in the Description field to select the ID of the Transaction Type. Set the amount of the transaction in the Transaction Type settings, or in the Amount field on the Contact form.

The Transaction is posted to the account when you process your automatic contacts previously scheduled through Tools, Batch Processing.

When an account is CLOSED, In Progress Transaction contacts are marked 'Completed'.

Custom

If you wish to create your own custom contact types, you may do so. In the applicable pick lists, create a new type with the value of 50 or higher. These will be treated as your own. On the WIP Reload Filters form, you can check the 'Custom types' box to display them in the To Do list.

WARNING: Modifying System Pick Lists will result in new values not being added as we release them. To prevent conflict, we do not modify your custom pick lists. If you do add your own custom values, please review the below list of the current default values to see if you are missing any.

"12", "Activate " "8 ", "Close " "18", "Export " "11", "Edit " "0 ", "Letter " "26", "Letter In " "10", "Metro " "7 ", "Note " "6 ", "Other " "13", "Operator " "23", "Operator Viewed" "1 ", "Phone " "25", "Phone In " "4 ", "Plan " "3 ", "Promise " "16", "Commission " "17", "Rate Plan " "5 ", "Review " "14", "Sales " "22", "Text/SMS " "24", "Text/SMS In " "2 ", "Status " "15", "Transaction " "19", "Email " "27", "Email In " "20", "Client " "21", "ODBC "

Debtor

This is the Debtor whose account is being worked. You may want to send a letter to this debtor, make a phone call, post a promise payment or several other actions. A contact is generally attached to a specific debtor.

Due Date

This is the Date the contact is due, the scheduled date for the contact activity. The Due Date determines when this contact shows up in an operator's WIP List. For batch processing, the Due Date is the date that the contact will be processed.

Time

This is the scheduled Time for the contact activity 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.

It is not compulsory to enter a time. Timed contacts are important when you must deal with a Debtor at a specific time. (Perhaps he is only home at 7 PM to answer calls.) Then you would enter 19:00 in the time field of the contact and a prompt will pop up on your screen at that time to go to the contact. This only works when you are working accounts from your WIP List.

If you do not need a time prompt for this account, it is recommended that you leave the time field blank.

Priority

The Priority field allows you to enter a priority for this Contact. 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

Amount

The Amount field is used to store a dollar amount. You can use it for any purpose. However, for certain types of contacts, it has a special purpose.

For a Promise Contact, as described above, the Amount field holds the dollar amount of the promise. This amount is displayed automatically whenever a payment transaction is posted to the account. Any calculations of underpayment or overpayment of the promise use this value.

If a payment is under, the Amount field will display the remaining amount to fulfill the promise. If the payment is over, the promise contact will forward to the next due date, if a repeat has been setup, and the Amount field will display the remaining amount to fulfill the next promise.

To prevent this field from changing, you can set 'over/under' values on the Payment Values form located off of the Payment Posting Options form.

For a Transaction Contact, the Amount field holds the dollar value of the transaction to be posted.

Promised

The Promised field is used to store the original dollar amount of a promise. This field is only visible when type 'Promise' is selected.

For a Promise Contact, as described above, the Amount field holds the dollar amount of the promise. With Automatically Manage Promises enabled on the Payment Posting Options form, whenever a payment transaction is posted to the account, any calculations of underpayment or overpayment of the promise use this value to determine if the promise has been fulfilled. Once fulfilled, the promise contact will forward to the next due date if the promise contact has a repeat setup.

Elapsed

This is the amount of time that you have spent on the contact. You can enter an amount in hh:mm:ss time format (for example, 00:01:53 is 1 minute and 53 seconds.) Or, Collect! can enter a value automatically.

To automatically keep track of time spent on an account, switch ON 'Enable elapsed time counter' in the WIP Options form. If an operator stays on an account longer than 15 seconds or modifies the Debtor record, time will be calculated when they exit from the account.

Time tracking is recorded only when contacts are worked from the WIP List. Intervals of less that 15 seconds are not recorded.

Please bear in mind that the time displayed is cumulative and shows total time spent when this particular contact took the operator to the account. Repeated visits via the same contact will be added on to the Elapsed time.

Repeat

The Repeat field allows you to automatically forward the date of a contact. This can be used, for example, to repeat printing a letter or posting a promised payment.

