Stop

Subscribers sometimes wish to stop a subscription. A stop can be either temporary or permanent; the reason code determines the type of stop it is. Business Rules determine whether a source code is required for a stop.

Multiple stop and restart dates can be entered for the same subscriber, and you can modify future stop/restart dates. You can enter a permanent stop for a temporarily stopped subscription, but you may not enter a second temporary stop if a restart has not been entered for the first temporary stop.

When entering a temp stop (or a perm stop on a temp-stopped account) the subscriber may be forced to donate some or all of the stopped days, based on the vacation credit Business Rules in the General section (see General in the Setup manual) and the reason code used. When there is a forced donation, the message “The first XX calendar days for this temporary stop will not be credited to subscription XX” displays. The actual donation transaction record is created during Transaction Processing, so you will not see the number of days donated in the transaction until it has been processed.

If a stop is entered for a date that has already been processed, a warning message is displayed. A subscription may not be stopped on a date which exceeds the allowed number of back-dating days.

If a subscriber has a combo subscription, all publications in the combo can be stopped at the same time by selecting the combo ID in the Product field. In addition, a temp stop may be entered for an individual publication in the combo if Must Stop Together is unchecked in Combo Setup. For example, if a subscriber has an online and print combo and wishes to temp stop the print publication, the combo must be set up with Must Stop Together unchecked. See Combo in the Setup Manual for more information. Combo subscriptions can also be ended via an end combo transaction.

Processing a Permanent Stop,

1. When there are multiple unprocessed payments for the same subscriber with different dates in the system, the General Ledger (GL) batch date is set to the latest transaction date of the payments.

2. When there is a single unprocessed payment in the system, the GL batch date is set to the payment’s transaction date.

About Vacation Packs

When entering a temp stop, the subscriber can elect to receive a vacation pack, if your publication has a vacation pack program. A vacation pack is an arrangement in which the newspaper (carrier or DM) holds papers for subscribers while they are gone and then delivers them when the subscribers return (restart). Vacation pack days can extend the subscriber’s expire date by full or half day increments, based on rate terms. You can also print vacation pack labels for carriers.

You can also offer a digital vacation pack. In this case no papers are held, but the subscriber is given access to the online version of the publication. The stop reason code determines whether the subscriber qualifies for a digital vacation pack (Online Vacation field set to “y” in Reason Code setup). An Online Vacation reason code can only be selected if the subscription is entirely route-delivered (not mail or hybrid), the delivery schedule has Digital Vac Hold set to “y” in Delivery Schedule setup, and the subscriber has a valid e-mail address (the e-mail is used to log into the digital edition). When a digital vacation pack stop is entered, an e-mail is sent to the subscriber with links to the publication web site. This e-mail is based on an HTML template that can be customized (see Digital Vacation Pack template). While a subscriber is on the digital vacation pack, their status will be “Vac-Online.” Carriers will receive stop messages on bundle tops, as with a normal temp stop. Subscriber rating will value the digital “copies” at the same rate as ordinary (route-delivered) copies; the vacation pack fields in the subscriber rate terms are not considered.

Business Rules determine whether the subscriber’s expire date can be extended during a vacation pack and whether reminder messages print on bundle tops. Business Rules also determine whether digital vacation packs are offered, the AAM column digital vacation copies should be reported under, the label group for digital vac packs (used to determine the edition) and the electronic edition subscribers will be given access to. E-mail configuration and settings related to the digital vacation pack template are defined in Website Setup (see Website in the Setup Manual).

Entering a Stop

To stop a subscription:

