Credit Status

All occupants in the Circulation database must be assigned a credit status, such as “okay”, “poor”, “good”, and “denied”. An occupant’s credit status determines:

• Their grace period

• The number of days their expiration date can be extended

• Whether they can “start and bill” (start receiving papers before paying)

• Whether they are turned over to carrier collect or stopped if their grace period ends without a payment

About credit status and grace

The credit status determines the grace period to allow for office pay subscriptions. The grace period is the number of days (called “grace days”) after a subscription reaches its expiration date that the paper is still delivered (the carrier will still receive credit for delivery). If a subscriber makes a payment during the grace period, the cost of the paper for these days is deducted from the payment.

If the subscriber does not pay, the end-grace transaction (created on their expire date) will be processed, and the grace period will end. The subscription will be stopped by the system (or turned over to carrier collect), and a grace-owed transaction will be created. If a payment subsequently arrives (e.g., the subscriber notices he is no longer getting the paper and writes a check), the subscription will be started again. The grace-owed amount will be deducted from the payment, and a grace-paid transaction will be created.

However, if a payment never arrives, the grace will be written off after a certain number of days (the paper assumes the cost). These concepts are illustrated in the following diagram.

If the Business Rule, Should grace revenue and discount be recognized while a subscriber is in their grace period? (Subscriber Accounting section) is set to “yes”, several grace accrual transactions may be created while the subscriber is still in the grace period (rather than a single grace owed transaction after the period has ended). These grace accrual transactions are created when the Grace Due report is run. When calculating the grace amount, the Grace Due report will use the longest term that will fit within the subscriber’s grace period.

Note: Grace days do not apply to carrier collect subscribers.

Changing credit statuses

In addition to grace periods, credit statuses are used to determine who may initiate a “start and bill” subscription (i.e., started immediately and billed later). If an occupant starts a subscription and does not make a payment, the credit status may change (from “good” to “poor”, for example). If a payment is eventually received, the credit status may change again.

To illustrate how credit statuses can change, let’s take an occupant named Paul. When initially entered as an occupant, Paul is given a credit status of “good”, so when he calls to start a subscription, he is allowed to “start and bill”. However, Paul is a bit short on money that month and doesn’t pay within 15 days (the number of grace days allowed with a credit status of “good”). His credit status automatically changes to “bad” and his subscription is stopped. However, Paul sends a check the next month, so his subscription is restarted, and his credit status is changed to “OK”. After that, Paul continues to renew his subscription until he goes to Hawaii for the summer. When he returns, he starts his subscription again. The associate sees that his status is “OK” (he might not pay on time but he will eventually pay). This time, Paul makes his first payment on time, and so his credit status stays the same.

Business Rules determine the default credit status for new occupants (the default can be overridden), whether grace-owed transactions are created for subscribers who receive papers while in grace, and whether earned revenue is recognized while the subscriber is in grace.

If an occupant’s credit status is changed, a task can be generated, so that the change can be reviewed by Circulation staff (see the User Manual).

Setting up a credit status

Follow the procedure below to define a credit status.

To set up a credit status:

• In character Circulation, select Credit Status from the Occupant menu to display the Credit Status Setup screen.

  
• Select Add and complete the following fields.

  Field	Type	What to enter
  CREDIT STATUS	open (11)	Enter the credit status code, such as “poor” or “okay”.
  DESCRIPTION	open (30)	Enter the description of this credit status code.
• Select Specifics to define grace days and indicate what credit status should apply if a subscription is stopped, and if a payment is then made to a stopped subscription (see below). If you don’t have a publication or other credit statuses defined, you should do this at a later time.

• Select Accept to enter the credit status (and specifics information, if any) into the database.

• Define more credit statuses, or press F4 and select Exit to exit to the Setup menu.

Specifics, Credit Status Publication

Use this specific to define the number of grace days for each credit status, and specify what credit status should be used if the subscription is stopped or if a payment is made after a stop.