One use of this is posting a revolving promised payment. When the Contact occurs, Collect! reads the Repeat value. If a full payment of the Promise dollar amount has been received within the Repeat period, the Contact is forwarded automatically to the next period.

Click the drop-down arrow beside the Repeat field to select a repeat interval. When a repeat period is selected, other fields become visible.

When this field is set to Custom, the Number of Days field becomes visible.

Max Intervals

This field is visible when you select a REPEAT value. Collect! uses it to determine how many times this Contact is repeated.

Number Of Days

The Number of Days field holds the custom number of days the Contact is forwarded when it is processed.

This field is only displayed when the Repeat field is set to "Custom."

Class

The Class field is for your own use. You can use it to further categorize a particular type of contact. Then a report can be made to retrieve data or write back to the account based on the Class field.

Call Result

Select a value from the attached pick list to note the result of the last attempt made to phone this number. You can add a pick list of result codes to use with your call campaigns and reports. This information is displayed when you view the Phone list from the Debtor.

The default pick list mirrors the Last Result pick list on the Phone record.

When changing the value in this field, and the value is set to one of the types designated as RPC in the applicable Contact Control record, Collect! will attempt to find the associcated Phone record and update the Last Result value to match. The system will also check the RPC box and fill in the Last RPC date with today's date on that Phone record.

Advance Overpayments

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 overpayments' 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.

Do Not Autodelete

Switch this ON to prevent auto-deletion of this contact. This is useful for overriding events in contact plans that delete pending contacts. There may be cases where you do not want pending contacts to be deleted when a contact plan 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.

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 this particular contact, switch ON 'No Autocomplete'.

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

No Autocomplete Promise

When an account reaches zero, Collect! with automatically mark a promise as complete, even if the No Autocomplete box above is checked. To override this functionality for this particular contact, switch ON 'No Autocomplete Promise'.

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

This box is useful if you are using Collect! for recurring subscriptions where the account balance reaches zero each period, but you want the promise to remain active and move to the next period.

Data

The Data field is typically used for information related only to this particular contact. This information is stored in a metafile within the contact record. This field will display the file number by default, when you create a new entry. You can change the filename displayed in the field to anything you want, it is only a description. This field will be empty if there is no additional information for this contact.

The Data field provides a convenient and flexible way of passing messages around your office, or tracking details of specific activity occurring on an account. Adding information here keeps the related information together. Perhaps you don't want to put it in the Debtor's notes because it is not globally useful.

To the right of this field, there are three buttons. Use these buttons to open, print or delete the information contained in the metafile.

When you print letters through Collect!, the Letter contact will save a copy of the letter you printed and store it in this field. You will see [METAFILE] displayed in the field. You can view the letter by selecting the OPEN button.

If your letter is printed to Email, then you will see "Email: {File Number} in this field.

Attachment

The Attachment field may be used to store an actual file with this particular contact. The field contains the full path to an already existing file on your system. You cannot use this field to create a file. This field will display the attachment filename if there is a file attached to this contact. It will remain empty if there is no attachment for this contact.

The contact Attachment may be used for attaching a scanned document or any other correspondence that you want to store with the account. This information may be quickly retrieved and viewed by selecting one of the buttons next to the field. The file opens in whatever program your system has associated with the type of file you have attached.

To the right of this field, there are four buttons. Use these buttons to perform the following actions.

• OPEN or create an attachment
• PRINT an existing attachment's contents
• DELETE an existing attachment
• SELECT an existing file to attach to this contact

To attach an existing file to this contact, select the Magnifying Glass button. This feature lets you attach any kind of file to your accounts in Collect!. As long as Windows is set up to handle that file type, you can instantly display or print any type of original information about any account.

You can print Contact attachments in reports and letters using the @File command in your report templates. However, the attachment file can ONLY be a text file.

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.

By default, if there is no file path, just a file name, Collect! will look for the file in the Global folder for the Debtor. There are 3 exceptions to this: Letter, Email, and Phone. Letter and Email contacts will look in the Global Letters folder. Phone Contacts, if TCN is configured, will look in the defined TCN folder for your call recordings.

Letter and Emails contacts that use @PDF, @TXT, or are RTF letters will automatically fill this field with the file name of the first file produced. The exception to this is if the Contact is a repeating Contact without Create Copy on Repeat enabled.

Description

The Description field defines the details of the Contact. The functionality of the Description field changes depending on the Type of Contact that is scheduled. For example, if you schedule a Letter, 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 Contact, you type the actual text that you want written to the debtor's Notes into the Description field.

