About Day Passes

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

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

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

Note that:

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

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

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

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

• Day passes cannot be auto renewed.

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

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

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

Business Rules and Setup

The following Business Rules govern day pass subscriptions:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Single Day Passes

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

Day Pass Bundles

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

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

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

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

How Day Passes are Valued

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

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

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

3. Each day is assigned the truncated average.

4. The value of all the days is combined.

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

6. Any remainder is added to the first day.

Example: 7 days for 5.00

1. 5.00 / 7 = 0.714

2. 0.714 is truncated to 0.71

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

4. 0.71 x 7 = 4.97

5. 5.00 - 4.97 = 0.03

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

And so the days would have the following values:

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

Entering a Day Pass Transaction

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

Enter a day pass in Customer Service

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

3. Select the product, edition, rate and other details for the day pass, in the fields described in the table below.
4. Once “Credit Card” is selected in the Payment Type field, the Hosted Order Page displays for credit card information. This is the same process as entering a regular credit card payment using the HOP.

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

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

Viewing Day Pass Transactions

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

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

Entering a Make Good for a Day Pass

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

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

Enter a day pass make good

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

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

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

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

Refunding a Day Pass Bundle

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

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

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

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

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

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

Business Rules Considerations

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

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

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

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

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

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

About Suspended Starts

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

Suspend Until Payment

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

Suspend Unrouteable Address

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

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

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

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

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

To enter a suspended unrouteable start:

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

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

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

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

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

5. As needed:

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

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

   • Enter any comments in the Remarks field.

6. Click OK to create subscription.

About Multiple Delivery Addresses

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

About Combos

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

About Third Party Starts

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

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

Entering a New Start

To enter a new start:

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

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

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

5. Click OK to accept the new start.

The Auto Renew Window

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

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

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

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

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

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

Hosted Order Page

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

3. Click ‘Save Payment Info’.

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

The Renewal Override Window

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

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

Additional New Start Options

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

AAM Column

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

Copies

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

Delivery

• Select this option to:

  • Enter delivery requests or address directions for the subscription. Remember, delivery requests pertain to the occupant (“put paper in back door”) while delivery directions pertain to the address (“first house on left”).

Mail-To

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

Trials

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

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

   • “In Trial?” checkbox,

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

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

   • Click OK to save the Trial details.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Tax

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

Fees

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

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

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

   Note:

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

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

Example—Entering a New Start

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

To enter a complaint:

• Find the occupant who is registering the complaint.

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

  Field

  Type

  What to enter

  Complaint Information

  PRODUCT

  setup

  Select the product for the complaint. You may leave this field blank if the complaint does not involve a product.

  INCIDENT DATE

  date

  Enter the date for this complaint. The default is the most recent date the publication/product was delivered to the subscriber or today’s date, if the complaint is not being entered for a product. You may override this date, but it must be a published date.

  INCIDENT END DATE

  date

  SOURCE

  setup

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

  FORMAL

  yes/no

  REASON

  setup

  Enter the complaint code for this complaint, such as “wet”. The Redeliver, Charge Carrier, and Dispatch fields will default based on this code. Note that complaint codes may be set up to be valid only before or after the route’s delivery deadline.

  COMPLAINT

  unlimited

  Accept the default complaint text or modify it, as desired.

  ROUTE

  setup

  Enter the route that delivered the publication. For a subscriber complaint, the default route is taken from the subscription.

  DAYS TO EXTEND

  integer (5)

  Enter the number of days the subscription should be extended because of the complaint. This must be below the maximum number determined by Business Rules.

  OLD COMPLAINT

  display

  If a processed complaint has its complaint code changed (a Business Rule consideration), the former complaint code is displayed here.

  Options

  REDELIVER

  yes/no

  Complaints often result in either an extra day (Days To Extend) or in redelivery of the paper on the day of the complaint. Indicate whether this publication or product should be redelivered. Click the Instructions button to enter redelivery instructions, if needed, which the dispatcher can relay to the service driver who will redeliver the product.

  DIGITAL ACCESS

  yes/no

  Check this field if the subscriber should be allowed access to a digital edition of the publication. This will send the subscriber an e-mail confirmation that contains a link to the website. Digital access for complaints is described further below.

  CHARGE CARRIER

  yes/no

  Indicate whether the carrier should be charged for the complaint. Complaint charges are applied by the Charge for Complaints option on the Accounting menu.

  DISPATCH

  yes/no

  Indicate whether this complaint should be dispatched. If this publication is not set up for dispatching, this field will be skipped. After the complaint is dispatched, the Dispatch Detail button will become available for viewing the date, time, remarks, compliance information, and other information.

  URGENT

  yes/no

  Indicate if this complaint is urgent and should be addressed immediately by the dispatcher.

  SERVICE AREA

  display

  If you use service areas, the service area for the route will be displayed. Service areas are used in dispatching.

