The Contacts tab in the upper-right corner of the window shows a list of contacts made with the occupant or address. Contacts can be manually entered via a contact transaction or automatically generated when an e-mail confirmation is sent as part of a transaction such as a start (see About E-mail Confirmations).

Contact types and reasons must be set up prior to creating contacts in Customer Service. See Contact Type and Contact Reason in the Setup Manual for more information.

Once a contact is entered, it can be displayed in the Transactions tab by highlighting the contact in the Contacts tab. In the case of an e-mail contact, if the template is flagged to archive e-mail, the Show Document button will be active. Click this button to view the e-mail that was sent in a browser window.

The Customer Service module is where Customer Service representatives spend most of their time. This module is where you view customer information and enter transactions such as starts, stops, moves, etc.

Topics covered in this section are as listed below:

1. Find

2. Documents

3. Alerts

4. Contacts

5. Mapping

6. Viewing Customer Information

7. Address and Occupant

8. Transactions

9. Messages

10. Tasks

Circulation can be set up to use internet-based mapping features. In Customer Service, you can generate a map showing an occupant’s address and also locate all of the single copy locations within a specified distance from an entered address. The two options are Map Delivery Address and Find Single Copy Locations.

Map Delivery Address

When you select Map Delivery Address, a map of the occupant’s address appears in your default browser. Close the browser when you have finished.

Find Single Copy Locations

• When you select Find Single Copy Locations, a tab opens for the entry of the product for which you are searching, as well as address information. Also specify the distance from the address within which to locate single copy outlets.

• Enter only as much address information as necessary to find single copy locations (e.g., you can enter only the Zip code). Click OK to view the map.

• You can view detailed address information (and phone numbers) by hovering the mouse pointer over the single copy locations. In addition, the single copy locations are listed below the map. You can zoom in/out on a single location, as well as center the map on a specific location by clicking the corresponding Marker link.

The first step in most Customer Service activities is to find a customer (subscriber or nonsubscriber) in Circulation. You do this by clicking the Find button () and entering search criteria in one or more of the fields that appear. Most fields support partial searches—for example, you can search for all customers whose last name starts with “Deer”. The field that the cursor initially defaults in, as well as the default value of the Search Type field, can be set via the Sign-On Defaults.

When you click OK, Circulation will display address, occupant, and subscription information that matches the search.

Transactions, subscriptions, and other information is listed on the tabs in the upper-right corner of the window. Additional information is accessed on the tabs in the lower part of the window. Each tab is discussed individually in the next section.

If more than one address or occupant matches the search criteria (or if a subscriber has more than one subscription), the Search Results window lists them separately—select an item in the list by double-clicking on it. Also note that you can click Recall to default the search criteria entered for the previous Find.

Also, a docked tab called “Past Searches” contains a list of previous Finds. You can repeat a past search by double-clicking an item in the list. A checkbox can be used as needed to keep track of past searches.

A Note About Email Icons

The Email combo box contains all email addresses for a customer. A green checkmark icon beside an e-mail address indicates that it is current. A red exclamation point indicates that it is outdated. Whether an email address is considered current or outdated is determined by the Business Rule, How many days after last use do Email addresses become outdated?. If the number of days since the e-mail address was last used exceeds the number of days entered here, the e-mail address is considered outdated.

E-mail addresses are entered on the Occupant tab.

A Note about the Transactions Tab

The Transactions tab in the upper-right corner of the window lists all of the transactions associated with a customer. Each transaction status (e.g., processed, unprocessed, backdated, overdue, future) is indicated with a colored icon.

A Note About the Subscriptions Tab

The Subscriptions tab in the upper-right corner of the window displays all products that are available to the selected subscriber. Colored icons indicate the current status of subscriptions: active subscriptions are indicated with a green sphere, perm stopped subscriptions with a red sphere, and temp stopped subscriptions with yellow sphere.

The Subscription tab contains a variety of information about a customer’s subscription, including:

• The publication to which he/she is subscribed.

• The subscription status (e.g., Active, Perm Stopped, Temp Stopped, Vac-Online).

• The billing method (Office Pay, Carrier Collect, Paid Comp, Unpaid Comp). Auto-renew credit card and bank draft subscribers can have different labels (such as “auto renew card” and “auto renew bank”) as defined by Business Rules.

• The current rate.

• The start and expire date of the subscription.

• The delivery schedule, which determines which days the subscriber receives the paper.

• The route, route type and carrier delivering the newspaper (if route delivered) or the label group (if mail delivered).

• The district and carrier, if route delivered.

• The delivery method (route or mail) for each day.

• The current balance and tax remaining in the subscription, the current discount amount remaining (discounts are amortized throughout the length of the subscription) and number of papers (copies) left in the subscription.

• The current premium amount (wallet balance), if the subscriber has purchased premium days in their subscription period. See .

• The Messages tab, containing messages that apply to this subscriber.

• The Auto Pay tab, if the subscriber automatically renews using a credit card or bank account.

• The Billing Info tab, containing the subscriber’s bill-to address, if it is different from the delivery address. Renewal delivery information is also displayed here.

• The Mail-To tab, which will contain the subscriber’s mail-to address if one exists.

• The Gift Subscribers tab, which lists any gift subscriptions paid for by this occupant (i.e., all of the subscribers for which this occupant is the bill-to occupant).

• Additional addresses, delivery directions, delivery instructions, and delivery placement, if applicable, in their own tab.

• The Multiple Routes tab if the subscription is delivered by multiple routes.

• The Deadlines tab, which indicates the time by which the route should be delivered on each day of the week, as well as the cutoff time for dispatched shortages.

• The Carriers tab, showing all carriers associated with a selected subscription.

• The Combined Payments tab, showing a summary of all payments made on a combo subscription (active only for combo subscriptions).

The Occupant tab contains the customer’s occupant information, including name, primary phone number and e-mail address, credit status, complaints, and other information. You can view, add, modify, and delete information here. This tab is described in the Occupant section (see ).

The Contact tab is a centralized area where all customer contact information (e-mail, phone, solicitation) displays. Communication preferences for newsletters and alerts are also displayed here. Current contact information (phone numbers, e-mail addresses etc.) can be modified from this tab, and new contact info can be added. See Entering Contact Information for Occupants for more information on adding contact info.

Use the Demographics tab to view address, occupant, and subscriber demographic questions and answers for this customer. You can also enter and modify answers on these tabs by selecting a question and clicking Modify. The question will appear in the Question field. Enter or modify the answer to the demographic in the Answer field. Click on the button for a list of possible answers.

Customers often call to get information about their account; for example, the number of days left in their subscription or their balance. Customer Service associates also find this information useful when trying to solve a service or billing problem with a subscriber. This information is displayed on the tabs in the lower part of the window. Only the tabs relevant to a particular customer will be active. These tabs are described and discussed individually below.

If you need information about a customer’s address, click on the Address tab. You also modify and delete addresses here, as well as view complaints, AAM zones, routes, and other information associated with an address. This tab is described in the Address section.

It is sometimes useful to view a subscription’s rates historically. For example, a subscriber may call in to complain about a rate increase. By viewing the subscriber’s rate changes, you can see that they were moved, for example, from a “1/2 off” rate, to a “1/3 off” rate, to a standard rate. Rate changes are displayed on the Rate Chgs tab.

The Rates tab shows the subscriber’s current rate, available rates, and the different rate terms. For example, the following example shows a 1-week term, a 4-week term, and a 13-week term.

The Show On Renewal and Show On Invoice columns indicate whether the term will appear on the subscriber’s renewal notice or invoice: it may always appear, never appear, or appear only if the subscriber previously paid with this term.

If your rates vary by day of week, double-clicking on a rate term will display rate amounts or percentages by day of week. Yearly, quarterly, and monthly terms will have percentages for each day of the week, while day terms will have amounts. Weekly terms can have either amounts or percentages, depending on how the term is defined. Click Find to view rate terms for a different rate.

For combo subscriptions, the amounts by day for each component of the combo are shown when you expand the Amounts By Day. As well, when you expand the Tax By Day, any applicable taxes for any component product are shown.

If any of the rate terms contain bonus day premium amounts (Bonus Day Adjustment), a Premium Day column displays, with the total amount of all premium days included in each term.

Price Quotes

Customers sometimes ask for price quotes; for example, how much they can buy for a given amount of money. To get a quote, click on the Price Quote tab. You can find a quote for a certain number of days, or for a certain amount. For example, the customer might be in town for 40 days, or only want to spend 30.00.

This feature shows potential rates and terms—it does not start or renew subscriptions. The rate and term quoted can be printed on the subscriber’s invoice or renewal (if you click the Create Quote button), but this is the only effect of the operation.

The following table describes the fields on this tab.

Available Rates

The Rates tab can also display rates available to a subscriber (on the Available Rates sub-tab). It uses address, occupant, and subscription information (if available) to find valid rates, based on the subscriber rating rules. This is useful when customers ask what rates and terms are available. To display the rates available to a subscriber, click the Get Rates button, enter the product, delivery schedule and delivery placement (or keep the defaults), and click OK. The available rates are then displayed.

The Financial tab contains four sub-tabs.

1. Adjust Days

2. Fiscal Activity

3. Fees

4. Vacation Credits

Adjust Days

• The Adjust Days sub-tab shows the history of expiration dates for this subscription, along with the reasons why the dates were changed. Starts, stops, payments, refunds, expire changes, and complaints are all examples of transactions that can adjust the expiration date. These changes are known as adjustment days. Details about an adjustment, such as taxes, tips, and bonus day premium amounts, can be displayed by clicking the plus icon to the left of a transaction.

Fiscal Activity

• On the Fiscal Activity sub-tab, you can view all of the invoice activity (revenue and grace-owed records) for this subscriber in a specified date range. You can click on a record to see details in the Fiscal Activity Details section of the tab.

Fees

1. The Fees sub-tab displays the status of the fees associated with this subscription. Refer New Start | Fees.

   • The following table describes the fields on this sub-tab.

     Field

     What it means

     Fee Type

     Indicates the type of fee, whether Activation, Printed Statement, or Other.

     Fee Code

     Name of the fee

     Description

     Details of the Fee Code

     Fee Date

     The date when the fee was applied

     Amount

     The fee that was charged

     Remaining Amount

     The amount that is still yet to be paid

     Status

     Indicates the current status of the fee, whether Paid, Waived, Written Off, or Unpaid

     Reason

     Indicates the reason for the status of the fee. This only applies to Waived and Written Off statuses.

     Date

     The date the fee was waived or written off.

2. Below are the options available under Fees sub-tab:

   • Show All Fees—When you click the button, the fees with all statuses will be displayed. By default, only fees with an unpaid status will appear.
   • Show Only Unpaid Fees—When you click the Show All Fees button, it will change to Show Only Unpaid Fees. Click the button to view only the unpaid fees.
   • Write Off Selected Fee—Fees can only be written off for an unpaid fee if the subscription has a processed start transaction.

     1. Select the fee to be written off from the table and click the "Write Off Selected Fee" button.

     2. Select a Source (optional) and a Write Off Reason from the respective drop-down menus, then click OK.
     3. After a fee is written off, the status of the fee is reflected as written off on the fee tab. In addition, a FeeWriteOff transaction will be displayed in the transaction window.

     Note: This is applicable to both Activation and Printed Bill Fees.

   • Printed Bill Fee—To opt out of the Printed Bill fees, click this button.

     1. Click the Modify button.
     2. Select the "Opt out of Printed Bill Fee" checkbox and then choose the "Opt out Reason" from the drop-down menu.

     3. Click OK.

3. Processing a payment towards Fees:

   • When processing a payment, the payment for Fees will be made only after the Grace Amount, if any, has been applied.

   • If the payment is entirely applied to the Fees, the status will be shown as Paid.
   • Or else, the status will remain Unpaid, and the remaining amount to be paid will be shown in the table's Remaining Amount column.

