Collections Run

The Collections Run task evaluates billing accounts in collections, or accounts with liens, and advances eligible accounts to the next milestone.

Collections and lien processing in Infor Operations and Regulations are actually special types of delinquency processing—in fact, they use the same code and the same database tables. (To put it in terms of Infor Operations and Regulations’s 3-tier architecture, collections/liens and delinquency processing are distinct in the interface layer, but not in the business layer or the data layer.)

It is especially important to understand that the primary records processed in a collections run are delinquency records, stored in the ACCOUNTDELINQUENCY table. At the database level, ACCOUNTDELINQUENCY records are used to manage not only delinquency processes, but also cases where an account is sent to collections or has a lien attached.

So when an account first enters delinquency processing, an ACCOUNTDELINQUENCY record is created to manage that delinquency process until it is resolved. At some point the delinquency might reach a milestone that marks accounts as eligible for collections or liens. After accounts are marked as eligible, sending them to collections or adding liens are manual processes, done with the Collections Eligible Accounts and Lien Eligible Accounts items in My Infor.

Each time you send an account to collections or add a lien, Infor Operations and Regulations adds another ACCOUNTDELINQUENCY record to manage that process until it is resolved. So an account in collections, for example, will have one ACCOUNTDELINQUENCY record for the delinquency process that ultimately sent the account to collections, and another record for the collections process itself.

The main difference between a collections run and a delinquency run is that a collections run only advances accounts, because collections or lien entry is a manual process. Also, there is no option to auto decrement and resolve collections, as there is with a delinquency run. Thus, each collections run follows the same basic steps as an Advancement of Accounts delinquency run.

  1. Query for accounts in collections, or with liens, that qualify for advancement.

    As noted above, the records processed in a collections run are stored in the ACCOUNTDELINQUENCY table. Four columns distinguish the different types of “delinquency” records. An actual delinquency will have a bill type key in the BILLTYPEKEY column, because delinquency processing is always tied to a specific bill type. If it is a collections record, there will be a key in the COLLECTIONSKEY column. And for a lien record, finally, there will be a key in the ADDRESSLIENKEY or PARCELLIENKEY column.

  2. Determine whether each delinquency is eligible for advancement.

    Eligibility is determined based on the duration specified for the current milestone, which can be either a formula or a value. If the current milestone has been extended, the extension is also considered.

  3. For each delinquency, determine the next milestone.

    The next milestone is defined in the setup for the current milestone, either using a formula or a value.

  4. Update the ACCOUNTDELINQUENCY record.
  5. Insert a delinquency history record.
  6. Perform milestone actions.

Setup

This table describes the Configuration Editor settings that affect this task:

Configuration and path Comments
BatchProcessing/TASKS/Task: CollectionsRun/Threads Sets the number of asynchronous threads the Batch Manager will use for the Collections Run process.

The default number of threads for all multithreaded processes is set in the BatchManager configuration’s Number of Task Threads attribute. You only need to specify a separate value here if you want to override the default.
BILLING/BATCHMANAGER/Create Delinquency Run Inputs Sets the commit number for all delinquency and collections runs. The commit number determines the number of accounts processed in each thread.
Note: You can enter any number, but there are limitations at the database level. Oracle databases have a limit of 1,000 records, and SQL Server databases have a limit of 2,000 records. Entering a larger number will cause errors.

This table describes the Infor Operations and Regulations setup forms that are used to configure this task:

Setup form Comments
Collections Setup Defines how Infor Operations and Regulations handles accounts that have been sent to collections. Like Delinquency Setup, Collections Setup consists of various milestones that define different actions to be taken for accounts in collections, such as adding one-off charges or creating service requests to turn off account services. The milestones also include rules that define how and when accounts can move to other milestones.
Feature Switches The Collections feature must be active.

This table lists the database tables that store setup information for this task:

Table Comments
BILLING.DELINQUENCYGROUP Stores delinquency and collections groups. Note that Infor Operations and Regulations you can only define one collections group, so there will be a single collections group in this table along with the delinquency groups.
BILLING.DELINQUENCYMILESTONE Stores collections or lien milestone definitions.
BILLING.DELINQUENCYMSALERT Defines account alerts to be added at particular milestones.
BILLING. DELINQUENCYMSCREDITRATE Defines credit ratings to be added at particular milestones.
BILLING.DELINQUENCYMSDEPOSIT Defines deposit charges to be added at particular milestones.
BILLING.DELINQUENCYMSLOG Defines log entries to be added to accounts at particular milestones.
BILLING.DELINQUENCYMSNOTICE Defines notices to be created at particular milestones.
BILLING. DELINQUENCYMSONEOFFCHARGE Defines one-off charges to be added to accounts at particular milestones.
BILLING.DELINQUENCYMSPENALTY Defines one-off penalties to be added at particular milestones.
BILLING. DELINQUENCYMSSERVICEREQUEST Defines service request types to be added at particular milestones.
BILLING.DELINQUENCYSCHEME Stores collections schemes. Note that when you create your collections group, Infor Operations and Regulations automatically adds a default Liens scheme.
BILLING.DELINQUCYSETUP Stores delinquency and collections setups. As with the collections group, there will be a single collections setup record along with the delinquency setups.

Invocation

To schedule a collections run, use the Batch Manager. This task has no parameters, so it isn’t available in the Billing Calendar.

Monitoring

If the Collections Run task is successful, you can expect to see a series of messages similar to these in the Billing Batch Process log:

  • Delinquency/Collections Run process started for Key [run key]
  • Started batch for [#] Accounts.
  • Process [process] executed [#] times for a total duration of: [duration]
  • Completed batch with [#] processed, [#] errors, and [#] accounts omitted.
  • Delinquency/Collections Run process finished for Key [run key]

Data output

This table lists the database tables in which this task adds or updates records:

Table Comments
BILLING.ACCOUNTACTIVITY For each one-off and each deposit charge added during the collections run, there will also be an account activity record. Account activities for one-off charges link to the ONEOFFCHARGE table through the ONEOFFCHARGEKEY column, and activities for deposit charges link to the DEPOSITCHARGE table through the DEPOSITCHARGEKEY column.
BILLING.ACCOUNTALERT Stores account alerts added during the collections run.
BILLING.ACCOUNTDELINQUENCY Stores information on all account delinquency, collections, and lien processes.
BILLING.COLLECTIONSRUN Stores information on a collections run, including the run key, the number of accounts processed, and the dates the run was initiated and completed.
BILLING.DELINQUENCYHISTORY Stores a complete history of delinquency/collections/lien processing for each account.
BILLING.DEPOSITCHARGE Stores deposit charges added during the collections run.
BILLING.LOG Stores log entries added during the collections run.
BILLING.ONEOFFCHARGE Stores one-off charges added during the collections run.
CORE.CORRESPONDENCE. CORRSCHEDULE Stores correspondence schedules for notices added by the collections run.
CRM.CUSTPROB Stores service requests added during the collections run.
RESOURCES.CREDITHISTORY Stores contacts’ credit histories.

This table lists the Infor Operations and Regulations forms that you can use to review the results of this task:

Form Comments
Manage Account page The Delinquency tab shows information on collections and liens, as well as delinquency processing.