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The Change Credit Status utility can be run in situations where you would like to change the credit status for all former subscribers on certain routes. This may be useful for promotions or for “rehabilitating” stopped subscribers with bad credit statuses. You may optionally generate tasks as part of this process.
Select Change Credit Status from the Subscription/Address menu to display the Change Credit Status screen.
Select Add and complete the following fields.
PRODUCT
setup
Enter the publication for which to select routes.
ROUTE
setup
Enter the route for which perm stopped subscribers should have a new credit status, or enter “*” to add multiple routes, one at a time, on the Route List Maintenance screen.
CREDIT STATUS
setup
Enter the credit status which should be assigned to perm stopped subscribers on the selected routes.
GENERATE TASKS
yes/no
Set this field to “y” if a task should be generated for each subscriber whose credit status was changed. The field will only open if at least one task is defined for the Change Credit Status utility (Event field set to “Report Processing” and Report field set to “Change Credit Status”).
Select Accept to change the credit statuses.
This section guides the user through the menu options that are available under the Subscription/Address menu.
Address correction software can be used to “cleanse” your addresses (verifying that the address line, city, state, and Zip code are correct) as well as standardize the entire address line, city and state (based on your country’s postal data and rules).
Some of the benefits provided by address correction are listed below:
Corrects and standardizes address, city and state data.
Assigns Zip/Postal codes (Zip code, Zip+4, carrier route) that can provide additional pre-sort discounts for mailing.
Allows you to comply with the new, stricter rules on OCR (optical character recognition) readability.
Allows your customer service operators to verify address information on-line when entering a new start.
Makes addresses more deliverable.
Creates a higher percentage of address “matches” when you use List MatchPlus software.
For US addresses, Quadient populates eLot (Enhanced Line of Travel), DPV (Delivery Point Validation), and LACS (Locatable Address Conversion System) codes used by the USPS. Quadient will also return the DPV NO STATS setting (used for dwellings for which there is no DPV information, such as those that are vacant or being built), if the Business Rule— For US addresses, should the DPV NO STATS directory be used? is set to “Yes”.
For US addresses, Quadient uses SuiteLink to fill in the suite number for incomplete business addresses (see SuiteLink).
Different address correction software products that have been integrated with Circulation. Quadient utilizes US Postal Service (USPS) directories to cleanse and standardize US addresses in the Circulation database. Another vendor, QAS, is generally used for Australian and Canadian addresses. Two older products, Address Correction and Encoding (ACE) and CACE, the Canadian counterpart to ACE, are no longer supported. Business Rules determine the address correction software used and configuration parameters for each software product. See Address Cleansing in the Setup manual for more information.
Note: Address correction is an optional costed feature offered in Circulation.
There are two ways in which address correction software can be used for address hygiene. Batch Address Hygiene, documented below, enables you to cleanse and standardize all addresses in one or more Zip codes at one time.
The other way to perform address hygiene is when a single address is added or modified in Customer Service or iServices Subscriber. If the new or modified address does not exactly match the address in the USPS or Canada Post directories, and Business Rules are set to allow cleansing, a window will open asking you which address to keep. This is known as online address hygiene, and is described in the Customer Service chapter (see Adding an Address).
In addition, Circulation has a batch hygiene utility for the Circulation router, which will cleanse addresses used to define the router address ranges (see Router Addr Hygiene).
If your addresses are mostly in the US and you use Quadient for address correction, Batch Address Hygiene can be run to cleanse all addresses in one or more Zip codes. This option might be used when an updated directory is available, or when a group of addresses is added to Circulation (through List MatchPlus). It is a good idea to run Batch Address Hygiene at least once without updating the address database; the reports can then be studied and action taken on individual addresses you would rather not cleanse.
Note:
If your addresses are mostly in Canada or Australia and you use QAS for address correction, you cannot cleanse addresses via Batch Address Hygiene. Instead you can export addresses for cleansing outside of Circulation, and then import them. See FAQ #111 for more information.
Batch Address Hygiene has no effect on router addresses, which are stored elsewhere in the database. User Router Addr Hygiene to cleanse router address ranges.
The process of cleansing and standardizing a batch of addresses is automatic—all addresses that have the Cleanse Address field checked (flagged when adding the address) will be included. Addresses with Cleanse Address unchecked will not be processed in Batch Address Hygiene. It is therefore possible to separate out irregular addresses that you do not wish to process.
Note:
The cleansing process may take a considerable amount of time if an entire address database is being cleansed.
After the processing is completed several reports are created to document the hygiene process. Some of these reports can also be generated without updating the Circulation address database.
Select Batch Addr Hygiene from the Utilities | Subscription/Address menu to display the Address Hygiene Batch Processing Report screen. When using Quadient, the screen lists the Quadient directory date. This is the date of the postal directories being used by Quadient. You can check this date periodically and, when a directory update occurs, run Batch Address Hygiene for your addresses.
Select Add and enter information in the fields described in the table below.
ALL ZIPS
yes/no
Indicate whether addresses in all Zip codes should be processed.
ZIP CODE
setup
UPDATE
yes/no
Indicate whether the Circulation address database should be updated. Enter “n” here if you are just running the utility for the reports.
REROUTE ADDRESSES
yes/no
If you are using Quadient and the addresses will be updated, indicate whether Batch Address Hygiene should automatically reroute addresses for home delivery routes. If you choose to reroute, the subscription will remain on its current route, but the route assigned to the address itself may change. Note that both addresses and subscriptions are assigned routes. The subscription route is used for delivering publications. The address route is used for Targeted Marketing delivery and defaults as the subscription route when there is a new subscription.
CREATE FORM 3553
yes/no
If the address will be updated, indicate whether a PS Form 3553 should be generated for all addresses being cleansed. This form is submitted to the post office to establish the number of your addresses with Zip+4, carrier route information, etc.
LIST NAME
open (19)
If you are generating a form 3553, enter a list name. This name appears on the form and is for reference.
CREATE AAS REPORT LIST NAME
yes/no open (19)
These fields are for CACE, which is no longer supported. The fields will be skipped.
DATE RANGE
yes/no
Indicate whether batch address hygiene should cleanse only addresses entered within a certain date range.
PERIOD START DATE, PERIOD END DATE
date
If DATE RANGE is set to “y”, enter the date range for address cleansing. Only addresses entered within this date range will be cleansed.
REPORT ALL DETAIL
yes/no
Indicate whether every address should be listed in the Assigned Addresses Report (one of the reports created by Batch Address Hygiene).
NTH’ING FACTOR
integer (4)
If you entered “n” in the previous field, indicate the nth’ing factor to use for displaying addresses in the Assigned Addresses Report. For instance, if you want every tenth address to be displayed, enter “10”; if you want every hundredth address to be displayed, enter “100”.
Select Continue to begin cleansing addresses. When using Quadient, during processing the screen will display the number of addresses that have been uploaded for cleansing. In addition, an e-mail is sent by Quadient to the e-mail address specified in the Business Rules when the address cleansing process starts and completes.
After processing is complete, the Summary Statistics Report will appear. The standard viewing and printing options are available for this report. The other reports are saved to spool and can be viewed via the View/Print Utility (see View/Print). These reports are described below.
Important:
If you do update the Circulation database, be sure to save the reports (set Save to “Y” in the View/Print window). Otherwi1se, the Update Audit report will not be saved, and you will have no record of which addresses were changed.
If you want to process addresses for only one ZIP Code, you can enter that ZIP in the ZIP Code field described in the table above. If you want to process multiple ZIPs, enter a “*” in the ZIP Code field, and the ZIP Code Selection screen will appear.
Note:
Although Batch Address Hygiene can be run for specific ZIP+4s, we recommend that you run it only for 5-digit ZIP Codes, as ZIP+4s frequently change. If you do enter full ZIPs+4s, formatting is important; be sure a dash is included in the ZIP (e.g., 55119-9911) and a space for Canadian Postal Codes (e.g., A0A 0A0).
Select Add and enter each Zip code that should be included, one at a time. As a shortcut, you can enter incomplete Zip codes; all Zip codes beginning with those numbers will be included. For example, in the screen below “55” is entered—all Zip codes that begin with “55” will be processed.
When all Zip codes have been entered, press F4 and then Exit to return to the Address Hygiene Batch Processing Report.