Vacation Credits

1. Subscribers who do not want to get the vacation credit can update the details in this sub-tab.

2. This sub-tab will be enabled only if the Business Rule—Can subscribers opt out of vacation credit rules? (General section) has been set to Yes.

3. Select Modify.

   1. Select the "Opt Out Of Vacation Credit Rules" checkbox and enter the Remarks (optional). Click Submit.
   2. A Note transaction is created as a record of this activity when a subscriber opts out of vacation credit rules or opts back in to vacation credit rules. The Note transaction will appear on the Transactions tab.
   3. To delete or modify the transaction's details, click either the Delete or Modify buttons at the bottom of the Note transaction.

The Miscellaneous tab is a composite of six different categories of information, which are described below.

Tax Authority

A tax authority is a geographical tax area, such as “MN” for Minnesota state taxes. If a tax authority is set up in a city, county, state, and/or country in which the subscriber resides, that tax will be applied to the cost of the subscription, unless an exemption is entered. Tax authorities and exemption reason codes must be defined in Setup. The Tax Authority panel shows tax authorities and the tax exemption reasons (if any) that apply to a subscriber. Tax exemptions are entered during new starts and billing changes.

Recent Transactions

This panel displays the last start, restart, and complaint for this subscription. The start and restarts are listed with their source and reason codes. The complaint is listed with its complaint code, and the total number of complaints called in for this subscription is shown.

TM Products Delivered

This tab lists of all Targeted Marketing (TM) products delivered to this address. TM products can include grocery store flyers, shoppers, and other commercial items. A TM product is delivered only to certain addresses, targeted by the product’s selection criteria. The selection criteria might include Zip, demographic answers, publication received, or other variables.

Inserts Delivered

If you have InsertPlus, a list of all inserts delivered to this customer, along with the delivery date, is displayed. If the insert has a version, the version also displays. The Runout column indicates whether the customer is in a runout zone for this insert (if the zone is a runout, the customer may or may not have received the insert in their paper). Burt Route Code 1 and Code 2 will display only if used in conjunction with the Burt Export and for sites that export alternate information. These fields will be suppressed for a subscriber who does not have inserts that utilize the Burt codes.

Only inserts for the current publishing date or earlier will be shown. A Business Rule in the InsertPlus section determines the number of days that are initially displayed. Click Selection to change the product or date range (inserts can be viewed for both publications and TM products).

Tax Impact

The Tax Impact query displays the tax on all relevant subscriber transactions, including payments and auto renews, within a date range. This option will be available only if the subscriber has had a payment or other transaction taxed. Click Selection to specify the date range, then click OK. The transactions that were taxed will appear.

Authentication Logins

This tab displays a list of iServices authentication logins for the subscriber within the last 30 days. A Selection button is available to modify the date range for which the user’s logins are listed.

Communication History

Communication history reflects the newsletters or alerts that have already been sent to customers. For example, a customer might call because they have not received their “Sports” newsletter. You can check the customer’s communication history to determine if the communication should have been sent. Initially history for the current date and past 30 days displays. You can change the date range by clicking the Selection button.

Alerts draw attention to follow-up activities in Customer Service, such as outstanding tasks, opportunities to collect subscriber e-mail addresses, and up-sell situations. For example, a Customer Service associate may be prompted to ask a subscriber for an e-mail address if one is not found in his/her record.

Alerts are generated automatically from level 1 tasks defined in the Task Management module. They can also be set up individually using the Distribution | Notification option in the Graphical Setup module (see Notification in the Setup Manual).

The Merch tab shows the merchandise associated with a subscription and the current status. Users with the proper security (Transaction Security item “CSMMerchDate”) will be able to modify the fulfillment date of processed transactions.

Background record information about the subscription can be displayed by selecting Subscriber Info from the File menu. This option displays the customer’s address ID and occupant ID (both for delivery and billing). If a transaction is selected, the transaction’s transaction ID also displays. This information can be handy for troubleshooting issues with a particular subscription.

Rewards programs are promotional offers that give consumers credits for purchasing a product. The credits may be air miles, points, or other incentives. Subscribers can be signed up for a rewards program on the Rewards tab. Payments will generate rewards for programs to which the subscriber belongs. See the Offer Code section of the Setup Manual for more information on rewards.

Setting Up a Rewards Program

To add a subscriber to a program:

• Find the subscriber.

• On the Rewards tab, click Add.

• Select the rewards program and enter the subscriber’s account number in the program.

• Click OK to add the subscriber to the program.

Displaying Rewards Information

The subscriber’s current rewards, if they exist, will be displayed on the Rewards tab, in the Reward History area. Each transaction that generated a reward (typically a payment or auto renew) will be shown.

Manually Adding a Reward

Although they are typically generated by payments, rewards can also be added manually on the Rewards tab in Customer Service. This is useful for reward adjustments, or when transferring rewards from some other product or program.

To manually add a reward:

1. Find the subscriber and click the Add Reward button on the Rewards tab. Note that menu security can be defined for this button.
2. Enter reward information in the fields described in the table below.

3. Click OK to add the reward. A reward transaction will be created, and will be processed by transaction processing on the reward date.

About Day Passes

A day pass is a low-cost, low-commitment alternative to a subscription, allowing access to the digital edition of a publication for a single day. Day passes are popular with casual readers who may not visit the publication website frequently, or read the print publication. Examples of day pass readers might be visitors to the area, researchers who need access to your content for a short period, and customers who occasionally read the publication but do not want to commit to a longer subscription. By offering a day pass plan, you can broaden your engagement with the community while earning extra revenue.

Day pass subscriptions are supported in Circulation. Unlike regular (term) subscriptions, day pass subscriptions do not have a start or stop. Instead, a day pass transaction is created containing one or more day passes.

Day passes transactions are typically interfaced via the Circulation API by the Digital Paymeter or a third party paywall. However, a day pass can be entered in Customer Service, in the case where the customer directly contacts the CSR.

Note that:

• Day passes only cover a single day (24-hour period). Multi-day or week passes are not supported. However, customers can purchase bundles of day passes (described below) which can be used on different individual days rather than a single time period.

• To purchase a day pass, a customer must have an e-mail and full address information. “Shadow” users and users with limited address information (e.g. only a ZIP Code) cannot purchase day passes.

• To purchase a day pass, a payment is required. Only credit card payments using the Hosted Payment Page can be made. Payments cannot be entered for day pass subscriptions outside of a day pass transaction, and transfers cannot be made to day pass subscribers.

• Day passes must be purchased in advance. Grace periods are not supported.

• Day passes cannot be auto renewed.

• Day passes have special rates with a subscriber type of “Day Pass” (see Subscription Rates in the Setup Manual). Day pass rates can have discounts defined for them, but cannot be reduced or promo rates.

• Day pass subscriptions are ignored by Publishing module options, most reports and utilities, and also by Targeted Marketing selection. However, campaigns can be set up to create day pass subscriptions, and day passes can be reported using the Day Pass Sales and Day Pass Usage reports.

• The Paymeter also uses iServices Authentication to determine whether the customer has an active day pass. Authentication is also called in order to record day pass usage (the subscriber actually accessing the digital edition) and digital access for AAM purposes. Alternately, day pass usage and digital access records can be imported via the Auth Import utility.

Business Rules and Setup

The following Business Rules govern day pass subscriptions:

• What is the delivery schedule used for day pass purchases? (Customer Services section).

  • Although day passes are valid on any day of the week, day pass subscriptions must have a delivery schedule for validation reasons. The delivery schedule specified for this Business Rule must be a delivery schedule set up with a subscriber type of “Day Pass”.

• When entering a make good day pass transaction, which subscription adjust code should be used? (Customer Services section).

  • If you will allow make goods for day pass subscriptions, the subscription adjustment code to use for the make good adjustment must be specified for this parameter.

• If a day pass is also valid for the next publishing day, should it count for both days in AAM history? (AAM section).

  • You can count a day pass as a single day (copy), but because it is a 24-hour period and readers can typically access the website on two different days, AAM allows a day pass to be counted as two copies.

• What is the default AAM price level for day pass draw? (AAM section).

  • If you use AAM price levels, the day pass will use the price level associated with the subscriber’s day pass rate. If no price level is specified at the rate level, this parameter determines the price level to use.

• What is the host name for Day Pass? and What is the URL path for Day Pass? (iServices & Mapping section).

  • The host name and URL to be used with the day pass e-mail template. The template is used to send e-mail to the subscriber after purchasing a day pass.

In addition to day pass rates, in order to offer day passes you must set Allow Day Pass to “y” in Publication setup and have at least one digital edition that allows day pass. The edition determines the AAM column for recording day pass draw, and the access window for a day pass subscription (24 hours or until the end of the next day).

You must also define at least one reason code with a transaction type of “DayPass”, and one “DayPassUsage” transaction type. (The day pass usage transaction is used to track the days used in a day pass bundle.)

Single Day Passes

A single day pass purchase uses a rate term of 1 day. The day pass begins as soon as the transaction is entered, and is active for 24 hours or until the end of the next day, based on Edition setup. Once the access period is over, the subscription is inactive. However, if the customer purchases another day pass for the same edition, the same subscription ID is used. This allows you to view all of a customer’s day pass history under one subscription.

Day Pass Bundles

Day pass bundles contain a predefined number of day passes paid for in advance; a bundle offers convenience to day pass customers who don't want to pay each time they wish to access your website.

In this case the day pass transaction has a term of greater than 1 day. The actual terms offered are defined in Rate Code setup—for example, your publication might offer day pass bundles of 3, 5, and 10 days.

When a customer purchases a day pass bundle, none of the day passes in the bundle are used initially. Days are used in a bundle based on digital access. If the customer logs in and there are no days currently active in the day pass bundle, iServices Authentication activates the next day pass usage transaction when it records digital access.

When a day pass is used, the value of the day will be subtracted from the subscriber’s balance, and they will have one less day pass remaining in the bundle. When the last day pass in a bundle is used, the subscription will become inactive.

How Day Passes are Valued

When a day pass subscription is purchased, the value of each day (or usage) is determined when the day pass transaction is entered, and this value does not change. For a single day pass there is only one usage, and the value is the one day rate term cost (including tax, if any). For day pass bundles, each day in the day pass has a value, which is used to determine the subscriber’s remaining balance and the amount earned during a period. The days are valued using the following method:

1. The total cost of the term is divided by the number of days to get the average day cost.

2. The average cost is truncated to two decimal places. For example, an average of .857 is truncated to .85.

3. Each day is assigned the truncated average.

4. The value of all the days is combined.

5. The combined value of the days is subtracted from the total cost of the term.

6. Any remainder is added to the first day.

Example: 7 days for 5.00

1. 5.00 / 7 = 0.714

2. 0.714 is truncated to 0.71

3. Days 1-7 are assigned a value of 0.71

4. 0.71 x 7 = 4.97

5. 5.00 - 4.97 = 0.03

6. Value of day 1 = 0.71 + 0.03 = 0.74

And so the days would have the following values:

Day 1 = 0.74 Day 2 = 0.71 Day 3 = 0.71 Day 4 = 0.71 Day 5 = 0.71 Day 6 = 0.71| Day 7 = 0.71 Total = 5.00

Entering a Day Pass Transaction

Follow the procedure below to enter a day pass transaction in Customer Service.

Enter a day pass in Customer Service

1. Find the occupant who is purchasing the day pass, or add the occupant to Circulation. Day passes can be entered for subscribers or non-subscribers, as long as the occupant has an address.

3. Select the product, edition, rate and other details for the day pass, in the fields described in the table below.

   Field

   Type

   What to enter

   CAMPAIGN

   setup

   If this day pass subscription is part of a campaign, select the campaign ID here. The campaign may default other fields, such as Source, Reason and Rate.

