Renewal Notices

Renewal notices are notices sent to current office pay subscribers from whom you have received at least one payment and whose expiration date is approaching.

Invoices are bills sent to new start and bill subscribers (subscribers who start immediately and pay for their subscription later, and are therefore initially in grace). For example, an office pay subscriber might start a subscription and, two weeks later, pay for three months. The invoice would be for three months, but the subscriber at that point would owe for only two weeks.

Renewal notices and invoices have the same format, and they are printed together using this option. Circulation will print renewals or invoices for subscribers:

• Who were flagged for invoice or renewal when their new start was entered,

• Who have the delivery type you specify,

• Whose expire date minus the current date is less than the days required for a notice number (or invoice number), and

• Whose notice number or invoice number is selected to print.

The “notice number” mentioned above corresponds to the number of renewals sent to this subscriber for payment; i.e., “1st notice”, “2nd notice”, or “3rd notice”. Each notice number should be set up to be sent a certain number of days before expire. The days can vary depending on the publication, delivery method and other factors. For details, see Publication in the Setup Manual.

eBill subscribers, who receive an electronic rather than printed renewal notice, can be managed in one of two ways:

• They can be e-mailed a renewal notice (in HTML or text format) via the Send eBills option.

• They can be exported to a file, either in a special eBill format, or in one of the standard renewal notice export formats, as defined by the Business Rules. Both eBill subscribers and/or “promotional eBills” (subscribers who are not on eBill but who are receiving a notice number specified in the Also Include Renewal Periods field for the eBill delivery method in Renewal Delivery Publ setup) can be included in this file, based on the Business Rule Which subscribers should be included in the ebill export file? The file can be used to generate and send electronic renewal notices outside of Circulation (for example, in PDF format).

Creating invoices and renewal notices with this option also creates subscription transaction records, such as “1st Renewal” or “1st Invoice”. These records are displayed in the Transactions portion of the Customer Service window. They tell Circulation the notice number for a subscriber. For example, to qualify for a 2nd renewal notice, a subscriber must have a “1st Renewal” transaction.

Notes:

• Renewals will not be printed for temporarily stopped subscribers.

• If subscribers have paid for grace days after their expire date, the grace paid days will be added to the expire date when determining whether the subscriber should be selected for renewals.

• If you charge for bonus days using the “premium day” method (see Bonus Day Adjustment), subscription rates will include premium amounts for bonus days that occur within the term. In addition, if the Business Rule Should premium day detail be exported in renewals? is set to “Yes”, premium day information will be exported when using the Detailed Export 2 format or viewing dynamic renewal notices in iServices or Customer Service.

• If you use PostWare and the Detailed Export or Detailed Export 2 format for renewal notices, and choose to include grace, the grace-owed records exported at the end of the renewal file will not be included in mail labels and associated mail reports. Only invoices and renewal notices will include grace owed.

• Grace-owed records exported at the end of the renewal file will include all grace-owed amounts; not just those for the selected rate code.

• Renewal notices can be viewed in HTML or PDF format in iServices Subscriber (see the iServices Subscriber Manual for details) and in Customer Service (see HTML (dynamic) renewal notices).

• It is recommended that the Business Rule—Limit renewal payment terms to last paid term and rates with longer terms? (Subscriber Billing section), be set to Yes only if you are using weekly rate terms in the Subscriber Rate Code Setup. The system calculates a term depending on the number of days calculated for purchase (regardless of actual term, "1 month" etc.). As a result, even though there are always only seven days in a week, the length of a one-month term might differ from month to month, leading to certain terms disappearing for certain renewals.

Before processing renewal notices for the first time, verify that there is at least one notice number set up for both invoices and renewals for each delivery method. Also, verify that at least one subscriber rate term is set up to print on renewals and invoices.

Subscribers on home delivery routes will have their notices and invoices delivered by their carrier/dealer, if the route they are on is set up to deliver renewals (see Home Delivery Route in the Setup Manual) and their renewal delivery method has not been overridden. If carriers deliver the renewal notices and invoices, Circulation calculates delivery credits by using the number of renewal notices/invoices delivered by a carrier/dealer and the delivery credit rate. Credits are processed during account billing. In order to generate credits, an account rate for the specified product with a draw type of “TMC” must be defined.