Up to five reports are created during Batch Address Hygiene processing, as listed below. When addresses are not updated, only the Assigned Address Report, the Unassigned Address Report, and the Summary Statistics report are created.
The Assigned Address Report lists addresses that were changed in address hygiene; both the new and old form of the address appear. A status code is also listed which tells which elements of the address were standardized (see Quadient status codes). Addresses where the core address elements remained unchanged will not be listed on this report, and if an nth’ing factor was used, only a fraction of the changed addresses will be listed. The core elements of an address are: the house number, house number modifier, prefix, street name, street type, suffix, unit type, unit, city, state, and Zip code.
The Unassigned Addresses Report lists addresses that address correction was not able to confidently match to any address in the postal directories. An error code is listed with each address, explaining why the address could not be assigned (ssee Quadient status codes). Note that the report contains an LAC (Locatable Address Correction) setting, under the STREET NAME column. A “Y” in LACS CODE indicates that the US address (usually a rural route) needs to be converted to a standard street address (also referred to as “911 conversion”). Address correction does not have the capacity to make the change.
The Update Audit Report is created only if the Circulation database was updated by Batch Address Hygiene. This report lists updated addresses that contained missing or incorrect elements, such as a missing Town of 25. An “FYI” column provides information about possible inconsistencies with the address.
The Summary Statistics Report summarizes the Batch Address Hygiene process, listing the total addresses read, assigned and unassigned, among other things. This is the only report that is displayed after Batch Address Hygiene processing; the other reports are saved in files and must be viewed with the View/Print utility.
The PS form 3553 can be submitted to the USPS as proof that addresses have been cleansed using CASS-certified software (necessary for automated discounts). The form 3553 may be recreated bi-monthly, after new postal directories are installed. Any time large numbers of addresses are added or modified within the database (for example, via List MatchPlus), Batch Address Hygiene should again be run on all addresses and a new form 3553 (or AAS report) created. When using Quadient, the report under the normal directory will just contain text indicating the name and location of the pdf version of the report downloaded from Quadient, which will be saved under the pdf directory. When running batch address hygiene and creating the form 3553, addresses in the database meeting the following conditions will show up in the “total addresses” count, but not in the “coded addresses” count on the 3553 (i.e., your percentages will be lowered):
Address is locked by another user.
The address does not have “US” or “CA” as the country name.
The address country is blank and publication country in Business Rules is not “US” or “CA”.
The address “cleanse” flag is set to “no”.
The address is a special address (military or foreign).
Note:
According to the USPS, submitting the form 3553 (run against the entire database) with each mailing will be sufficient to qualify for automation discounts. For example, if you created a form 3553 for your entire database of 10,000 addresses, you could use this form with a partial mailing of 4,000 addresses.
The table below shows the default file names used to save the reports.
Assigned Addresses Report
ADDRHYB1
Unassigned Addresses Report
ADDRHYB2
Update Audit Report
ADDRHYB3
Summary Statistics Report
ADDRHYB4
PS Form 3553
ADDRHYB5
Every time you run Batch Address Hygiene and use the default settings, the new reports will replace the reports previously saved. If you wish to keep a particular report saved with the default name, change its file name by selecting Utilities | System | View/Print.
An example of each of the reports can be found below.
Change codes returned by Quadient appear on the Assigned Addresses report in the STATUS field, with an “S” prefix. Likewise, error codes returned by Quadient appear in the ERROR column on the Unassigned Addresses report, with an “E” prefix. These codes can be looked up from Quadient’s website, using this URL:
Click the link labeled "known values" to view the codes.
SuiteLink is a USPS database of business addresses that is utilized by Quadient during address cleansing. The purpose of SuiteLink is to append suite information to, or correct invalid suite information for, business addresses, based on the ZIP+4.
The SuiteLink codes returned by Quadient on the Batch Address Hygiene report include:
A—SuiteLink match - secondary information exists and was assigned to this record as a result of SuiteLink processing.
00—SuiteLink no match - lookup was attempted but no matching record could be found.
blank—A SuiteLink lookup was not attempted because either (1) the address was not a high-rise default according to CASS, or (2) the address did not contain a firm.
In order to use SuiteLink, the name of the business must be in the Last Name field in the Occupant record, or else in the Other Name field when the Other Name Usage field is set to “Firm”. If the firm name passed to Quadient is blank or the address does not DPV-confirm, SuiteLink will not be called.
Circulation can create a report listing all duplicate addresses in the Circulation database. Using the report, you can locate problem addresses, and run Duplicate Address Edit more efficiently. The criteria for determining duplicate addresses is the same in both functions (see the table on Dupl Address Edit).
Select Duplicate Address Report from the Subscription/Address menu to display the Duplicate Address Report screen.
Select Add and enter the ID of the first address number you want included in the report in Starting Address. Also indicate whether the report should include only exact matches.
Select Continue to process the report.
Duplicate Address Purge allows you to remove all duplicate addresses after a specified address number, at one time. The address with the lowest address number is retained, and occupant and subscription information associated with duplicate addresses is automatically assigned to the remaining address. If duplicate occupants are encountered (i.e., first name, last name, and phone are a perfect match), the oldest occupant record is kept.
To qualify as duplicate addresses, two addresses must have the same:
Zip
Street
House #
House Modifier (for example, “a” in 401a Portland Ave”)
Street Prefix (“North” in “36 North Portland Ave”)
Street Suffix (“North” in “36 Portland Ave North”)
Street Type (“Ave” in “36 Portland Ave”)
Unit #
Note: Use Duplicate Address Purge only if you want to get rid of all duplicate addresses within the database. For example, if many of your addresses have rural routes, you should not use this option.
To purge duplicate addresses:
Select Dupl Address Purge from the Subscription/Address menu to display the Duplicate Address Purge screen.
Select Add. In Starting Address, enter the ID of the address where purging should begin (addresses with a lower ID number will be skipped). Also indicate whether the report should include only exact matches (exact matches must match on all of the items listed on Dupl Address Edit).
Select Continue to begin purging duplicate addresses. In this process, Circulation automatically reassigns all information associated with each address in a set of duplicates to the one retained address. For example, if the addresses whose IDs are 45, 2615, and 10045 are duplicates, only address 45 is retained in the database and all information associated with addresses 2615 and 10045 is assigned to address 45.
As part of the purge process, the Duplicate Address Purge report will be created.
The Circulation router is defined as a collection of address ranges. Each address range consists of two addresses—the “to” address and the “from” address. Addresses that fall in between the “to” and “from” addresses are defaulted to the specified route (see for more information on the router).
When addresses are cleansed, it may happen that they no longer have the address elements (Zip code, street name, etc.) that fit the router. For example, if the router assigned addresses in the range of 300 Main St and 500 Main St to route 6, and 430 Main St was cleansed to 430 West Main St, the router would no longer assign it to route 6.
To prevent this from happening, the router addresses themselves can be cleansed with Router Address Hygiene. This utility cleanses both the “to” and “from” addresses, just as Batch Address Hygiene, and then compares the “to” and “from” addresses to make sure their address elements match (except for house number—the “to” and “from” addresses will, of course, have different house numbers). For example, with the router addresses mentioned above we might have:
In this case, the router addresses would not be updated, because the “to” and “from” address elements do not match. The four outcomes of Router Address Hygiene are listed below. Each outcome will print either on the Assigned Addresses Report or the Unassigned Addresses Report produced by the process.
Note:
Only a certain percentage of cleansed addresses will appear on the Assigned Address Report, determined by the nth’ing factor. When one address from a range is cleansed and the other is not cleansed, both addresses will always appear on the report.
As with Batch Address Hygiene, this option will only cleanse addresses if you use Quadient for address correction.
Select Router Address Hygiene from the Utilities | Subscription/Address menu to display the Router Address Hygiene Processing Report screen.
Select Add and enter information in the fields described in the table below.
Select Continue to begin processing. Router Address Hygiene will compare the ZIP Code, street name, street type, prefix and suffix of the router address to postal directories and cleanse the address if necessary. If the router address has no ZIP Code, Router Address Hygiene will instead use the city, county, state and country for comparison. If a cleansed address has a street type, city, county, or state not set up in Circulation, Circulation will add it to the database.