   PRODUCT, EDITION

   setup

   Select the product and edition for the day pass. Only products and editions flagged to allow day passes or day pass bundles can be selected. Combos cannot be selected, as they are not currently supported for day pass subscriptions.

   START DATE

   date

   The day pass transaction will be processed as soon as it is entered, so today’s date displays as the start date. This cannot be changed.

   SOURCE

   setup

   Select a source code for this day pass, such as “Customer”.

   REASON

   setup

   Select a reason code for the day pass transaction. Day pass reason codes must be defined in advance.

   ZONE

   setup

   Select the AAM zone for this day pass subscriber.

   RATE

   setup

   Select a rate for the day pass subscription, or accept the rate that defaults. Day pass rates must be defined in advance (see Subscription Rates in the Setup Manual).

   REMARKS

   open (unlimited)

   Enter any remarks that pertain to the day pass.

   EMAIL

   open (60)

   Specify the e-mail address that will be used for the day pass access, or click the Find icon to the right of the field to select an e-mail. If a primary e-mail has already been entered for the customer, it will default. If a new e-mail is entered here, it will be added for the customer and display with the customer’s valid e-mail addresses on the Contact tab. Note: E-mails are not directly linked to a day pass. Customers with multiple e-mails defined can log in with any of their e-mails for day pass access.

   PAYMENT TYPE

   predefined

   Only credit card payments can currently be selected for day pass subscriptions, so select “Credit Card” here. This will pop up the Hosted Order Page, as described below, where credit card information is entered.

   DAYS

   setup

   If subscribing to a day pass bundle, select the number of days being purchased. If purchasing just a single day pass, leave this field set to “1”. Only a number of days defined as a term for the selected rate can be chosen here. For example, if the selected rate is for a day pass bundle and has 2-, 5- and 10-day terms, only “2”, “5” and “10” would be available for selection here.

   PAYMENT AMOUNT

   display

   The price of the day pass or day pass bundle displays here.

   DATE

   display

   The payment date displays here. This will always be the current date.

   BATCH

   display

   The payment batch in which the day pass payment is included displays here. Note: As soon as the day pass transaction is accepted, the payment is processed. The payment does not need to be processed by Payment Processing.

4. Once “Credit Card” is selected in the Payment Type field, the Hosted Order Page displays for credit card information. This is the same process as entering a regular credit card payment using the HOP.

5. Back on the Transaction tab, click OK to accept the day pass. This will create a processed day pass transaction (Transaction Processing does not need to be run to process the transaction). Payment, AAM and GL records will also be created. The payment will be placed in a batch named “DPYYMMDDxx”, where “YYMMDD” are the year, month and day respectively, and “xx” is a sequence number. This batch will already be flagged as accepted, and the payment will be marked as processed, so there are no further steps required to create the payment.

6. If this is a new e-mail address (or the New Password button was clicked), an e-mail message will be sent to the customer, including the password and links to the login screen for digital access (e.g. the Digital Paymeter login page) and iServices.

Viewing Day Pass Transactions

To view the activation window for an active day pass, or the number of days left in a day pass bundle, simply view the day pass transaction. If the Days is “1”, the subscription is for a single day pass, and the usage will display in the Usage Information area. If the transaction is for a day pass bundle, the number of days displays in the Days field, and one usage will display for each day used so far in the Usage Information area. The unused days and remaining balance in the bundle will also display, above the Usage area.

When viewing or entering a day pass transaction, you can click the New Password button if the customer needs a new password (for example, they forgot their password or did not receive one). This works the same way as the New Password button on the Occupant tab. It changes the password for all of the customer’s e-mails.

Entering a Make Good for a Day Pass

If a subscriber complains that they had an issue using their day pass (for example, the publication website was down, or they could not log in), you can issue them a new day pass without a payment. This is known as a “make good”. It is not recorded as a complaint in Circulation, but creates a payment adjustment for the value of the day pass.

In order to enter make goods, the Business Rule—When entering a make good day pass transaction, which subscription adjust code should be used? must be answered with a valid payment adjustment code, and you must have security permissions for the “DayPassMakeGood” item in Transaction Security.

Enter a day pass make good

1. In Customer Service, find the day pass subscriber.

2. Click the Day Pass icon and enter the fields in the same way as for a normal day pass, with the exception of the Payment Type field. Select “Make Good” in Payment Type.

3. Click OK to create the make good day pass. A new day pass transaction will be created for a single day, with an adjustment-only payment that equals the value of the day (there will be no tax). The GL transaction for the day pass will debit/credit the GL account specified with the payment adjustment code.

4. The subscriber will be e-mailed access info for the day pass, as with a normal day pass purchase. In the case of a make good, there will be no initial usage. The usage transaction will be created when the subscriber accesses the website, as with a day pass bundle.

Refunding a Day Pass Bundle

Subscribers with unused days in a day pass bundle can request a refund, if for some reason they will not use all of their days. Refunds for day pass bundles can be entered using the normal Refund transaction. In the case of a day pass refund:

• The refund amount will be the value of the remaining (unused) day passes in the subscription, and cannot be changed.

• If the subscriber has multiple day pass bundles with unused days in the subscription, all days will be combined for the refund.

• As with other refunds entered in Customer Service, the day pass refund will be placed in the active Customer Service refund batch, or in a new batch if none is active.

• Once the refund is entered, the day pass subscription will be inactive.

A new start transaction starts a subscription for an occupant who is permanently stopped or has no subscription history. It is perhaps the most involved transaction in Customer Service, and one that is carried out with frequency. Therefore, it is important to understand what is involved in entering a new start.

Business Rules Considerations

Business Rules determine how the router assigns carrier routes to a new start: whether you use routers, whether the full postal code is used in routing Canadian addresses, whether you can change a route assigned by the router and, if the router cannot assign a route, whether the delivery method will default to “mail” or the new start will be suspended.

Business Rules also determine whether a source code is required for a start and, if so, the default source code, the default delivery schedule and billing method, and whether carrier collect subscriptions should be rated.

If the subscriber has an available refund at the time of a start, Business Rules determine whether the available refund amount should be applied automatically to the new subscription. If this happens, transfer-in and transfer-out transactions are created for the subscriber (money is transferred from available refunds to the subscription).

Business Rules determine whether an operator may change a subscriber name while entering a start if the name is a carrier’s name, and whether the previous billing address and occupant be retained when entering a start for a former subscriber.

Business Rules determine whether a subscription may have multiple delivery addresses for different days of the week. For example, a subscriber might have the newspaper delivered to her office Monday through Friday, and he home on the weekend. If multiple addresses are used, Business Rules determine if subscription rating should be based on only the primary address.

Finally, Business Rules determine if “Balance Forward” is a valid billing method. A balance-forward bill includes the balance due from previous months, charges and credits since the last bill date, and the charge for the next billing period.

About Suspended Starts

Suspended starts are skipped during transaction processing and entered on the processing log. The log will include the subscription ID and date so the suspended start can be reviewed. You can suspend new starts until payment is received or until unrouteable addresses are assigned to a route.

Suspend Until Payment

You can suspend new starts until payment is received, depending on the subscriber’s credit status. For example, your newspaper may decide that subscribers with a credit status of “OK” (as opposed to “Good”) can initiate a new start transaction, but that the transaction will not be processed until they make a payment. To suspend until payment is received, setup is required via the Credit Status Publication Specific in both Publication Setup (Setup | Business | Products | Publication) and Credit Status Setup (Setup | Subscription | Occupant | Credit Status).

Suspend Unrouteable Address

You can also suspend new starts when the subscriber’s address is unrouteable. For example, if a subscriber lives in a new development area that has not yet been assigned a route, a new start can be created but suspended until a suitable route is identified by the newspaper staff.

The Business Rules, Should new starts that cannot be routed be rejected or suspended? (Import Sub Activity) and Should new starts that cannot be routed be suspended? (Customer Services), must be set properly in order to suspend starts for unrouteable addresses: the first Business Rule must be set to “suspended”, and the second Business Rule must be set to “yes”.

When a new start is entered for an unrouteable address, a task is created (with a task type of “Suspended Starts”) to notify the staff that a route must be identified before the new start can be processed. When accessing a subscription with a suspended new start:

• A pop-up alert is displayed in Customer Service with the following message: “This subscription’s start is suspended. Use modify to review and unsuspend it”.

• “Suspended start-unrouteable” is displayed in the Remarks field of the new start transaction. After routing the address, the Customer Service Representative deletes this remark, and the new start transaction will be processed.

An option on the Subscriptions Start Report allows you to print only suspended starts (select Reports | Audit - Transaction | Start). Select “Suspended starts only” from the Report Type combo box.

To enter a suspended unrouteable start:

Begin entering the new start as normal. When the “Unable to determine route” message appears, do not press Enter or Tab to move past the Delivery method field. Instead, perform the following steps:

1. Click on the Start Date field and select the subscription start date.

2. Click on the Billing Method field and select office pay (or other appropriate billing method).

3. Click on the Zone field and select an appropriate AAM zone.

4. Click on the Deliv Sched field and select a delivery schedule for the subscription.

5. As needed:

   • Click the Bill-To button and add a billing name and address.

   • Click the Auto Pay button and add auto-renew information.

   • Enter any comments in the Remarks field.

6. Click OK to create subscription.

About Multiple Delivery Addresses

Subscribers can have different delivery addresses for different days of the week. For example, a subscriber might have the newspaper delivered to her office Monday through Friday, and her house on the weekend. Subscribers with multiple delivery addresses will have a single, “primary” address, and additional delivery addresses stored as “secondary” addresses.

This functionality is controlled by Business Rules in the Customer Services section:

• Do you allow a subscriber's delivery address to vary by weekday?

  • Secondary addresses can be entered for a subscription only if this Business Rule is set to “yes”.

• If multiple delivery addresses are allowed should the subscription rate be based on the primary address only?

  • This setting determines whether subscriber rating should take multiple delivery addresses into account when selecting a default rate.

During entry of the new start, click the Delivery button to define an additional address; the Delivery Address Maintenance window will open, listing all of the existing addresses for the subscription.

To define a secondary address, click Add or Find and either add or find the additional address. When you click OK, the address will appear in the Delivery Address Maintenance window. You can then select the days on which the subscription should be delivered to this address. If necessary, you can remove secondary addresses by highlighting the address and clicking Remove. You can also enter delivery directions by clicking Directions.

About Combos

A combo is a subscription that contains multiple publications or multiple delivery methods and uses a single rate. For example, a newspaper may want to combine a 6-day publication (Mon-Sat) with a Sunday-only publication to create a multiple-product subscription. Another example would be a bundled package that includes a print publication and an online publication. In both cases, a single bill is created for the subscription, and payments are allocated among the different publications.

About Third Party Starts

A third party subscription is one paid for by a business rather than a subscriber. For example, a business could buy a third party subscription for new residents as part of a “Welcome to the neighborhood” campaign. Third party starts can be generated in Targeted Marketing or by entering starts in Customer Service (but not both).

A Business Rule, Do you allow entry of new starts with a billing method of third party?, determines whether starts can be entered with a billing method of “Third Party”. If so, the subscription will have no rate, an expire date is required (the stop date for the subscription), and the subscription may not be flagged for previous delivery or bonus day papers.

Entering a New Start

To enter a new start:

1. Find an address or an occupant linked to an address using Find.

3. Enter new start information in the fields described below.

   Field

   Type

   What to enter

   Start Information

   CAMPAIGN

   setup

   If this new start is the result of a campaign, select the campaign ID to automatically populate certain details of the campaign. Note: If the source code, reason code and delivery schedule entered all match a campaign, the appropriate campaign ID will be selected automatically based on that information.

   PRODUCT

   setup

   Select the publication or combo for this subscription. Combos will also be listed in this field, with a combo icon to indicate they contain multiple publications.

   SOURCE

   setup

   Enter the source of the party, such as “customer” or “carrier”, who initiated the transaction.

