9Manage Advanced Collections

This chapter contains the following:

• Manage Customer Data

• Process Collections Payments

• Process Collections Disputes

• Manage Customer Correspondence

• Manage Collections Work

• Collection Manager Dashboard

• Manage Promise to Pay

• Manage Strategy

• Collections Metrics

• Manage Case Folder

• Reports for Manage Advanced Collections

Manage Customer Data

It is important for you to keep your customer data up to date, so that you can perform your collections activities efficiently, and stay updated with all the current and historical data of your customer.

Change Customer Information

Let's discuss from where you can change the customer information and what gets impacted if you do so.

To change a customer information, on Collections Dashboard go to Delinquent Customer tab and select the required customer.

What You Can Change

Here's all the information you can change:

Tab	Information to Change
Profile	Change the information related to customer profile such as: assigned collector, business level, preferred contact method of communication, type of payment terms applied, frequency of statement cycle and so on.
Contact	Add or modify the name, phone number, address and email information of the customer.

What is Impacted

• If you change the collector assigned to the customer, the working of the selected delinquent customer is impacted.

• If you change the business level of the customer, the way the delinquent customer data is displayed on your collections dashboard is changed.

• If you change the preferred contact method, the dunning communication method is changed accordingly.

Activity

You can create an activity or a series of activities and add detailed information needed to follow up with a delinquent customer.

Here's how you create an activity:

1. On the Activity tab of the Collections Dashboard, click the create icon.

2. Enter the required subject, due date and description of your follow-up activity.

3. Select the required customer and assign the activity to self or other collections agent.

4. Click save and close.

You also have an option to select the category of the activity like, dunning call, follow-up call, to-do, meeting and so on to define the type of activity you want to do. You can set the priority of the activity according to requirement and can also upload any attachment for reference. After the activity is created, it appears in the activity tab.

Note

Notes are an excellent way to save some additional information about the customer. You can even paste email messages into notes. You can create notes for any account or transaction.

Here's how you create a note:

1. Select the customer account or transaction and click the note icon.

2. Select the required type of note from the drop-down list.

3. In the text area, enter the content for the note. You can also format the text according to your need and if required, add a link.

4. Click save and close.

After a note is created, you can always go back and edit the note to update any information.

Process Collections Payments

Overview of Processing Payments

As a collector, you can use Advanced Collections to easily record and process customer payments. You can process these payments with credit cards or bank electronic funds transfers.

Note: Credit card services are currently not available in Oracle Financials Cloud implementations.

Here's what you can do to process payments:

• Process payments in a foreign currency.

• Pay both delinquent and current open receivables.

• Make partial payments.

• Validate payments in the real time.

• Make secure credit payments by configuring the level of security in Oracle Fusion Payment setups.

• Add bank account and credit card details.

Things to Keep in Mind

• Make payments for one transaction at a time.

• Use only one payment type at a time.

• Don't pay more than the amount due for a transaction.

• Don't enter negative numbers or zero for the payment amount.

Make Credit Card Payments

You can use the credit card to make payment for a transaction. You can either use an existing credit card information or create a new credit card details to make the payment.

Pay Using Existing Credit Card

Here are the steps to make payment using existing credit card details:

1. Search for the customer account to retrieve the outstanding transactions.

2. Select the transaction to pay.

3. The total amount defaults into the payment amount field, but if the customer wants to make partial payment, you can change enter the partial amount for the payment.

4. Select the payment method as credit card payment.

5. In the payment details section, enter or select these details:

   Field	Action
   Payment Amount	The total amount is auto-displayed as the payment amount; however, you can change the amount to make partial payment.
   Payment Method	Select payment method as credit card.
   Site	Select the appropriate bill-to site.
   Credit Card	Select the existing credit card and verify the number, name and expiration date of the card.
   Statement Billing Address	Verify the billing address information.
   Security Code	Security code is mentioned on the back of your credit card. Verify the with the existing details.
   Purchase Order Number	If required, enter your purchase order number.
   Purchase Order Line Number	If required, enter your purchase order line number.
   Voice Authorization Date	If required, enter the voice authorization date.
   Voice Authorization Code	If required, enter the voice authorization code.
   Additional Information	Enter any other required information as additional information.

6. After all the required details are entered, click submit to process the payment using existing credit card.

Pay Using New Credit Card

Here are the steps to make payment using a new credit card:

1. Search on the customer account to retrieve the outstanding transactions.

2. Select the transaction to pay.

3. The total amount defaults into the payment amount field, but if the customer wants to make partial payment, you can change enter the partial amount for the payment.

4. Select the payment method as credit card payment.

5. In the payment details section, enter or select these details:

   Field	Action
   Payment Amount	The total amount is auto-displayed as the payment amount; however, you can change the amount to make partial payment.
   Payment Method	Select payment method as credit card.
   Create Credit Card hyper link	Click the create credit card hyper link to create the new credit card details.
   Number	Enter the new credit card number.
   Card Brand	Enter the name of the credit card as mentioned on the card.
   Expiration Date	Enter the expiry date as mentioned on the credit card.
   Name on Card	Enter the name of the cardholder as mentioned on the credit card.
   Financial Institution	Enter the name of the issuing financial institution of the credit card.
   Company Card check box	Select this check box if the credit card is a company issued card.
   Purpose	If required, enter the purpose of the new credit card.
   Description	If required, enter the description.
   From Date	By default, the current date of creation and activation of new credit card details is mentioned as from date.
   To Date	If required, you can enter a specific end date.
   Statement Billing Address	Select an address if available.
   Create Billing Address hyper link	Click to create billing address information for the credit card. Refer section "Create Billing Address" for details.
   Context Value	Select this check box if a descriptive flexfield has been configured.

6. After all the required details are entered, click save and close.

Note: After the new credit card details are saved, the credit card appears in the list of choices and you can process the payment same as the using the existing credit card details.

Create Billing Address

Click the create billing address hyperlink and enter the following details to create billing address details for the newly added credit card.

Field	Action
Country	Select from the list of values if other than the default value.
Address Line 1	Enter the billing address for the credit card.
Address Line 2	Enter a second billing address if applicable.
Address Line 3	Enter a third billing address if applicable.
Site Name	Enter a site name if applicable.
City	Enter the city of the billing address.
State	Enter the state of the billing address.
Postal Code	Enter the seven-digit numeric code for the billing address.
Sales Tax Geocode	Enter a tax code if applicable.
Mail Stop	Enter a mail stop if applicable.