A Printed Bill Fee is created when running renewal notices, if:

1. The subscriber has chosen not to opt out of Print Bill fees.

2. The subscriber is not set up for AutoRenew or E-Billing.

3. Subscribers are not included by the Business Rule— "How many days should elapse before a subscriber is eligible to receive another printed bill fee?". This rule prevents another printed Bill Fee from being charged to a customer within a specified number of days. Since each renewal term may only have one printed bill fee, this rule will only apply if the specified number of days exceeds the end of the current renewal period.

4. The subscriber must not have an unpaid Printed Bill fee.

5. The subscriber is due for an invoice or renewal.

   Note:

   • Once the renewal notices have been processed and the above criteria have been met, the customer will get a new renewal notice and be charged a new Printed Bill Fee. This will appear on the Customer Services | Transactions | Renewal Notice and Customer Services | Financial | Fees.

You should run this option frequently to give all of your subscribers enough time to send in payments before their expiration dates.

Follow these steps to produce renewals:

1. Print the Batch Audit Journal to verify there are no suspended subscriber payment batches.

2. If applicable, select Auto Payments to create a batch payments for subscribers with the automatic renewal option.

3. Select Payment Processing to verify that all subscriber payments have been processed.

4. Select Renewal Notices to print subscriber invoices/renewal notices. Verify that “Number of Errors” = 0 (as displayed on the last renewal notice). If there are any errors, select Utilities | System | Process Log Report to print a list the errors. You may select Undo Renewal Notices, correct the problems and, when error-free, print the renewal notices again by selecting Renewal Notices.

Note:

If you export renewal notices, the errors sent to the process log will be listed in the export file. See Renewal Notice Export Formats.

What Prints on Renewals and Invoices?

Information printed on the renewal notice or invoice includes:

• Subscriber name and address

• Bill-to name and address

• Subscriber ID, or account number

• Renewal periods and rates. If the subscriber was given a quote, only the quoted period and rate may be printed (see Price Quotes).

• Messages (see below)

• Expiration date. The expiration date will not be printed on start and bill invoices (the expire date on these invoices is the day the subscription begins)

• Route, if applicable

• Publication name (optional, based on Business Rules)

• User-defined general message, if desired

• Barcodes, if you are set up for barcode printing (see Device in the Setup Manual). See Circulation FAQ #113 for instructions on how to print Intelligent Mail (IM) barcodes.
• The total number of renewals printed is displayed on the last renewal notice

Note:

If you export renewal notices, a recap will be included that shows the number of bills generated by delivery method, the notice numbers, and a total number of bills processed. It will also list the errors sent to the process log, rather than displaying the number of errors. See Renewal Notice Export Formats.

Four types of messages can be printed on renewal notices, as shown below. Since some renewal notice forms (see the table that follows) cannot accommodate all messages, the message printing order is as shown.

• Tax messages (if applicable for the subscription).

• Renewal messages (defined by selecting Setup | Business | Publication | Specifics | Renewal Periods). These may contain one or two lines of information.

• Rate messages (defined by selecting Setup | Accounting | Subscription Rates | Rate Code).

• General messages (as entered in this option).

Form	What prints
Post Card and Old Post Card	There is room to print two lines of messages; for example, one taxing authority (if applicable) and only one line of the Renewal message. If the subscription has a purchase order number, that number is printed instead of the Renewal message. If the subscription is not subject to tax, one line of the Renewal message and the Rate message or General message may be printed.
Mailer	There is room to print three lines of messages. If the subscription is taxable, up to two lines of Tax messages and one line of the Renewal message will be printed. If the subscription is taxable in one tax authority, one Tax message and up to two lines of the Renewal message will be printed (or, if only one line of the Renewal message is set up, that line and the Rate message or General message may be printed).
Envelope	There is room to print two lines of messages. It follows the hierarchy shown above; i.e., two lines of Tax messages are printed, if applicable, or two lines of the Renewal message are printed (if two are set up), and so on.
Canadian Mailer	There is room to print eight lines of messages: up to three Tax messages, two lines of Renewal messages, the Rate message, and the General message.
Tax Envelope and Two Tax	Same as Mailer, above.
Other Envelope	There is room to print two lines of messages. It follows the hierarchy shown above; i.e., two lines of Tax messages will be printed, if applicable, or two lines of the Renewal message will be printed (if two are set up), and so on.
Other Mailer	There is room to print five lines of messages. It follows the hierarchy shown above.