   SUB-SOURCE

   setup

   If this field is active, enter the sub-party who initiated the new start. For example, if the source was “Telemarketing”, the sub-source might be “John”, a particular telemarketer.

   REASON

   setup

   Enter the reason for the new start, such as “half price”. Reason codes may be valid only for certain source codes and subscriber Zip Codes, as defined in Reason Code setup. If a reminder message is set up for the reason code, it will appear in a popup window after the field is entered.

   DELIV METHOD

   predefined

   Select the delivery method for the route: online, mail, route or possibly hybrid. Online or hybrid delivery methods may or may not be available—see Circulation FAQ #10-74: Setting Up an Online or Hybrid Subscription for more information. This field will be set to “*” when entering a combo (the delivery method is defined for each combo component in Combo setup).

   ROUTE or LABEL GROUP

   setup

   If this is a mail-delivered subscription, enter the mail label group for this subscriber. Mail labels for subscribers in the same mail label group will be sorted together. This may be defaulted by the Zip code. If this is a carrier-delivered subscription, enter the route. This may be defaulted by the router. If so, you may override the default, if allowed by Business Rules, and enter a reason code for the override. The subscription may be delivered by more than one route—for example, a different route may deliver the paper on the weekends. If this is the case, click the Routes button and enter the route that should deliver the subscription on each day of the week. Note: To use the multiple route subscription functionality, the publication must use multiple delivery maps. You can specify delivery maps by day of the week in Deliverable Setup (Setup | Business | Products | Deliverable). This field will be set to “*” when entering a combo (each component publication may have a different route or label group).

   DELIV SCHEDULE

   setup

   Enter the delivery schedule for this new start. The delivery schedule describes the days of the week that the paper is delivered, such as “daily” or “Saturday”, etc. You can only enter delivery schedules that are valid for the delivery route (if a multi-route subscription, it must be valid for at least one of the routes). This field will be set to “*” when entering a combo (the delivery schedule is defined for each combo component in Combo setup).

   START DATE

   date

   Enter the first date the customer should begin receiving the subscription.

   MERCHANDISE

   setup

   If the subscriber will be awarded some merchandise for starting a subscription (a coffee mug, for example), enter the merchandise code here. (To select multiple merchandise codes, select “*” and Ctrl-click codes from the selection list.) The merchandise codes available will depend upon the reason code entered above.

   FULFILL DATE

   date

   When the merchandise order is fulfilled, the fulfill date will be displayed.

   ACCEPT BONUS DAYS

   yes/no

   Indicate if this subscriber should receive papers on special days that are not normal delivery days for the subscription—for example, on New Years, even though it is on a Tuesday and the delivery schedule is weekend-only.

   REMARKS

   unlimited

   You can enter remarks that pertain to this new start, if you wish.

   Billing Information

   BILL METHOD

   predefined

   Enter the billing method for this subscription, which indicates how the subscriber will pay. Choices are office pay (subscriber is sent a renewal notice and pays the newspaper, carrier collect (carriers collect money directly), balance forward (subscriber for past balances and a future period in the same bill), paid complimentary (the paper is free and the subscriber is a newspaper employee) or unpaid complimentary (the paper is free and the subscriber does not work for the paper). You may also select third party if third party subscriptions are allowed. If renewal notices and invoices should be sent to a different address than the delivery address, click the Bill-To button and find or add the address. This is similar adding a mailing address.

   INVOICE SUBSCRIBER

   yes/no

   Indicate whether an invoice should be sent for this subscription.

   AUTO PAY

   yes/no

   Indicate if this subscription should be automatically renewed to the customer’s credit card or bank account. Click the Auto Pay button to enter auto-renew information (described below).

   RENEW AFTER THIS TERM

   yes/no

   Indicate whether a renewal notice should be sent for this subscription. This option is valid for office pay subscriptions only, and if it is not selected, the “Office Pay” billing method will be changed to “Office-No Renew” after processing. For route-delivered subscriptions, if renewal notices are distributed by the carrier but the subscriber would like them mailed or sent via e-mail, click the Deliv Meth button to override the renewal delivery method.

   EXPIRE DATE

   date

   The default expiration date is the day the subscription starts (unless a payment has already been entered). It indicates the first date of the grace period for a start and bill subscription. For complimentary subscriptions, it indicates the first date the subscriber will not receive the publication. You can enter a question mark (?) so that a complimentary subscription retains no end date. Unless the subscriber’s billing method is paid or unpaid complementary, you will not be able to change the expire date here. Keep in mind that although the expire date will be the current date, the subscriber will still get the paper—they will be in grace. You may be able to modify the expiration date as a separate transaction.

   Miscellaneous Information

   ZONE

   setup

   Enter the AAM Zone for the delivery address, such as “city”, for this subscription.

   PLACEMENT

   setup

   Enter a delivery placement for the newspaper, if applicable. For example, the subscriber might request that the paper be put under the mat. Delivery placements can default from the router.

   OCCUP TYPE

   setup

   Enter the occupant type for this subscriber, such as “regular” or “student”.

   RATE

   display or setup

   Circulation should default the rate for this subscriber. If there is no rate displayed or you wish to override the displayed rate, select a valid rate.

   DELIVERY FEE

   setup

   A delivery fee is an additional daily fee added onto the subscription cost. Delivery fees may be used, for example, when delivery to a certain building or route is particularly difficult or time-consuming. Delivery fees must be set up in advance.

   P. O. NUMBER

   open (20)

   Enter the purchase order number for the subscription, if needed on the customer’s renewal notices.

   PREV DELIVERY

   yes/no

   If this field opens, indicate whether a previous day’s paper (such as the previous Sunday) should be delivered to the new subscriber. This field defaults based on Business Rules.

   SEND EMAIL CONFIRMATION

   yes/no

   An e-mail confirmation message for the start can be sent to the subscriber, if you have e-mail confirmations implemented for starts and the subscriber qualifies.

4. If you want to enter a mailing address, delivery requests, address directions, extra copies, tax exemptions, or a different AAM Zone for this subscription, click on the appropriate option at the bottom of the window.

5. Click OK to accept the new start.

The Auto Renew Window

If you select the Auto Pay check box during a new start, the Continuous Renewal Information Window will open. The table below describes the auto-renew fields.

Two types of auto renews are available: Credit Card and Bank Draft.

• Credit card auto renews automatically renew the subscription to a credit card account.

• Bank draft auto renews automatically renew the subscription by withdrawing money directly from a bank account.

Payment adjustments can be entered for either type of auto renew by clicking the Adjustments button. The adjustments will be part of the credit card or bank draft payment each time it auto renews.

In order to have auto-renew subscriptions for a publication, you must define auto-renew terms in publication setup.

Hosted Order Page

1. By selecting “Auto Pay Type” as “Bank Draft” or "Credit Card", an iframe titled “Hosted Order Page” will be opened to fill out payment information. see The Auto Renew Window.
2. Enter the Account Number and Routing Number and select the Account Type and Ownership Type. The remaining fields, including First Name, Last Name, Email, Address, Address 2, City, State, and Zip Code, will be auto-filled.

3. Click ‘Save Payment Info’.

4. The saved details will be displayed under the “Bank Draft Info” section in ‘Continuous Renewal Information’ window.
5. The fields under the "Continuous Renewal Information" window are listed in the table below.

   Field

   Type

   What to enter

   Continuous Renewal Info

   AUTO PAY TYPE DISCONTINUE AUTO PAY

   predefined yes/no

   Indicate whether this subscription will auto renew from a credit card or bank account. If you select Bank Draft, the Bank Draft Info area is displayed on the right. If you select Credit Card, you are redirected to a secure Hosted Order Page window. After the card is authorized, the Credit Card Info area is displayed on the right. If you are modifying the new start or performing a billing change, you can discontinue the auto-renew status by selecting Discontinue Auto Pay.

   Credit Card Info

   CARD NUMBER

   open (20)

   If this is a credit card auto renew, enter the subscriber’s credit card number. Circulation can tell whether the credit card is a Visa, Mastercard, Discover, or American Express, and displays the card type to the right.

   EXPIRE DATE

   date

   Enter the month and year that the credit card expires.

   AUTHORIZATION

   open (8)

   Indicates the status of the transaction made. E.g., Settlement pending, Approved, Declined

   HOLDER NAME

   open (30)

   Enter the name of the account holder.

   HOLDER ZIP

   open (5)

   Enter the account holder's Zip code

   TRANSACTION ID

   open (16)

   Indicates the credit card transaction ID.

   VAULT ID

   open (32)

   Indicates the credit card vault ID.

   CUSTOMER ID

   open (32)

   Indicates the credit card customer ID.

   Bank Draft Info

   CLIENT TYPE

   predefined

   If the auto-renew type is “bank draft”, this and the following three fields will open. In this field, indicate whether the bank account is a personal or business account. Business Rules determine whether this field is active.

   ACCOUNT TYPE

   predefined

   Indicate whether this is a checking or savings account. Business Rules determine which account type is valid (or both may be valid).

   BANK NUMBER

   open (9)

   Enter the bank number of the subscriber’s bank.

   ACCOUNT NUMBER

   open (20)

   Enter the subscriber’s bank account number.

   HOLDER NAME

   open (30)

   Enter the name of the account holder.

   AUTHORIZATION

   open (8)

   Indicates the status of the transaction made. E.g., Settlement pending, Approved, Declined

   TRANSACTION ID

   open (16)

   Indicates the bank draft transaction ID.

   VAULT ID

   open (32)

   Indicates the bank draft transaction vault ID.

   CUSTOMER ID

   open (32)

   Indicates the bank draft customer ID.

   Payment Info

   TERM

   predefined

   Enter the term (year, quarter, month, week, or day) for this auto-renew subscription.

   LENGTH

   integer (3)

   Enter the number of terms for this auto-renew subscription. For example, if the subscriber wants to automatically renew every 6 months, you will enter “month” in Term and “6” in Length (provided you have a 6-month term set up).

   TIP AMOUNT

   decimal (7)

   If the subscriber desires to include a tip with each auto-renew payment, enter the tip amount here.

   BILLING GROUP

   predefined

   Select the subscriber’s auto-renew billing group.

   SEND STATEMENT

   yes/no

   If this subscriber should be sent a statement summarizing auto-renew activity (similar to a renewal notice), select this checkbox. The field will be available only if Business Rules allow auto-renew statements.

   BILLING GROUP

   setup

   When subscribers sign up for auto renew, they are sometimes given a choice of auto renew dates. For example, they may be offered the 1st of the month, the 10th, or the 20th, and then choose the date that works best with their cash flow situation. You can use billing groups to define when auto renew payments are processed. If billing groups are defined, select the billing group for the subscriber. If only one billing group is defined, it defaults.

The Renewal Override Window

To make an office pay subscriber’s renewal delivery method mail or eBill (rather than route), click the Deliv Meth button to open the Renewal Override Window. Set Renewal Delivery Override to “Mail” or “eBill”, and enter a renewal override code (override codes must be set up in advance—see Renewal Override in the Setup manual).

If the renewal delivery method is eBill, you must also enter the eBill e-mail address. After they have been added, eBill e-mail addresses will be listed on the Occupant | e-mail subtab.

Additional New Start Options

After entering the new start information, you can enter some associated information, if applicable, before clicking OK:

AAM Column

• Select this option if this subscription needs to be isolated from the normal AAM Column for this subscription type and zone. One example would be for your “NIE” category. The AAM Column window will open, listing the assigned AAM column. To change the AAM column, click Modify and select the new AAM column from the AAM Column field. Then click OK. Do not change the AAM column for a “paid complimentary” or “unpaid complimentary” start.

Copies

• Select this option if more than one copy of the subscription should be delivered (or mailed) on any day of the week. The copies window will open, and you can enter the number of copies that should be delivered on each day of the week.

