Designing Collection Class Controls

At this point we have the rows and columns defined in our matrix. Now it's time to work on the individual cells.

Each cell should have a "collection class control" that defines its collection criteria and what to do if the criteria are violated. If a cell doesn't have a collection class control, this means you don't have any debt associated with that combination of collection class and debt class. So, we'll mark each cell without debt with "N/A".

Next, we'll mark each cell for debt classes whose debt isn't collectable (i.e., the write-off and N/A debt classes).

Determining the collection criteria in each remaining cell can be straightforward or complicated; it depends on how your organization works. Our case study assumes the following:

• For charitable debt, if the customer is more than $0 in arrears by more than 20 days, kick off the "charity reminder" collection process. We'll talk more about this collection process later.
• For regulated / residential debt, if the customer is more than $15 in arrears by more than 20 days, kick off the Normal Regulated collection process. We'll talk more about this collection process later.
• For unregulated / residential debt, if the customer is more than $5 in arrears by more than 20 days, kick off the Normal Unregulated collection process. We'll talk more about this collection process later.
• For unregulated / commercial-industrial debt we have multiple criteria:
  • Highest priority. If the customer is more than $10,000 in arrears by more than 20 days, kick off the Large Overdue Debt collection process. We'll talk more about this collection process later.
  • Lower priority. If the customer is more than $100 in arrears by more than 20 days, kick off the Normal Unregulated collection process. We'll talk more about this collection process later.
• For deposit debt (regardless of collection class) we have multiple criteria:
  • Highest priority. If the customer is more than $5 in arrears by more than 50 days, kick off the Deposit Severely Overdue collection process. We'll talk more about this collection process later.
  • Lower priority. If the customer is more than $15 in arrears by more than 20 days, kick off the Deposit collection process. We'll talk more about this collection process later.

Given the above, our matrix will look as follows: