User's Guide - Administration

This user's guide is intended to help administrative staff get to know the areas in Collect! that they will be working with most frequently as they manage daily business operations.

Introduction

As an administrator, you will use Collect! to perform many tasks necessary for the management of your work load and your finances. Many of these functions will be accessed through Collect!'s menu forms.

The Main Menu

When you start Collect! you will see the Main Menu.

Main Menu

QUICK SEARCH enables you to quickly search for accounts in your database. This functions exactly like the Find By options available in the Browse menu, but with fewer clicks.

WORK IN PROGRESS loads your contact schedule and displays the results. From here you make phone calls, review accounts, enter notes, check promises and schedule future contacts.

DAILY ADMINISTRATION creates new clients and debtors, records payments and charges to debtor accounts, records payments from clients, prints letter batches and controls other batch processes.

MONTH END generates month-end statements and invoices, prints statements to clients and summary reports of payables and receivables.

SYSTEM ADMINISTRATION accesses database maintenance functions and all system setup options.

REPORTS prints some of the system's more commonly used management reports.

TUTORIALS takes you to a demonstration of basic functions and features in Collect!.

QUIT exits the program.

Daily Administration

On a daily basis you will work within the Daily Administration menu.

Daily Administration Menu

PAYMENTS AND CHARGES records payments from debtors and charges to their accounts, and payments from clients.

DAILY BATCH PROCESSES accesses the Daily Batch Processing menu where you can print your daily letter batch, perform many automatic batch functions, or recalculate all financial totals in the database.

NEW BUSINESS lets you create new Client and Debtor records.

BROWSE DAYSHEETS lets you browse all daily summary information stored in Collect!.

EXIT returns you to the Main Menu.

Creating New Accounts

Select the New Business option in the Daily Administration Menu and press Enter.

New Business Menu

CLIENTS lets you create new clients, and add debtor information to existing clients.

DEBTORS lets you create new debtors and associate them to existing clients.

SORT NEW DEBTORS sorts the list of new debtors for each client.

NEW BUSINESS REPORT prints a summary of new business for the day.

CLIENT ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS prints a letter to each client who has listed new accounts.

DEBTOR WORK CARDS prints a work card for each new debtor assigned.

Notices to new debtors are printed using the SCHEDULED BATCH LETTERS option in the Daily Batch Processing menu.

CREATING A NEW CLIENT

1. Select the CLIENTS option in the New Business menu and press the Enter key.

2. When the Client list is displayed, press F3 or click NEW to create a new client record.

Client Form

3. Fill in the Client form, pressing the Tab key between fields.

For detailed information about each field in the form, press F1.

4. After filling in the Client form, select the DEBTOR tab. You will be prompted to create a new debtor. Press YES to create the new debtor.

CREATING A NEW DEBTOR

Fill in the Debtor form. A filled in form is shown below.

Debtor Form

1. Type appropriate information into the fields and press the Tab key to move to the next field.

For detailed information about each field in the form, press F1.

2. To save the new account, press F8 to close the Debtor form.

3. Press F8 to close the Client form.

4. Press EXIT to close the New Business menu.

NEW BUSINESS REPORTS

After you have created new accounts, Collect! will print:

• Acknowledgments to the clients
• New business summary report
• Debtor work cards

New Business Menu

To print these reports select the New Business menu and select each of the three reports.

Notices to new debtors are printed in the daily letter batch. Access SCHEDULED BATCH LETTERS from the Daily Batch Processes menu.

Please refer to the User's Guide - Printing Reports - Part 1 and User's Guide - Printing Reports - Part 2 if you have any questions while printing these reports.

Working With Existing Clients

1. Select the CLIENTS option in the New Business menu and press Enter.

Client List

2. Select a client from the list and press Enter.

3. Press F5 to open the Debtor List for the client.

4. Press F3 to create a new debtor.

5. Fill in the debtor information.

Contact Schedules

USING CONTACT PLANS

Contact Plans specify schedules of phone contacts, letters and management reviews. Collect! builds contact schedules based on a contact plan and today's date.

When you review the contacts for a date, you will see and be able to work with all the contacts which were scheduled for that day.

Choosing a Contact Plan

Select the ACTION button on the Debtor form to pick a plan. Select the plan you want and press Enter.

Choosing a Contact Plan

A contact schedule will then be built based on the contact plan you selected.

Select the CONTACTS tab to view the new contacts that the plan created.

MANUALLY EDITING CONTACTS

You may manually create contacts for a debtor, or edit existing contacts.

Debtor Contact Schedule

Select the CONTACTS tab on the Debtor form.

To create a new contact event, press F3 or select the NEW button.