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

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.

Collector

This is the Operator ID assigned to this Contact. The contact will show up in this operator's WIP List on the contact's Date Due. Usually this is the Operator assigned to the Debtor, but could include supervisory personnel to review files, or other members of your team.

Reply

You can construct a reply to a contact and select the Reply button to send it back to the operator in the Assigned By field.

Assigned By

This is the operator who sent you the contact. This would ordinarily be the same as the Originator. However, when the contact has been forwarded, this could be a different operator.

Originator

This is the operator who created the contact.

Done By

This is the operator who completed the contact. This is a useful field to note if you need to track account activity. It tells you who worked the contact and marked it done. This field is visible only when a contact is marked "Completed."

Created Date

This is the date the contact was created.

Created Time

This is the time the contact was created.

Done Date

This is the date the contact was done. This field is only visible when a contact is marked "Completed."

Done Time

This is the time the contact was done. This field is only visible when a contact is marked "Completed."

In Progress

A mark in the radio button beside this field means that the contact has not been done. The contact will be loaded into your WIP List until the contact is marked completed.

For example, if it's a Phone Contact, the call hasn't been made yet, and the contact will show up in the operator's WIP List. If it's a Review, the file hasn't been reviewed. If a Promise, there is still a balance owing on the account.

Select this field, or press Spacebar on it, to turn this switch ON.

Completed

A mark in the radio button beside this field means that the contact has been completed. The contact will no longer show up in any WIP List or be processed in any other way.

When the Completed field is selected, several other fields appear on the Contact form, to date and time stamp when the contact was done. Also, the Done By field appears, displaying the ID of the operator who completed the contact.

Copy

This field is only visible if the Contact was created as a result of the "Create copy on repeat" switch. It is a Read Only field with a check mark indicating that it was created when the repeating Contact was forwarded to the next Due Date. It can be used as a criterion in searches or just to keep track of the account's history.

OK

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

<<

Select the BACKWARD navigation button to view the previous Contact in the list.

>>

Select the FORWARD navigation button to view the next Contact in the list.

New

Select this button to save any changes you may have made to this contact and then create a new blank contact for you to fill out.

Defaults

Select the 'Defaults' button to open the WIP Options form where you can change the settings for the default behavior of your Work In Progress.

Cancel

Select this button to ignore any changes you may have made to this contact and return to the previous form.

Help

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

Delete

This button is visible only on the list of all contacts. Select it to delete the highlighted contact from the database.

Edit

This button is visible only on the list of all contacts. Select it to open and edit the highlighted contact.

Examples Of Contact Scheduling

The following are a few examples of the contact scheduling process.

Schedule A Future Contact

To schedule a Contact for the future:

1. Press F3 to create a new Contact record. A blank form is displayed.
2. Press F2 to change or assign a Debtor for this Contact.
3. Press Tab to move to the Type field.
4. Press F2 to pick the type of Contact you want to create.
5. Select Review, for example, and press Enter.
6. Pick a date to review the file.
7. Enter your own ID as the Operator assigned to this Contact.
8. Select the OK button to save the Contact.

Schedule A Contact For Another Operator

To schedule a Contact for another Operator:

Do the same as the example above, just use that Operator's ID rather than your own.

Metro Contact Description Codes

Please refer to the Help topic How To Read The Metro Contact Description for more information.

Click Here to Close this Form.

The WIP Reload Filters form allows you to select the types of contacts to load into your To Do List. Collect! loads all Promise, Phone, Review and Other contacts by default. Choosing specific Contact types can make your list shorter and easier to manage. Fastest load performance is obtained when you load a single Contact Type.

WIP Reload Filters

The WIP Reload Filters form lets you select all contacts or specific Contact types. When you press the Reload button on the Work In Progress form, the Reload Work In Progress List form displays. Press the Select Types button to access the WIP Reload Filters form.

Making A Selection

Some fields in the WIP Reload Filters form are "switches." A check in the box switches it ON and unchecking switches it OFF. Use the TAB key to move from one of these fields to another. Use the spacebar to check or uncheck the box. Or click in the box to check or uncheck it.

Load Selected Types

Switch this ON with a check mark to choose the types to load into your WIP List. With this option you can be very flexible regarding the contacts you choose to appear in your WIP List. Click the choice to mark or unmark it or use the spacebar.

