Current Amount versus Payoff Amount
A financial transaction contains two very important attributes: payoff amount and current amount. These attributes contain the grand total of how much the customer owes.
• Current amount contains how much the customer THINKS THEY OWE.
• Payoff amount contains how much the customer REALLY OWES.
You may be wondering when these two values can be different? Well, for most financial transactions, these values are the same. These values differ under the following situations:
• When a bill segment charges a customer for a charitable contribution, payoff amount will be zero because the customer doesn't really owe anything (they don't have to contribute if they don't want to). Current amount will be equal to the agreed charitable contribution amount (the customer thinks they owe the contribution).
• When a bill segment charges a customer for a deposit, payoff amount will be zero because the customer doesn't really owe anything (billed deposits are typically not viewed as being a receivable). Current amount will be equal to the amount billed (the customer thinks they owe the deposit amount).
• When a bill segment charges a customer who participates in a levelized payment program (e.g., budget billing or non-billed budgets) the two "amounts due" will contain different values. Payoff amount is equal to how much the customer really owes for the service they consumed; current amount is equal to how much they think they owe in accordance with their monthly budget.
A perhaps easier way to view these two attributes is to consider payoff amount as the "cash out amount", i.e., the amount the customer would owe the utility if they wanted to clear up all debt. The current amount contains the amount the customer thinks they owe. If you're still struggling with the difference, think about your monthly Visa bill: it contains a monthly minimum payment and the total amount owed. The minimum payment is the current amount; the total amount owed is the payoff amount.
The topics in this section provide more information about these two fields.