Make Electronic Fund Transfer Payments

You can use electronic fund transfer method to make payment for a transaction. You can either use an existing bank information or create a new bank details to make the payment.

Pay Using Existing Bank Account Details

Here are the steps to make payment using existing bank account details:

1. Search for the customer account to retrieve the outstanding transactions.

2. Select the transaction to pay.

3. The total amount defaults into the payment amount field, but if the customer wants to make partial payment, you can change and enter the partial amount for the payment.

4. Select the payment method as Electronic Fund Transfer payment.

5. In the payment details section, enter or select these details:

   Field	Action
   Payment Amount	The total amount is auto-displayed as the payment amount; however, you can change the amount to make partial payment.
   Payment Method	Select payment method as electronic funds transfer.
   Site	Select the appropriate bill-to site.
   Bank Account	More than one bank account can appear in the list. Select the correct account and verify all the information with the customer.
   Additional Information	Enter any other required information as additional information.

6. After all the required details are entered, click submit.

Pay Using New Bank Account Details

Here are the steps to make payment using a new bank account details:

1. Search on the customer account to retrieve the outstanding transactions.

2. Select the transaction to pay.

3. The total amount defaults into the payment amount field, but if the customer wants to make partial payment, you can change enter the partial amount for the payment.

4. Select the payment method as Electronic Funds Transfer.

5. In the payment details section, enter or select these details:

   Field	Action
   Payment Amount	The total amount is auto-displayed as the payment amount; however, you can change the amount to make partial payment.
   Payment Method	Select payment method as electronic funds transfer.
   Site	Select the appropriate bill-to site.
   Create Bank Account hyper link	Click the create bank account hyper link.
   Country	Enter the country where the bank is located.
   Account Number	Enter the account number.
   Bank Name	Enter the name of the bank.
   Branch	Enter the name of the bank branch.
   Allow international payments check box	Select this check box to accept international payments.
   From Date	The date defaults based on the date of creating the bank account.
   To Date	Enter a date if this bank account has an expiration date.
   IBAN	Enter the International Bank Account Number if applicable.
   BIC	Enter the Bank Identifier Code.
   Currency	Enter the currency used for payments from this bank account.

6. In the Additional Information section, optionally you can enter these detailed information of the bank account:.

   • Account Name

   • Alternate Account Name

   • Conversion Rate Agreement Type

   • Conversion Rate

   • Conversion Rate Agreement Number

   • Check Digits

   • Secondary Account Reference

   • Agency Location Code

   • Account Type

   • Description

7. In the Account Owner section, enter the account owner name and date from which the bank account details is created.

8. Click save and close.

After the bank details are saved you can use this to pay for your customer's transaction same as using the existing bank account payments.

Process Collections Disputes

Create a Dispute

Watch video

You can create a dispute based on various sections of the customer's transaction.

Remember that you can only submit only one dispute at a time. For example, if you want to dispute tax and shipping on the same transaction; the tax will be one dispute and shipping a different dispute.

Here are the steps to create a dispute in Collections:

1. Click the collections icon from the landing page.

2. Search for the required customer account. Click the customer icon.

3. Click the transaction tab to display the delinquent or past due transactions of this customer.

4. Select the transaction to be disputed.

   Note: In the details section, click details, activity and lines tabs one by one to review the details of transaction.

5. Click the Dispute button.

6. In the manage disputes selected transaction section, select the dispute section and dispute reason from the drop-down list.

7. In the dispute detail section, enter the dispute quantity and amount.

   Note: The dispute amount and quantity can’t be greater than the current amount or quantity. If you don't enter the dispute quantity and dispute amount, by default the entire invoice quantity and current amount is disputed.

8. You also have an option to upload any attachments and enter customer comments.

9. After all the required details are entered, click submit.

A confirmation message with the dispute number is displayed to confirm the submission.

A designated user then reviews the submitted dispute request. If the dispute is approved, the appropriate credit memo is created automatically.

Create an Adjustment Request

The approval of an adjustment is based on the approval limit given to the submitter. Usually an amount range is set up for the user by currency, for example a new user may have adjustment amounts that range from -$10 to -$50 in US dollars. If the adjustment is within the submitter's limit, it's automatically approved. If the adjustment exceeds the limit, the adjustment goes through an approval process and is approved or rejected by someone with the appropriate approval limit. Here are the steps to create an adjustment request:.

In this example, note the approval limits of an adjustment: The approval of an adjustment is based on the approval limit given to the submitter. Usually an amount range is set up for the user by currency, for example a new user may have adjustment amounts that range from -$10 to -$50 in US dollars. If the adjustment is within the submitters limit, it's automatically approved. If the adjustment exceeds the limit, the adjustment goes through an approval process and is approved or rejected by someone with the appropriate approval limit.

1. Click the Collections icon from the landing page.

2. Search for the customer account. Click Customer icon.

3. Click the Transaction tab to display the delinquent or past due transaction for this customer account.

4. Select the transaction to be adjusted. Note that to review the details of transaction you can go to the Details section and review the Details, Activity and Lines tabs one by one.

5. Click Adjust button.

6. In the Adjustments section, click create icon.

7. Select the Receivables Activity, Adjustment Type, Adjustment Reason and enter the Adjustment Amount.

8. Select the Adjustment Date, Accounting Date and Installment Number.

9. Once all required details are entered, click Submit button. A confirmation message is displayed.

FAQs for Process Collections Disputes

How does the dispute apply to my customer's outstanding balance?

To apply the dispute in your customer's outstanding balance the dispute must be approved in Oracle Fusion Receivables. Once it's approved, a credit memo is created. You can apply this credit memo to your customer's transaction that was disputed before updating their outstanding balance.

What's the difference between freight and shipping?

Freight is the industry standard term for the compensation paid for any goods, cargo, or lading transported for pay by water, land, or air. Freight distribution lines pertain to shipping plus other charges levied for moving goods and services.

Shipping is the base transportation cost charged to the customer for transporting goods.

Manage Customer Correspondence

Overview of Dunning

Using Advanced Collections Dunning process, you can inform your delinquent customers about their overdue payments.

Here's how you can manage dunning process:

• Speed up the collection process by automatically sending preconfigured or custom dunning letters to one or more customers via email, fax or print.

• Exclude specific customers from receiving dunning notices based on their profiles.

• Assign follow-up dunning calls and notices to collection agents.

• Record and display dunning correspondence activity. View a history of each dunning event including letters resent.

Here are the required details to send dunning correspondence:

Dunning Information	Description
Dunning Contact	Configure using default names in Dunning Contact when the customer is unidentified.
Dunning Address	Add and manage the correspondence address of the customer to send dunning notice. It can be an Email, fax or physical location.
Dunning Template	Choose an appropriate Dunning Template to escalate the need to pay.
Dunning Notice	Notify your customers about one or more overdue payments.
Dunning Method	Set up a method of correspondence. Such as print, fax or email.
Business Intelligence Publisher	Use this publisher to create and generate reports and dunning correspondence.

FAQs for Manage Customer Correspondence

Why did my Dunning Process end in Error?

If your Dunning process has ended in error, verify these things

1. Check your Business Intelligence Publisher (BI Publisher) server is set up properly.

2. Check your customer's information is accurate and up to date in the Profile tab.

3. Run and check the Validate Dunning Setup Report for the report details.

Manage Collections Work

Overview of Advanced Collections Work Area

Here are few tasks you can do using your Advanced Collections work area:

• View open tasks and delinquent customers details.

• Search for a customer to review the relevant information.

• Open promises, strategy tasks, and activities from the detailed table.

Prerequisites to view the Collections dashboard metrics:

1. Verify that you're hired as an employee and set up as a collector on the required sets.

2. Go to the Profile tab and confirm that you're assigned as a collector for the expected customers.

3. Update your dashboard by submitting the below processes:

   • Refresh Receivables Transactions for Customer Account Summaries

   • Collections Delinquency Management

   • Collections Scoring and Strategy Assignment

   • Update Collections Summary Data

   • Initialize and Load Collections Metrics

   • Incremental Load Collections Metrics

On the work area, all the important details are visible in the form of infotiles. Here's how you can use these infotiles:

• Manage Delinquent Customers

  Here are some of the things you can do to manage delinquent customers using Delinquent Customers infotile:

  • View the list of all the delinquent customers assigned to you or your group.

  • Set up the customers data in the order of customer's collections level.

  • Assign the default customer settings from Preferences page.

  • View and edit the customer's information by selecting delinquent customer information hyperlinks based on customer name, work status, and aging bucket.

  • Navigate to the Transaction tab to create or view disputes, adjustments, promises, and process payments.

• Manage Promises

  Here are some of the things you can do to manage promises using Promises infotile:

  • View the details of broken and open promises in the form of a table.

  • Review the individual promises made by the customers with promise status, date and amount.

• Manage Strategies

  Here are some of the things you can do to manage strategies using Strategy Tasks infotile:

  • Review the number of open tasks, which can be manual or assigned.

  • View the list of individual items with their due dates.

• Manage Activities

  Here are some of the things you can do to manage activities using Activities infotile:

  • View all assigned activities which needs your immediate attention.

  • Create a new activity or view and edit the existing ones.

  • The data in the Activity table is independent of the data in the Delinquent Customers table.

Request for Bankruptcy

You can initialize the request for bankruptcy on behalf of the customer. Based on the user defined descriptive flexfield, you can record the detailed information such as claims, attorneys involved, filing location, and any other legal information. A submitted bankruptcy request is sent to the appropriate person for approval. The bankruptcy is either approved or rejected.

Here are the things that happens to a bankrupted customer transactions:

• The status of the customer is changed to Bankrupt.

• All the Collection activities of the bankrupt customer are suspended.

• The Delinquent transactions of the customer no longer appear on your Collections Dashboard.

Points to consider

It is important to consider these points before creating the request for bankruptcy:

1. Ensure that Request Bankruptcy is enabled in preferences.

2. Bankruptcy is applied at customer, account and site levels.

Create Request for Bankruptcy

Here are the steps to create request for bankruptcy for a customer:

1. On the landing page, go to Collections menu and click the Collections submenu.

2. Search for the customer account. Click Customer.

3. Click the Profile tab.

4. In Bankruptcy sub tab, click Request button.

5. Select the Reason for bankruptcy.

6. Optionally if required, enter Comments and upload Attachment.

7. Click Save and Close.

Note:

You can withdraw a bankruptcy after a bankruptcy request has been submitted. If bankruptcy isn’t approved, you can't withdraw the bankruptcy. You need to contact the person approving the request to reject it.

Bankruptcy Request Status

This table shows the actions a collector can take:

Request Type	Request Status	Bankruptcy Status
Bankruptcy Request	Request Pending	Request Pending
Bankruptcy Request	Request Approved	Request Approved
Bankruptcy Request	Request Rejected	Request Rejected
Bankruptcy Withdraw	Withdraw Pending	Request Approved Note: The withdraw request can only be enabled when the bankruptcy status is Approved, at this step the bankruptcy status isn’t changed.
Bankruptcy Withdraw	Withdraw Approved	Withdraw Approved
Bankruptcy Withdraw	Withdraw Rejected	Note: The withdraw request can only be enabled when the bankruptcy status is Approved, at this step the bankruptcy status isn’t changed.

FAQs for Manage Collections Work

Why did my collections dashboard fail to display delinquent customers?

Here are the things you must check, if you don't see your delinquent customers on your collections dashboard

1. Verify that you’re hired as an employee and set up as a collector.

2. Go to the Profile tab, and confirm that you’re assigned as a collector for that customer.

3. Update the dashboard by submitting the process Update Collections Summary Data.

Collection Manager Dashboard

Using the Collections Manager Dashboard: Explained

The Collections Manager Dashboard enables insight into advanced metrics, known as Key Performance Indicators. This provides you the ability to understand the financial health of your customers and effectiveness of your collections organization. Using this information you can strategically allocate collections resources more effectively.

Metrics

Oracle Fusion Advanced Collections embeds technology to combine advanced metrics with dimension-based reporting functionality. Once you run the Initialize and Load Metrics program, the metrics are created.

As transactions are added and receipts are applied, you must run the Incremental Metrics Load program. This routine maintenance program updates all the data and dimensions.

Multidimensional analysis is possible with the Manager Dashboard and SMART View, an Excel-based ad hoc reporting tool. You can instantly view statistics using different dimensions on the same data, and drill up, down, and through on any hierarchy level.

The Key Performance Indicators can be aggregated across a number of dimensions and hierarchies such as:

• Business Unit

• Customer, Account, and Site

• Collector

• Profile Class

• Country, State, Province, City, or ZIP Code

• Salesperson

• Aging Bucket

Collectors

Use the Manage Resources page for the following:

• Assign collectors to new or different customers

• Reassign collectors to all or selected customers

• Assign backup collectors to cover for absent collectors

Delinquent Customers Work Status

Using Collections Dashboard your collectors or collectors group can view their delinquent customers work and update their work items status. As you work on delinquencies, you can quickly reset the work status with dates for effective tracking and reporting, and also manage tasks such as follow-up calls on dunning letters or resolve rejected disputes. You can select the customer based on the various collections criteria and use the Update Work Status option to update the customer work item status.

Work Statuses

There are four different work statuses available on your dashboard. Lets understand what each status means:

Work Status	Description	Work Status Date
Open	You can keep the work status as Open when the customer is available and you need to contact them for collections. Note: These customers are either newly delinquent, or a customer with a work status of "follow-up" or "ignore" whose time duration has passed.	By default, the current date is displayed as Work Status Date.
Follow-up	You can keep the work status as Follow-up when you want to follow up with the customer at a future date for payment.	By default, the current date is displayed as the Work Status Date. Remember that the work status automatically changes to Open, if the delinquency isn't resolved or if the follow up date has passed. Note: The work status date needs to be equal to or greater than the current date and not exceed the Maximum Number of Days value. You can reschedule the Maximum Number of Days value from the settings preference
Ignore	You can keep the work status as Ignore when you want to ignore the customer until a future date.	By default, the current date is displayed as Work Status Date. Remember that the work status automatically changes to Open, if the delinquency isn't resolved or if the follow up date has passed. Note: The work status date needs to be equal to or greater than the current date and can't exceed the Maximum Number of Days value. You can reschedule the Maximum Number of Days value from the settings preference.
Hold	You can keep the work status as Hold when you don't want to change the work status of the customer. To change the work status you need to either release the customer from hold status or remove the customer from the collections dashboard. .	By default, the current date is displayed as Work Status Date and you can't change it until the customer is released from Hold work status. To release the Hold status: After the Hold work status date has passed, run the Update Collections Dashboard Summary process. To remove the customer from the Collections Dashboard: Ensure the customer has made full payment for all the delinquent items.. From Collections Scoring, run the Delinquency Identification concurrent process. Set the Delinquency Method to Delete and then run the Update Collections Dashboard Summary process.

• Scoring Formulas

Manage Collectors

Using Collections Manger Dashboard Collectors tab you can do these tasks to manage your collectors:

• You can reassign all customers from one collector to another

• Reassign few selected customers to another collector, and

• Assign a backup collector to an existing one

Let's say that as a Collections Manager, you have analyzed the performance of Collector A and Collector B. You have discovered that Collector A has a better success rate of collecting payments from their delinquent customers than Collector B. So you might want to do these:

• Reassign all of Collector B customers to Collector A

• Assign Collector B to a limited number of customers

• Assign Collector B to backup Collector A to cover for them when they're out sick or on vacation

Now let's see how to do these tasks.

Reassign All Customers from One Collector to Another

As per the example here are the steps to reassign all of Collector B customers to Collector A.

1. On your Collections homepage, click Manage Resources.

2. From the Collectors table, select Collector B and click Reassign Collector button.

3. This brings up the Reassign Collector window. Search for Collector A and click OK button.

4. Click the Save button.

   You will see that Collector A now has all of the customers originally assigned to Collector B.

Reassign Selected Customers to Another Collector

As per the example here are the steps to reassign Collector B to a limited number of customers:

1. In Manage Resources, from the Collectors table, select Collector B.

2. From the list of Customers in Customers table, multi select two or more customers.

3. Click Reassign Customer.

4. The Reassign Customer window appears. Search for Collector A and click the OK button.

5. Click the Save button.

   You will see that Collector A now has the two customers you reassigned from Collector B.

Assign a Backup Collector

As per the example here are the steps to backup assign Collector B as a backup for Collector A :

1. In Manage Resources, from the Collectors table, select Collector A.

2. Go to the Backup Collectors section.

3. Click the New icon.

4. Select Collector B in the Backup Collector field and enter the Start Date. Note: You also have an option to select the end date of backup collector.

5. Select Yes to enable the backup collector.

6. Click the Save button.

   Once this backup collector signs into the application they have the ability to access any customer currently assigned to the primary collector.

Manage Promise to Pay

Promise to Pay

You can use Promise to pay if a delinquent customer is unable to make the payment immediately or plans to send the payment later. Promise to pay can help you track if the customer has made the payment by the committed date or not. You can use status of promise to pay to track the payment, and resolve the delinquent account if the customer has already made the payment.

Here's what you can do Promise to Pay:

• record a payment commitment and schedule a promise to pay date

• apply promise to pay for multiple delinquent transactions at the same time

• review the outstanding customer account transactions

You can see these three tables in Promise to Pay section:

• Selected Transactions: You can view all the transactions for Promise to Pay here.

• Transaction Details: You can view the Status, State, Amount promised, and Promise date details of all the Promise to Pay transactions here.

• Mass Promise: You can find all the transactions for which the customer has committed to make full payment here.

Manage Promise to Pay

You can do multiple tasks to manage the promise to pay, like these:

• Track the Payment: You can automatically track all the expected payments with its due date.

• Update promise state and status: You can schedule the promise in IEX: the Promise Reconciliation concurrent program, to update the promise information daily. Remember that you need to schedule this program after cash has been applied to open transactions. The system verifies all the reconciled payments against open promises and displays the updated promise state and status in your Work Area.

• Mass Transactions: You can make mass Promise to Pay transactions for multiple delinquent customers at a time. You need to enter only the full payment amount for mass transactions.

• Cancel a Promise: There are times when the customer has made a promise in error. Not a problem, you can always cancel the promise prior to the Promise due date. Promise to Pay Status

Promise to Pay Status

During the process of Promise to Pay, the transaction can have five different statuses. Lets understand what's the result of each status:

Status	Result
Broken	The customer has failed to make payment by the Promised date.
Canceled	The Promise is invalid, as was entered in error.
Closed	The payment is already made on or before the Promise date.
Collectible	The Promise has reached the committed payment date.
Fulfilled	The Promise amount is paid on committed date.

