Create Bond Charges

Newspapers sometimes have carriers pay bond charges as security for their routes. The bond money is returned when the carrier leaves the route. This function allows you to create and print bond letters to your carriers and, optionally, create charges for the bond deposit that will appear on the letter.

About Carrier Bonds

Typically, some or all home delivery carriers are required to pay bonds. There are several different ways that you can set up bonds:

1. The bond can be a recurring charge. For example, the carrier would pay 5.00 every month. The bond charge code would be set up in Setup | Accounting | Account Billing | Charge/Credit Code. The bond amount would be set up for each carrier in Setup | Distribution | Account Setup | Account | Specifics | Recurring Charges.

2. The bond can be a recurring charge but with a maximum (defined in Setup | Distribution | Account Setup | Account | Specifics | Recurring Charges) so that it functions like a one-time charge. For example, for a 100.00 bond, you can create a recurring charge for 50.00 with a maximum of 100.00. Hence, the charge would be used only twice.

3. You can make the bond a percentage of draw, rather than a flat rate (this is defined with the charge code). This method could work with either of the methods listed above.

4. The bond can be a miscellaneous (one-time only) charge, such as 50.00 on the first bill. The bond charge code is set up in the same place as the recurring charge, but the amount is entered in Misc Charge Credit | Misc Charge. You can also create a miscellaneous charge with this option by setting Create Charges to “y”. For each carrier, the bond amount will be assessed as: (Carrier Collect Draw) x (Wholesale Rate) x (Factor) Business Rules determine the factor that the carrier’s rate is multiplied by to create the initial bond deposit. The maximum amount for the bond is also established in this function, which is the total draw times the wholesale rate: (Total Draw) x (Wholesale Rate) If you want to give the carrier interest on a miscellaneous bond charge, you will have to transfer the miscellaneous charge to a recurring charge account (interest can only be calculated on recurring charges). To do this, define a recurring bond charge, and define another charge that uses the miscellaneous charge GL account but updates the balance of the recurring charge (see Charge/Credit Code in the Setup Manual for more information).

5. You can make the bond a floating percentage of draw. For example, if the bond is 50% and the draw is 200, the bond would be 100.00, which the carrier would pay initially. If the route draw went up to 300, the carrier would be charged an extra 50.00. To do a floating percentage, follow method 3 with a recurring charge, but leave the maximum at “0”. Then answer the Business Rule— By what factor should the account’s rate be multiplied to calculate the initial bond deposit?, with a factor. The bond amount will be: (factor) x (percentage) x (route draw)

Printing the Bond Letter and Creating Bond Charges

When you select CREATE BOND CHARGES, Circulation selects any accounts within that bill source that have a total recurring charge of zero. This means that only new accounts will be selected.

To print the bond letter and (optionally) create the bond charges:

• Select Create Bond Charges from the Account Billing menu to display the Create Bond Charges window.

  
• Click Add and complete the following fields.

  Field	Type	What to enter
  COMPANY	setup	Enter the company for which these bond letters apply.
  BILL SOURCE	setup	Enter the bill source for which these bond letters apply. A bill source is a group of carriers which you want to bill together (examples are Carrier, Dealer, and Route).
  BILL DATE	date	Enter the billing date for which these bond charges should appear.
  DELIVERY DATE	date	Enter the date that these letters should be delivered.
  DUE DATE	date	Enter the date that payments for these bond charges are due.
  CHARGE CODE	setup	Enter the charge code for creating bond charges. If you will give the carrier interest on the bond, this must be a miscellaneous charge code that updates a recurring charge code (and also updates Accounts Receivable). When the carrier leaves the route and collects the bond money, a miscellaneous credit can update this same recurring charge code.
  CHARGE BATCH	open (10)	Enter a unique name for these charges.
  TRUCK SEQUENCE	setup	Enter the truck sequence that should be used to determine truck related information that prints in these letters.
  TEMPLATE PATH	open (40)	Enter the directory and file name of the letter template (generalized form of the letter). You may define more than one letter template to, for example, send different letters for different bill sources or for different types of bond charges. Newscycle provides a sample template file named “billing/bonddep/template”. The process of creating a template is described below (this will need to be completed before initially creating bond charges).
  CREATE CHARGES	yes/no	Indicate if miscellaneous charges (bond charges) should be created. Run this option the first time with Create Charges set to “n” to insure the right bond charge amounts are being calculated.

• Click OK and then Continue to print the bond letter and create the bond charges (if you selected Create Charges).