Delivery

• Select this option to:

  • Enter delivery requests or address directions for the subscription. Remember, delivery requests pertain to the occupant (“put paper in back door”) while delivery directions pertain to the address (“first house on left”).
  • Enter a secondary delivery address for this subscription, if multiple addresses are allowed. Address directions can be accessed using the Directions button. See About Multiple Delivery Addresses for more information.

Mail-To

• Select this option to find or add a mailing address for this subscription if the mailing address is different from the delivery address. The mailing address will default as the bill-to address, where renewal notices will be sent if they are mailed. The mailing address is also used for mail subscriptions if the delivery address is not mail-accessible.

Trials

1. Select this feature to add, remove, or modify a subscriber’s Trial Subscription.

2. On clicking the Trial button, a pop-up appears with the below input fields:

   • “In Trial?” checkbox,

   • “Trial Length” (text box to fill in the length of the trial)

   • “Trial Term” (dropdown with values: Day, Week, etc.).
3. Click ADD to add a subscriber’s Trial Subscription.

   • Click OK to save the Trial details.

4. Click MODIFY to change or remove a subscriber’s Trial Subscription.

   Note: If the In Trial, Trial Length, and Trial Term fields are populated in the CircAPI, CreateSubscription, the trial details in the Customer Service screen will be updated accordingly. Refer to the Circulation API User Manual.

5. To regulate the usage of this feature, Transaction Security has been added to the Trial button. The value is set to “Not Activated” by default.

   • If the Security field in Transaction Security is left blank, the feature will work, and the user will be able to create the Trial Subscription.

   • If the Security field is set to ‘Not Activated’, the feature will not function and will be greyed out on the Customer Service screen.

   • Transaction Security can be configured under: Character Setup > System > Security > Transaction Security > CSMTrial.
6. An alert will pop-up on the Customer Service screen if a CSR view a subscriber account information who is on Trial subscription.

Tax

• If this publication is normally taxed and the subscriber is exempt from the tax, enter tax exemption information here. The Tax Exemptions window will open for you to enter exempt reason codes for the appropriate tax authorities. A tax authority is a taxing entity, such as “MN” for Minnesota state taxes. The tax authorities and exemption reason codes must be defined in Setup.

Fees

1. Select this option to see the Activation and Printed Bill fees associated with the New Start Rate Code.

   • Activation Fees are determined by Rate Code. A fee cannot be applied to a customer who does not have a Rate Code and an associated Fee Code. There could also be a Fee Code that applies to all Rate Codes for a specific product.

   • Printed Bill Fees will apply to all rate codes in a certain product, unless the customer has set up Auto Pay. Customers who have Auto Pay will not see Printed Bill Fees.

   Note:

   • Any associated Activation Fee will be charged when a New Start is accepted. If the Activation Charge is waived, the fee is still generated, but the status is displayed as Waived. Refer to Viewing Customer Information | Financial | Fees.

   • When a New Start is accepted, Printed Bill Fees are not created; instead, they are created when Subscriber Billing is processed.

2. To waive the associated fees, click the Modify button and select the reason for the waiver from the drop-down menu.

Example—Entering a New Start

Let us say that an occupant, Nancy Jones, would like to start receiving our newspaper. She would like to receive the paper seven days a week, and she would like the renewal notices sent to her work address. To enter this new start, we would locate Nancy’s occupant and/or address record in the database using Find. We would then click the New Start button and enter the following:

• In Product, we would enter our publication, the Daily Messenger (“DM”).

• Since Nancy called on her own, in Source we would enter “Customer”, our source code for customer call starts. This source does not have subsources.

• We have defined a reason code called “Newstart” that is to be entered for all regular starts.

• Our router assigns Nancy to route C6009, based on her address.

• Nancy will be getting the paper every day, and so we enter “DS”, our seven-day delivery schedule.

• Nancy will start immediately, so we leave the defaulted date (the date of the next publishing run) in Start Date.

• This newspaper does not offer merchandise to new subscribers. Also, since Nancy will get the paper seven days a week, there are no bonus days. But we can still leave Bonus Days selected.

• Nancy will be an office pay customer (she will send her payments to the newspaper) and receive an invoice and renewal notices. Nancy wants her invoice and renewal notices sent to her work, so we click Bill-To and find or add her work address.

• Because she is “start and bill” (hasn’t made a payment), Nancy’s expire date is the same as her start date.

• Nancy is in the “All Other” AAM Zone. She did not request any special delivery placement, so we will leave Placement blank, and we keep the occupant type (“Regular”) that was defaulted from her occupant record.

• The normal Daily-Sunday rate defaults as Nancy’s rate. We keep the default.

• Nancy does not want the previous Sunday’s paper delivered on her first day, so we leave Prev Delivery unselected.

• Now we can click OK to accept the new start.

The Transactions tab is where you view detail about customer transactions, such as new starts and stops. You can also modify and delete transactions here, if the transaction has not yet been processed by transaction processing or, in the case of payments, subscriber payment processing. Refunds cannot be modified, because they are processed immediately. To view a transaction, select it in the Transactions tab in the upper right corner of the Customer Service module.

To display the payment amount breakdown, click the Details button next to the Payment Amount field. The Payment Amount Details will also display the amount processed towards Fees (Printed Bill and Activation Fees) and the premium amount.

System-Created Transactions

Expire transactions

These transactions indicate the date an office pay subscription ends, and are pushed back by payments or other adjustments. Once an expire transaction is processed, the subscription is expired, and the subscriber will be stopped or go into grace until another payment is received. Expire transactions can be modified if they have not yet been processed.

End Grace transactions

When an office pay subscription expires, newspapers often have a “grace” period where the paper will still be delivered, in the hope that the subscriber will eventually send a payment. If grace days are used, an End Grace transaction will be created by the system when the Expire transaction is processed. The End Grace transaction date will be the date the grace period ends—if the End Grace transaction still exists on this date, it will be processed and the subscription will be permanently stopped or turned over to carrier collect. End grace transactions can be modified if they have not yet been processed.

Grace Owed transactions

Grace Paid transactions

If a payment does arrive for a subscription that has ended its grace period, the grace-owed amount will be deducted from the payment—this will create a Grace Paid transaction. Grace Paid transactions are display-only—they cannot be modified.

Grace Export transactions

If you run renewal notices with Print Grace Owed set to “yes”, a Grace Export transaction will be created. The Export Grace button allows you to export a rebill transaction for this subscriber. When you click this button, the message “Grace information successfully exported” is displayed, and a rebill transaction is exported to a file located in the default exchange directory. A Business Rule, To which subdirectory under the ‘exchange’ directory should grace owed generated from customer service be exported? (Subscriber Billing section), is used to identify this directory. If the Grace Export run is subsequently undone, the rebill and grace export transactions will be removed. The format of the export file is the same as the grace export format

Renewal Notice

1st, 2nd, and 3rd Renewal or Invoice transactions, created when a renewal notice is issued to a subscriber. The information that was printed on the renewal notice or invoice is displayed. If you are viewing a 1st invoice, 1st renewal, or rebill transaction, and these transactions were exported, an Export Renewal button will be available to export a replacement. The location of the export is defined in Business Rules—To which subdirectory under the ‘exchange’ directory should renewals generated from customer service be exported?

When running Subscriber Renewal Notices, if a subscriber is selected for an Invoice/Renewal and qualifies for a Printed Bill fee, the Printed Bill fee is applied when the Invoice/Renewal transaction is created. When you select the Invoice/Renewal transaction, you can view the subscriber's Activation Fee and Printed Bill Fee.

HTML (dynamic) renewal notices

• If HTML (dynamic) renewal notices can be viewed in iServices, the same notice or invoice can be displayed from Customer Service by clicking the View Renewal button in the screen shown above. The notice will display in your default browser. If you have more than one website defined you will be prompted to select a website; the dynamic renewal notice template for that website will be used.
• Auto Pay transactions, created when a subscription is automatically renewed.

• MarketTerm transactions are created for subscriptions on a marketing term (see Subscription Rates in the Setup Manual). Each one represents the point at which a marketing term rate becomes effective. They contain information such as the rate code; number of days owed, paid, or remaining; the copy rate by day; and other information. The “CSSMarketTerm” transaction security item determines whether users can view MarketTerm transactions (by default, the transactions are set to not display).

• Auto Renew Statement transactions, created when an auto-renew statement is generated for the subscription (this is similar to a Renewal transaction).

• Expire Alert transactions created so that expire messages appear on distribution documents. There is no detail for these transactions other than their date, so they cannot be viewed.

• CollectXprt transactions are created when a subscriber is exported by the Collectech interface. Like Expire Alert, there is no detail for these transactions.

• PreviousDelivery transactions, created when a subscriber should receive a previous day’s paper.

• BonusDay transactions, created when a subscriber should receive a paper even though it is not a normal delivery day for the subscription (this happens most often on holidays). BonusDay transactions can be created as part of new starts, billing changes, and delivery schedule changes, or by the Bonus Day Utility. The source and reason code for the BonusDay transaction are determined by Business Rules.

• Suspend transactions, created when the subscriber’s route is suspended. This is really just a variation of a temp stop.

• Unsuspend transactions, created when the subscriber’s suspended route is reactivated. This is really just a variation of a restart.

• Suspended Start transactions, which are New Starts created in iServices Subscriber that need to be reviewed in Customer Service before they are processed.

Use this option to enter complaints for subscribers and non-subscribers. Subscriber complaints usually involve the subscription—such as missed papers, wet papers, and so on. Non-subscribers may report a problem with the carrier; for example, if he walks through the yard or makes a lot of noise.

Complaints are entered into the occupant and address records of the party making the complaint, and also show up on the carrier’s bundle top if a route is involved. If a complaint requires action, you can flag it for redelivery, and/or grant the subscriber access to a digital edition of the publication (typically access to the publication website or a replica version of the print paper).

Business Rules determine whether a source code is required for a complaint, the maximum number of days a subscription can be extended because of a complaint, and the maximum number of complaints a route may have on a single day before a warning is displayed. Business Rules also determine whether complaints are printed to a dedicated printer and, if so, the printer’s name.

If you enter a complaint after the dispatch cutoff time defined for that day of the week (in Setup), a warning message will be displayed. A warning message will also appear if the complaint is for the current date and the delivery deadline for the route has not yet been met (i.e., the carrier could still be delivering the route). In addition, if you use Circulation’s complaint escalation features, additional fields will open, as described below.

To enter a complaint:

• Find the occupant who is registering the complaint.

• Click the Complaint button ().
• Complete the following fields and click OK.

  Field

  Type

  What to enter
• Click OK to accept the complaint.

Digital Access with Complaints

When a complaint is entered for a print subscription, you can offer the subscriber access to the digital edition of the publication as a resolution, in place of (or in addition to) redelivery. For example, if the carrier missed delivering a paper and the complaint is phoned in after the cutoff for redelivery, you can still offer the subscriber access to the replica version of the current issue via the publication website.

In order to select digital access to resolve a complaint:

• The Business Rule—Do you allow access to the digital edition for complaints? (Customer Services section) must be set to “Yes”.

• If Redelivery is also checked, when entering the complaint, the Business Rule—Do you allow subscribers to select both the Redeliver and Digital Access options for complaints? must also be set to “Yes”.

• The selected complaint code must allow digital access for complaints (Allow Digital Access set to “y” in Complaint Code setup).

• The subscription must be delivered via route or mail (not online).

• The subscriber must have an e-mail address entered.

• The complaint must be flagged for digital access when it is entered, by checking the Digital Access field. The field will only be active if the above criteria are met.

Escalated Complaints

Circulation’s complaint escalation features can be used to promptly resolve situations in which multiple complaints are entered for a subscriber within a certain period of time. When a complaint is entered which Circulation determines should be escalated (based on complaint escalation setup—see Publication in the Setup Manual), a formal complaint message will appear after the complaint has been accepted. E-mail may also be sent to district, zone, regional, and/or area managers to alert them to the situation. An e-mail will also be sent when the escalated complaint is updated or resolved.

