Credit Counseling & Financial Management

1. Credit Counseling & Financial Management Tutorial on how to deal with credit counseling and financial management certificates

2. Scope of Tutorial • This tutorial discusses how to deal with the credit counseling and financial management certificates that debtors must file • Who should view this tutorial: • Anyone who will use BkAssist to prepare a case filing by an individual • Anyone who will manage a bankruptcy case previously filed by BkAssist • Prerequisites: You should already have viewed these other tutorials: • How to use BkAssist • Setting Up a New Case

3. What BkAssist Will Do Automatically • If you do the things discussed in this tutorial, BkAssist will automatically: • Verify that your credit counseling certificates are current • Complete Exhibit D • File Exhibit D and the counseling certificates according to your local rules when you file the case with the File-It! Page • Include the cost of counseling in the answer to Question 9 on the Statement of Financial Affairs • Prepare the B23 form(s) to certify completion of the financial management course. • File the B23 form(s) according to your local rules through the File-It! Page. • Keep track of the deadline for the B23 filing on the Calendar Page. • Keep track of the B23 filing requirement on the Check List Page.

4. Credit Counseling (1) • If you receive a counseling certificate via e-mail, save it in the “client directory” for your client. • E.g., if you accepted the defaults during installation, there will be a client directory named something like “\\OFFICESVR\BankruptcyCases\Sample_Sarah_Sammy”. • If you have only a hard copy certificate, scan it and save it in the client directory with a name like “ccin (Debtor).pdf”. • Visit the Schedules & Forms Page. Double-click on “credit counseling” to open the Credit Counseling Screen.

5. Credit Counseling (2) • Fill in the blanks with the date of the counseling session and the name of the certificate PDF file. • The Browse button will pop-up a dialog showing the client directory. You can: • Right-click in the dialog to Open the file in your PDF viewer to verify the date • Double-click on the certificate file to simultaneously select that file and close the browsing dialog. • Fill in the payment fields, too. • BkAssist will automatically incorporate the payment information in the answer to Question 9 on the Statement of Financial Affairs. • BkAssist will automatically complete Exhibit D, and it will automatically file the certificate(s) according to your local rules when you use the File-It! Page to file the case.

6. Credit Counseling (3) • If the agency created a debt management plan (note that Cricket would not): • Combine the certificate and the plan into the PDF file you’ve specified for the debtor. • Check the box. • BkAssist will automatically answer any CM/ECF questions about whether a debt management plan exists when you use the File-It! Page to file the case.

7. Credit Counseling (4) • In certain districts, the Certificate Number blank will be enabled (not grayed out) so you can enter the number of the certificate. • BkAssist will automatically answer any CM/ECF questions about the certificate number when you use the File-It! Page to file the case.

8. Credit Counseling (4) • If a certificate is not required for some reason, specify the reason(s). • BkAssist will automatically complete Exhibit D based on this information and will automatically answer any CM/ECF questions about why no counseling certificates are being filed. • Your local rules may require additional filings to gain permission for not filing certificates or to substantiate the reasons for not filing them.

9. Credit Counseling (5) • Check off the credit counseling events on the Check Lists Page. • If the check list is empty, use the Generate button to initialize it.

10. Financial Management (1) • The post-filing checklist contains multiple reminders about the financial management course. • If you use the File-It! Page to file the case, BkAssist will also: • Add a deadline event to the calendar • Remember the financial management course as a deficiency—that lets you easily file the certificates later on • To setup the post-filing checklist, you will want to: • Make sure the case status (on the Case Info Page) is up to date—it will be if you used the File-It! Page to file the case. • Use the Generate button to rebuild the checklist after filing.

11. Financial Management (2) • Save the certificate you received from the agency in the client directory. • Do not use a variation on “ccout” for the certificate—that will collide with the name BkAssist will give to the B23 form. • Select the Financial Management Course item from the Schedules & Forms Page. • It will be easier to find this item if you check the Post-filing box.

12. Financial Management (3) • Fill in the form. • Power-user tip: • Use the Browse button to pop-up a Windows Explorer dialog showing the client directory. • Right-click and Open the certificate file in your PDF viewer. • Select the certificate number with the mouse and copy it to the clipboard (Ctrl + C) • Double-click on the name of the certificate file to simultaneously select it and close the browsing dialog. • Paste the certificate number into the Certificate Number blank (Ctrl + V)

13. Financial Management (4) • Click on the Prepare button to generate the B23 form for filing.

14. Financial Management (5) • Check the B23 form in the list of documents. • Click the Generate button to generate the form.

15. Financial Management (6) • Visit the File-It! Page • Select the Case Commencement/Com-pletion category and the Cure deficient filing event • If the financial management courses aren’t shown in the list of documents: • Make sure the case status (on the Case Info Page) implies that the case is open. • Make sure that the financial management courses are flagged as deficiencies (Deficiencies button on Case Info Page). • Read the next slide if you aren’t sure what we mean. • File the document(s). • BkAssist understands your local rules and will answer the pertinent CM/ECF queries automatically.

16. Financial Management (7) • This is what we meant on the previous slide about how to make sure the financial management events show up on the File-It! Page.

17. Financial Management (8) • In districts that do not have local rules concerning whether you can file both certificates together in a joint case, you can specify how to file them. • From the Settings menu in the main window, select General Settings. • Go to the CM/ECF tab. • Check or un-check the box, depending on your preference.

18. Financial Management (9) • Update the checklist. • Also visit the Calendar Page in the main window and delete the deadline event because you no longer need to be reminded about it.