Billing Tree Service

Billing Tree Service enables you to process credit card and ACH payments electronically through Collect!'s Billing Tree connection. This is a full-featured solution for managing single and recurring payments made by credit card or by bank draft. External payments posted at the Billing Tree web site are also reconciled and posted within Collect!. Recurring scheduled payments are fully managed within Collect!'s promised payment system.

You can post single payments or set up a schedule for recurring payments. You can designate a payer and store all contact information and payment details. Authorization letters and EFT Notices can be automatically scheduled, as well, to comply with EFT regulations.

Billing Tree Service is an optional module available in Collect! Version 11.3.4.1 and newer licensed in the United States. If you would like more information about licensing this module, please contact Comtech Systems.

There are two divisions in Collect!'s Billing Tree Service:

Credit Card Payments
ACH Payments

Each of these parts features full functionality for processing payments through Billing Tree.

Credit Card Payments

Billing Tree provides an interface for processing credit card payments through USA ePay.

To use Billing Tree Service for credit card payments in Collect!, you must have a USA ePay account set up with Billing Tree.

Billing Tree Service credit card payments are set up in the Credit Card Setup form. Default transaction types must already exist in your system and some set up is required in the Client Settings as well.

Access the Credit Card Setup form through System, Preferences, Billing Tree Setup and press F1 for Help.

You can post a single credit card payment or schedule recurring payments.

Single Credit Card Transaction

When you post a single credit card payment through Billing Tree Service in Collect!, the payment is processed immediately. Collect! will let you know at once whether or not the payment went through. A successful payment is posted in Collect! along with a convenience fee transaction, if you elected to charge the convenience fee.

Recurring Credit Card Payments

When you schedule recurring credit card payments for processing through Billing Tree Service, payments are not posted in Collect! until the next day when you run Reconcile Credit Card History. Every evening, Billing Tree submits all requests to USA ePay and the payments are ready for processing in Collect! the following morning. So you must run Reconcile Credit Card History each morning to post the processed payments from the previous day.

Recurring credit card payment schedules are stored by Billing Tree and processed when the due date arrives. So you will not see post-dated transactions entered in Collect! for your Billing Tree credit card payment schedules.

You cannot charge convenience fees for recurring credit card payments.

Reconcile Credit Card History

The reconcile function is an integral part of the Billing Tree Service process. Reconcile credit card history brings in the successful payments from the recurring schedules, informs you of any declined cards, and posts any payments made at the Billing Tree site instead of in Collect!.

You must run Reconcile Credit Card History daily if you are using the Billing Tree Service for recurring credit card payments.

ACH Payments

Billing Tree provides an interface for processing ACH payments through ACHNow Web Service.

To use Billing Tree Service for ACH payments in Collect!, you must have an ACHNow Web Service account set up with Billing Tree.

Billing Tree Service ACH payments are set up in the ACH Setup form. Default transaction types must already exist in your system and some set up is required in the Client Settings as well.

Access the ACH Setup form through System, Preferences, Billing Tree Setup and press F1 for Help.

You can post a single ACH payment or schedule recurring payments.

Single ACH Transaction

When you post a single ACH payment through Billing Tree Service, the payment is posted in Collect! and processed by Billing Tree immediately. A transaction for the convenience fee is also posted in Collect!, if you elected to charge the convenience fee.

When you run Reconcile ACH History, Collect! processes any payments that may have gone NSF after posting . So you should run your reconcile on a daily basis. Whenever you run a reconcile, Collect! also sends any recurring ACH payments that have come due today and Billing Tree sends whatever transactions it has queued on to ACHNow to complete the bank drafts.

Recurring ACH Payments through Billing Tree Service are not processed until you run Reconcile ACH History.

Recurring ACH Payments

When you schedule recurring ACH payments for processing through Billing Tree Service, Collect! posts a transaction for each payment, with Payment Dates entered according to the payment schedule you set up. Transactions for each convenience fee are also posted, if you elected to charge the convenience fee. To complete the submission to Billing Tree, you must run Reconcile ACH History on a daily basis. When you run a reconcile, Collect! sends all payments that have come due today and Billing Tree sends whatever transactions it has queued on to ACHNow to complete the bank drafts.

Recurring ACH payments are stored in Collect! and processed when the due date arrives. So you will see post-dated transactions entered in Collect! for your ACH payment schedules.

Recurring ACH Payments through Billing Tree Service are not processed until you run Reconcile ACH History.

Reconcile ACH History

The reconcile function is an integral part of the Billing Tree process. Reconcile ACH history posts recurring ACH payments to Billing Tree, processes any NSF returns from previous payments, and posts any payments made at the Billing Tree site instead of in Collect!.

You must run Reconcile ACH History daily if you are using the Billing Tree Service for recurring ACH payments.

EFT Notices

In compliance with EFT requirements, Billing Tree Service enables you to automatically schedule authorization letters and EFT notices for recurring credit card and recurring ACH payments. Sample letters are shipped with Collect! and you may edit them, if needed. The EFT Notices Setup also lets you select the number days prior to payment for scheduling the notices to go out.

Billing Tree Service EFT notices are set up in the EFT Notices Setup form. Letters must already exist in your Report Definition list.

Access the EFT Notices Setup form through System, Preferences, Billing Tree Setup and press F1 for Help.

View EFT Notices

Billing Tree Access Rights

Billing Tree Service creates Transactions, Contacts, and Cosigners, as needed, even if the Operator that you are signed in as does not have the access rights to create these records manually. This enables you to continue to use your security measures, as needed, while empowering your operators to use the Billing Tree features and processes.

Summary

Billing Tree Service enables you to process credit card and ACH payments electronically through Collect!'s Billing Tree connection. Recurring scheduled payments are fully managed within Collect!'s promised payment system.

To enable Billing Tree Service you must first obtain a license for this module in Collect!. Then contact Billing Tree to set up an account with them to get your USA ePay login details for processing credit cards, or your ACHNow Web Service details for processing ACH payments.

Once you have the login details, you can select System, Preferences, Billing Tree Setup and set up your connection and processing details.