To select an existing contact event, select the event and press Enter.

EDITING CONTACT DETAILS

Contact Form

1. To edit the Due Date, click the small calendar to the right of the Due Date field. Select a date from the calendar and select OK.

2. To change the type of event, click into the Type field and press F2 to display the activity type list. Select the contact activity type and press Enter.

3. If the activity is a Letter, select the Description field and press F2 to display the letters you can send. Select a letter and press Enter.

If the activity is Phone, select the the Description field and press F2 to display the types of phone numbers you can phone. Select a phone number and press Enter.

Other types of activity, press F1 to view details of the Description field. This field functions differently, depending on the type of activity.

4. Enter a Priority code and press Enter. 99 is high priority while 0 is low priority.

5. Press F3 to add more contacts to this schedule. Or, press F8 to close the Contact form.

FUTURE CONTACTS

When you are viewing debtors through your Work In Progress List, Collect! can help you keep track of your active accounts. This ensures that each active account in the system has at least one In Progress contact scheduled.

When you try to exit the Debtor form from working your To Do List, Collect! checks for changes to the Debtor record. If you have added notes or closed the debtor, Collect! will ask whether or not to leave the contact in your To Do List or mark it completed.

Prompt to Mark Contact Done

Select LEAVE IN WIP LIST to keep the contact in your To Do List. Select MARK IT DONE to mark the contact as done and remove it from your To Do List.

If the contact is done, then Collect! checks to see if any contacts remain In Progress for the debtor. Depending on your WIP Options settings, Collect! will prompt you to schedule the next contact.

Contacts may be deleted automatically when you invoke a contact plan set to delete contacts. You may manually delete contacts through the Browse menu Contacts option. Contacts are automatically deleted when you delete a debtor.

Searching For Records

When you display a list, you can reduce the list to only the specific records that you want. Press F6 when a list is displayed.

A list of all the fields in the current record will be displayed. Indexed fields are displayed at the top with a prefix [#] in front of the name. The is contains a FROM and TO field which define the search criteria.

Debtor List Search Screen

Examples:

These examples assume that you are displaying the Debtor List. The same principles apply for other lists as well.

To display all debtors starting with 'A'

1. Use the arrows on your keyboard to highlight the Name field.

2. Type the letter 'A' in the FROM column.

3. Type an 'A' in the TO column.

4. Press SEARCH and say YES to tag any records that are found matching the Search criteria.

To list all debtors from 'M' to 'Z'

1. Use the arrows on your keyboard to highlight the Name field.

2. Type the letter 'M' in the FROM column.

3. Type an 'Z' in the TO column.

4. Press SEARCH and say YES to tag any records that are found matching the Search criteria.

To list all debtors with a Listed Date from January 01, 2004 to December 31, 2004

1. Use the arrows on your keyboard to highlight the Listed Date field.

2. Click into the FROM column and press F2. Select January 01, 2004 from the calendar.

3. Tab into the TO column and press F2. Select December 31, 2004 from the calendar.

4. Press SEARCH and say YES to tag any records that are found matching the Search criteria.

REDUCING A DISPLAYED LIST

1. Use the arrows on your keyboard to highlight a field to use for searching.

2. Fill in the FROM and TO columns to select a range.

3. Press SEARCH and say YES to tag any records that are found matching the Search criteria.

The display will now be limited to those records which match the contents of the FROM and TO fields you filled in.

You can use as many fields for selection as you wish. Using fields that are indexed results in very fast searches.

CLEARING YOUR SEARCH CRITERIA

After running an search, you must clear your search criteria, otherwise, you will be limited in the information that your lists display.

1. While the reduced list is still displayed, select Edit from the top menu bar and then select Clear Search Criteria from the choices.

2. Select Edit from the top menu bar again and then select Clear Tags from the choices.

The displayed list will now show all records.

Financial Detail

The Financial Detail form displays all financial settings for the Debtor account. This form lets you enter the Debtor's Original Principal and Judgement details. Commission and Fees, Interest settings and Payment Plan settings are entered here as well. Totals are displayed for all payments made on the accounts. The Financial Detail form also shows a total of all legal fees posted to date. Credit grantors may change the display of the Debtor screen from this form so that it shows 30/60/90 day amounts.

Financial Detail form

Open this form while on the Debtor form by selecting the Rate, Principal or Interest field or tab into one of these fields and press F2.

TOTALS displays Financial Summary Totals for the account. You may enter Original Principal here and also record a Judgement Date and Judgement Principal.

INTEREST displays Interest Details for the account. You may set up an Interest Rate, Interest Type and a date to Calculate Interest From. Other settings are available depending on the type of interest you are setting up.