Three reports are produced by the process: the Assigned Address Report (the default spool name begins RTRHYB1), The Unassigned Address Report (RTRHYB2), and the Summary Statistics Report (RTRHYB3). See for more information on the reports. These reports can be viewed and printed from the View/Print Utility.
This option allows you to delete individual subscriptions, for example in the case where duplicate subscriptions were entered in error. Circulation will only allow you to delete a subscription if:
The subscription is permanently stopped.
All subscription activity for the subscription has been processed.
All financial activity including payments, NSFs, canceled payments and unearned revenue is at least 180 days old, based on the last publishing date.
Select Subscription Purge from the Subscription/Address menu to display the Subscription Purge screen.
Select Add and enter the account number of the subscription that should be deleted. Or, enter “*” and add multiple subscriptions on the Account List Maintenance screen.
Select Continue to delete the subscription and all subscription activity. A report will appear, listing the account number that was deleted—the standard viewing and printing options are available.
Circulation enables you to enter more than one occupant for the same address—several coworkers in one office, for example. Sometimes, however, the same address is mistakenly entered twice. Select Duplicate Address Edit to compare duplicate addresses and decide which addresses, if any, should be removed.
Business Rules determine whether Circulation accepts a duplicate address and whether a warning appears.
Note:
Two addresses are duplicates only if they have the same Zip code, street name, house number, house modifier and unit number (they can have different street suffixes, prefixes, and street types). These criteria are summarized in following table (in all items except occupant must be identical in order for two addresses to be considered duplicates). Also, military and foreign addresses (where all of the street address fields are blank) will be skipped. See for more information about addresses.
To help you execute your decisions more quickly on screen, duplicate addresses are printed in the the same as they appear when you select Dupl Address Edit.
Select Dupl Address Edit from the Subscription/Address menu to display the Duplicate Address Edit screen.
Select Add. In Starting Address, enter the ID of the first address to check for duplicates. (When an address is brought into the Circulation database, either by operator entry or via conversion from an old data system, Circulation assigns it a unique numeric ID.) Also indicate whether the report should include only exact matches (exact matches must match on all of the items listed in the above table).
Note:
The first time you select this option, accept the default value of zero in Starting Address. If you need to stop checking address duplicates for one reason or another, you can continue later where you left off by entering in Starting Address the ID of the last address you checked.
Select Continue to begin the edit process. Circulation will check the database for duplicates of the first address (from Starting Address). It will then check for duplicates of the next address, moving up by address ID. If there is more than one duplicate for an address, the address will be paired with the best match. This means you may have to run Duplicate Address Edit more than once to find all duplicate addresses.
Circulation will display the first duplicate address match.
You will have four options with this set of duplicate addresses:
Keep address 1 (enter “1”)
Keep address 2 (enter “2”)
Keep both addresses (enter “n”)
Quit the edit process (enter “q”)
If both addresses have occupants, you will have the same options available for editing the occupants (except for Quit). If you delete one address but keep both occupants, the occupants will be listed together under the remaining address. Subscription information is never deleted, just reassigned to the retained occupant/address.
Continue with the edit until all addresses have been reviewed or you are ready to quit. A report will appear, listing information about the addresses you edited (the standard viewing and printing options are available).
This utility allows you to import a file of subscribers or to extend grace periods for all subscribers in grace within a certain date range (only non-combo subscribers who are currently in grace can be extended using this option). You can extend grace a specified number of days, or have all grace end at a specified date.
Note:
Extend Grace Days does not consider the Business Rule, What is the total maximum grace days a subscriber may have? Therefore, by using this utility it is possible to extend a subscriber’s grace days beyond the maximum.
Select Extend Grace Days from the Subscription/Address menu to display the Extend Grace Days screen.
Select Add and complete the following fields.
Select Accept to process the grace extends.
If you entered “n” in the previous field, enter the ZIP Code that should be cleansed, or enter “*” to multi-select ZIPs (see ).
USE IMPORT FILE?
yes/no
Indicate whether to import a file or not. Default is no.
PRODUCT
setup
Enter the product for which grace should be extended.
START DATE, END DATE
date
Enter the starting date and ending date for the grace extend. Subscribers who are currently in grace and will end grace within this date range shall be extended.
# DAYS TO EXTEND
integer (7)
Enter the number of days to extend, if you are extending everyone’s grace a certain number of days.
NEW END GRACE DATE
date
Enter the new end grace date, if you are extending everyone’s grace to a certain date.
READ OPTION
predefined
Indicate whether to commit or edit the import file. If you choose “Commit” the grace will be extended and besides changing the EndGrace transactions date an EndGraceChg transaction is created so there is a footprint with this change. If you choose “Edit”, only the processing report will be created (you can then look the report over for errors before committing).
FILE NAME
open (30)
File must be pipe delimited and stored in the exchange directory with three variable length fields: SubscriptionID, Number of Days, and New Grace Date. SubscriptionID must always be supplied in the import file. The Number of Days or the New Grace Date (but not both) must also be supplied in the import file.
SOURCE
setup
Valid Source from setup.
REASON
setup
Valid Reason from setup.
REMARKS
character (40)
Remarks, if any associated to extending the grace.
To
300 Main St 55107
300 West Main St 55107
From
500 Main St 55107
500 East Main St 55107
Both cleansed
Yes
Yes
Assigned Address Report (if the original addresses differ from the cleansed addresses)
Both cleansed
No
No
Unassigned Address Report
1 address cleansed,
1 not cleansed
Match not done
Yes
Assigned Address Report
Nether cleansed
Match not done
No
Unassigned Address Report
SELECT BY
predefined
Indicate whether to update router segments defined by city, Zip Code, or both.
ALL ZIPS
yes/no
If cleansing ZIP Code segments, indicate whether all ZIP Codes should be cleansed.
ZIP CODE
setup
If you entered “n” in the previous field, enter the ZIP Code that should be cleansed (US Zip+4 is not supported by the router). Enter “*” to multi-select Zip codes (see Entering Multiple Zip Codes).
ALL CITIES
yes/no
If cleansing city segments, indicate whether all cities should be cleansed.
CITY, COUNTY, STATE, COUNTRY
setup
If you entered “n” in the previous field, enter the city, county, state and country that should be cleansed. Enter “*” in City to multi-select cities.
UPDATE
yes/no
Indicate whether router addresses should be updated. We recommend that you first run this utility without updating addresses, and study the reports produced.
REPORT ALL DETAIL
yes/no
Indicate whether every address should be listed in the Assigned Addresses Report (one of the reports created).
NTH’ING FACTOR
integer (4)
If you entered “n” in the previous field, indicate the nth’ing factor to use for displaying addresses in the Assigned Addresses Report. For instance, if you want every tenth address to be displayed, enter “10”.
REQUIRE DUAL ASSIGNMENT
yes/no
Enter “y” if a router record should be assigned only when both the from and to addresses are assigned. Otherwise enter “n”.
Zip code
Street suffix (for example, “North” in “30th Ave North”)
Street name
Street prefix (for example, “North” in “North 30th Ave”)
House number
Street type (for example, “Ave” in “North 30th Ave”)
House modifier (for example, “a” in “23a Portland Ave”)
Occupant name
Unit #
Newspapers sometimes offer bonus days to subscribers not on a 7-day delivery schedule. Bonus days are special days (typically holidays) on which the subscriber will receive the paper, even though it is not a normal delivery day for them. For example, if New Year’s Day falls on a Monday, the newspaper might still offer to deliver a special edition to subscribers with weekend-only delivery schedules. In this case, Monday, January 1st would be marked as a “holiday bonus” day.
Bonus days can be easy to managed and track in Circulation. The bonus day feature works as follows:
Using this option, bonus days are defined separately for each delivery schedule. Newscycle recommends defining bonus days for at least as far in the future as your longest subscription term. For example, if your longest term is 1 year, you should define premium days for at least the next year (and ideally for the next two years).
Run the Bonus Day Delivery utility to create the bonus day transactions for existing subscribers.
When a start or billing change is entered, the subscriber can be flagged to receive bonus days, or not. Flagging a subscriber to receive bonus days will cause a bonus day transaction to be created for each bonus day for which the subscriber qualifies. Mail and third party subscribers are not eligible for bonus days. Hybrid subscribers are eligible only on bonus days that are route-delivered. Online subscribers are eligible for bonus days only if Valid for Online is set to “y” in Bonus Days setup (described below).