After the complaint escalation message is displayed, you must enter the escalation transaction, which has the same fields as a normal complaint. An escalated complaint transaction is not a complaint transaction; instead it will be named based on the escalated complaint label defined in Business Rules (examples are “critical”, “escalated”, and “formal”). This message can be modified, and contact information can be added by clicking the Contact button to open the Available Contacts window. Click Add to enter information in the contact fields.

• The Resolved checkbox indicates whether the complaint(s) that caused the escalation have been resolved. Once Resolved is selected, no further adding or modifying of contact records will be allowed.

• In Contact Text, the Customer Service associate or other employee can enter information about a contact they had with the customer, such as “The paper has been missed the last three days”.

• The user’s ID will default in Contact, but this can be changed.

• The contact date and time will also default, but can be changed.

Additional complaints entered for the customer will be attached to the same escalation transaction, until it is resolved.

Multiple-Day Complaints

Subscription complaints can be entered for a date range (i.e., a group of complaints). For example, a customer may complain that the paper has been delivered late for the last three days.

When a date range is used, an individual complaint transaction will be created for each of the subscriber’s delivery days that fall within that date range. For non-subscribers, each day in the date range will be considered a delivery day.

Also:

• Each individual complaint transaction applies towards a formal complaint just the same as if they were entered separately.

• When modifying or deleting complaints, the individual complaints must be modified or deleted one at a time.

• The subscriber credit is based on the copy rate by weekday. For example, if the complaint was for Sunday and Monday, and the value of the Sunday paper is 1.50 and the Monday paper is 0.50, the subscriber would receive a 2.00 credit.

• When carrier messages, a single message will be created that includes all of the days selected in the complaint.

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 .

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 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 ). 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 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

A Restart allows you to restart a temporarily stopped subscription. You may need to enter a restart for a subscription that was temporarily stopped, if the restart date was not known at that time (if the date was entered with the stop transaction, it is not necessary to use this option).

Multiple restart dates can be entered for the same subscriber to correspond to multiple stop dates. Future restart dates can be modified, if required.

A warning message appears if you attempt to enter a restart for a date that has already been processed. You may not enter a restart for a subscription that has been permanently stopped; instead, you must enter a new start. You cannot enter a restart if the date entered causes the number of back-dating days to exceed the number allowed by Business Rules. Business Rules also determine whether a source code is required for a restart.

To enter a restart:

1. Find the subscriber that should be restarted.

2. Click the Restart button ().
3. Complete the following fields and click OK.

   Field

   Type

   What to enter

Most Customer Service activities involve subscription transactions. Subscription transactions are initiated by clicking the applicable button on the top of the window. Before any transaction can be initiated, an occupant and/or address must first be retrieved from the database using Find. Only then will transaction options be available. Note that most transactions require a customer with a subscription.

Most transactions entered in Customer Service will not be processed until transaction processing is completed during the publishing run. The exceptions are the payment options (payments, NSF payments, and cancel payments), which are processed in Payment Processing, and refund write-offs and grace write-offs, which are processed immediately after entry.

Transaction security can be defined to limit which users can add, modify, delete and back-date certain transactions (see in the Setup Manual). Security thresholds can also be defined to establish the maximum days or amounts that can be entered in transactions such as expire changes and grace write-offs (see in the Setup manual).

About E-mail Confirmations

When certain transactions are entered in Customer Service, such as starts, temp stops, restarts or payments, a confirmation e-mail can be sent to the subscriber. In addition, a contact record will be created for the e-mail, allowing past e-mail confirmations to be viewed in Customer Service (if the e-mail template is set up to archive).

A confirmation e-mail will be sent if the Send Email Confirmation field is flagged when entering the transaction. Send Email Confirmation will only open if:

• The subscriber has an e-mail address specified.

• The reason code selected has Send Email Confirmation set to “y”.

• The website selected (or the “*” website, if there is only one) has Send Email checked for the template in question in Website setup (see in the Setup manual).

The field will default as checked if Default Send Email is checked for the template in Website setup. Otherwise it will default as unchecked.

If the Send Email Confirmation field is checked, the e-mail will be sent to the subscriber when the transaction is entered.

When an e-mail confirmation can be sent and the subscriber who qualifies for multiple websites, Customer Service displays the Select a Website window after the reason code is entered. The window lists the available websites, allowing the user to select the website whose properties and template should be used for the e-mail.

This may happen if a product is linked to multiple websites, or (in the case of the New Password e-mail) the occupant subscribes to multiple publications.

Once the e-mail is sent, a contact record will be created. If the e-mail template is set up to archive e-mail (Archive Email is checked), you can click the Show Document button when viewing the contact transaction to display the e-mail.

Documents such as renewal notices can be associated with a customer. These documents can be viewed via the Documents tab. PDF, CSV, HTML, DOC and other document types are supported.

To view a document, click on the file name in the File column.

Note that:

• Documents must be added using the Documents option (refer to the Setup Manual).

• Only documents with file names that incorporate the subscriber’s ID display. For example if the document is set up with a subscription ID token in the file name, such as “renewals.pdf”, and the subscriber’s ID is 5100, the document “renewals5100.pdf” would display for the subscriber, if it existed.

• To initially display documents, click the Refresh Documents button.

In order to start a subscription for a customer, the customer’s address must first be entered in the database. Personal information about the customer (such as phone numbers and credit status) must also be entered—this is known as occupant information.

The address and occupant records contain information about subscribers and non-subscribers. In separating address and occupant records, Circulation clearly distinguishes between an occupant and an address—people move, addresses do not. It is possible to have two different subscriptions for two occupants at the same house; for example, Jane Smith may receive a weekly publication, while Bill Smith subscribes to a daily.

Or, an occupant’s newspaper delivery address could be different from the mailing address. For example, Bob Jones’ mailing address is “Post Office Box 25”, but his newspaper delivery address is “1000 State Street”. The following table illustrates address and occupant records:

A subscriber must have an occupant record, but an occupant need not be a subscriber. An occupant becomes a subscriber when he or she subscribes to a publication.

An address and an occupant must be linked before they can be used as a unit for performing most subscriber transactions such as starts, moves, stops, etc. You will know that an occupant and address have been “linked” when they are both displayed when you click Find. Transaction and subscription history will be recorded for the “linked” address and occupant.

Adding an Address

When your system is set up, addresses from your previous system will likely be loaded into Circulation. Additional addresses can be added manually or through List MatchPlus, another Newscycle software product.

To avoid adding duplicate addresses, try to find an address using the Find option before adding it. Business Rules determine whether you allow duplicate addresses to be added and if a warning should be displayed if an address already exists. Business Rules also determine:

• Whether or not addresses are parsed into house number, street name, etc., or are displayed as Address lines 1 through 6.

• Whether or not addresses are cleansed and standardized using address-correction software.

• Whether the street name should be validated.

• Whether a PO route should be automatically assigned.

• The default dwelling type and status.

To add an address:

• Enter address information in the fields described below.

* When an address includes a box number on a rural or contract route, you can enter the box number in the Unit fields; as an example, for Rural Route 2 Box 59A: enter “RR 2” in Street Name, “Box” in Unit Type and “59A” in Unit. Post office boxes, general delivery, county roads and/or state roads should be entered in Street; for example, for a Post Office Box 29 address, you would enter “PO Box 29” in Street and not in the Unit fields.

** The United States and Canada are divided into census tracts for census-taking purposes. Each tract is divided into blocks. Each block may contain one or more households. Each household is given both a tract and block ID.

• You can enter delivery directions for this address by clicking on the Directions button under Options. Addresses may require these special directions (such as “third house on the left”) if the address is not easily found. Delivery directions appear on bundle tops whenever the subscriber has customer service transactions, and may appear on the Route List. In addition, delivery directions are displayed during the Dispatching process.

• Click OK to accept the address.

• Other options will now appear in the Options panel.

• Select Occupants to link the address to an occupant. You can find an occupant already in the database or add a new occupant, and you can add or find additional (mail) occupants. If an occupant who is a non-subscriber leaves an address, you can select Detach Occupant to detach the occupant from the address. If the occupant is a subscriber, you must instead perform a Move transaction.
• You can also add or modify the AAM Zone in which the address belongs (AAM Zones button), view complaints (Complaints button), and link routes to the address (Routes button). Usually, when an address is added a route is assigned to the address by the router. However, sometimes the router may not be able to assign a route, or you may not use routers. Or, you may click the Routes button to set the walk sequence (Delivery Sequence field) for the address on the route. Note that you can link multiple routes (typically from different publications) to an address—this is used mainly for Targeted Marketing. Routes linked to an address are entirely separate from routes linked to a subscription at the address.

Example—Adding an Address

If a customer calls and wants to begin a subscription, you will use Find and enter the customer’s name as the search criteria. If the customer is not in the database, and neither is the customer’s address, the address will need to be added to the database.

To add the new address, you click the Add Address button and enter the following information in the address fields:

• The customer (Nancy Jones) now lives at 951 Bayless Ave, Apt. 5. You enter this information in the House #, Street Name, Type, Unit Type, and Unit Number fields, respectively.

• In Zip, you enter the 5-digit Zip code (55114) for the address.

• In county you enter “Ramsey”.

• You enter the city name (St. Paul), the state (MN) and country (US) are defaulted from the Zip code.

• There is no dual address, building or complex.

• This address is out of town, so you uncheck Route Accessible and keep Mail Accessible checked. This is not a special address, so you keep Special Address unchecked. You use Quadient, so you leave Cleanse Address checked.

• Po Route is left blank. Quadient will supply this.

• Because this Zip code is outside of the newspaper market area, no Town of 25 defaults. You assign the “All Other” Town of 25, used for all subscriptions outside of the market area.

• Nancy Smith occupies an apartment, so in Dwelling Type, you enter “APT” and in Dwelling Status, you keep the default (“occupied”). Leave the current date as the dwelling status date.

After you enter this information, you click OK to enter the address into the database. Quadient displays the address you entered an its cleansed version—you accept the cleansed (working) address. Now you can add the customer’s personal information by clicking the Occupant button and adding the occupant.

About Quadient

Quadient is the standard address cleansing software for US addresses in Circulation. Quadient does not require software to be installed or updated locally. Instead, the address is sent to the Quadient ZIP Cleanse web service, along with a valid registration key. The address is then returned as cleansed or not cleansed (there is no suggestion list). Quadient manages all updates of software and directories on the server providing the ZIP Cleanse web service. Business Rules determine how Quadient standardizes address data—for example, whether invalid US city names are retained. See Address Cleansing in the Setup Manual for more information.

About QAS

QAS is used to verify the correct spelling and standard formatting of Canadian or Australian addresses while adding or modifying them in Circulation or iServices. As an address-correction or “cleansing” application, it serves the same purpose as Quadient. Both the regular and OnDemand (hosted) versions of QAS are integrated with Circulation.

If you use QAS, the Business Rule, What system do you use for Address Correction and Encoding software?, must be set to “QAS.” This rule is in the Address Cleansing section of Business Rules. You must also answer additional Business Rules in the same section that are specific to QAS.

Searching for an Address

When QAS is being used, the address entry window contains the QAS Address Search panel, shown below.

The first step in adding an address is to determine if it already exists in the system. The QAS Address Search panel allows three methods for doing this (the default will be “Typedown” or “SingleLine”, based on a Business Rule):

Typedown search

SingleLine search

When the initial matches are displayed, the search field will switch over to typedown functionality to help you search within the matches for a particular address. Double-click on an address to select it.

Example

As an illustration, let’s say the address you are looking for is in Bondi Beach, which you’ve already located using a single-line search. Clicking on the + sign next to BONDI BEACH NSW will show the streets within Bondi Beach, sorted alphabetically. Furthermore, clicking on the + sign next to a street name will show the addresses, or ranges of addresses, on that street.