Promise to Pay State

The state of Promise to Pay tells you about the overall standing of the promise by the delinquent customer. Lets understand what these states signifies:

State	Result
Promise	View the Promise details with the payment amount and the promised dates.
Broken	The payment isn't made on the committed date.

Create Promise to Pay

These examples illustrate how to create promise to pay.

Let's create a promise to pay for a single transaction for a partial amount of the balance and another mass promise to pay for all transaction that are 60 days past due.

Create Promise to Pay Request for Single Transaction

You can create Promise to Pay request for either full amount or partial amount. Remember that you can enter partial amounts for only single transaction at a time. Here are the steps to create Promise to Pay request for single transaction:

1. Search for the customer account to retrieve the outstanding transactions.

2. From the Transaction tab, select the single transaction that is 30 days past due.

3. Click the Promise button.

4. Click Add row icon.

5. Enter the Promise Date. Note: You can only enter a future date. You can limit this date from the preferences setup.

6. In Promise Amount field, enter a partial or full amount of the transaction.

7. Optionally, select the preferred Payment Method. Note: Only credit cards and automatic fund transfers can be accepted for immediate payment.

8. Click Submit.

Promise to Pay Details for Multiple Transactions

You can create Promise to Pay request for only full amount. Remember that you can't enter partial amounts for mass promise to pay transactions. Here are the steps to create Promise to Pay request for multiple transactions at a time:

1. Search for the customer account to retrieve the outstanding transactions.

2. From the Transaction tab, select multiple transactions that are 60 days past due.

3. Click the Promise button.

4. Click Add row icon.

5. Enter the upon Promise Date. Note: You can only enter a future date. You can limit this date from the preferences setup.

6. By default, the full Promise Amount is displayed.

7. Optionally, select the preferred Payment Method. Note: Only credit cards and automatic fund transfers can be accepted for immediate payment.

8. Click Submit.

FAQs for Manage Promise to Pay

When does the customer account get updated with the promise to pay information?

Here's when a customer account gets updated with the promise to pay information:

• Whenever the promise to pay request is submitted it's immediately recorded and updated.

Note: You can configure an automatic confirmation letter sent to you for every submitted promise to pay request.

• Whenever you run Promise Reconciliation program. You can assign the promise to pay request status as Fulfilled or Broken based on the promise date.

Manage Strategy

Collections Task

A collections task is an activity performed under a strategy. A strategy consists of sequence of grouped tasks which help you to complete a collection process. You can view all your tasks and task details in Strategy tab.

Advantages

Here are few advantages of Tasks:

• You can configure tasks that are unique to your business, group tasks into a strategy, and apply the strategy based on each customer's collection risk score.

• You can assign the tasks directly to yourself or to others based on the group of customers delegated for collection.

• You can configure these tasks manually or automatically.

How You Create a Task

Here's how you can create a task:

1. Set a before or after time to start the next task.

   Lets say, you want to allow five days to a customer after sending a polite reminder and before scheduling a follow up phone call task. To create the follow up phone call task, set the task to execute as: How long will the strategy wait until it executes this task and set the wait for period as 5 days.

2. Add wait time after the task is completed.

   Specify if the task is optional. If you don't complete the optional task, it is closed automatically at the end of the wait time. This way the strategy gets free to start the next task.

3. If a task isn't completed on time, you can escalate it to your manager.

   Remember that you can only escalate the manual tasks.

Task Status

When you run the Strategy Management program, the status for each task gets updated. Here's what each task status means:

• To Be Created: Task isn't created yet.

• Open: Work in progress

• Skip: Task was skipped

• Time-out: The task wasn't assigned before wait time

• In Error: Problem occurred while sending out correspondence

• Closed: There's no need to perform this task as customer has already paid

• Canceled: Strategy switched, there is no need to perform the task

• Complete: Task is performed

FAQs for Manage Strategy

What's a Collections method set?

A Collections method set is used to identify the default values to insure that no errors occur when you process the strategies. Here's the list of default values:

• Collections Method

• Default Collector

• Default Strategy

• Strategy Grace Period Days

• Processing data at the Common Set or by Business Unit

How can I assign a strategy to a customer?

Strategies are assigned automatically when the Strategy Management program is executed. However, you also have option to manually change the customer's strategy. To change a customer's strategy manually, go to the Profile tab and click on the Strategy sub tab. Apart form changing the strategy, you can also add, remove, and reassign the tasks associated to the strategy.

How do scoring engines and strategies work together?

Scoring formulas contain data points which are used to score your customers for their capability of making payment. Based on the customers score generated by the scoring formula, you can associate a strategy to it.

Suppose you have a scoring formula configured to check for overdue transactions. All the transactions which are above 60 days overdue receive a score of 40. So now for any transaction that has scored 40, you can assign a strategy, like as first task you may direct the collector to contact the customer by phone.

Collections Metrics

Collections Effectiveness Index Metrics

Using Collections' effectiveness metrics you can measure and view the performance of your collections activities at various levels. It provides you industry standard formulas to measure and calculate these metrics' for collection performance. The result of these calculations are displayed in percentage to measure the effectiveness of your collection efforts over time. The closer is your percentage to 100 the more effective is your collection effort.

You can accurately measure the effectiveness of your collection process, amount collected and the amount yet to be collected, and evaluate the individuals, subgroups, and overall groups.

Now, let's understand the Metric parameters:

• Metrics Common Currency: This is the default currency used for reporting. You can define this in Collections Preferences.

• Inception Date: This is the date from which your customer balance is calculated. You can't calculate any balance before the inception date. You can set the Inception Date from the Collections Preferences. Remember that when you start calculating metrics for the first time, any unpaid open transaction before the Inception Date, becomes the starting balance for the Inception Date.

  For example: If a customer has open transactions in calendar year 2012 totaling 100,000 USD and the inception date is set to January 1, 2013. Then the beginning balance for the customer on January 1, 2013 will be 100,000 USD.

• Activity Date: The activity date drives what bucket of time the document is grouped into your metrics. Each document has a corresponding activity date, documents include:

  • invoices

  • receipt application

  • credit memos

  • adjustments

  • unapplied receipts

  The activity date is typically the accounting date of the document. You can calculate the balances and metrics from the current time going backward to the inception date based on the activity dates of the corresponding documents.