Selected types will also be used as defaults when Collect! searches for pending contacts when you have enabled Schedule Next Contact functionality. Please refer to that Help topic for details.

Load All Types

This setting should be used cautiously. It is meant for administrative purposes and not for normal working of a collector's WIP List!

Switch this ON with a check mark to force all contacts to be displayed in your WIP List. All other options are grayed out when this field is switched ON. Click the choice to mark or unmark it or use the spacebar.

When you turn this switch ON, Maximum values you enter in other areas of the form are disregarded. Also, Collect! changes what it considers a future Contact. Normally only Phone calls, Reviews, Promises and Other Contact types qualify as a future Contact. When this switch is turned on, ALL Contact types qualify as future Contacts.

When Load All types is selected, ALL contact types are set to display and users can not modify which events to display.

Schedule Next Contact - Pending is also disabled when this setting is switched ON.

Promises

Switch this option ON to include Promise contacts in your WIP lists. Click the choice to mark or unmark it or use the spacebar.

Phone Calls

Switch this option ON to include Phone Call contacts in your WIP List. Click the choice to mark or unmark it or use the spacebar.

File Reviews

Switch this option ON to include Review contacts in your WIP List. Click the choice to mark or unmark it or use the spacebar.

Other

Switch this option ON to include Other contacts in your WIP List. Click the choice to mark or unmark it or use the spacebar.

Email

Switch this ON to show email contacts in your To Do List. Click the choice to mark or unmark it or use the spacebar.

Promise Priority

When you limit the number of Promise contacts loaded you may want to load certain types before others. Set a priority from 1 to 4 here with 1 being the highest priority and 4 being the lowest.

Call Priority

When you limit the number of Phone contacts loaded you may want to load certain types before others. Set a priority from 1 to 4 here with 1 being the highest priority and 4 being the lowest.

Review Priority

When you limit the number of Review contacts loaded you may want to load certain types before others. Set a priority from 1 to 4 here with 1 being the highest priority and 4 being the lowest.

Other Priority

When you limit the number of Other contacts loaded you may want to load certain types before others. Set a priority from 1 to 4 here with 1 being the highest priority and 4 being the lowest.

Maximum Promises

Enter a number to limit the maximum number of Promise contacts that may be loaded into your WIP at any one time. If you have a very large WIP List you can speed up loading contacts by entering a number here.

Maximum Calls

Enter a number to limit the maximum number of Phone contacts that may be loaded into your WIP at any one time. If you have a very large WIP List you can speed up loading contacts by entering a number here.

Maximum Reviews

Enter a number to limit the maximum number of Review contacts that may be loaded into your WIP at any one time. If you have a very large WIP List you can speed up loading contacts by entering a number here.

Maximum Others

Enter a number to limit the maximum number of Other contacts that may be loaded into your WIP at any one time. If you have a very large WIP List you can speed up loading contacts by entering a number here.

Daily Batch

When marking choices in the WIP Reload Filters form, you should only flag the types of contacts that need Operator intervention. Other types are done in the daily batch.

Activate File

Switch this option ON to include Activate File contacts in your WIP List. Click the choice to mark or unmark it or use the spacebar.

Close File

Switch this option ON to include Close File contacts in your WIP List. Click the choice to mark or unmark it or use the spacebar.

Custom Types

Switch this option ON to include the user-defined types with a value of 50 or higher. Click the choice to mark or unmark it or use the spacebar.

Change Status

Switch this option ON to include Change Status contacts in your WIP List. Click the choice to mark or unmark it or use the spacebar.

Editing

Switch this option ON to include Editing contacts in your WIP List. Click the choice to mark or unmark it or use the spacebar.

Notes

Switch this option ON to include Notes contacts in your WIP List. Click the choice to mark or unmark it or use the spacebar.

Metro

Switch this option ON to include Metro contacts in your WIP List. Click the choice to mark or unmark it or use the spacebar.

Letters

Switch this option ON to include Letter contacts in your WIP List. Click the choice to mark or unmark it or use the spacebar.

Contact Plans

Switch this option ON to include Contact Plan contacts in your WIP List. Click the choice to mark or unmark it or use the spacebar.

Transactions

Switch this option ON to include Transaction contacts in your WIP List. Click the choice to mark or unmark it or use the spacebar.