PAYMENT PLAN enables you to set up a Payment Plan for the account. After you enter all the details, select OK and Collect! posts the plan for you.

COMMISSION allows you to enter up to four Commission Rates with payment breakdown. Press F1 for more details.

COMMISSION allows you to enter up to four Tax Rates with payment breakdown. Press F1 for more details.

FEES allows you to enter a one time fixed fee charged to the Debtor or the Client. Collect! posts a 397 or 398 Fee Transaction for the Fee amount.

Payments And Charges

When you post payments into the system, Collect! automatically recalculates debtor and client totals and daily accounting information. Collect! is flexible and you can always change any information you've entered.

Select PAYMENTS AND CHARGES from the Daily Administration menu.

Payments and Charges Menu

DEBTOR PAYMENTS AND CHARGES lets you record payments from debtors, NSF charges, and miscellaneous alterations to their financials.

CLIENT PAYMENTS AND CHARGES lets you record payments from clients.

PRINT DAILY CASH REPORT prints a cash report of all financial transactions for the day, including the total bank deposit.

Please take care with entering your information. Accuracy is important for proper calculation of financial information.

DEBTOR PAYMENTS AND CHARGES

Select DEBTOR PAYMENTS AND CHARGES from the Payments and Charges menu and press Enter.

Press F3 or the NEW button to create a new Transaction.

Debtor
Use this field to select the debtor by Name. Type the first few characters and press ENTER. If the system can't find exactly what you typed, it will pop up the Debtor List. Once you choose a debtor, information will be copied form the Debtor form into the transaction.

File
Use this field to select the debtor by File Number. Type the first few digits and press ENTER. If the system can't find exactly what you typed, it will pop up the Debtor List. Once you choose a debtor, information will be copied form the Debtor form into the transaction.

Account
Use this field to select the debtor by Client Account Number. Type the first few characters and press ENTER. If the system can't find exactly what you typed, it will pop up the Debtor List. Once you choose a debtor, information will be copied form the Debtor form into the transaction.

Type
Tab into the Type field and press F2 to select a Transaction Type from the list of preset types. Additional information will be copied to the form depending on the type you select.

Payment Date
This is the date the payment is due. The default is today's date. Press F2 to select a date from the calendar.

Posted Date
This is the date the payment is posted into your system. By default, this is the date Collect! uses when gathering information for month end statements. The default is today's date. Press F2 to select a date from the calendar.

To Us
Enter the amount of the payment in this field if it was made to your agency. The debtor's account will be credited when you enter a POSITIVE amount.

Direct
Enter the amount of the payment in this field if it was made directly to the client. The debtor's account will be credited when you enter a POSITIVE amount.

Commission Amount
Your commission on this payment is calculated using the commission rate settings on the account.

To View Transactions After You Post Them

Any transaction that you post may be viewed through the Browse menu Transactions option. You could also manually edit a transaction if necessary.

Press F1 for details on the other fields and settings available in the Transaction form.

COMMON TYPES OF PAYMENTS

Payment by Check
Reduces the debtor's Owing. Calculates commission based on rate defined for the debtor. Commission rate and amount can be adjusted.

• Enter the payment amount in the To Us field.
• Leave the Direct field blank.
• Accept the commission rate, or enter a rate.
• Accept the commission amount or enter an amount.

Payment by Cash
Same as payment by check.

• Enter the payment amount in the To Us field.
• Leave the Direct field blank.
• Accept the commission rate, or enter a rate.
• Accept the commission amount or enter an amount.

Payments to Clients
Same as above.

• Enter payment amount into the Direct field.

NSF Checks
Increases the debtor's amount Owing. Calculates negative commission based on commission rate defined for the debtor.

• Enter a NEGATIVE value into the To Us field.

NSF Charges
Increases the debtor's amount Owing. Commission should be manually cleared.

• Enter a NEGATIVE value into the To Us field.
• Enter a 0 into the commission rate field.

Closing Fees
Charges the client a one time fee. Does not affect debtor's balance Owing.

• Enter the fee amount into the Commission field.

Legal Costs
Are broken down into a taxable cost which can be charged to the debtor's account and legal costs which are billed to the client and on which tax is charged.

• Enter the NEGATIVE of the taxable cost (plus any taxes) into the direct field. This is added directly to the debtor's amount Owing.
• Enter a 0 for commission rate.
• Enter the legal fee (minus taxes) into the Commission Amount field.
• The legal fee plus applicable taxes will be charged to the client.

Other Costs
These can be treated in the same manner as the legal costs.

Promised Payments
There are several ways to manage promises to pay. Please refer to the Help topic, How To Manage Promised Payments for details.

