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 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.
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.
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).
Note: Suspending delivery applies only to Office Pay and Balance Forward billing methods. Other methods like Paid Comp will not be suspended.
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.
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:
Click on the Start Date field and select the subscription start date.
Click on the Billing Method field and select office pay (or other appropriate billing method).
Click on the Zone field and select an appropriate AAM zone.
Click on the Deliv Sched field and select a delivery schedule for the subscription.
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.
Click OK to create subscription.
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.
Note: Multiple delivery addresses can be used only with route-delivered subscriptions at this time (not mail or mixed delivery).
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.
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.
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.
Find an address or an occupant linked to an address using Find.
Enter new start information in the fields described below.
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.
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.
Click OK to accept the new start.
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.
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.
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.
Click ‘Save Payment Info’.
The saved details will be displayed under the “Bank Draft Info” section in ‘Continuous Renewal Information’ window.
The fields under the "Continuous Renewal Information" window are listed in the table below.
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.
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.
Note: The renewal delivery method may only be overridden if the Business Rule “May the subscription renewal delivery method be overridden during a new start or billing change transaction?” is set to “Yes”.
After entering the new start information, you can enter some associated information, if applicable, before clicking OK:
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.
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.
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.
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.
Select this feature to add, remove, or modify a subscriber’s Trial Subscription.
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.).
Click ADD to add a subscriber’s Trial Subscription.
Click OK to save the Trial details.
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.
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.
An alert will pop-up on the Customer Service screen if a CSR view a subscriber account information who is on Trial subscription.
Note:
If any Subscriber (Perm Stop/Expire Stop) has a GraceOwed amount, it will not be adjusted in the Trial Adjustment Only Payment but will be included in the next payment cycle following the Trial End Date.
Creating a Temp Stop, Complaint, MoveIn, MoveOut, or Billing Change transaction within the Trial Period will extend the Trial End Date.
To avoid the conversion of a normal subscription into Trial, the Trial button will be disabled for restarts coming directly by posting a payment from Lockbox Processing or CreatePayment API.
During the Trial Period, Subscriptions are not permitted to add donations when making a Temp Stop.
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.
Note: The Fee Management feature is a licensed add-on. Contact Naviga Global Support to obtain a password.
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.
To waive the associated fees, click the Modify button and select the reason for the waiver from the drop-down menu.
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.
Combos are defined in advance in Combo setup (see Combo in the Setup manual). When entering a new start, a combo ID is selected in place of a publication, and a combo icon () will be displayed next to the Publication field when a combo subscription is being viewed. Another kind of transaction, a combo change, can be entered to switch a non-combo subscription over to a combo.
Click the New Start button ().
When a Trial Subscription Start transaction is processed, an Adjustment Only Payment for the same Trial Length and Term is created using the Adjustment Code specified in the Trial Subscription Business Rule—Which Adjustment Code should be used for Print (or Digital) Trial Payments? ().