Rate Plans

Switch this option ON to include Rate Plan contacts in your WIP List. Click the choice to mark or unmark it or use the spacebar.

Commission Rates

Switch this option ON to include Commission Rate contacts in your WIP List. Click the choice to mark or unmark it or use the spacebar.

Load Maximum

Enter the Maximum number of contacts to load at any one time. This is useful if you have a very large WIP List that takes some time to load.

This value works in conjunction with the maximum values for the different types of contacts, such that contacts of each type will be loaded in order of Priority up to the Load Maximum limit.

Promise Grace Days

Enter a value here for the number of days to wait before considering a promise overdue. This means a promise will only display in the WIP List when the due date of the promise plus the grace days exceeds today. This overrides the global WIP settings for showing "future" or "today and past" contacts.

Look Ahead Days

When Search all dates is switched ON in the Reload Work In Progress List form, you can limit the number of days in the future Collect! will load Contacts for.

• Enter 7 to Look Ahead one week.
• Enter 30 to Look Ahead one month.
• Enter 365 to Look Ahead one year.
• Leave blank to Look Ahead all dates in the future.

OK

Select this button to save any selections you have made and reload your WIP List showing only the Contact types you have marked.

Cancel

Select this button to ignore any selections you have made and return you to your WIP List.

Help

Press this button for help on the WIP Reload Filters form and links to related topics.

Click Here to Close this Form.

The Payment Posting Options form is used for setting actions performed when a payment is posted to an account. Each action is a contact plan that runs automatically when the payment posting condition is true.

You can manage promises and payment plans and determine what to do when accounts are paid in full.

You may have a policy to close all accounts below a certain balance, or run a certain contact plan when a payment is received. With Collect! you can automate the logical procedures for managing promised payments, administering payment plans and posting normal payments received in the course of daily operation.

Payment Posting Options

Payment Posting

When you post a payment the following sequence occurs:

1. The Default contact plan specified is run (if there is one).

Please be careful here. If you run a contact plan that closes a debtor, the debtor will no longer appear in your WIP List and may be effectively "lost" to your system.

2. The plan associated with the transaction type is run (if there is one).

A contact plan set in the transaction type you are posting is executed before any further action is taken using the Payment Posting Options you have set. So it is important that no conflicting plans are set up by accident in your transaction types.

3. The appropriate payment posting plan is run (if there is one).

Write Date To Debtor Record

Switch ON 'Write date to debtor record' to automatically write the current date to the debtor's Payment date whenever a Payment transaction is posted to the account.

To flag this field, select it with your mouse or, while you are in this field, press your space bar to toggle the switch off or on.

Use NSF Date

This option works with the Write Date to Debtor Record option above.

When checked, Collect! will use the Payment Date of the last payment transaction, regardless of positive or negative value, for the Last Payment Date on the Debtor Form.

Example: With the below dates, Collect! will use 02/02/2022 for the Last Payment date on the debtor.

01/01/2022: Payment
02/01/2022: Payment
02/02/2022: Reversal

When unchecked, Collect! will use the Payment Date of the last successful payment transaction. In other words, if you post a reversal payment, and Collect! can match that reversal to an existing payment, then both the reversal and payment are ignored and the Payment Date of the payment transaction before that payment is used.

Example: With the below dates, if the reversal is properly entered, then Collect! will use 01/01/2022 for the Last Payment date on the debtor.

01/01/2022: Payment
02/01/2022: Payment
02/02/2022: Reversal

Automatically Manage Promises

Switch ON 'Automatically manage promises' to have Collect! manage promised payments. Collect! will advance the debtor's Promise date when the promise is met. Specified contact plans for full payment, underpayment, overpayment, NSF payment and broken payment conditions are called when necessary.

When this switch is ON and a payment is posted, Collect! automatically fills in Promise details based on the Promise contact's promised Amount and the setting for Transaction Type in the Payment Values form.

SWITCHED ON

When this switch is ON and you save the posted transaction, Collect! checks the payment amount against the amount promised. If the promise amount is met, the debtor's Promise date is advanced. Collect! calls the contact plan associated with full, under or over payment, NSF or broken payment, as needed.

If you are a large office where the person posting payments has little or no knowledge of the accounts they are posting to, switch this ON to control what happens for over and under payment. This enables you to send the file to an account manager for review in exceptional cases.