You may wish to run the Bonus Day Delivery utility the day before each scheduled bonus day to update bonus day transactions with the most current route information and add bonus day transactions for subscribers who qualify, but do not already have them.
Bonus day transactions will be processed by Transaction Processing. If bonus day transactions are processed after the bonus day, a suspended draw adjustment batch will be created for the transactions. Business Rules determine the draw adjust code used with the batch. The batch must be accepted in Route Adjust.
The Route Delivery List can include bonus day papers to be delivered on the run date. Bonus day messages can also be printed on the bundle tops, depending on the bonus day reason code and Business Rules. A bonus day message will be printed if a subscriber has a bonus day transaction for that day.
Subscribers can optionally be charged a premium for the bonus day using the Bonus Day Adjustment utility. This can apply both to subscribers who would not normally receive the paper on the delivery day, and subscribers who would receive the paper but are being charged a premium amount for a special edition delivered on the bonus day.
Special account rates can be set up to charge and credit home delivery carriers for bonus day papers.
Bonus days affect the account GL. Subscriber GL accounts are affected only if Bonus Day Adjustment is run.
Select Bonus Day Setup from the Subscription/Address menu in Graphical Utilities to display the Bonus Day screen.
Click the Add icon and complete the following fields.
PRODUCT
setup
Select the product for which you will delivery a bonus day paper.
DELIVERY SCHEDULE
setup
Select the delivery schedule that will receive the bonus day paper, or enter “*” to multi-select delivery schedules in the Delivery Schedule popup window.
BONUS DATE
date
Enter the date for the bonus day.
ALL DISTRICTS
yes/no
DISTRICT
setup
If the bonus day will only be delivered to specific districts, leave All Districts unchecked and specify the district here (enter “*” to multi-select districts). Only subscribers on the selected delivery schedules who are delivered by routes in these districts will receive the bonus paper for that date.
PAID CIRCULATION
yes/no
This field controls whether bonus day papers for a delivery schedule/district should be counted as paid or unpaid draw on the AAM reports. If “y” is entered here, the bonus day draw will be stored with the subscriber’s billing method (office pay, carrier collect, etc.). If “n” is entered, the bonus day draw will be stored as sample draw.
INCL OPT OUT SUBSCRIBERS
yes/no
Indicate if you want to include subscribers who have opted out of bonus days. For this field to be available, the Business Rule, What is the default reason code for bonus day transactions for subscribers who opted out of bonus day papers? (Customer Services section), must be set. The field is not available if you charge for bonus days using the “premium day” method.
PROJECTED
yes/no
DELIVERY METHOD
yes/no
Indicate whether subscribers who are delivered by route, mail, online subscribers, or “*” (for multi-select window) should receive this bonus day paper.
Online subscribers qualify for receiving bonus days on any day of the week if their address can be delivered by route. For example, it is possible to schedule a bonus day print delivery for online subscribers on a weekday for which they also have online access.
LABEL GROUP
setup
For a mail-delivered subscription, enter the mail label group for this subscriber.
ADJUSTMENT TYPE
predefined
AMOUNT
decimal (5)
This field pertains only if you charge for bonus days using the “premium day” method. Enter the premium amount for the product, delivery schedules and delivery methods selected.
RENEWAL DESCRIPTION
open (30)
This field pertains only if you charge for bonus days using the “premium day” method. Enter the description that should print on renewal notices for the bonus day. The field will be exported with other premium information to the Detailed Export 2 format, if the Business Rule— Should premium day detail be exported in renewals? is set to “yes”.
Click OK to enter the bonus day information into the database.
To create bonus day transactions for the bonus day, run the Bonus Day Delivery utility.
The bonus days set up for one year can be copied to another year, using the Copy Bonus Day Setup utility. This includes premium days as well as free bonus days.
Note:
Each bonus day will be copied to the same date in the “To” year. The only exception is February 29th on a leap year, which will be copied to March 1 if the “To” year is not a leap year. If a bonus day is on a different day from year to year (for example, Thanksgiving), you will need to delete this bonus day in the “To” year after the copy, and add it manually.
The amounts for the “From” year will be carried over to the “To” year.
In order to do the copy, the “From” year must have at least one bonus day defined, and the “To” year must not have any bonus days defined.
Select Copy Bonus Day Setup from the Subscription/Address menu in the Utilities module. The Copy Bonus Day Setup screen displays.
Click the Add button and enter the criteria for copying bonus days.
PRODUCT
setup
Select the product whose bonus days should be copied, or select “*” to multi-select products.
DELIVERY SCHEDULE
setup
Select the delivery schedule whose bonus days should be copied, or select “*” to multi-select delivery schedules.
FROM YEAR, TO YEAR
integer (4)
Enter the year bonus days should be copied from, and the year they should be copied to. Both years must be formatted to four digits (e.g. “2016”).
UPDATE OPTION
predefined
Indicate whether to run the copy in edit or commit mode. Edit mode will generate a processing report, but not copy the bonus days. Commit mode will copy the bonus days.
Click OK and Continue to run the utility. The bonus days will be copied to the “To” year and a processing report will display, listing the bonus dates copied (if run in Edit mode, the bonus days will not be copied, but the processing report will list the days eligible to be copied).
When running the Product Change option to shift subscribers from one publication to another, some or all of your subscribers of the “from” publication might also have an active or temp stopped subscription with the “to” publication. In this case, no starts or stops will be created. However, the delivery schedule can be changed for the “to” publication. To do this, you specify the delivery schedule with this option, Product Change Setup.
Select Product Change Setup from the Subscription/Address menu to display the Product Change Delivery Schedule Setup screen.
Select Add and enter the delivery schedules for the “from” and “to” products, and the delivery schedule that subscribers should be changed to. For example, in the screen above, all of the subscribers to publication GZ who have delivery schedule DO (daily only) and also have a subscription to publication DM with delivery schedule DO, will have their DM delivery schedule changed from DO to DS (daily and Sunday).
Select Accept to enter the product setup into the database.
Enter other delivery schedules for the “to” and “from” products. You should enter records for each possible delivery schedule for the “to” publication. For example, if you are switching publication GZ subscribers with a delivery schedule of DO to publication DM, you might set up the following records for the DM delivery schedules:
DO
DO
DO
DO
DS
DS
DO
SO
DS
Address demographics are usually answered for subscribers individually in Customer Service (for example, during a new start), or are imported via List MatchPlus. This utility, however, allows you to set the answer of an address demographic for a whole range of addresses, or change answers if they have already been assigned. You can run the utility for a range of street numbers, and entire street, or even an entire Zip code.
For example, you might have an address demographic called “Deliver TM”, which is used to select addresses for your TM products. You are expanding your alternate delivery routes, and now all addresses in Zip code 55107 can receive TM products. You can run this utility for Zip code 55107, and all addresses within that Zip code will have their “Deliver TM” answers changed from “no” to “yes”.
Select Address Demographics from the Subscription/Address menu to display the Update Address Demographics screen.
Select Add and complete the following fields.
DEMOGRAPHIC
setup
Enter the ID of the demographic for which you are changing answers. This must be an address demographic that is already set up. See Demographic in the Setup Manual for more information.
DEMOGRAPHIC ANSWER
setup
Enter the answer to which this demographic question should be set. All addresses within the range entered below will have this answer for the address demographic above.
ZIP CODE, EXT
open (5) open (4)
Enter the Zip code and (optionally) Zip code extension for this address range.
PREDIRECTIONAL
predefined
If you are entering a street name and it has a predirectional (street prefix), such as “N” in “1234 N Main St”, enter the predirectional here.
STREET NAME
open (28)
If you are changing address demographic answers for all or part of an individual street, enter the street name for this address. If the address has a PO box, enter the PO box here.
TYPE
setup
If you entered a street name, enter the street type, such as St, Rd, or Ave. Press F2 to look up valid entries.
POSTDIRECTIONAL
predefined
This field appears after Type to accommodate entry of postdirectional street directions (street suffix), such as “N” in “1234 Main St N”.
FROM HOUSE NUMBER, TO HOUSE NUMBER
open (10)
If you are changing address demographic answers for part of an individual street, enter the house number range that should be included in the change.