Now lets look at few formulas for metric Calculations:

Calculate Collection Effectiveness Index

Using Collection Effectiveness Index (CEI) you can accurately measure the collection effectiveness, amounts to be collected, and the amount actually collected. You can use this metric to evaluate individuals, subgroups, and overall groups.

(Beginning Balance + Credit Sales minus Ending Balance) / N / (Beginning Balance + Credit Sales minus Current Receivables) / N * 100.

Where N = number of days in the period.

Current Receivables= the current amount of receivables transactions which isn't in dispute or due from past.

Calculate Percent Current and Percent Over 90 Days Delinquent

Percent Current = Current Receivables / Ending balance * 100.

Percent Over 90 Days Delinquent = Receivables greater than 90 days Overdue / Ending balance * 100.

Calculate Over 90 Days Delinquent

The over 90 days delinquent is the total amount that's past 90 days due.

Calculate Beginning Balance and Ending Balance

Beginning Balance = Total outstanding open receivables at the beginning of the period.

Ending Balance = Total outstanding open receivables at the end of the period.

Calculate Credit Sales

Revenues generated by an entity that it allowed to the customers on credit, less all sales returns and sales allowances.

• Guidelines for Setting Up Collections Preferences

Days Sales Outstanding

Using the formulated metrics of Advanced Collections you can calculate the Days Sales Outstanding (DSO).

Let's understand Days Sales Outstanding using an example.

Here we have 5 metrics related to Days Sales Outstanding. We will look at few formulas with sample calculations.

Scenario

As a Collections Manager you need to understand the Days Sales Outstanding metrics and use the analytics to make decisions. Say the date of the calculation is October 1, 2011. This table displays the receivables data used for each of the calculations.

Date of Invoice	Aging Bucket	Dollars in Bucket	Credit Sales in Period
9/28/11	Current	3,000 USD	5,000 USD
8/28/11	1-30 days past due	3,000 USD	6,000 USD
7/28/11	31-60 days past due	2,000 USD	5,000 USD
Total Open Receivables	NA	8,000 USD	16,000 USD

Calculating Various Days Sales Outstanding (DSO)

Let's look at some examples with formulas to calculate each of the Days Sales Outstanding (DSO) metrics:

DSO

In this example you can see, how to calculate the (aggregate) average time, in days, for which the receivables are outstanding. This will help you to determine if a change in receivables is due to a change in sales, selling terms, or other factors.

You can compare the days' sales outstanding with the company's credit terms to understand how efficiently your company manages its receivables.

If DSO = Ending Balance * N / Credit Sales, where N = Number of days in the period.

then as per the data shown in the table, the 3rd Quarter DSO = ($8,000 / $16,000) x 91 = 45.5 days DSO

True DSO

You can calculate DSO using an average balance over the period rather than Ending Balance snapshot.

Number of days from invoice date to reporting date x (invoice amount/net credit sales for the month in which the sale occurred) = True DSO per invoice

The sum of True DSO for all open invoices = True DSO per total accounts receivable. True DSO = (Beginning Balance + Ending Balance / 2) * N / Credit Sales. For example:

September Invoice = ($3,000 / $5,000) x 2 = 1.2 days

August Invoice = ($3,000 / $6,000) x 33 = 16.5 days

July Invoice = ($2,000 / $5,000) x 64 = 25.6 days

Sum of True DSO for all open invoices = True DSO per total accounts receivable

1.2 + 16.5 + 25.6 = 43.3 True DSO

Best Possible DSO

In this example you can see, how to calculate the best possible level of receivables. You can use Best Possible DSO only at the current receivables to calculate the best length of time you can turn over those receivables.

Best Possible DSO = Current Receivables * N / Credit Sales

For example, the calculation based on the earlier data: ($3,000 / $16,000) x 91 = 17 days Best Possible DSO.

Sales Weighted DSO

In this example you can see, how to calculate the (aggregate) average time, in days, for which the receivables are outstanding weighted by the age of the receivables.

Sales Weighted DSO = ((Current Age Category / Credit Sales of Current Period) + (1 to 30 Day Age Category / Credit Sales of Prior Period) + (31 to 60 Day Age Category / Credit Sales of 2nd Prior Period) + (61 to 90 Day Age Category / Credit Sales of 3rd Prior Period) + (91 to 120 Day Age Category / Credit Sales of 4th Prior Period) ) x 30

(($3,000 / $5,000) + ($3000 / $5,000) + ($2,000 / $6,000)) x 30 = (0.6 + 0.5 + 0.4) x 30 = 45 days Sales Weighted DSO.

Average Days Delinquent

In this example you can see, how to calculate the average time from the invoice due date to the paid date, or the average days invoices are past due in days.

Average Days Delinquent = Standard DSO - Best Possible DSO.

45.5 DSO - 17 BPDSO = 28.5 average days delinquent

How You Calculate Weighted Average Metrics

Here's how you can calculate various weighted average metrics:

Weighted Average Terms

You can calculates the Weighted Average Terms of the customer, which is the average number of days allowed for a customer before payment is due. This is weighted according to the item amount. This calculation is based on your customer's due date of the installment and the terms offered. You can only include the closed and fully paid transactions of your customers.

You can impose limits on the number of days allowed to a customer to make the payment with multiple payment terms. Based on which you can either request for immediate payment or offer terms such as:

• NET 30

• 30 / 60 / 90

These terms imply the credit health of your customer. In general, more favorable terms are offered to credit worthy customers and less favorable to customers at risk.

Formula:

Sum (Original Amount Due *Terms) / Sum (Original Amount Due).

Weighted Average Days Late

You can calculate the average days late weighted for a closed invoice amount with at least one late payment. Days late are the number of days between the due date and the accounting date of the item activity that closed the item.

For example: The Weighted Average Days Late calculation informs you that your customer pays on average, 5 days late. However, that number is more meaningful when you know that the customer had an average of 25 days to make payments.

Formula:

Sum (Amount Due Remaining * Days Late) / Sum (Original Amount Due).

Weighted Average Days Paid

Weighted Average Days Paid is the number of days a customer takes to make payments. The average is weighted by the payment amount, on the assumption that a larger payment is more significant than a smaller payment.

For example: The weighted average terms are 25, plus the Weighted Average Days Late is 5. This means that your customer pays an average of 30 days from the invoice date. The 25 days that were allowed plus the 5 extra days taken.

