How To Close A Debtor

When an account is no longer collectable, the Mode should be set to closed. This will remove it from the Collector's Work In Progress list. Accounts usually become uncollectable when they reach a certain age or when a client recalls it.

Closing A Debtor Manually

Closing a debtor is as simple as changing the 'mode' field on the debtor to closed.

When you change the mode to Closed, you will be asked if you want to close the debtor. Say 'yes' to 'Clear all pending contacts'. This will NOT delete any contact that has the "Do not autodelete" switch set. In progress Promises and Transactions are marked 'Completed'. Closing a debtor does not change the debtor's status.

Please be aware that Closed debtors are NOT deleted from the database, simply removed from the Operators' WIP lists.

The debtor can also be closed by posting debtor payments and through contact plans. Choose Payment Posting Options from System, Preferences, Plans and Reference Tables.

Batch Processing To Close Debtors

Requirements

Set up a Contact Plan to CLOSE Debtors.

Overview

The steps outlined below provide a fast, efficient way of processing large numbers of records. Although this topic focuses on closing a batch of Debtors, the concepts have many uses all throughout Collect! Simply, you select the records that you want to process. Then, you run a Contact Plan which instructs the batch of accounts to perform in a specific manner.

Defining the Problem

You may not have any debtors marked as closed. However, if you want to close a number of debtors that are no longer active accounts, you do have Status Codes that you could go by. For example, let's assume that you have used the Status Code CXH to mean Closed Exhausted efforts. (You may have other Closed status codes that you can apply the following procedure to.)

Finding Debtors to Close

This process is faster if you are signed into Collect! on the server.

1. Sign freshly into Collect! and stop at the Main Menu.
2. Select BROWSE from the top menu and select ALL DEBTORS from the drop-down displayed. A list of ALL debtors will be displayed.
3. Press F6 or select the FIND toolbar button to bring up Edit Search Criteria and a list of the fields on the Debtor form will be displayed.
4. Fill in the criteria you want to select your accounts. For the remainder of this tutorial, we will use Status Code as the filter criteria. Cursor down to the STATUS line and click into the FROM column.
5. Press F2 and a list of your Status Codes will be displayed.(A few of these codes are available automatically through Collect! but most likely you have entered some of your own.)
6. Assuming that CXH is the status of your closed debtors, select CXH from your list of codes. Collect! will return you to the Edit Search Criteria form.
7. Click the SEARCH button to the lower left and be patient. The system is working very hard. When you are prompted to tag the records, say YES.

Collect! will go through the database looking for all debtors with CXH in the status field. When Collect! is done, you will see a list of the debtors it found matching your search.

Processing The Batch

1. Now select TOOLS from the top menu and select BATCH PROCESSING from the drop-down menu. The Batch Processing form will appear.
2. Click the radio button beside RUN CONTACT PLANS and then select the NEXT button to the lower right of this form.
3. SELECT ACCOUNTS TO PROCESS form will display with the radio button beside TAG INDIVIDUAL RECORDS dotted. This is because we already selected the debtor list. Select NEXT to the lower right again.
4. SELECT CONTACT PLAN form will display. Click the arrow to the right of the CONTACT PLAN field and you should see a list of contact plans in your system. There should be one there with the code CLO which is used to close a file.
5. Select NEXT again and then you will be prompted to click START on the next form. Collect! will report as it is going through the selected list. This will take a bit of time if you are closing many debtors.
6. There may be a few prompts after-wards that you can answer as needed.

These steps outline a very useful procedure: You select the records that you want to process using status codes and you run a contact plan on them to do what you want. This is such a fast, efficient way of processing large numbers of records!

When done, you should sign completely out of Collect! to clear all the tagged records and your search criteria. (Or, from the Edit menu you can choose CLEAR TAGS.) When you sign back into Collect!, you can repeat the steps to process other debtors with other status codes that may also indicate a closed debtor.