Renewal Notice Export Formats

Instead of printing renewal notices, you may choose (in Business Rules) an export format that places renewal notice information in an ASCII file in /dti/exchange/cm. The file name will be renewalsmmdd, where mm and dd stand for the month and the day. Five export formats are available (see Renewal Notice Export Formats in Appendix B).

• Export. This is a fixed length format

• Export Delimited. This format contains the same information as the export format, but is pipe (|) delimited rather than fixed length.

• Detailed Export. This pipe delimited format contains additional information, such as the last renewal date and grace owed amounts.

• Detailed Export 2. This format is similar to the Detailed Export, but contains some different information, such as payment history and Fees-related fields Note: Fees-related fields are only displayed if FeeManagement add-on is activated.

• eBill. If renewal notices are run for all renewal types or the renewal type of “eBill”, subscribers who have a renewal delivery method of “eBill” will not appear on the renewal notices (or be in the renewal notice export, if an export is used). Instead, these subscribers will be exported to a separate ASCII file, in a special eBill format. If the carrier or mail renewal delivery methods are set up to export subscribers picked for renewal or invoice to the eBill file (as defined in Renewal Delivery Publication setup), they will be exported to the eBill file in addition to printing on the renewal notices.

Renewal Notice Business Rules

Business Rules determine the following things for invoices and renewal notices: the format that should be used (postcard, mailer, etc.), whether the publication name, Zip PostNet barcode, and carrier route should be printed, whether renewals should be printed for subscriptions automatically switched to carrier collect, how many days an office pay subscriber must be temp stopped before the last invoice or renewal is resent, whether term amounts are based on the subscriber’s expire date or last payment effective date, and (if using expire date) whether the expire date should be adjusted for temp stopped periods.

There are also some Postalsoft considerations: whether renewals should be sorted via Presort, if so what the job file name is and how long sort information should be kept, and whether Presort or Circulation should provide carrier route information on the notices.

For eBill renewal notices, Business Rules determine whether eBill e-mails are sent directly from Circulation, which subscribers should be exported to the eBill file, and the format of the eBill file.

Printing Renewal Notices and Invoices

To print renewal notices and/or invoices:

1. Select Renewal Notices from the Subscriber menu to display the Renewal Notices window.

   
2. Click Add and complete the following fields.

   Field	Type	What to enter
   PRODUCT	setup	Enter the product for which to print subscriber renewal notices. Enter “*” to multi-select products.
   RUN DATE	date	Enter the date for which renewal notices should be run. This date, along with the subscriber’s expiration date, determines whether a renewal is printed for the subscriber.
   NOTICE NUMBER	predefined	Enter the renewal or invoice notice number (1st, 2nd, etc.) to include. Enter “*” to multi-select notice numbers.
   PRINT INVOICES	yes/no	Indicate whether invoices should be printed.
   PRINT RENEWALS	yes/no	Indicate whether renewal notices should be printed.
   INCLUDE PENDING RATE CHANGES	yes/no	If subscription-length pricing is being used, select this checkbox if you want pending rate changes to be considered when valuing subscription terms.
   SEPARATE BY GROUP	yes/no	If your renewal notice format is an export, indicate whether renewal notices should be exported to separate files, based on renewal group. See Renewal Group in the Setup Manual for more information.
   NUMBER OF PAYMENTS	integer (3)	Subscribers can be selected for renewal notices based upon how many payments they have sent in since their start. Enter a payment range (between 0 and 999) here.
   GENERAL MESSAGE	open (30)	Optionally, enter a general message to print on all renewal notices/invoices.
   PRINT BY ROUTE	yes/no	Indicate whether the renewal notices/invoices for subscribers on home delivery routes should be printed in route order. Select this checkbox if carriers deliver renewal notices for their routes. If you do not select it, all renewal notices print in Zip code order (or, if sorted by Presort, in Standard A class order). You cannot print by route if you entered “*” in Product.
   GENERATE CREDITS	yes/no	If you selected Print By Route, the Print By Route window will open with this and the following three fields. Indicate whether to automatically generate credits for carriers for delivery of renewal notices. You may print a report of renewal notices delivered by your carriers for delivery credit by selecting Reports | Route | Delivery Credit.
   DELIVERY DATE	date	If you selected Print By Route, enter the date that the carriers will be given the notices for delivery. A Business Rule (Subscriber Billing section) determines the days of the week that are valid for route delivery.
   DEPARTURE	setup	If you are printing by route, indicate the truck departure order that should be used (routes print by truck, and trucks print in departure order sequence).
   TRUCK SEQUENCE	setup	If you are printing by route, indicate the truck sequence that should be used (this determines with what truck and in what order within the truck a route will print).
   PRINT GRACE OWED	yes/no	This and the following field are open for entry only if you are exporting renewal information in the Detailed Export or Detailed Export 2 formats (a Business Rules consideration). Indicate whether the export should include subscribers (active or stopped) that owe grace. If you select this checkbox, the ASCII file created by the detail export will also contain subscribers that owe grace, along with their grace owed amount.
   TYPE	predefined	If you selected print grace owed, indicate which grace owed subscribers should be included in the export file: those that renewed their subscription at least once, were start-and-bill and never renewed their subscription, or both.
   PRINT REBILLS	yes/no	If a route type change has been done to a group of routes (see Route Type Change), you might want to reprint renewal notices for subscribers on the routes affected. If so, select this checkbox.
   REASON	setup	If you are printing rebills, enter the rebill reason code.
   ALL RATE CODES RATE CODE	yes/no setup	Indicate whether renewal notices should be printed for all rate codes and, if not, enter the rate code for which to print renewals (enter “*” to multi-select). Renewals will be printed only for subscribers assigned to the rate codes entered here.
   ALL START REASONS START REASON	yes/no setup	Indicate whether renewal notices should be printed for all reason codes and, if not, enter the reason code for which to print renewals (enter “*” to multi-select). Renewals will be printed only for subscribers whose start had one of the reason codes entered here.
   ALL RENEWAL TYPES	yes/no predefined	Indicate whether renewal notices should be printed for all renewal delivery methods (carrier, mail, and eBill). If this field is set to “n”, a specific renewal delivery method can be entered in Type. If a specific renewal type is entered, only subscribers with that renewal delivery method will be selected for renewals.
   ALL DELIVERY TYPES	yes/no setup	Indicate whether renewal notices should be printed for all delivery types (all route types, plus mail). If you enter “n” here, a Delivery Types window will open, allowing you to select specific route types and/or mail (renewal notices will be printed only for the delivery types selected).

