Introduction

While the Publishing module allows you to carry out most of the daily distribution activities, the Accounting module is where you handle the financial side of newspaper circulation.

There are two very different aspects to circulation accounting: the account side (e.g., carriers and dealers), and the subscriber side. It is important to understand that these are handled separately in Circulation.

Accounts:

• Are billed in groups (known as “bill sources”) at regular intervals.

• Are usually billed for past charges and credits.

• Are independent contractors. With carrier collect subscribers, the carrier “buys” the paper wholesale (the account bill) and “sells” it retail (collecting from subscribers). With office pay subscribers, the carrier still buys and sells the paper, but the payment is received at the newspaper office. The wholesale is deducted from the retail, and the difference is credited to the carrier.

• Use account rates, both for charges and credits. Subscriber rates do not affect account rates, unless the account rates are specifically based on a subscriber rate code.

Subscribers:

• Are sent renewal notices individually, according to their own expiration dates.

• Pay in advance for future services (except in the case of grace owed).

• Are customers who “buy” the newspaper from the carrier.

• Use subscriber rates. If the subscriber is carrier collect, a rate may or may not be assigned (according to Business Rules).

Although accounts and subscribers do not directly influence one another, Circulation follows the same accounting steps for both:

• Rating is used to determine account draw charges and office pay credits, and subscription rates for subscribers. Other charges and credits (such as tax) are also taken into account. This takes place (for accounts) in account billing processing and (for subscribers) subscriber payment processing.

• Account bills or subscriber renewal notices are printed.

• Account and subscriber payments are entered into the system.

• Transactions are interfaced to the GL, either automatically or by printing reports. A transaction will either debit or credit a GL account. Any payment, charge and/or credit will have an offsetting entry (i.e., a transaction will debit one account and credit another).

These topics are discussed further in the following sections.