Collection Process and Collection Events Overview

1. Collection Process and Collection Events Overview

2. Important Collection Process Concepts • If an account has overdue debt, the system creates a collection process • A user may create a collection process at their discretion • A collection process is a series of events that should inspire the customer to pay • If the account’s debt is reduced sufficiently, the system cancels the collection process • If payment is not received by the end of the collection process, the system attempts to inspire payment by more aggressive means - severing (i.e., cutting off) at least one overdue service agreement

3. Collection Process ERD Coll. Proc / SA All SAs that contributed to the overdue debt are linked to the collection process Account Collection Process Collection Event SA

4. 3 Background Processes Control The Creation, Activation and Cancellation Of Collection Processes

5. 3 Background Processes Control Everything Activates all events with a trigger date on or before the business date Creates a collection process if an account violates your acceptable debt thresholds Cancels a collection process if adequate payment is received

6. An Example: First Day - December 1 Days between trigger dates can be calendar days or work days based on a soft parameter to ADM

7. An Example: 15 Days Later - December 16

8. An Example: 1 Day Later - December 17

9. Collection Event Lifecycle

10. Automatic Cancellation Of Collection Processes

11. Cancellation Of A Collection Process • When a collection process starts, the system links all offending service agreements to the process (these all belong to the same debt class) • A collection process may be cancelled if any of the following occur: • A credit FT is created • A pay plan is created (more about pay plans later) • A service agreement is stopped • A user manually cancels a collection process • A background process referred to as the Collection Process Monitor (CPM) is responsible for canceling collection processes when a credit FT is created • This means that real-time cancellation of a collection process only occurs when a pay plan is created or when a SA is stopped

12. Cancellation At The Debt Class Level OR At The Service Agreement Level • When you set up the system, you have to ask yourself the following questions • Must ALL SAs in the debt class be paid for the collection process to be cancelled? • OR, can the payment of a specific SA remove the SA from the collection process? • Consider the situation where you sell electricity, gas and water (and these all belong to the same debt class) • You may say that ALL services must be paid in order to stop a collection process that was started because the electric debt was in arrears • Alternatively, you may say that if they pay the electric debt, this SA can be removed from the collection process regardless of the state of the debt on the water and gas SAs • The answer to these questions will control which algorithms are plugged in on which entities

13. Cancellation Of A Collection Process • Therefore, based on how you’ve configured the system, the Collection Process Monitor (CPM) may cancel a collection process if • The debt associated with the collection process’ debt class is less than a given threshold amount • The debt on the service agreement is less than or equal to a given threshold amount • Note - if a collection process has multiple SAs, it’s only after all SAs have been paid that the collection process is cancelled

14. Cancellation Of A Collection Process (cont.) • If the collection process is not cancelled by the time the “start severance” collection event kicks off, only those SAs still linked to the process will be severed. • Note: a company that sells multiple services may not sever all services. Rather, they may nominate a single SA and use it to encourage the customer to pay for the other services. A special collection event algorithm is provided for this situation • If this method is chosen, you should only allow the cancellation of collection (and severance) process if the debt associated with the entire debt class is paid We understand that collection process cancellation is complicated. Please see the Administration Guide – Defining C&C Options for more details (see How To).

15. Severance Process Overview

16. Important Severance Process Concepts • The activation of the last collection event SHOULD create a severance process • A user may create a severance process at will • A severance process is a series of sterner events that should inspire the customer to pay • A separate severance process is created for each SA linked to the collection process, or one SA is nominated • If the Debt Class’ or SA’s debt is reduced sufficiently, the system cancels the severance process • If payment is not received by the end of the severance process, the system expires the SA (and final billing will commence)

17. Important Severance Event Concepts • A severance process contains severance events • A severance event can generate any of the following: • Affect Credit Rating / Cash Only Points • Send Letter • Create ToDo Entry • Create Disconnect Warning (Field Activity) • Create Cut For Non Payment (Field Activity) • Expire SA • Anything you can do with an algorithm (e.g., break payment arrangement) • An event’s activity is controlled by its severance event type

18. 3 Background Processes Control The Activation Of Severance Processes

19. 3 Background Processes Activate The Events Activates all events with a trigger date on or before the business date Sets an event’s trigger date when all of its dependent events are complete Completes an event that was awaiting the completion of a field activity Notice that there is no background process that cancels a severance process when payment is made. Cancellation happens real time...

20. Payment Arrangements and Pay Plans

21. Payment Arrangements vs Payment Plans • A Payment Arrangement is used when a customer pays off debt in billed installments. The customer’s bills will contain the payment arrangement amount until the debt is paid off • Sometimes these are referred to as “current bill plus” arrangements • A pay plan is an agreement with a customer to make payments on specific dates • Pay plans differ from payment arrangements in that pay plans have user-defined scheduled payment dates which are independent from the customer's billing dates • We will first discuss payment arrangements...