When a payment is posted, Collect! examines contact and transactions, checking for promised payments. If a promise is found, Collect! fills in the transaction details as soon as you open a new Transaction form. You may then edit the payment being posted if needed.

SWITCHED OFF

When this switch is OFF and you save the posted transaction, Collect! does not advance the debtor's Promise date, and does not call any contact plan. You are manually in control of whatever happens next.

If you are a small office where the person posting payments has some knowledge of the accounts being posted to, you can leave this switch OFF and manage your promises manually.

When this switch is OFF and you post a new transaction, Collect! will not fill in the details automatically. If you select a Payment transaction Type, then, if a promise is found, Collect! fills in the transaction details. You may then edit the payment being posted if needed.

To access the Payment Values form, select the ADVANCED button on the Payment Posting Options form.

Use Today For Payment Date

By default, when a Promise exists on an account and the Due Date is in the future, Collect! will use the date of the next Promise for the Payment Date in any new transactions. When this switch is set, Collect! will always use the current date for the Payment Date by default when a new Transaction is posted.

This is only in effect when the Promise Due Date is greater than today, "Automatically manage promises when posting" is switched ON and the transaction is a PAYMENT type transaction.

Use Today For Posted Date

By default, when a Promise exists on an account and the Due Date is in the future, Collect! will use the date of the next Promise for the Posted Date in any new transactions. When this switch is set, Collect! will always use the current date for the Posted Date by default when a new Transaction is posted.

This is only in effect when the Promise Due Date is greater than today, "Automatically manage promises when posting" is switched ON and the transaction is a PAYMENT type transaction.

Truncate 33 Percent Commission

Switch ON 'Truncate 33 percent commission' to truncate 33% commission rates. When this switch is OFF, a 33.3% commission is calculated as 1/3.

Automatically Run Default Plan

Switch ON 'Automatically run default plan when posting' to run a contact plan every time you post or edit a payment. The plan you run can perform conditional event scheduling based on amount owing, debtor status, or other criteria you choose.

If you want to run the default plan only when the debtor's Owing falls below a threshold level, enter the amount in the 'Run only when balance below' field.

If you want to process and close accounts manually, leave this switch OFF.

To flag this field, select it with your mouse or, while you are in this field, press your space bar to toggle the switch off or on.

Don't Automatically Create 196

By default, Collect! will create an Original Principal transaction of Type 196, as needed, whenever you create or modify financial details on an account. The 196 transaction keeps track of the Principal amount of the debtor. This is necessary for correctly calculating interest, applying a judgment or adding more principal at a later date.

Switch this OFF to prevent Collect! from automatically creating the 196 transaction.

Please be aware that you may have to manually create a Principal transaction if you switch this OFF.

Early Payments Skip Promises

Switch ON 'Early payments skip promises' to disable managing promises on an account if a payment is posted before the due date. This feature works in conjunction with the DAYS field below. Payments posted before X or more days will not manage the promise. The payment will be treated as an extra payment.

This feature only works if the USE TODAY FOR XXX DATE switches are set above.

Days

This field applies to the EARLY PAYMENTS SKIP PROMISES box above. Enter a value here to represent the number of days an early payment will not invoke manage promises. For example, if you enter a value of 7, any payments posted more than a week before the promise's due date will be treated as an extra payment, but any payment posted in the last week will be considered as the current payment and update the promise.

Run Only When Balance Below

Enter a dollar value in the 'Run only when balance below' field. The default automatic contact plan will run only when the debtor's Owing falls below the amount entered. For example, if you enter 50, the contact plan will be invoked automatically only when an account Owing drops below $50.00.

Leave this field blank to always run the contact plan regardless of the Owing amount.

Default Contact Plan

In the 'Default contact plan' field, enter the ID Code of the default contact plan to run automatically when posting a payment. Press F2 to view the list of contact plans in the system.

This plan is run AFTER any Contact Plan you set up in the Payment Posting Options form. This is due to the fact that the transaction plan may do more processing like posting a reversal to split the payment across a group, which will alter the OWING amount.

Be careful here. Running a contact plan that closes a debtor removes this debtor from your WIP List. The debtor may appear "lost" to the system.

Confirmation Delay

Enter a number of days to delay reporting transactions posted with 'Use confirmation delay' switched ON. You can enter a number from 0 to 999 in this field. Collect! uses this number when generating statements. Please refer to Transaction Confirmation Delay for details.