During initial setup, you may not enter information in this “specifics” table because your products have not yet been set up. You can select this option once your products are set up, or you can select Specifics | Credit Status Publ from Business | Products | Publication to enter this information.

Note:

Credit Status Publication records must be set up to cover every possible combination of product, credit status, and delivery type that you are likely to encounter (i.e., a specific Credit Status Publication record must apply to every occupant in the system). For these records, the product, credit status, and delivery type must all be specific values; records with a delivery type of “*” (all) will not suffice.

To add this specific:

• Select Specifics | Credit Status Publ from the Credit Status Setup screen.

  
• Select Add and complete the following fields.

  Field	Type	What to enter
  CREDIT STATUS	display	Circulation displays the credit status code entered on the original Credit Status Setup screen.
  PRODUCT	setup	Enter a publication that will use this credit status code.
  DELIVERY TYPE	predefined	Indicate the delivery type to which the information entered below should apply—a route type, mail for mail subscribers, online for online subscribers, or “*” for all delivery types. A record with a “*” delivery type must be set up to handle multiple-route subscriptions, which are subscriptions delivered by multiple routes that have different route types. Note that you must also add a Credit Status Publication record for each of the individual delivery types used. For combo subscriptions, the delivery type of the primary product (defined in combo setup) will be used.
  RATE CODE	setup	Enter the rate code for which the information below should apply, or enter “*” to include all rate codes. For example, for the credit status “Approved,” you might have one record for rate code “*” with 15 start grace days, and a second record for rate code “Promo” with only 7 start grace days. Subscribers will get 15 start grace days, unless they have the promo rate (in which case they get only 7).
  START DATE, END DATE	date	Enter the date range during which this credit status information will be active. You may leave END DATE blank.
  STOP CREDIT STATUS	setup	Enter the credit status code that should be assigned to the occupant if the subscription reaches the end of the grace period and a payment is not received. This field will also be used if the credit status is changed while writing off grace. A Business Rule, Should renewal subscribers’ credit status be changed at end grace processing?, determines whether a stop or grace writeoff should automatically change the credit status for subscribers who have renewed at least once.
  PAYMENT CREDIT STATUS	setup	Enter the credit status code that should be assigned when a payment is received from a subscriber that has the “stop” credit status.
  GRACE DAYS	integer (9)	Enter the number of grace days a renewed subscriber with this credit status should receive.
  START GRACE DAYS	integer (9)	Enter the number of grace days a “start and bill” subscriber with this credit status should receive (until a payment arrives, a start and bill subscriber will be in grace).
  EXPIRE OPTION	predefined	Indicate whether expired office pay subscriptions (that reach the end of their grace period) should be stopped or turnover to carrier collect. Note that if a home delivery route does not allow carrier collect subscribers, the subscription will be stopped, even if the expire option is “turnover”.
  EXTEND EXPIRE DAYS	integer (9)	Enter the maximum number of days the expiration date may be manually extended by an associate for a subscription with this credit status.
  EXTEND GRACE DAYS	integer (9)	Enter the maximum number of grace days that may be manually extended by an associate for a subscription with this credit status.
  GRACE WRITEOFF DAYS	integer (9)	Enter the number of days that must elapse (after the grace period has ended) before the grace-owed amount can be written off for a renewed subscriber. For example, you may want grace owed kept on your books for 90 days before being written off.
  START GRACE WRITEOFF DAYS	integer (9)	Enter the number of days that must elapse before a “start and bill” subscriber’s grace can be written off.
  ACCEPT SUBSCRIPTION	yes/no	Indicate whether or not you will accept a new subscription for an occupant with this credit status code. You can use this field to prevent “bad credit” subscribers from starting a new subscription.
  SUSPEND WITHOUT PAYMENT	yes/no	Set this field to “yes” if new subscriptions should be suspended until a payment is received.
• Select Accept to accept the specific.

• Define credit status information for another publication, or press F4 and select Exit to exit to the Credit Status Setup screen.