Formula:

(Sum (Date Paid - Invoice Date) x Amount Paid) / Total Payments.

The following table provides an example:

Invoice or Receipt Number	Amount	Due or General Ledger Date	Days Late	Calculation
Invoice 1	1000 USD	7/01/2012	NA	NA
Receipt 1	1000 USD	7/25/2012	24	24 x 1000 = 24,000 weighted
Invoice 2	20 USD	8/31/2012	NA	NA
Receipt 2	15 USD	1/01/2011	123	123 x 15 (partial payment) = 1,845 weighted

• 24,000 + 1,845 = 25,845 total weighted days.

• 21,000 + 15 = 1,015 USD total receipts.

• Weighted Average Days Late: 25,845 / 1,015 = 25.

Promise Metrics

You can measure your customer's promises in nominal and currency terms. Here are the formulated metrics for Promises:

• Broken Promise Amount

• Broken Promise Count

• Broken Promise Percent

• Broken Promise Amount Percent

• Promise Amount

• Promise Count

Let's understand these metrics with an example:

Scenario

Say you're discussing the outstanding transactions with your customer. Your customer said that they're willing to pay for 10 of their transactions on an agreed upon date. So, you created 10 promises with total transaction amount of 1,000 USD due on the promised date. Your customer fails to make payment of 700 USD on the promised due date for 5 of the transactions. Now, here's what the table will show as the metric result for the customer:

Promise Metric	Resulting Value
Promise Count	10
Promise Amount	1000 USD
Broken Promise Count	5
Broken Promise Percent	50%
Broken Promise Amount	700 USD
Broken Promise Amount Percent	70%

FAQs for Collections Metrics

What's a metric?

You can use metrics to measure and view the performance of your collections activities at various levels. It provides you industry standard formulas to measure and calculate these metrics' for collection performance. You can use these metrics to score and assess your customers for their delinquent transactions.

Here are some of the things you can do using these metrics:

• understand the health of your outstanding receivables

• increase the efficiency of your collections organization

• expose potential problem areas where you can apply more collections resources

• change collections strategies based on the results

Manage Case Folder

Manage Case Folder

You can group related transactions using case folder. These transactions can typically have a common attribute, such as: a bill-to customer, which is used by a collector to take action during the collections cycle.

Things to Remember

Here are some things to remember to create a case folder:

• Transactions need to be in same currency.

• Transactions need to belong to same case.

• Transactions must belong to same Bill-to Customer, however you may have transactions from different Sold-to Customers.

• Transactions need to be from the class of Invoice, Debit Memo, or Chargeback. You can't create a case folder for the class of credit memos, adjustments or receipts.

• Case Folder Status can only be Open or Closed.

Create a Case Folder

Here are the steps to create a case folder:

1. Click the specific Customer.

2. Go to the Transaction tab.

3. Review and select the list of transactions you want to group in the case folder.

4. From Actions menu click Create Case Folder button. The Case folder status is displayed as Open and a case number is assigned automatically.

5. You can optionally select the Case Type and enter Comments.

6. Once all required details are entered, click Save.

Actions taken on Case Folder

Once the case folder is created, you can take these actions on the folder:

• Make Payment: Here's how you can make payment for all the grouped transaction in the case folder at a time:

  1. Click Pay button.

  2. Enter the full or partial Payment Amount.

  3. Select the Payment Method and Site.

  4. Click Submit.

• Promise to Pay: You can only make promise to pay the full amount of transaction. Here's how you can make promise to pay for all the grouped transaction at a time:

  1. Click Promise button.

  2. Enter the Promise Date.

  3. Click Submit.

• Create Notes: Notes are associated to the case folder and not to the individual transaction. Here's how you can create notes for the case folder:

  1. In the Notes section, click create.

  2. Enter the Promise Date.

  3. Select the note Type and enter the note text.

  4. Click Save and Close.

Edit a Case Folder

You can make the these edits to a case folder:

• Add Transactions: Select one or more transactions from the transaction list to add to the case folder.

• Remove Transactions: Select the case folder containing the transactions and remove one or more transactions.

  Note: Transactions in the case folder having a collectible or open promise are canceled for the entire group when adding or removing one or more transactions. The recommendation is to enter a new promise for the case folder.

• Create a Promise: Click the Promise button. Enter one or more transactions numbers to create the promise or promises. Enter the date of the promise.

• Update a Promise: Click the Promise button, update the promise date.

• Pay Case: Click the Pay button. Select the transaction or transactions to be paid. Select the payment method and amount to be paid. You can make partial payments on the transactions.

  Note: At this time Cloud customers can only make EFT (Electronic Fund Transfers) as the method of payment. Credit card payments aren't available to Cloud customers.

FAQs for Manage Case Folder

What's a case folder?

You can create case folders to logically group related transactions. Using case folders you can perform collection activities on the entire group at a time. You can apply payment, create promises, and provide additional information about the case folder. This increases your collections efficiency by saving time and effort on customers that have a large number of similar invoices.

Restrictions for creating and editing a case folder

Here are certain restrictions for creating and editing a case folder:

• transaction types added to a case folder.

• adding or removing one or more transactions to a case folder.

Reports for Manage Advanced Collections

Oracle Fusion Advanced Collections Predefined Reports

You can generate some predefined reports that can be used in various stages throughout the collections process.

How to schedule a report?

You can schedule a report from your Scheduled Process Work area and Reports and Analytics Work area.

• Schedule a report from Scheduled process work area:

  On the Navigator, click on Tools and then click Scheduled Processes to Schedule a report.

• Schedule a report from Reports and Analytics Work Area:

  On Navigator, click on Tools and then click on Reports and Analytics work area

  or,

  Click the Reports and Analytics link on Oracle Business Intelligence Catalog.