Promise Contact Actions

The payment conditions listed here apply when there is a Promise contact set up on an account. Full, under and over payments, NSF and broken promise payments may each cause a plan to run. This requires that you have switched ON 'Automatically manage promises'.

Collect! does four things with Promise contacts:

1. When a debtor has a Promise Contact, the debtor Promise field displays the date the payment is due. If this date passes by without a payment posted, the promise becomes delinquent and the field is displayed in red when the debtor totals are recalculated.
2. When a payment is posted, Collect! checks for Promise contacts and fills in the transaction details for your confirmation.
3. If the contact contains a Repeat Value, the contact is forwarded to the future date when the promised payment is posted.
4. When a promised payment is posted, Collect! runs the appropriate contact plan for full payment, under payment, or over payment, NSF or broken promise.

Press F2 or select the down arrow at the right of each field below to pick from the list of contact plans in the system.

Promise Full Payment

Select the ID Code of a contact plan to run for 'Promise full payment'. When the full amount of a Promise contact payment is posted, Collect! will run this plan.

Promise Underpayment

Select the ID Code of a contact plan to run for 'Promise under payment'. When less than the full amount of a Promise contact payment is posted, Collect! will run this plan.

Promise Overpayment

Select the ID Code of a contact plan to run for 'Promise over payment'. When more than the full amount of a Promise contact payment is posted, Collect! will run this plan.

Promise NSF Payment

Select the ID Code of a contact plan to run for 'Promise NSF payment'. When you post a transaction for a negative amount due to an NSF payment returned because of insufficient funds, Collect! will run this plan.

Promise Broken Payment

Select the ID Code of a contact plan to run for 'Promise broken payment'. When you run your daily batch process for broken promises, Collect! will run this plan for any delinquent promise that is found. This works when you switch ON 'Broken promises' in the Select Contacts To Process form.

A promise is considered delinquent when no payment has been posted during the past payment period, (i.e., week, month or whatever Repeat period is displayed in the Promise Contact.)

Promise Schedule Payment Order

This section has no impact on how payments are posted. To control the order that payments are applied to, please refer to Transaction Type settings.

This section allows you to set the payment order for the Promise Schedule. There are 3 options for the order: First, Second, and Third.

The screenshot above demonstrates paying Fees first, then Principal, and finally Interest.

Principal

Set the position to apply the predicted promise payment.

Interest

Set the position to apply the predicted promise payment.

Fees Legal Other Misc

Set the position to apply the predicted promise payment.

WARNING: The above payment order will only be used if all 3 fields are filled in. If any of them are left as Unspecified, Collect! will use the default order of Fees, then Interest, then Principal.

Payment Plan Actions

Using the Payment Plan feature, the payment conditions listed here apply when there is a Payment Plan set up on an account. Full, under and over payments may each cause a plan to run. This requires that you have switched ON 'Automatically manage promises'.

Collect! does three things with Payment Plans:

1. When a debtor has a promised transaction, the debtor Promise field displays the date the payment is due. If this date passes by without a payment posted, the promise becomes delinquent and the field is displayed in red when the debtor totals are recalculated.
2. When a payment is posted, Collect! checks to see if there are any promise payment transactions and fills in the transaction details for your confirmation.
3. When a promised payment is posted, Collect! runs the appropriate contact plan for full payment, under payment, or over payment.

Press F2 or select the down arrow at the right of each field below to pick from the list of contact plans in the system.

Plan Full Payment

Select the ID Code of a contact plan to run for 'Plan full payment'. When the full amount of a payment plan payment is posted, Collect! will run this plan.

Plan Underpayment

Select the ID Code of a contact plan to run for 'Plan under payment'. When less than the full amount of a payment plan payment is posted, Collect! will run this plan.

Plan Overpayment

Select the ID Code of a contact plan to run for 'Plan over payment'. When more than the full amount of a payment plan payment is posted, Collect! will run this plan.

OK

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

Advanced

Select the Advanced button to open the Payment Values form where you can set minimum and maximum values for Collect! to accept as fulfilled payment when a payment transaction is posted. These values determine when to evoke the different contact plans that you assign in the Payment Posting Options form.

You can also set a Transaction Type to use by default whenever a Payment is posted on an account with an In Progress Promise. By default, Collect! uses Transaction Type 101 but you can use any Payment type.

Cancel

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

Help

Select this button for help on the Payment Posting Options form and links to related topics.