FROM UNIT, TO UNIT
open (8)
If you are changing address demographics for part of an individual house number (e.g., an apartment complex), enter the unit number range that should be included in the change.
SUMMARY
yes/no
Indicate whether the report that is created as part of the Address Demographic Utility process should be summarized. If you enter “n” here, the report will list all addresses changed; if you enter “y”, the report will list only the total number of addresses changed.
UPDATE
yes/no
Indicate whether Circulation should actually update the addresses selected with the demographic answer above. You may want to run this option first with UPDATE set to “n”, study the report, and then run it again with Update set to “y”.
Select Continue to run the utility. If a selected address already has the demographic answered, the answer will be changed; if the demographic is not answered, the answer will be added. When the process is finished, a report will appear, either listing the addresses changed or giving the total number of addresses changed (the summary version).
Newspapers that own multiple publications may have a situation where, due to delivery or market considerations, subscribers of one pub need to be shifted to another pub. Obviously, making such a switch is a time-consuming process. However, by using this option, Product Change, you can save time and minimize data entry mistakes.
Product Change switches active or temp stopped subscribers from one publication (the “from” product) to another (the “to” product), based on delivery schedule, billing method, and route/district. A different delivery schedule and billing method can be specified for the “to” product, and the appropriate transactions are created to accomplish the switch. Both route and mail delivered subscribers can be shifted to the new publication.
Note: Product Change is a powerful tool. Please read the documentation below thoroughly before running this utility.
Several different transactions may be created by Product Change, including starts, stops, and transfers. The following table describes the transactions and the role they play in the publication switch.
Before running Product Change, please take the following considerations into account:
Because Product Change uses the router to determine the new route for each subscriber, you must have the router defined for the “to” product.
The router does not need to be defined for mail subscribers. If the subscriber’s label group exists for the “to” publication, they will be assigned this label group, otherwise the label group will be determined by the subscriber’s Zip Code using Zip Label Group setup.
Subscribers with future non-monetary transactions (for example, a delivery schedule change, billing change, or stop and restart with donation) will not be switched; instead, they will be written to an exception report. Subscribers with payments or available refunds will be switched, and the payment or refund will be taken into consideration in the transfer in transaction created for the “to” product.
Subscribers currently in grace will be switched, but the grace amounts will not be transferred to the “to” product. Instead, the subscribers will be written to the exception report, and the grace amounts must be manually handled (if necessary).
The subscriber’s rate will be transferred with the subscriber, unless the rate is not valid with the “to” publication. In that case, the subscriber will be rerated.
If you have the billing method for the “to” publication set to office pay, but a route does not allow office pay subscribers, these subscribers will become carrier collect.
If a subscriber already has an active or temp stopped subscription on the “to” publication, Product Change will only change the delivery schedule, based on the .
Publishing runs for both the “to” and “from” products must be closed before this utility is run.
To switch subscribers from one publication to another:
Select Product Change from the Subscription/Address menu.
Select Add and complete the following fields. We recommend that before you do the actual product change, you run this option with Report Only set to “y” so that the exception report can be viewed for possible problems.
Select Continue to begin processing. Subscribers of the “from” product assigned to the delivery schedule, billing method and routes, districts or label groups entered will be switched to the “to” product. As part of the process, the Product Change Utility report will be created, detailing the subscribers who had their publication switched by the process. The standard view/print options are available.
The Product Change Utility report lists successful product changes, processing errors, and other information about the process. The report has seven distinct reporting areas:
Successful Change. Lists subscriptions that were carrier collect in the “from” publication and are now carrier collect in the “to” publication.
Transfer. Lists subscriptions that were office pay in the “from” publication and are now office pay in the “to” publication (Transfer Out and Transfer In transactions will be created for these subscribers).
Transfer Grace. This is the same scenario as “Transfer”, but the subscriber was in grace in the “from” publication. No Transfer transactions will be created, and the grace amount must be manually entered.
Grace. Lists subscriptions that were office pay in the “from” publication and in grace and are now carrier collect in the “to” publication. The grace amount will have to be handled manually.
Refund Due. Lists subscriptions that were office pay in the “from” publication (and had a balance) and are now carrier collect in the “to” publication. An Available Refund transaction will be created when stop transaction is processed. The refunds must be entered manually.
Pending Transaction. Lists subscribers that had pending transactions and were therefore not processed.
Processing Error. Lists subscribers that were not processed because of some error (other than a pending transaction).
Due to changes in your router, your bonus day setup, or for other reasons, you may want to update bonus day transactions for all subscribers and create new transactions for the correct days and routes. This is the purpose of the Bonus Day Delivery utility. See for more information about bonus days in general.
When a subscriber is flagged for bonus day papers as part of a new start or billing change, a bonus day transaction is created. Separate transactions are created for each bonus day, and the transactions include the delivery route valid for that delivery date (based on the router). If the subscriber permanently stops or changes delivery schedules, the bonus day transactions are removed automatically. In addition, deleting a start transaction that is flagged for bonus days will also delete the bonus day transaction.
When this utility is run, Circulation creates bonus day transactions for all subscribers who should receive a bonus paper on the specified bonus day. If a bonus day transaction already exists for a subscriber for that bonus day, a new bonus day transaction will overwrite the old one. Also, the delivery schedule can be set up to specifically include opt-out subscribers. bonus day transactions will not be created for temp-stopped subscribers.
Note:
Before running the utility, you must set up at least one reason code for bonus day transactions (Transaction Type is “BonusDay”).
If the Business Rule “Do you bill subscribers in advance for premium days?” is set to “Yes”, bonus day transactions will only be created for subscribers with rates that support premium days (i.e. are not marketing terms, balance forward rates, or rates that have Include in Bonus Day Adjustment unchecked).
Select Bonus Day Delivery from the Subscription/Address menu in Graphical Utilities to display the Bonus Day Delivery screen.
Click Add and complete the following fields.
Click OK and then Continue to run the utility.
Once processing is completed, a processing report will display any errors that occurred. The standard view/print options are available.
This utility is used to select a group of subscribers and change their delivery schedules. For example, you may want to force all weekend-only subscribers to a Fri-Sun schedule. The delivery schedule change will not change the expiration dates of these subscriptions. Rating information will be recalculated to allow these subscribers to receive more papers within the same period.
After running this utility, a report will be displayed that shows all accounts that met the criteria entered on this screen.
Notes:
You must assign a reason code that has Update Expire set to “no”.
You must create a rate file that contains the old rate and new rate. When a subscriber is selected who has the old rate, the new rate will be assigned. The file must be in /dti/exchange/cm and be formatted as follows:
<old rate> | <new rate>.
Select Deliv Sched Change from the Utilities | Subscription/Address menu in Graphical Utilities to display the Delivery Schedule Change screen.
Select Add and complete the following fields.
Select OK and then Continue to change the delivery schedules.
This utility extends all active non-combo subscriptions by route for a user-defined number of days.
Note: Extend Expire Dates will not update the wallet when Advance Bill Premium Days are used.
Select Extend Expire Dates from the Utilities | Subscription/Address menu in Graphical Utilities to display the Extend Expire Dates screen.
Select Add and complete the following fields.
Select OK and Continue to update the expire dates.
ACS (Address Change Service) is a USPS program that provides businesses with information relating to their undeliverable mail. As part of this program, a participant can be sent a file with undeliverable customers. This includes both customers who have had a change of address (“COAs”), and customers living at invalid addresses (“nixies”).
If your newspaper is part of this program, you can use this option to import the ACS undeliverable file provided to you by the USPS into Circulation, creating temporary stops for subscribers that have moved or who live at undeliverable addresses. In order to qualify for an undeliverable file, your mail labels must have the subscription ID print in the ACS Keyline position (this can be done with Label Designer). The subscription ID of undeliverable subscribers is then passed back in the ACS file. More information about the ACS program can be found by contacting the USPS.
Import the ACS undeliverable file and match the subscription ID with a subscription in Circulation.
Create a temporary stop for all subscribers matched, unless a future temporary stop has already been entered.
Update a demographic specified by the user.
Print any errors to a processing report.
Select ACS Update from the Subscription/Address menu to display the Address Change Service Report/Update screen.
Select Add and complete the following fields.