1. Find the subscriber whose subscription should be stopped.

2. Click the Stop button (). The stop transaction fields display in the Transactions tab.

   
3. Complete the following fields and click OK.

   Field	Type	What to enter
   Stop Information
   PRODUCT	setup	Select the publication to be stopped or leave the default.
   STOP DATE	date	Enter the first date that the subscriber will not receive the subscription.
   SOURCE	setup	Enter the source code for this transaction, such as “customer” or “carrier”.
   SUBSOURCE	setup	If this field is active, enter a sub source for the stop (for example, the carrier who called in the stop).
   STOP REASON	setup	Enter the reason code for this stop, such as “vacation”. If a reminder message is set up for the reason code, it will be displayed in a popup window after this field is entered. Colored spheres next to each valid reason code indicate if the reason is for a temporary stop (yellow sphere) or permanent stop (red sphere).
   RESTART DATE	date	If the stop is temporary and the restart date is known, enter the first date that this subscription should be restarted.
   RESTART REASON	setup	If you entered a Restart Date, enter a reason for the restart.
   VACATION PACK?	yes/no	If this is a temporary stop, indicate if the customer requested a “vacation pack”. This check box defaults based on the reason code. You can set up your rates to give subscribers some or all of their vacation pack papers for free, based on the rate term. If the subscriber has one of these promotional rates, the number of free full and half vac pack days they have available will be displayed in the Vacation Pack Detail panel. Subscribers receiving a vacation pack promotion will have their expire dates extended by the appropriate number of days. When entering a temp stop with a reason code that allows digital vacation packs, this and Hold All Days will be flagged and inaccessible.
   PREVIOUS DELIVERY?	yes/no	If you entered a date in Restart Date, indicate whether a previous day’s paper should be delivered with the restart. This field will be unchecked unless previous papers are offered to restarting subscribers.
   SEND EMAIL CONFIRMATION	yes/no	An e-mail confirmation message for the stop can be sent to the subscriber, if you have e-mail confirmations implemented for stops and the subscriber qualifies (see About E-mail Confirmations).
   REQUESTED REFUND?	yes/no	If this is a permanent stop, indicate if the customer requested a refund of the account balance. This field will not be active if the subscriber has no balance. Checking Requested Refund? will not automatically create a refund transaction. Refunds must be entered separately, either individually or in batches. However, the Available Refunds Report can be run for refund requests, and you can then use this report to enter refunds for only those subscribers who requested one.
   REMARKS	unlimited	Enter any remarks that should appear on the carrier’s bundle top and/or the District Manager Report.
   Vacation Pack Detail
   HOLD ALL DAYS?	yes/no	If Vacation Pack is checked, indicate if the subscriber wants all days held for the vacation pack period. Note that, if a restart date is entered which is beyond the subscription’s expiration date (and the subscriber will go into grace), all days of the vacation pack must be held, and this check box must be selected.
   SELECTED WEEKDAYS?	yes/no	Select this check box if the subscriber wants only specific days of the week held (e.g., Wednesdays and Sundays) while on vacation. Use the Monday-Sunday check boxes to indicate which days should be held. The availability of this option depends on Business Rules.
   SPECIFIC DATES?	yes/no	Select this check box if there are specific dates that the vac pack subscriber wants held (e.g., 3/14, 3/17). Then, select the dates from the calendar. The availability of this option depends on Business Rules.
   DONATE REMAINDER?	yes/no	Select this check box if the vac pack subscriber wants to donate the papers that are not being held. Note that donations are not allowed for subscribers on marketing term rates that are in grace and are only allowed for in grace combo subscribers when donations are forced by vacation credit rules.
   Donation Detail
   CODE	setup integer (5)	If the subscriber wishes to donate some or all the value of their papers for the stopped period (whether a temporary or permanent stop), enter the donation code, which determines the party that will receive the donation (the current carrier, a specific carrier, prompt for carrier, or a GL account). Donation codes must be set up in advance. If the donation should go to the current carrier, and this is a multi-carrier subscription, the donation will be divided evenly among the carriers. If the subscriber is not office pay, or this is a temp stop without a restart date, the donation fields will not open.
   ALL DAYS?, DAYS	yes/no integer (5)	If a donation code is entered, indicate whether all days should be donated. For permanent stops, this means all the days remaining in the subscription period. For temporary stops, this means all days during which the subscription is stopped. If you do not check All Days, you can specify a number of days to donate.
   Refund Detail
   AMOUNT	display	If you checked Requested Refund? the available refund amount is displayed. You can click the Address Override button and enter the address to which the refund should be sent (otherwise, the refund will be sent to the customer’s normal address). Note that if the subscriber is already set up in your AP system, their address will not be updated.