You can create various predefined reports based these areas:

• Aging

• Dunning

• Promises

Aging Reports

Here are the three types of predefined aging reports:

Report Name	Description	Parameters (*Required)
Aging By Common Currency	You can translate all your open transaction into a common currency based on the seven bucket aging method.	*Currency Conversion Type *Targeted Currency Business Unit From Customer Name To Customer Name As-of Account Date *Aging Bucket Method Show Open Credits
Collections Aging 4 Bucket Report	You can view your customer's open transaction information based on the four bucket aging method.	*Business Unit From Customer Account To Customer Account From Customer Name To Customer Name *Order By *Report Summary *Aging Bucket Method *Report Format *Show Open Credits As-of General Ledger Date From Balance Due To Balance Due *Show Receipts At Risk
Collections Aging by Collector 7 Bucket Report	You can view your customer's open transaction information by collector based on the seven bucket aging method.	*Business Unit From Customer Account To Customer Account From Customer Name To Customer Name *Order By *Report Summary *Aging Bucket Method *Report Format Show Open Credits As-of Accounting Date From Balance Due To Balance Due *Show Receipts At Risk From Collector Name To Collector Name

Dunning Report

Here is the predefined dunning report:

Report Name	Description	Parameters (*Required)
Validate Customer Dunning Setup Report	Displays customer dunning setup issues and provides solution.	*Business Unit *Business Level *Show Errors Only From Customer Name To Customer Name From Customer Account To Customer Account

Promises Report

Here is the predefined promise report:

Report Name	Description	Parameters (*Required)
Promise Reconciliation Report	Displays promise information by collector and is based on payments received and the promise status.	Business Unit *From Date *To Date *Currency State Status *Report Format Collector Name

How to run a predefined report?

Here are the steps to run a predefined reports:

1. Navigate to the Scheduled Processes work area.

2. Click the Schedule New Process button.

3. Search the Process Name.

4. Enter the required parameters of the process.

5. Enter the applicable process options and schedule.

6. Click Submit.

• Overview of Analytics and Reports

• Data Structure for Analytics

• How You Create and Edit Reports

Aging Reports

Using collections aging reports you can list your customer's open transactions information which can help you in creating collection strategies and tasks.You can view all your customer's open transactions based on the aging buckets you have defined.

Here are the types of aging report you can create:

Aging 4 Bucket Report

In this report, you can view your customer's open transaction information based on the four bucket aging method.

This image shows a sample of Collections Aging 4 Bucket Report.

Report Parameters

This table shows all the required parameters for creating Collections Aging 4 Bucket Report:

Parameter Name	Description
Aging Bucket Method	Either Staged or Aged, based on your company setup.
Order By	Select by Customer or Transaction Type.
Report Summary	Yes to display in summary, No to display in detail.
Show Open Credits	Yes or No to display open credits.
Show Receipts At Risk	Yes or No to display receipts at risk.

Aging by Collector 7 Bucket Report

In this report, you can view your customer's open transaction information by collector using the seven bucket aging method.

This image shows a sample of Collections Aging by Collector 7 Bucket Report.

Report Parameters

This table shows all the required parameters for creating Collections Aging by Collector 7 Bucket Report:

Parameter Name	Description
Aging Bucket Method	Either Staged or Aged, based on your company setup.
As-of Accounting Date	Period start date for the report.
Order By	Select by Customer or Transaction Type.
Report Format	Select the format such as HTML, PDF, or Excel.
Report Summary	Yes to display in summary, No to display in detail.

Aging by Common Currency Report

In this report, you can view all open transaction information converted to one common currency for all Business Units or a specific Business Unit.

This image shows a sample of Aging by Common Currency Report

Report Parameters

This table shows all the required parameters for creating Aging by Common Currency Report:

Name	Description
Targeted Currency	The currency you want displayed in the report. The default is USD.
Aging Bucket Method	Either Staged or Aged based on setup.

Frequently Asked Questions

This table lists some frequently asked questions about the aging reports.

FAQ	Answers
Where can I find these reports?	On the Navigator menu click on the Scheduled Processes work area to schedule and run these reports.
Who uses these reports?	Financial Manager Financial Specialist
When do I use these reports?	You can use these reports to: Review aging typically on a daily or weekly basis. Understand the aging and risk exposure of outstanding receivables.
What can I do with these reports?	Use these reports to formulate strategies with task or tasks to collect on outstanding delinquent customers.
What type of reports are these?	Oracle Business Intelligence Publisher

• Aging Methods

• Collections Strategies

• Processing Strategies

Validate Customer Dunning Setup Report

In the Validate Customer Dunning Setup Report you can view all the dunning setup issues of your customers. You can use this report to verify and identify gaps of dunning configurations. For example the report can display missing customer e-mail, fax, or contact name. This report only shows those customers who have open transactions.

This image shows a sample of Validate Customer Dunning Setup Report

Report Parameters

This table shows all the required parameters for creating Validate Customer Dunning Setup Report.

Name	Description
Business Unit	Select the appropriate business unit.
From Collector Name	Starting range of collectors.
To Collector Name	Ending range of collectors.
From Customer Account	Starting range of customer accounts.
To Customer Account	Ending range of customer accounts.
From Customer Name	Starting range of customer names.
To Customer Name	Ending range of customer names.

Frequently Asked Questions

This table lists some frequently asked questions about the Validate Customer Dunning Setup Report.

FAQ	Answers
Where can I find this report?	On the Navigator menu click on the Scheduled Processes work area to schedule and run these reports.
Who uses this report?	Financial Manager Financial Specialist
When do I use this report?	You can use this report when configuring your dunning setups for customers, accounts, or by collector.
What can I do with this report?	Use this report to validate and identify gaps in the dunning setup for customer, accounts, or by collector.
What type of report is this?	Oracle Business Intelligence Publisher

• Collections Confirmation Notices

Promise Reconciliation Report

In Collections Promise Reconciliation Report you can view all the promise details of each collector based on business unit and date range. You can use this report to reconcile promises to pay with broken promises.

This image shows a sample of Collections Promise Reconciliation Report:

Report Parameters

This table shows all the required parameters for creating Collections Promise Reconciliation Report.

Name	Description
Business Unit	Select the appropriate business unit.
Collector Name	Specify by collector if appropriate.
Currency	Select the appropriate currency.
Date From	Starting date range.
Date To	Ending date range
Report Format	Select format such as HTML, PDF, or Excel.

Frequently Asked Questions

This table lists some frequently asked questions about the Collections Promise Reconciliation Report.

FAQ	Answers
Where can I find this report?	On the Navigator menu click on the Scheduled Processes work area to schedule and run these reports.
Who uses this report?	Financial Manager Financial Specialist
When do I use this report?	You can use this report to review and keep track of customer promise to pay commitments.
What can I do with this report?	You can track the payment progress of customers who have made promises to pay on their accounts.
What type of report is this?	Oracle Business Intelligence Publisher

• Collections Confirmation Notices