Select Continue to import the ACS file. After processing is completed, a report will list the number of records imported and other information about the process (for example, subscribers who already had future temp stops will be listed).
Subscribers on certain delivery schedules may be offered “bonus days” with their subscriptions. For example, subscribers on a Sunday-only delivery schedule may receive a paper on New Year’s Day, even though it is on a Wednesday. Bonus days are typically free, and Circulation’s bonus day functionality does not charge the subscribers. However, some newspapers do charge for bonus days. Even daily subscribers who normally receive the paper on the bonus day may be charged an extra amount, as the paper might be a special edition. In this situation, the Bonus Day Adjustment utility can be run to create subscriber payment adjustments to charge bonus day subscribers.
There are two methods for charging for bonus days in Circulation:
Defining premium days. In this method, money for premium days is deducted from subscriber payments and placed in a “wallet”, which is then deducted when the premium day occurs. Newscycle recommends using this method, because a bonus day is charged in advance and does not impact the subscriber’s expire date.
Using the “traditional” method of adjusting the subscriber’s balance directly. This causes the subscriber’s expire date to be pulled back when a bonus day occurs.
Both methods are described in greater detail below.
When using the premium day method for charging for bonus days, the amount for all bonus days occurring in a subscription period is deducted from the initial subscriber payment and put into a separate wallet for the subscriber. The premium amounts are then deducted from the wallet as the premium days are published and delivered, using negative payment adjustments created by Bonus Day Adjustments and imported by Lockbox Processing.
Note:
Premium days are not charged to subscribers with rates that have marketing terms. Also, rates with a rate type of Balance Forward are not currently supported. Subscribers with these rates will not be billed for premium amounts, and will only receive the premium day paper if it is for a day on their delivery schedule.
To use the premium day method, you must:
Answer “Yes” to the Business Rule— Do you bill subscribers in advance for premium days? (Subscriber Billing section), to “Yes”. If you leave this parameter set to “No”, bonus day adjustments are made using the “Traditional” method described below. Another Business Rule in the same section— Should premium day detail be exported in renewals?, determines whether premium day information is included when renewals are exported in the Detailed Export 2 format.
Have Include in Bonus Day Adjustment flagged for the subscriber rates that qualify for premium day charges. The field is located on the Rate Code tab in Subscriber Rates setup (in the Rate Setup Wizard, this is the prompt “Should subscribers on this rate be included in the Bonus Day Adjustment selection?”).
Define a subscriber payment adjustment code that has Update Wallet set to “y”. This code will be used by Lockbox Processing to create payment adjustments when importing a bonus day adjustment batch. The payment adjustments will deduct the subscriber’s wallet rather than the subscriber’s balance. See Sub Payment Adjustment in the Setup Manual for more information about setting up payment adjustment codes.
Map the payment adjustment code above to the AdjustmentAmount field in the “AdjmntOnly” file map (or what ever Subscriber Lockbox file map you use to import bonus day adjustments).
The premium day charge amounts are predefined in Bonus Day Setup and can be “Additional” (in addition to the subscriber’s copy rate for that day, if they receive the paper) or “Final” (total charge for the bonus day paper) based on the Adjustment Type field. Below is an example of how the adjustment types would charge two subscribers (one who would normally receive the paper on the bonus day, and one who would not).
Subscribers are charged for premium days when the premium day paper is delivered. If the subscriber received the paper (was not temp stopped, for example), the cost of the premium day will be deducted from their wallet. Charging for premium days is a four-step process:
The Bonus Day Adjustment utility is run for the premium day, as described below. This creates an export file of premium day subscribers.
The payment batch containing the premium day adjustments is accepted in Batch Payments. When accepting a batch, the adjustments cannot be modified, and no additional payments can be added. However, individual adjustments can be deleted from the batch.
Charging for Premium Days must be done in a timely manner for the most accurate accounting of the subscriber’s wallet balances. Steps 1 - 4 must be run after End Publishing Run on the Premium Day, and before Start Publishing Run on the next publishing day.
Note:
If you are running renewal notices for a future date and a premium day occurs between the current date and the renewal date, you should run the Bonus Day Adjustment utility for the premium date followed by Transaction Processing and Payment Processing for the current date in order to include correct premium amounts in the term calculations.
If any of the following activities have taken place since the last day of the period, a Historical Unearned or Grace Due should not be run.
Change in the Premium Day Calendar
Run any Premium Day processing
Note: If you are using Premium Day or a wallet of any kind, it is time sensitive.
When a premium amount is deducted from a subscriber payment and added to the wallet, it is considered Unearned Revenue, just like the rest of the subscriber’s balance. When the premium day is earned and negative payment adjustments are made, the Debit and Credit GL Account fields specified for the payment adjustment code determine the GL accounts debited and credited. Because this will be a negative payment adjustment, Debit GL Account will typically be Revenue and Credit GL Account will typically be Unearned Revenue.
With the traditional method for charging for bonus days, the subscriber’s expire date is adjusted when the Bonus Day Adjustment utility is run. Because the expire date is adjusted unpredictably by bonus days, Newscycle recommends using the premium day method described above rather than the traditional method.
When using the traditional method, the bonus amount is specified when running the Bonus Day Adjustment utility. The possible adjustment types are:
Extra charge—Charge a flat amount in addition to the daily amount already paid by the subscriber. For example, you may charge an extra 0.50 for a Labor Day bonus paper.
Total charge—Charge a flat amount, minus the amount already paid by the subscriber. For example, a total charge of 2.00 for the bonus day could include a 0.45 normal daily charge plus an additional 1.55 to bring the total charge up to 2.00. Note: This adjustment type applies only to active subscribers who would normally receive that day’s paper.
Day’s Rate—Charge a previously defined Sunday or weekday rate for the bonus paper. For example, charge the subscriber’s usual Sunday rate for a New Year’s Day bonus paper delivered on Monday.
Number of Days—Deduct a number of days from the subscription period, rather than just one day. For example, charge subscribers three days for the Christmas paper. The number of days adjustment will be converted to an amount by multiplying the value of the last day of the subscription period by the number of days entered. For example, if the value of the last day is 0.20, and 2 days are entered, the subscriber’s balance will be reduced by 0.40.
The following table shows how subscribers on different delivery schedules could be charged for a Thanksgiving Day bonus paper using the expanded features of this utility.
Prior to running the utility for the first time, you may want to set up a special subscriber payment adjustment code for bonus days; the adjustment code must have Update Expire set to “y” and Cash Adjustment set to “n”. Also note that a Business Rule, For adjustment only payments, what description should display in the transaction window? (Customer Services section), governs the description that appears for subscriber payment adjustments.
The Bonus Day Adjustment option exports a file which is then imported via Subscriber Lockbox Processing to create the payment adjustments. This is the same process used with the premium day method, but when using the traditional method the payment adjustments will adjust the subscriber’s expire date.
Bonus day adjustments are exported by running the Bonus Day Adjustment utility, as described in the procedure below.
Select Subscription/Address | Bonus Day Adjustment in Graphical Utilities to display the Bonus Day Adjustments window.
Click Add.
Select the delivery schedules you want to view. To do this, complete the following fields:
The delivery schedules meeting the entered criteria are displayed. If using the traditional method for bonus day adjustments, complete the following fields and click the OK button within the field panel or each delivery schedule to which you want to make an adjustment. (You must click OK after entering each adjustment. If you do not click OK, the adjustment will not be made.) If you are using the premium day method, these fields will be inactive and this step can be skipped.
When you have finished entering adjustments for the affected delivery schedules, click the OK button that applies to the entire window. Then, click Continue to create the export file. The utility will export subscribers who received the bonus day, along with adjustment day or monetary figures, to an ASCII file. Once the export is done, a processing report will list the number of records exported. See Appendix B for the export file format.
Select Subscriber Payments | Lockbox Processing in the Accounting module, and import the ASCII file created by the Bonus Day Adjustment utility. The Input File Format should be the file map you created for this purpose. The Input File Name should be the file name specified in Bonus Day Adjustment.
Once the lockbox payment adjustments are processed, accept the payment batch in Batch Payments and process them in Payment Processing. The batch will contain negative payment adjustments (either in days or amounts) for the subscribers who received the bonus day paper.