Create a Letter Template

Follow the steps in the following table to create the template (generalized form) for a bond letter. You can customize the letter for individual bill sources by taking advantage of the method explained in step 4.

Step	Description
1	Select PROGRESS EDITOR from the Utilities menu.
2	At the parallel lines, retrieve the sample template file by depressing F5 (or CTRL-G) and enter the following: billing/bonddep/template Then press F1.
3	The sample template will be displayed. Save the file under a new name by accessing the top strip menu (press Esc-M) and selecting FILE | SAVE AS. We suggest that you save the file in the custom directory: /custom/file_name_you_select. Then press F1. Be sure to save your template file in the /custom directory (or another safe directory). If it is saved back to its original location, it will be overwritten when software upgrades are installed.
4	Press F3 (or Ctrl-T) to enable insert mode so you can insert characters within in a line of text. Press F3 again to disable insert mode.
5	In addition to the body of the letter, you customize the letter for individual carriers by printing the contents of certain fields. These are listed in table below. Enter these field names within the curly bracket symbols: {}.
6	When you have finished editing the letter, press F6 (or Ctrl-P) to save the letter. To later edit this letter, first load and display it on screen by replacing the reference to billing/bonddep/template in step 2 above with /custom/file_name_you_select.
7	Press F8 (or Ctrl-Z) to clear the screen.
8	Enter “run sysinit” and then press F1 to exit to the Circulation main menu.
9	Reference this new template by /custom/file_name_you_select when processing the bond deposit letters.

Field	What appears in the Letter
DeliveryDate	Letter delivery date.
Month	Month and year of delivery date.
StartDate	Start date of the carrier.
Drop1	First line of the drop location.
Drop2	Second line of the drop location.
CarrierID	Carrier’s account number
Truck	Truck number from the truck sequence files.
Address1	Carrier’s name.
Address2	Carrier’s address.
Address3	Carrier’s address.
Address4	Carrier’s address.
Address5	Carrier’s address.
Address6	Carrier’s address.
DueDate	Due date of payment.
DS1	First draw delivery schedule.
DS2	Second draw delivery schedule.
DS3	Third draw delivery schedule.
DS4	Fourth draw delivery schedule.
DS5	Fifth draw delivery schedule.
CC1Draw*	Carrier collect draw total for first delivery schedule.
CC2Draw*	Carrier collect draw total for second delivery schedule.
CC3Draw*	Carrier collect draw total for third delivery schedule.
CC4Draw*	Carrier collect draw total for fourth delivery schedule.
CC5Draw*	Carrier collect draw total for fifth delivery schedule.
DS1Rate	Rate for the first delivery schedule.
DS2Rate	Rate for the second delivery schedule.
DS3Rate	Rate for the third delivery schedule.
DS4Rate	Rate for the fourth delivery schedule.
DS5Rate	Rate for the fifth delivery schedule.
CC1Total	Carrier collect total amount of rate times first delivery schedule.
CC2Total	Carrier collect total amount of rate times second delivery schedule.
CC3Total	Carrier collect total amount of rate times third delivery schedule.
CC4Total	Carrier collect total amount of rate times fourth delivery schedule.
CC5Total	Carrier collect total amount of rate times fifth delivery schedule.
ALL1Draw**	Draw total for first delivery schedule.
ALL2Draw**	Draw total for second delivery schedule.
ALL3Draw**	Draw total for third delivery schedule.
ALL4Draw**	Draw total for fourth delivery schedule.
ALL5Draw**	Draw total for fifth delivery schedule.
ALL1Total	Draw total for first delivery schedule times its rate.
ALL2Total	Draw total for second delivery schedule times its rate.
ALL3Total	Draw total for third delivery schedule times its rate.
ALL4Total	Draw total for fourth delivery schedule times its rate.
ALL5Total	Draw total for fifth delivery schedule times its rate.
CCTotal	Carrier collect total amount of all delivery schedules.
ALLTotal	Total amount of all delivery schedules.
DS3Rate	Rate for the third delivery schedule.
DS4Rate	Rate for the fourth delivery schedule.
DS5Rate	Rate for the fifth delivery schedule.
CC1Total	Carrier collect total amount of rate times first delivery schedule.
CC2Total	Carrier collect total amount of rate times second delivery schedule.
CC3Total	Carrier collect total amount of rate times third delivery schedule.

* Only Carrier Collect draw is included in the “CC” Carrier collect draw totals.

** The draw types included in the “ALL” Draw Totals are: Office Pay, Paid Complimentary, Unpaid Complimentary, Samples and Service.