DAYSHEETS

Transactions may also be posted from the Day form. Select Browse from the top menu bar and then select Daysheets. Select the day's date.

Daysheet Form

TRANSACTIONS displays a list of all debtor transactions posted for the Day.

PAYMENTS displays a list of all client payments posted for the Day.

PROMISES displays a list of all promises due for the Day.

NEW LISTINGS displays a list of all accounts listed for the Day.

CONTACTS displays a list of all contacts scheduled for the Day.

Other fields display totals for the Day. Press F1 for more details.

To post debtor payments you can select the TRANSACTIONS button and press the NEW button.

Transactions may also be posted from the Debtor form TRANSACTION tab. Press the NEW button.

To post client payments you can Select the PAYMENTS tab and press the NEW button.

Client payments may also be posted from the Client form PAYMENTS tab. Press the NEW button.

BROWSE TRANSACTIONS

Select Browse from the top menu bar and then select Transactions to view a list of all transactions in the system.

Transaction List

The Transaction List displays all historical debtor financial transactions, including payments, principal, fees, interest and adjustments. New transactions are automatically placed in the list.

TRANSACTION TYPES

Transactions record the financial details of debtors. The selection of transaction type determines the grouping of the information in trust account summary reports, while individual amounts determine the credits and debits applied to clients and debtor accounts.

Transaction Groups
Transaction types are grouped every hundred, and the database as set up includes group 100's for General Accounting, 200's for Legal costs, 300's for Other Expenses, 400's for Interest, and 500's for Adjustments. You can create your own groups for categories not described here.

Debtor Accounts
To record changes to the debtor's account, the To Us and Direct fields directly affect the debtor's total owing. A POSITIVE entry in either the To Us or Direct fields will decrease the debtor's Owing, while a NEGATIVE entry will increase the debtor's Owing. The To Us field is for recording checks and cash paid to the agency, and to cancel checks written to the agency with NSF. To Us entries appear on the daily bank deposit report. The Direct field is for recording payments made directly to the client, and for adjusting the debtor's balance owing for costs such as legal expenses.

Client Accounts
To record changes to the client's account, the Commission Amount and Tax fields are used. A POSITIVE entry in the Commission field will bill the client for the amount of the entry, while a NEGATIVE entry will credit the client with the amount entered. The same applies to the Tax field. Up to four settings for Commission and Tax are available with payment breakdown.

OUTSIDE AGENCY FEES

You may need to apply fees taken by some other agency, for example, a credit counseling agency. These fees can be applied to the debtor's balance Owing.

Please refer to How To Post Outside Agency Fees for complete steps.

CLIENT PAYMENTS

From the Payments and Charges menu, select CLIENT PAYMENTS AND CHARGES. Then press F3 or select the NEW button to enter a new client payment.

Client Payment Form

Entering Client Payments

1. Select the Client field. Press F2 to select a client.

2. Highlight the client you want and press Enter.

3. Type the payment amount in the Amount field.

4. Press F3 to record more payments. Or, Press F8 to exit from the Payment form, and press F8 again to close the Payment list.

THE DAILY CASH REPORT

Payments and Charges Menu

1. Select PRINT DAILY CASH REPORT from the Payments and Charges menu and press Enter.

2. Press F8 to accept the printing defaults and start printing.

Please refer to the User's Guide - Printing Reports for further information.

Month End Activities

Month end activities include creating invoice/statements for the last month, printing the invoice/statements, and printing a receivable and payables summary for your general business accounting records.

Month End Menu

GENERATE STATEMENTS calculates invoice/statements for the month. You can select a date range and a client range for the statements.

BROWSE STATEMENTS allows you to review the invoice/statements you have created.

PRINT STATEMENTS allows you to print the invoice/statements you have created.

PRINT CHECKS allows you to print checks for clients based on the invoice/statements you have created.

RECEIVABLES REPORT allows you to print an Accounts Receivable Report. This is a report of all receivables for the month after statements have been calculated

PAYABLES REPORT allows you to print an Accounts Payable Report. This is a report of all payables for the month, after the statements have been calculated

INVOICE/STATEMENTS

The Invoice/Statement form is used to display the contents of generated invoices and statements.

Invoice/Statement Form

Collect! automatically calculates invoice/statements when you select GENERATE STATEMENTS. You can also create invoices manually, or edit an invoice yourself, if you need to make changes.

After the invoice/statements have been generated, you can review them by selecting BROWSE STATEMENTS.

INVOICE LINES

The Invoice Lines form itemizes each line in the invoice/statement.