The Stop Utility allows you to generate a list of subscribers and create a batch of permanent or temporary stop transactions for some or all of them. For example, you may want to generate a list of subscribers who have been temp stopped for 30 or more days due to nonpayment, and stop them permanently.
To run this utility:
Select Subscription/Address | Stop Utility in Graphical Utilities to display the Stop Utility window.
Click Add and complete the following fields.
Click OK and then Continue to produce the report and/or create the stop transactions.
If you created transactions, you must accept the batch using the Batch Transaction Utility (below).
Bonus days may be defined for specific districts, or include all districts. Check this field if the bonus day paper will be delivered to all districts. Note: If you charge for bonus days using the “premium day” method (see ), bonus days cannot be set up for specific districts. All Districts will display as checked and District will display as“*”.
If bonus days have been copied from an old year to a new year (see ), the new bonus days will have Projected flagged to indicate that they are projected bonus days and need review. The bonus day can then be modified and Projected unchecked to indicate that it has been reviewed. Projected will be inactive when adding a new bonus day (rather than copying). Note: Having Projected checked does not prevent bonus day transactions from being created for a bonus day; the field is for reference purposes only.
This field pertains only if you charge for bonus days using the “premium day” method. Indicate whether the bonus day charge should be “Additional” (in addition to the subscriber’s copy rate for that day, if they receive the paper) or “Final” (total charge for the bonus day paper). See for an example of premium day charges using the different adjustment types. If the bonus day is free or if you use the “traditional” method for charging bonus days, leave this field blank (Amount and Renewal Description will remain grayed out).
If you have occupants that subscribe to both publications, you will need to specify how their delivery schedule should be changed in .
Run for the “to” product.
Set up the bonus days themselves (see ).
The premium day adjustment file is imported via using a special file format for bonus day adjustments. The format should match the , which is a fixed length format with two fields: subscription ID and bonus day value.
Subscriber Payment Processing is run to process the adjustments in the lockbox batch. This deducts the premium day amount from the wallet using a negative payment adjustment. See for more information about buying premium days.
You can report the charges for a specific premium day by running the for the payment batch created for the bonus day adjustments by Lockbox Processing. Premium day charges will display as negative payment amounts.
EFFECTIVE DATE
date
Enter the date on which the product switch should take place. Transactions created by the process will have this date.
FROM PRODUCT
setup
Indicate the publication that subscribers should be switched from.
DELIVERY SCHEDULE
setup
Indicate the delivery schedule that subscribers should be switched from. Only subscribers with this delivery schedule for the “from” product will be switched.
BILLING METHOD
predefined
Indicate the billing method that subscribers should be switched from (carrier collect, office pay, paid comp, or unpaid comp). Only subscribers with this billing method for the “from” product will be switched.
TO PRODUCT
setup
Indicate the publication to which subscribers should be switched.
DELIVERY SCHEDULE
setup
Indicate the delivery schedule that subscribers should be switched to. They will have a subscription to the “to” publication delivered on days defined by this delivery schedule.
BILLING METHOD
predefined
Indicate the billing method the subscribers should have with the “to” publication.
SOURCE, SUBSOURCE
setup
Enter the source code and, if applicable, subsource code that should be used for any transactions created by this utility.
REASON CODES
setup
Enter the reason codes for the different transactions that may be created by this utility: start, permanent stop, temporary stop, delivery schedule change, billing method change, transfer out and transfer in.
SELECTION METHOD
predefined
Indicate whether subscribers should be picked for the publication switch based on district, route, or label group. Note that district and route will change route delivered subscribers only, and label group will change mail delivered subscribers only.
SELECTION
setup
Enter the district, route or label group (depending on what is entered in Selection Method) to base the switch on, or enter “*” to multi-select districts or routes. Only subscribers within these routes, districts or label groups will be selected for the product change.
REPORT ONLY
yes/no
If you set this field to “y”, the product change will not take place—only the exception report will be created. We recommend that you initially run the utility with this field set to “y”, review the exception report, and then run it again.
PRODUCT
setup
Select the product for which to update expire dates. Only one product can be entered.
SOURCE
setup
Select a source code for these expire change transactions.
REASON
setup
Select a reason for these expire change transactions.
DAYS TO EXTEND
integer (3)
Enter the number of days to extend expire dates (must be a positive integer).
ALL ROUTES ROUTE
yes/no setup
Check All Routes to change delivery schedules for all routes, or enter one or more specific routes. If you click the Lookup icon to the right of the Route field, the Route List Maintenance screen will appear. Select Add and enter and individual route, then click OK. Click OK when you have finished and the window will close.
ALL DELIVERY DAYS
yes/no
If you want to extend the expire date for subscribers who received a paper on a specific publishing date, leave All Delivery Days unchecked, and the publishing date in the Delivery Date date field. For example, if the expire date should be extended for everyone who received a paper on 11/30/2009, enter “11/30/2009”.
DELIVERY DATE
date
Otherwise, check All Delivery Days to include all subscribers who meet the remaining criteria. Delivery Date will be skipped.
ALL SCHEDULES
yes/no
If you want to extend the expire date for subscribers on a specific delivery schedule, leave All Schedules unchecked, and select the delivery schedule in the Schedule field.
SCHEDULE
date
Otherwise, check All Schedules to include subscribers on all delivery schedules.
UPDATE
yes/no
If you check this field, expire change transactions will be created. Leave the field unchecked to produce only a report (transactions will not be created).
REMARKS
open (40)
This field is optional, and defaults to “DTIExpireDateExtend”. Remarks are stored with the ExpireChg transaction.
PRODUCT
setup
Enter the publication for which you are creating bonus day adjustments.
BONUS DAY DATE
date
Enter the date of the bonus day for which you are creating adjustments.
EXPORT FILE
open (20)
The Bonus Day Adjustment utility will export an ASCII file of bonus day subscribers and adjustment amounts or days. Enter the file name for this file. It will be exported to the /dti/exchange/cm directory. See Bonus Day Adjustment Export Format for the file format.
INCLUDE ACTIVE SUBSCRIBERS
yes/no
Indicate whether subscribers who would normally receive a paper on the bonus day should be included in the export.
INCLUDE ACTIVE AUTORENEW SUBSCRIBERS,
INCLUDE ACTIVE ONLINE SUBSCRIBERS,
INCLUDE ACTIVE MAIL SUBSCRIBERS
yes/no
If including active subscribers, indicate whether auto renew, online, and/or mail subscribers should be included.
INCLUDE BONUS DAY AUTORENEW SUBSCRIBERS
yes/no
Indicate whether autorenew subscribers who normally would not receive a paper on the bonus day should be included in the export.
DELIVERY SCHEDULE
display
The selected delivery schedule is displayed.
DISTRICT
setup
Enter the district whose routes should have bonus day adjustment that will apply to this delivery schedule, or enter “*” to multi-select districts.
TYPE OF ADJUSTMENT
predefined
Select the type of bonus day adjustment that will apply to this delivery schedule. The options are Extra Charge, Total Charge, Days Rate, and Number of Days.
AMOUNT
decimal (8)
If Type Of Adjustment is “Extra Charge,” “Total Charge,” or “Number of Days,” enter the amount that subscribers should be charged for this bonus day. Note: When entering the amount for a “Number of Days” adjustment, enter the total number of days that should be deducted from the subscription period for this bonus day.
THIS DAYS RATE
predefined
If Type Of Adjustment is “Days Rate,” select the weekday whose rate should be charged for the bonus paper.
Perm Stop
A perm stop transaction for the “from” publication will be created for each subscriber.
Start
A start transaction for the “to” publication will be created for each subscriber (unless the subscriber already has an active or temp stopped subscription with the “to” publication). The route will be determined by consulting the router.
Temp Stop
If the subscriber is temp stopped on the “from” publication, an equivalent temp stop will be created for the “to” publication (unless the subscriber already has an active subscription with the “to” publication).
Transfer Out Transfer In
If the subscriber is office pay in both the “from” and “to” publications a transfer out will be created for the “from” publication, and a transfer in for the “to” publication.
Billing Change
If the billing method entered for the “to” publication is different than the one specified for the “from” publication, a billing change transaction will be created for the “to” publication.
Delivery Schedule Change
If the delivery schedule entered for the “to” publication is different than the one specified for the “from” publication, a delivery schedule change transaction will be created for the “to” publication.
