How To Report Credit

Collect!'s Credit Bureau Reporting module is a comprehensive tool that enables you to report accounts to credit bureaus throughout the debt's life cycle. This versatile optional add-on to Collect! includes settings for all the standard reporting industries and account types that you may need.

Collect! uses the standard Metro 2 (426 character format) file format when creating the credit reporting file.

The Credit Bureau Reporting module is optional and must be purchased prior to use for reporting credit. There is a fully functional Credit Bureau demonstration module in the Demodb database that ships with Collect!.

Reporting Credit With Collect!

WARNING: Reporting credit is a legal matter. You are responsible for ensuring that the information you are sending is accurate and complete. Do not report credit without being ABSOLUTELY SURE about your legal rights and the legal rights of the person or entity you are reporting.

Before you can start reporting to Credit Bureaus through Collect!, you must have an active Account/Contract with a Credit Bureau.

Here are the 3 largest Credit Bureaus in North America:

1.Trans Union
www.transunion.com

2. Equifax
www.equifax.com

3. Experian
www.experian.com

When you set up an account with a bureau, they will tell you how to get your Credit Report to them. For Example, by email or, more likely, by direct electronic transfer to the credit bureau's system.

Setting Up For Credit Reporting

When you set up your credit bureau reporting correctly, Collect! takes care of all the details by automatically scheduling a Metro contact for each debtor that you want to report. After you report, Collect! forwards this contact for the next reporting period. Collect! tracks changes in the debtor's profile for credit bureau purposes and reports the correct codes to the bureau carrying through to a zero balance account and a final PIF report. After this, Collect! switches OFF reporting for the account.

Several areas in Collect! hold settings for credit bureau reporting. You will want to visit each of these areas and they are listed below.

1. Company Details

Your Company Details need to be entered. Some of this information is output to the credit bureau file. Also, in the DETAIL tab for the Company Details form there is one setting you need to use ONLY IF you are a Credit Grantor.

2. Credit Bureau Setup

This form holds many global settings for your Credit Bureau information. Please refer to Credit Bureau Setup Basics to access this form.

3. Credit Report Preferences

This form holds many global settings for your industry in the credit reporting world. Defaults are set for the most common collection and credit industries. Please refer to Credit Report Preferences Basics to access this form.

4. Client

The Client Type field is used. In credit reporting terms, this is the Creditor Classification.

5. Client Settings

The Client Settings form stores several selections used by Collect! when reporting is switched ON for a Debtor and when the file is produced. Select the ADVANCED button on the Client form to access this form.

6. Debtor

Many fields on the Debtor form are included in the credit report, so you need to make sure they are filled in correctly. Please refer to F1 help for details on the Debtor form.

7. Credit Report Details

This form holds all the settings for an individual who is being reported. This is where you switch ON credit bureau reporting for an account. Most of the fields fill automatically based on your other settings. Any field can be changed as needed provided you follow correct reporting practices. Select the CBR tab on the Debtor form to access this form.

8. Cosigner

If you are reporting Cosigners, additional fields need to be set up on each Cosigner that you are reporting. Select the COSIGNER tab on the Debtor form to access the Cosigners.

Steps For Reporting Credit

1. To set up credit reporting, you need only to enter your company ID codes as assigned to you by the credit bureaus.

2. Set up Clients whose Debtors you want to report. Select an appropriate Type and set additional options in the Client Settings area.

3. To assign individual Debtors for credit reporting, select the CBR tab on the Debtor form. This displays the Credit Report Details where you can switch ON ' Report to Credit Bureaus' and set the Credit Bureau reporting options for the Debtor. Many fields will be filled in automatically but they can be changed as needed.

Set details such as the type of debt, open the Cosigner form if needed, and check out the defaults for your Credit Report Preferences.

4. To assign a batch of Debtors for bureau reporting, select Tools from the top menu bar and then select Batch Processing from the drop-down choices. In the Batch Processing form, select Prepare accounts for credit bureau reporting. Follow the on-screen instructions.

For detailed setup steps, please refer to Help topic, How To Setup Credit Bureau Reporting.

To create the Metro 2 file to send to the bureaus, select Tools from the top menu bar and then select Credit Report from the drop-down choices. This will bring up the Report To Credit Bureaus form. Follow the on-screen instructions or Press F1 for help.

For detailed help creating your file, please refer to How To Run A Credit Bureau Report.

How Collect! Credit Reporting Works

To create the Metro 2 file to send to the bureaus, select Tools from the top menu bar and then select Credit Report from the drop-down choices. This will bring up the Report To Credit Bureaus form. Follow the on-screen instructions or Press F1 for help.

When ready to run your report, please refer to How To Run A Credit Bureau Report.

The credit reporting functions of Collect! operate mostly behind the scenes, requiring little or no user intervention. However, sending reports to credit bureaus requires attention to detail. It is your responsibility to make sure that the information you send is accurate and complete, and that all the required information is included.

When you switch ON credit reporting on for a Debtor, Collect! schedules a Metro Contact on a specific date.

When you run your credit bureau report, Collect! scans through all Metro contacts scheduled for today and the past. For each contact, Collect! outputs the Debtor's current information to the CBR file. If any Errors are encounters, Collect! writes this information to the CBR LOG. When you are finished with a report you say YES to Mark the Metro contacts DONE.

Only say YES to mark contacts done when you have completed a report with no errors.

The next time you run a credit report, Collect! will not send the ones that have already been marked as done.

When a change occurs that needs to be reported to the bureaus (such as a change in the Debtor's owing), Collect! schedules a new contact which contains the updated information. If you manually set an account to be deleted or report it as bankrupt, Collect! updates the Metro contact or creates a new one as needed. The next time you run a credit report, the new contact is detected and the update is sent. You always need to mark the contacts DONE when you have completed the report with no errors.

For detailed help creating your file, please refer to How To Run A Credit Bureau Report.

Financial Totals

Collect! manages all normal changes that you make to an account as it is paid and the Debtor's Owing proceeds to zero. All credit reporting details are handled automatically.

If you make changes to an account that are different from the norm, for instance a Judgement or Adjustment or Write Off or Settlement, then you can manually adjust your credit report settings at the Debtor level.

Closing Accounts

Collect! manages credit bureau accounts if Paid In Full and will send the appropriate code to the credit bureau and not report anymore. You can also set up Collect! to handle the non-CBR related changes that you may want to make to such an account (such as Debtor Status and Mode.)

If you close an account for other reasons, you will have to manually adjust your credit report settings at the Debtor level.

Canceling Credit Reporting

If you cancel credit reporting before a report has been sent to the bureaus, Collect! simply deletes the scheduled Metro contact. No report on the Debtor will ever be sent.

If a debtor does not have a METRO contact that is marked DONE at the time you set the Status Code in Credit Report Details to Delete Account from Credit Bureau, then Collect! will assume the account has never been reported. Therefore Collect! simply deletes the Metro contact and switches OFF CBR.

If you set the account to cancel reporting after having sent a report to the bureaus, Collect! will schedule a Metro contact to tell the credit bureaus the account has been closed.

See Also

- How To Setup Credit Bureau Reporting
- How To Run A Credit Bureau Report
- Credit Bureau Reporting Topics