Invoice Line Form

OVERWRITING EXISTING INVOICES

If you make changes to your data after generating invoice/statements, you may need to regenerate your statements. Simply follow the normal procedure to generate statements. You will be prompted that "Invoices exist for this date already. Delete them?"

Select YES to delete existing invoice/statements for the same period and create a new set.

Select NO to leave existing invoice/statements for this month and to add a new set of invoice/statements.

Normally, you should overwrite the existing invoices to make sure your month end and client trust account balances are accurate.

If you created invoices manually, then you may want to leave them intact, while generating another set. You will have to scan through the invoice/statements to ensure there are no duplicate invoices remaining.

PRINTING STATEMENTS

After invoice/statements have been generated, you may print them by selecting PRINT STATEMENTS from the Month End menu.

PRINTING SUMMARY REPORTS

The receivables and payables summary reports provide concise information for maintaining your general accounting and trust accounting records. These reports when used in conjunction with your company's general accounting system can provide complete accounting management.

Accounts Receivable Report

The Accounts Receivable Report prints a list of all clients owing money to the agency based on this month's invoice/statements. This report should be printed after generating invoice/statements at month end. You can select a date range and a client range, if you want to print historical reports, or report only selected clients.

After invoice/statements have been generated, you may print the Accounts Receivable Report by selecting RECEIVABLES REPORT from the Month End menu.

Printing an historical list of receivables summaries may not give you results that you expect. These are simply listings of the invoice/statement totals.

Accounts Payable Report

The Accounts Payable Report prints a list of all clients to whom the agency owes money based on this month's invoice/statements. This report should be printed after generating invoice/statements at month end. You can select a date range and a client range, if you want to print historical reports, or report only selected clients.

After invoice/statements have been generated, you may print the Accounts Payable Report by selecting PAYABLES REPORT from the Month End menu.

The Reports Menu

The Reports menu accessed from the Main Menu REPORTS option, allows you to print daily batch letters and several types of commonly used summary and analysis reports.

The Reports Menu

Total Value Listed prints the value of all accounts listed with the agency as of the current date. All Debtors are considered.

Client Analysis prints an analysis of a selected Client or a range of Clients within a selected date range. The report totals all new business during the period selected, all debtor payments received during this time period, and results. Totals are printed for the number of accounts and payments. Total values and averages are also printed.

Month Batch Analysis provides recovery statistics on a month by month basis, scanning back up to two years. Collect! will print cumulative totals and averages of listings, collections, recovery percent and yield. For every month reported, all accounts listed in that given month are totaled.

Operator Analysis totals all payments assigned to collectors and lists the total payments and the commission the agency received from those payments. This report also performs the same function for sales personnel commission analysis. You can specify a START and END date for the report so that the report totals only those transactions posted within the date range.

Trust Account Summary prints total amounts in trust for clients. This report uses information from transactions posted, invoices generated and payments received. You can choose a range of clients and a date range to cover in the report. The Trust Summary report totals the number of accounts displayed and calculates an average amount.

Year End Summary totals all transactions paid to the agency and paid directly to clients. By default, the report totals all transactions in the last year, back from today's date. You can specify a START and END date for the report so that the report totals only those transactions posted within the date range.

To access the Transaction Summary Report, select REPORTS from the Main Menu and then select YEAR END SUMMARY in the Reports menu.

Scheduled Batch Letters allows you to print your daily batch of queued letters. Print letters that were scheduled to print in today's letter batch, or letters that were s scheduled to be printed on other days, in case you were not able to print them on the day they were scheduled.

Custom Reports accesses the list of reports available in the system.

ORPHANED DEBTOR REPORT

This report lists all debtors who have no active contacts in their contact schedule.

When you work your accounts using the To Do List, Collect! automatically ensures that no debtor can be left without an active contact. If you manage your accounts outside the To Do List, some debtors may end up without any pending contact scheduled. The Orphaned Debtor Report lists all active accounts needing a contact.

We recommend you use the To Do List to allow Collect! to ensure no debtors are left without active contacts.

To check for debtors who have no active contacts scheduled, run the Orphaned Debtor report from the Tools menu Orphaned Account Search option.

Closing Accounts

You can close an account by selecting CLOSE for the Mode field on the debtor form. The account is not deleted, but simply placed in a 'Closed Debtor' list. To see all closed accounts, select the Browse menu Closed Debtors options.

Reopening Accounts

To reopen a closed debtor:

1. Select Browse from the top menu bar.

2. Select the Closed Debtors option.

3. Select the debtor you want to reopen.

4. Select the Mode field and then select ACTIVE from the pick list. Say YES to "Reopen the debtor."

See Also

- Topics Collections