Since the search is now automatically in typedown mode, you can begin typing letters of the street name to locate the specific street. Let’s say the street name is “Ormond,” so you type the letter “Or” and receive the matches shown below.

Next, you click the + next to Ormond Street and show the addresses.

A + symbol next to a match indicates a group of addresses. For example, expanding the “2” reveals that there is a “2 Ormond Street” as well as a range of addresses from “1/2 Ormond Street” through “10/2 Ormond Street.”

Since 3/2 Ormond Street is what you’re looking for, you double-click on that address to bring it into the address entry/modification window.

Adding an Occupant

From time to time, you will receive calls from customers who are not in the database (you cannot locate them using Find). When this happens, you must add the occupant to Circulation.

When adding an occupant, Business Rules determine the default credit status and the default occupant type.

To add an occupant:

• Enter information in the fields of the Occupant tab.
• To enter a delivery request, click the Requests button in the Options area to display the Delivery Requests pop-up window. Delivery requests are special requests about how the customer wants the paper delivered, such as “put in back door” or “beware of the dog”. Delivery requests should not be confused with the delivery directions that can be entered with an address. The requests are printed on bundle tops whenever the subscriber has a customer service transaction, and are optionally printed on Route lists. In addition, delivery requests are displayed during the Dispatching process.

• Click OK to accept the occupant. You can now link the occupant to an address as well as enter more information in the Occupant sub-tabs.

Linking an Occupant to an Address

To link the occupant to an address, click the Address button—a window will open so you can link this occupant with an address. Under Change Primary/Home Address, select Find and find the occupant’s address, or (if the address is not in the database) select Add and add it. This will be the address to which the paper will be delivered. You may also link the occupant to a secondary address, used for mailing renewal notices and TM products. If you do not want the occupant linked to any address at all (you want to keep the occupant “free floating”), click Detach Occupant.

Credit Status Sub-tab

An occupant’s credit status determines how many grace days are allowed if the subscription expires without payment, among other things (see the Setup Manual for more information). Occupants are assigned a credit status when they are added, but the status can be changed by the system due to a late payment or modified by the Customer Service associate. You can modify a credit status or add a new credit status if the occupant does not yet have one defined for a product. A product of “*” indicates all products for which a credit status is not specifically defined.

Note: This tab will be active only if the Business Rule, Do you want to maintain an occupant’s credit status by product?, is set to “yes”. If it is set to “no”, there will be only one credit status per occupant, which you can change when modifying the occupant record.

Notes Sub-tab

On this tab, you can enter notes for private notes about occupants. These notes are not printed anywhere and are available for reference only. An example of a note might be “Caretaker of Oak Park Apartments” or “complains a lot”.

Complaints Sub-tab

This tab shows the complaints that have been entered for an occupant. To add a complaint, you must enter it as a transaction.

Example—Adding an Occupant

Suppose Nancy Jones calls to start a subscription. You look for her in the database but cannot find her (she just moved to town). You will have to add an occupant record, so you select Occupant and enter the occupant fields in the following manner.

• You enter the last and first name of the occupant. Nancy does not provide a middle initial, and no suffix follows her name, so you leave these fields blank. Also, this is a home subscription and there is no “other name”.

• You enter the home phone number (which is Nancy’s primary phone number). Her home phone number is unlisted, so you check Unlisted (it will not be printed on bundle tops, etc.).

• Nancy provides you with her e-mail, and you check Allow Web Access so that she can view and manage her subscription details via iServices Subscriber.

• Nancy does not fit any of your more specific occupant types (“Student”, “Veteran”, etc.) and so you keep the default occupant type, which at this newspaper is “Regular”.

• All new occupants receive the credit status of “Approved”. You do not do credit reviews, so you leave the current date in Review Date.

After entering this basic information, you click OK in the Options panel to accept the occupant. Now you can enter more information related to the occupant:

• You link Nancy’s occupant record to an address by clicking the Address button.

• Nancy gives you her work phone number as well. So you add this on the Contact tab (see below).

• Nancy doesn’t say anything about soliciting, but would like to receive your Books digital newsletter, so you add that in the Contact tab.

Entering Contact Information for Occupants

Adding Phone Numbers

To add additional phone numbers for an occupant, select the Phone label and click the Add icon. The Phone Detail fields, listed below, display on the right side of the Contact tab. After entering the phone number and related information, click OK to add the number for the occupant.

Adding E-Mail Addresses

To add an e-mail address for an occupant, select the Email label and click the Add icon. Then specify the e-mail (the address can be up to 100 characters) and the date range during which it is active. Check Primary if this is the primary e-mail for the occupant (the same rules apply as with primary phone numbers). Click OK to add the e-mail.

To modify an e-mail address or its start date or end date, click Modify.

To send an e-mail message to an occupant, click the icon in the lower-right corner of this tab.

Entering Newsletter Preferences

Customers can opt in to newsletters, alerts, and other communications you send by e-mail, mail or phone. For example, you may e-mail a weekly Arts newsletter highlighting arts and entertainment events for the coming weekend, and send weather alerts via phone. Customers can opt into (and out of ) newsletters themselves via iServices. You can also opt them in and out of newsletters, and change communication preferences, via the Contact tab in Customer Service.

Opt into a newsletter

• Select the communication item and enter the contact information. The fields are described in the table below.

• Click OK to opt the customer in to the selected newsletter or alert.

Opt out of a communication item

• In the Contact Information area on the left side of the Contact Tab, click the plus sign to the left of Communication Preferences, and highlight the communication item.

• Check the Opt Out field.

• Click OK to accept the opt out. The customer will no longer receive the communication.

Changing newsletter preferences

If the customer wishes to receive the newsletter at a different e-mail, phone number, or address, you can make the change by modifying the communication item as described above. Set the Method Details field to the e-mail, phone number or address that should be used.

Entering Solicitation Preferences

Occupants may request not to be solicited by phone, mail, or other means. This is important to newspapers who do telemarketing and promotional mailings—they want to make sure these occupants are not included in the delivery list, phone list, or other documents they use for solicitations.

In Circulation, this information is tracked with solicitation codes. For example, an occupant might have a “NoCall” solicitation code. In Targeted Marketing, when selecting occupants for a telemarketing phone campaign, occupants with a “NoCall” solicitation code can be excluded from the selection.

To add a solicitation code for an occupant, select the Solicitation label and click the Add icon. Enter solicitation information in the fields described in the table below. Then click OK to add the solicitation information.

Modifying Addresses and Occupants

If address or occupant information changes for a customer, the address or occupant record should be modified. To modify an address or occupant, first Find the customer in question. Then click on the Address or Occupant tab and select Modify. The fields will be the same as displayed during an add. Click OK when the update is complete.

Use this option to change a subscriber’s billing method. For example, a subscriber may ask to switch from paying the carrier to paying the office.

You can also use this option to modify or delete a bill-to address and/or occupant, switch a subscriber to auto-renew, update the credit card or bank account used for auto pay, or change a rate code for a subscription.

Business Rules determine whether a source code is required for a billing method change, and whether a warning message is displayed when a subscriber is changed to a lower rate. Business Rules also determine whether any available refund amounts should be applied to the subscription, when switching a subscriber to office pay. When this happens, transfer in/out and refund transfer transactions are created to move the amount from an available refund to a payment on the subscriber’s account, pushing out the expire date.

To enter a billing change:

1. Find the subscriber whose billing method you want to change.

2. Click the Billing Change button ().
3. Enter information in the fields described in the following table.

   Field

   Type

   What to enter

4. Click OK to accept the billing change. Or, access additional address and occupant options.

   Button

   Description

In addition to starts and payments, five other Customer Service transactions allow new rates to be assigned to subscribers: delivery schedule changes, moves, reroutes, billing changes, and temporary addresses. When the transaction is processed, the subscriber’s expire date will be adjusted to reflect the new rate.

To recalculate the expire date based on the new rate, Circulation calculates the value of the subscription by multiplying the number of copies remaining by the average copy rate, and then adding the amount of any renew-early payments. The value is rerated, and the expiration date is changed.

Use this option to deactivate a temporary address that was entered without an end date (for example, if a subscriber went on vacation and didn’t know when he would return). This option is necessary only if the temporary address has no end date. If an end date is supplied, an end temporary address transaction is automatically be created by the system on the end date.

To end a temporary address:

• Find the subscriber whose temporary address you want to end.

• Click the End Temporary Address button ().
• Enter the following information and click OK.

Use Route/Mail Reassignment to reassign a subscriber’s route or label group. You might want to perform a reassignment because:

• A customer’s route was incorrectly assigned when the new start was entered.

• A subscriber is complaining about the current route or carrier.

• A subscriber requests that a specific carrier deliver to his or her address; for example, a grandchild.

• You want to change a subscriber’s delivery schedule from route to mail or from mail to route.

Use this option if only one or a small group of subscribers is being rerouted; if a larger readership is involved, you should use the Rerouting option on the Utilities | Subscription/Address menu.

Business Rules determine whether a source code is required for a route reassignment, and how the Delivery Placement field defaults.

To reassign a route or label group:

• Find the subscriber whose route or label group you want to reassign.

• Click the Route/Mail Reassignment button ().
• Enter information in the fields described in the following table.

  Field

  Type

  What to enter

  PRODUCT

  setup

  Select the publication for which you are reassigning the route or label group, or accept the default.

  EFFECTIVE DATE

  date

  Enter the date that the route and/or mail reassignment should be effective.

  SOURCE

  setup

  Select the source code for this transaction, such as “customer”.

  REASON

  setup

  Select the reason code for this transaction, such as “error”. If you want to keep the subscriber on this route in the event of a mass reroute, you should enter a reason code that has been set up with “no” in the Reroute field. For example, if this subscriber wants his or her grandson to deliver her newspaper, enter a reason code, such as “family”, that was set up not to be rerouted.

  NEW ROUTE

  setup

  Enter the new route if this is a route reassignment. If the subscription should be delivered by multiple routes (for example, different routes on weekdays and weekends), click the Routes button to assign a route for each day of the week.

  NEW LABEL GROUP

  setup

  Enter the new label group if this is a mailed subscription.

  DELIVERY PLACEMENT

  setup

  Enter a delivery placement for the newspaper, if applicable. For example, the subscriber might request that the paper be put under the mat. Delivery placements can default from the router for the new route or retain the default from the old route, as governed by Business Rules.

  BILLING METHOD

  setup

  The new route may not allow the subscriber’s current billing method, which means the billing method would need to change. For example, an office pay subscriber may be rerouted to a route that allows only carrier collect subscribers. If the billing method needs to change, enter the new billing method here.

  RATE

  display or setup

  SEND INVOICE, SEND RENEWAL

  yes/no

  If the subscriber’s billing method was changed, indicate if an invoice or renewal notice should be sent for this subscription.

  REMARKS

  unlimited

  Enter any remarks about this reassignment.

• Click OK to accept the reassignment.

Occasionally, subscribers ask to transfer money from their account to another account. For example, a subscriber who is moving out of state may transfer his or her remaining subscription copies to a friend who is also a customer. A transfer out will create both a transfer-out transaction (for the subscriber giving the transfer) and a transfer-in transaction (for the subscriber receiving the transfer). Transfer-in transactions can only be viewed—to modify the transfer, you must modify the transfer-out transaction.

When a transfer is entered for a combo subscription, the total transfer amount will be split among all components products of the combo using percentages derived from Rate Setup. For example, a total transfer amount of 15.00 could be split into an 11.25 transfer from one product and a 3.75 transfer from a second product (assuming the combo contains two products). In this example, the first product makes up 75% of the combo’s rate, so 75% of the total transfer amount will come from that product.

To transfer a balance:

• Find the customer whose balance you will be transferring.