3. Click OK and then Continue to print the renewal notices. See Printing Forms for information about printing forms. Renewal notices and invoices are printed in the following order: mail with barcode, mail without barcode, and then route delivered renewal notices and invoices. If you use PostWare for renewal notices, the mail notices will be printed in Standard A sort order. The format of the notices (postcard, mailer, etc.) is determined by Business Rules. If one of the “export” formats is being used, renewal notice information will be placed in an ASCII file in /dti/exchange/cm.

4. If you are using PostWare to sort your renewal notices Standard A class mailing order (a Business Rules consideration), PostWare will produce different reports according to how your job file is set up. Among reports that could be produced are: a Mail Sort Listing, Form 3602 (statement of mailing), Job Summary, and Qualification Report. These reports will be saved to spool and can be printed from the View/Print Utility.

5. Once invoices/renewal notices have printed, verify that “Number of Errors” = 0 (as displayed on the last renewal notice). If there are any errors, select Utilities | System | Process Log to print the errors and then make any corrections.

6. If you have run renewal notices and/or invoices for a day and need to run them again, select Undo Renewal Notices so that another renewal notice will be generated for subscribers who have already received one.

Example of Renewal Notice Selection

To give a brief example of how subscribers are selected for renewal notices, let’s assume that renewal notices are run for 12/3 for notice numbers 1 and 2, and the renewal and invoice notice periods are as follows:

Renewal Notice #	Days Before Expire	Invoice Notice #	Days Before Expire
1	20	1	0
2	5	2	-8
3	-10

Assume further that our newspaper publishes every day and has the following office pay, carrier-delivered subscribers:

• Ella started a subscription on Nov. 30 and has not received an invoice.

• Renee started a subscription on Nov. 27 and received an invoice on Nov. 28.

• Conrad’s subscription expires Jan. 15.

• Julia’s subscription expires Dec. 12, and she has not received a renewal notice.

• Abdul’s subscription expires Dec. 5, and he has not received a renewal notice.

• Heidi’s subscription expired Nov. 22, and she has received two renewal notices.

Ella would qualify for invoice 1. Renee has already received invoice 1 and cannot yet receive invoice 2 (no invoice prints). Conrad’s expire date is too far out for a renewal. Julia will receive renewal 1 and Abdul renewal 2. Heidi would qualify for renewal 3, but we are not printing renewal 3 in this run.