PRODUCT, DELIVERY SCHEDULE
setup
Enter the publication and delivery schedule for which to create bonus day transactions. You may enter “*” to multi-select delivery schedules.
BONUS DATE
date
Enter the bonus date for which bonus day transactions should be created. This date must be defined as a bonus day in advance (see Bonus Day Setup).
SOURCE, REASON
setup
Enter the source and reason codes for creating the bonus day transactions. The reason code must be specifically set up for bonus days.
PRODUCT
setup
Select the product to which the delivery schedule change will apply.
EFFECTIVE DATE
date
Enter the date on which the delivery schedule changes will be made.
SOURCE
setup
Select a source code for these transactions.
SUB SOURCE
setup
Select a subsource, if required.
IN GRACE REASON CODE, PAID REASON CODE
setup
Select a reason for the transactions that will be created. You can use different reason codes for in-grace subscribers and paid subscribers. Note: It is recommended that you use reason codes that are set up with Update Expire=”no” in these fields. Reason codes that update the expire date can cause expire dates to move backward instead of forward.
NEW SCHEDULE
setup
Select the new delivery schedule that will be assigned.
OLD SCHEDULE
setup
Select the old delivery schedule that will be changed.
DELIVERY TYPE
setup
Select the delivery type to which these changes will apply (e.g., “carrier”, “motor”, etc.). Select “*” to multi-select.
RATE FILE
open
Enter the name of the rate file that contains the old rate and new rate. The file must be in /dti/exchange/cm and be formatted as follows: <old rate> | <new rate>.
REMARKS
open
Enter any remarks for the transactions that will be created. Remarks will be visible on the Delivery Schedule Change transaction screen in Customer Service.
READ OPTION
predefined
Select Edit to see the transactions that will be created, or Create to actually create the transactions.
FILE NAME
open (20)
Enter the file name of your ACS file. The file must be placed in the /dti/exchange/cm directory; see Appendix B for the format.
REPORT ONLY
yes/no
ACS Update can be run in a report-only mode (no temp stops will be created and no demographics will be updated). If you only want to create the report, enter “y” here.
EFFECTIVE DATE
date
Enter the date for which to create temporary stops and update demographics.
SOURCE
setup
Enter a source code for the ACS update.
REASON
setup
Enter a reason code for the ACS update. This reason code will be used with any temporary stop transactions created by it.
OCCUPANT DEMOGRAPHIC
setup
Enter the ID of the occupant demographic that should be updated as part of this process.
DEMOGRAPHIC ANSWER
setup
Enter the answer that should be updated with the demographic. Subscribers that are matched by the update will receive this answer to the demographic question above.
PRODUCT
setup
Enter the product ID.
INCLUDE COMBOS
yes/no
Indicate with whether to include combos from the report.
SELECTION TYPE
predefined
Indicate whether this report should include a particular area, region, zone, district, route, or mail.
SELECTION
setup
Enter the area, zone, district, or route (depending on what type is entered above) to include. If you entered “mail” above, this field will be skipped.
BILLING METHOD
predefined
Specify the billing method to include in the report. Choices are office pay, carrier collect, paid complimentary, unpaid complimentary, or * (to multi-select billing methods).
DELIVERY SCHEDULE
setup
Specify the delivery schedule to include in the report or enter “*” to multi-select delivery schedules.
IN GRACE ONLY?
yes/no
Select this check box if you want to limit the search to mail subscribers who are in grace.
ALL RATE CODES RATE CODE
yes/no setup
Indicate if you want to include all rate codes in the report. If not, enter the rate code or codes (using multi-select) to include.
DELIVERY STATUS
predefined
Select active, temp stopped, or both.
DAYS STOPPED
integer (4)
Enter the minimum number of days a subscriber must be stopped to appear in the list. This field is skipped if Delivery Status is set to “active”.
PROCESS OPTION
predefined
Select Report Only to generate a list of subscriptions that meet the criteria entered in this window. Select Create Stops to create the actual stop transactions.
STOP DATE
date
Enter the date that stop transactions will be created.
SOURCE
setup
Enter the source code for the stop transactions you will create, such as “customer” or “carrier”.
SUB SOURCE
setup
If this field is active, enter a sub-source for the stops (for example, the carrier who called in the stops).
STOP REASON
setup
Enter the reason code for these stops, such as “bad check”.
RESTART DATE
date
For temporary stops, enter the restart date.
RESTART REASON
setup
For temporary stops, enter the restart reason. Not available when using Report Only.
DONATION CODE
setup
For temporary stops, optionally enter the donation code. If a donation code is entered, all days of the temp-stop period will be donated.
This option is used to accept all suspended batches of subscriber payments that are not currently in use.
Imported and system-generated batches (such as Customer Services payment batches) will only be auto-accepted if the Business Rule— Should batches that are imported or created by the system be accepted automatically? is set to “Yes.” If these batches can be auto-applied, one-time bank draft batches from Customer Services will only be applied if another Business Rule— Should payment batches containing one-time bank draft payments be auto accepted?, is set to “Yes.”
Select Subscription/Address | Auto Accept Batches in Graphical Utilities to display the Auto Accept Batches window. Currently, only subscriber payment batches can be accepted automatically, and the Batch Type field cannot be modified.
Click Add.
Click OK to accept all open batches.
Use Batch Transactions to accept, reject, or suspend batches created using other processes.
Note: Currently, this option can be used only for batches created with the Stop Utility.
To run this utility:
Select Subscription/Address | Batch Transactions in Graphical Utilities to display the Batch Transaction Utility window.
In the Batch field, select the batch you want to view. The following information will be displayed:
The process that created the batch (i.e., Stop Utility).
The user who created the batch.
The total number of transactions in the batch.
Delete transactions from the batch. To delete a transaction, select the Delete checkbox and click Delete Selected. You also have the option of selecting and unselecting all transactions at once.
Accept the batch by clicking Accept.
Reject and remove the batch by clicking Reject.
Suspend the batch for future review by clicking Suspend.
Subscription-length pricing allows you to define rates for subscribers based on their subscription length (the number of days they have been active subscribers). For example, you may wish to give all year-long subscribers a better rate than new subscribers or gradually reduce subscription rates incrementally at 6-month, 1-year, and 2-year breakpoints. Or, you may wish to gradually transition your long-term subscribers to your highest rates.
Subscription-length pricing stores subscription length information as subscription demographics. The subscription rule in rate setup (and links in Rate Links) defines the subscription-length pricing rates. Several Business Rules in the Subscriber Accounting section control various aspects of subscription-level pricing.
This utility updates subscription lengths and creates billing changes to update rates for subscribers who have crossed over to the next subscription level. For all office-pay subscribers (including promo, reduced, and normal rates), this utility will add, change, or remove subscription-length levels based on the length of service. For subscribers on “normal” rates, it will also create billing changes to update the rates where appropriate.
Select Subscription/Address | Sub Length Pricing in Graphical Utilities to display the Subscription Length Pricing window.
Click Add and complete the following fields.
PRODUCT
setup
Select the product or products for which subscription-length pricing should be updated.
RATE CHANGE DATE
date
This field is used to calculate pending (i.e., future) rate changes for renewal notices and auto payments. Enter the date through which pending rate changes should be calculated.
EXCLUDE
predefined
If applicable, select the solicitation code or codes of subscribers who should be excluded from this update.
UPDATE LEVELS
yes/no
If you select this checkbox, the relevant demographics (defined in Business Rules) will be updated with a new level and “update” date.
UPDATE RATES
yes/no
If you select this checkbox, billing changes will be created to move the updated subscribers to the appropriate rate code for their subscription level.
REVIEW DATE
date
If you are updating rates without updating levels, enter the review date. This date must match the date stored in the date demographic for the subscribers whose rates will be updated. Note: This field is used when the levels were previously updated without also updating the rates. Billing changes will be created for these subscribers as long as the date entered here matches the date in the “subscription length level change” demographic.
SOURCE
setup
Enter the source code for the billing change transactions that will be created.
PAID REASON
setup
Enter the reason code for the billing change transactions that will be created for paid subscribers.
IN GRACE REASON
setup
Enter the reason code for the billing change transactions that will be created for in-grace subscribers.
Click OK and then Continue to run the utility.