• Click the Transfer button ().
• Complete the fields described below and click OK.

  Field

  Type

  What to enter

  Transfer Information

  PRODUCT

  setup

  Select the publication for which funds are being transferred.

  TRAN DATE

  date

  Enter the date on which this transfer out should take place. The balance and number of copies available will be displayed.

  SOURCE

  setup

  Select the source code for this transaction, such as “customer”.

  REASON

  setup

  Select the reason code for this transaction, such as “move” or “transfer”.

  DAYS

  integer (5)

  Enter the number of days of the subscription that should be transferred.

  AMOUNT

  decimal (7)

  If you did not enter a number in Days, enter the amount of the subscriber’s balance that should be transferred.

  TOTAL TRANSFER

  display

  Shows the total amount of the transfer, including all components of a combo subscription. Will be the same as Amount for non-combo transfers.

  TRANSFER

  setup

  Enter the ID (or name or telephone number) of the occupant who should receive this transfer, if transferring to another subscriber.

  Donation Information

  DONATION

  setup

  If transferring to a carrier or other party (such as an NIE program), enter the donation code.

  Remarks

  REMARKS

  unlimited

  Enter any remarks regarding this transaction.

Use this option to change the delivery schedule and/or number of copies for a subscriber. For example, a customer may decide to receive the newspaper seven days a week rather than Monday through Saturday. Business Rules determine whether a source code is required for a delivery schedule change. A delivery schedule change cannot be entered for combo subscriptions—enter a combo change instead (see Combo Change).

To change a delivery schedule:

1. Find the subscriber whose delivery schedule you want to change.

2. Click on the Delivery Schedule button ().
3. Enter information in the fields described in the following table.

   Field

   Type

   What to enter

   Delivery Schedule Change

   CAMPAIGN

   setup

   If this delivery schedule change is the result of a campaign, select the campaign ID to automatically populate certain details of the campaign.

   PRODUCT

   setup

   Select the publication for this delivery schedule change, or accept the default.

   EFFECTIVE DATE

   date

   Enter the date for this delivery schedule change to take place.

   SOURCE

   setup

   Enter the source code for this transaction, such as “customer”.

   SUB SOURCE

   setup

   If this field is active, enter a sub source for the delivery change, such as a particular carrier.

   REASON

   setup

   Enter the reason code, such as “SODS” (Sunday-Only to Daily-Sunday), for this transaction.

   Delivery Schedule Information

   NEW SCHEDULE

   setup

   Enter the new delivery schedule.

   OLD SCHEDULE

   display

   The old delivery schedule is displayed.

   ROUTE

   setup

   If the subscriber’s route is changing as well as the delivery schedule, enter the new route ID here (you will still need to enter a route reassignment). Otherwise, leave this field defaulted to the subscriber’s current route.

   RATE

   display or setup

   MERCHANDISE

   setup

   If promotional merchandise will be given to the subscriber as part of the delivery schedule change, enter the merchandise code here (to select multiple merchandise codes, select “*” and Ctrl-click codes from the selection list). Which merchandise codes are valid depends upon the reason code.

   FULFILL DATE

   date

   When the merchandise order is fulfilled, the fulfill date will be displayed.

   REMARKS

   unlimited

   Enter any remarks concerning this delivery schedule change.

4. If you want to change the number of copies delivered on a given day of the week, click the Copies button and enter the copy numbers in the Copies Per Weekday window that appears.

5. Click OK to accept the delivery schedule change.

Use this option to enter temporary addresses for subscriptions. For example, a subscriber may ask that the newspaper be temporarily delivered to a hospital, nursing home, relative’s home, school, or vacation address. Only office pay subscribers can have temporary address changes (temporary addresses are typically mail; therefore, the subscriber needs to be office pay).

While the temporary address is in effect, circulation reporting will be based on the temporary delivery address, messages will be sent to each carrier, and the account draw will be adjusted accordingly for each route. Also, during the time a subscriber is at a temporary address, a message will be displayed to that effect. This will alert Customer Service personnel that the subscriber is at a temporary address. Business Rules determine whether a source code is required for a temporary address.

Entering a temporary address change is similar to entering a subscriber move (see Move).

To enter a temporary address:

• Find the subscriber whose address will be temporarily changed.

• Click the Temporary Address button ().
• Add or find the temporary address on the Address tab. Then click OK.

• Once you have added or found the temporary address, enter information about the temporary address in the fields described in the table below. You can also enter remarks about the temporary address by clicking the Remarks button.

  Field

  Type

  What to enter

  PRODUCT

  setup

  Select the publication the subscriber will receive at the temporary address, or accept the default.

  START DATE

  date

  Enter the first date that the subscription should be delivered to the temporary address.

  END DATE

  date

  Enter the date when delivery should resume at the permanent address, if known.

  SOURCE

  setup

  Enter a source code for this transaction.

  REASON

  setup

  Enter a reason code for this transaction, such as “tempadd” for temporary address change.

  LABEL GROUP

  setup

  Enter the label group for this temporary address (if mail delivered). You must enter either a ROUTE or a LABEL GROUP.

  ROUTE

  setup

  Enter the route for this temporary address (if route delivered). If the temporary address will be delivered by multiple routes, click the Routes button and enter the route that will deliver the paper on each day of the week.

  AAM ZONE

  setup

  Enter the AAM Zone for this temporary address.

  PLACEMENT

  setup

  Enter a delivery placement for the newspaper, if applicable. For example, the subscriber might request that the paper be put under the mat. Delivery placements can default from the router. If there is no delivery placement specified in the router, the subscriber’s delivery placement at the old address will default.

  RATE

  display or setup
• Click OK to enter the temporary address in the database.

Subscriber payments are often entered in batches, in Accounting | Subscriber Payments | Batch Payments. You may, however, enter an individual payment using this option. See Batch Payments for more information about payments in general.

Payments entered here will be added to a suspended payment batch. The batch will be named “CSYYMMDDxx”, where “YYMMDD” are the year, month and day respectively, and “xx” is a sequence containing numbers and/or letters. For example, the sequence number for the first batch on a given date will be 01, followed by 02, 03 etc. up through 99, then A0, A1, etc. through ZZ.

If there is already a suspended batch for this date and bank, the payment will be appended to it; if not, a new suspended batch will be created. In order to process the batch, you can go to Batch Payments, enter the batch name, and accept the batch. You can also have Customer Service payment batches automatically accepted by running the Auto Accept Batches utility.

Circulation matches the payment amount entered to the longest subscription term and length that the payment can buy with the subscriber’s rate. Any leftover money is used to purchase the longest term it can buy, and so on, until the entire payment has been spent (this is known as “best buy” rating). The summarized term and length are displayed in the Payment Term and Payment Length fields. These values may be overridden, but the fields may not be blank. If a subscription term contains bonus days with premiums (see Paying for Premium Days), the total premium amount is included in the term cost and will be placed in the subscriber’s premium day wallet.

Business Rules determine whether a check number, source code, and reason code are required for subscriber payments. Business Rules also determine the default source and reason codes, the number of days a payment can be backdated, the default bank for a payment, and whether payments auto-start former subscribers.

Credit card payments can be authorized in “real-time” (see Circulation FAQ #75) or using the Hosted Order Page (see Tech FAQ #16). Again. Business Rules determine the authorization vendor used, and many other settings for credit card payment authorization.

Payments can also generate rewards (see Rewards).

To enter an individual payment:

1. Find the subscriber for whom you are entering the payment.

2. Click the Payment button ().
3. Enter information in the fields described in below and click OK.

   Field

   Type

   What to enter

   Payment Information

   PAYMENT TYPE

   predefined

   CHECK NUMBER

   open (8)

   Enter the check number for the payment, if the payment is by check.

   PAYMENT AMOUNT

   decimal (7)

   Enter the payment amount. Circulation determines the rate for which this subscriber qualifies; this and the amount determine the length of the subscription. The expiration date of the subscription will be extended automatically during payment processing.

   COUPON AMOUNT

   decimal (7)

   Some newspapers issue coupons that can be sent in with payments. Enter the coupon amount, if applicable, for this payment.

   TIP AMOUNT

   decimal (7)

   Subscribers may declare a certain part of their payment as a tip. Enter the tip amount, if applicable, for this payment.

   ADJUSTMENT

   yes/no

   Part of the payment may be for a non-subscription item, and you would enter that amount in Adjustment rather than Payment Amount. For example, if a payment of 21.00 included 1.00 for a coffee mug, you would enter 20.00 in Payment Amount and 1.00 in Adjustment. Check this field to make a payment adjustment; the Adjustment window will open. Enter the adjustment code (such as “mug”) and the amount.

   PAYMENT DATE

   date

   Enter the transaction date for this payment.

   EFFECTIVE

   date

   The effective date for the payment is displayed. The effective date is the date office pay status goes into effect for the customer, and for office pay subscribers it will be the subscriber’s expire date. The effective date may be overridden only on complimentary or carrier collect payments that automatically convert the subscription to office pay. If the effective date is prior to the last publishing date for a carrier collect subscriber, back credit will be issued to the appropriate carrier.

   More Information

   TERM

   predefined

   Circulation displays the period type (day, month, etc.) after matching the payment amount with the subscription rates currently in effect. This can be overridden.

   LENGTH

   open (4)

   Circulation displays the number of subscription terms purchased with this payment. This can be overridden. If the subscription term or length are changed by the operator, a message is printed on the Subscriber Payment Journal indicating that the subscription term was overridden.

   SOURCE

   setup

   Enter the source code for this transaction.

   REASON

   setup

   Enter the reason code for this transaction.

   BANK

   setup

   Enter the Bank ID for this payment, if any. This determines the Cash in Bank GL account to which the payment will be applied. This field is required for check, cash, and bank draft payments.

   BATCH

   display

   The batch in which this payment is included will be displayed in this field once the payment is accepted.

   RATE,

   DISCOUNT

   display

   The new rate and discount amount are displayed.

   PAID TO

   display

   The date the subscription is paid up to displays here.

   SEND EMAIL CONFIRMATION

   yes/no

   Remarks

   REMARKS

   unlimited

   Enter any remarks for this transaction. The remarks will appear on the Payment Journal and will remain with the payment transaction for future reference.

   TOTAL CHARGE

   display

   The total charge for this payment is displayed.

4. By selecting the "Payment Type" as "Bank Draft" or "Credit Card," an iframe titled "Hosted Order Page" will be opened to fill out the payment information.

   • Enter the Account Number and Routing Number and select the Account Type. The remaining fields, including First Name, Last Name, Email, Address, Address 2, City, State, and Zip Code, will be auto-filled.

     • Click ‘Save Payment Info’.

5. To view the Payment Information, click the Pay Type Info button next to the Payment Type field.

6. To view the Payment Amount Details, click the Details button next to the Payment Amount field. This will provide a breakdown of the payment made, including the Premium, Tax, Activation, and Printed Bill Fees, as well as the total amount paid.

7. Check the "Adjustment?" field to make a payment adjustment; the Subscription Payment Adjustment window will open.

   • Click on Add.
   • Enter the adjustment code (such as “Taxable”) and the amount and click OK.
8. If the payment is a credit card payment and a surcharge will be applied, a warning message displays when accepting the payment, listing the surcharge amount. Click Yes to continue, or No to cancel the payment. If you accept the surcharge, the surcharge amount will be added to the total payment amount. See About Credit Card Surcharges for more information.

   Note: If the user has credit card override permissions in Transaction Security, the message will be similar but say “Press Yes to continue or No to remove the surcharge.” If the user presses No, the payment will still be entered, but without the surcharge.

9. To process the payment, see Batch Payments and Payment processing.

10. For Bank Draft payments, following the payment processing, the payment status (Authorization field) in the Payment information window will be displayed as ‘Settlement Pending’.
11. To update the status, run the ACH Payment Status Update.