  MESSAGES

  display

  If messages exist for this product, date, or route, the first message displays at the bottom of the window.

• Click OK to accept the complaint.

Digital Access with Complaints

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

In order to select digital access to resolve a complaint:

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

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

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

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

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

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

If a subscriber is given digital access to resolve a complaint, they will receive an e-mail containing information for accessing the digital edition. The message will be sent to all active e-mails for the occupant, and formatted based on the digital access complaint confirmation template. The subscriber will be granted digital access for the current publishing day, plus a certain number of days in the past and future, based on Business Rules (the days in the past typically pertain only to replica editions).

Escalated Complaints

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Multiple-Day Complaints

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

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

Also:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Processing a Permanent Stop,

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

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

About Vacation Packs

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

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

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

Entering a Stop

To stop a subscription:

1. Find the subscriber whose subscription should be stopped.

2. Click the Stop button (). The stop transaction fields display in the Transactions tab.
3. Complete the following fields and click OK.

   Field

   Type

   What to enter

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

To reassign a route or label group:

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

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

  Field

  Type

  What to enter
• Click OK to accept the reassignment.

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

To change a delivery schedule:

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

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

   Field

   Type

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

5. Click OK to accept the delivery schedule change.

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

To end a temporary address:

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

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

Customers who stop a subscription with a positive account balance are eligible for refunds. Refunds must be entered on their own—they are not automatically produced by the stop transaction. They can be entered in batches in Accounting | Subscriber | Batch Refunds, or individually using this option. Once a refund is entered, it will be added to a suspended batch of refunds, which must then be reviewed and accepted using the Batch Refunds option.

Cash, credit card, and bank draft refunds will be added to separate batches, and separate batches are also created for each refund date. The batch name will use the same “CSMMDDYYxx” format as payment batches (see ). If there is already a suspended batch for this date and bank, the payment will be appended to it; if not, a new suspended batch will be created. In addition, separate batches can be created for each publication, depending on Business Rules.

Business Rules also determine:

• The number of days a refund should be kept available

• The maximum variance from the available amount an operator may enter for a refund (if the subscriber has a refund available).

To enter a refund for an individual customer:

• Find the subscriber for whom you are entering a refund.

• Click the Refund button ().

• Complete the fields described below.

• If the refund should be sent to an address other than the subscriber’s address, click the Refund Address button and enter a new address.

• Click OK to add the refund to a batch.

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

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

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

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

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

About E-mail Confirmations

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

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

• The subscriber has an e-mail address specified.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

To enter a restart:

1. Find the subscriber that should be restarted.

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

   Field

   Type

   What to enter

   Restart Information

   PRODUCT

   setup

   Select the publication to be restarted or leave the default.

   RESTART DATE

   date

   Enter the date on which the subscriber should begin receiving the paper.

   SOURCE

   setup

   Enter the source code for this transaction, such as “cust” or “carrier”.

   SUB SOURCE

   setup

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

   REASON

   setup

   Enter the reason code for this transaction, such as “vacret” (subscriber returning from vacation). If a reminder message is set up for the reason code, it will appear in a popup window after the field is entered.

   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 subscriber. This defaults from Business Rules.

   SEND EMAIL CONFIRMATION

   yes/no

   Donation Information

   DONATION, ALL DAYS, DAYS

   setup, yes/no, integer (5)

   If the subscriber wants to donate some or all the value of their papers for the stopped period, enter the donation code for the party receiving the donation. Then, indicate whether all days are being donated and, if not, the number of days to be donated. Note that the subscriber may be forced to donate some or all of the vacation days, based on the vacation credit Business Rules in the General section (see the Setup manual).

   Remarks

   REMARKS

   unlimited

   Enter any remarks that should appear on the carrier’s bundle top and/or the District Manager Report.

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

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

To transfer a balance:

• Find the customer whose balance you will be transferring.

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

  Field

  Type

  What to enter

  Transfer Information

  PRODUCT

  setup

  Select the publication for which funds are being transferred.

  TRAN DATE

  date

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

  SOURCE

  setup

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

  REASON

  setup

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

  DAYS

  integer (5)

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

  AMOUNT

  decimal (7)

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

  TOTAL TRANSFER

  display

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

  TRANSFER

  setup

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

  Donation Information

  DONATION

  setup

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

  Remarks

  REMARKS

  unlimited

  Enter any remarks regarding this transaction.

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

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

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

To enter a temporary address:

• Find the subscriber whose address will be temporarily changed.

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

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

  Field

  Type

  What to enter

  PRODUCT

  setup

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

  START DATE

  date

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

  END DATE

  date

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

  SOURCE

  setup

  Enter a source code for this transaction.

  REASON

  setup

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

  LABEL GROUP

  setup

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

  ROUTE

  setup

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

  AAM ZONE

  setup

  Enter the AAM Zone for this temporary address.

  PLACEMENT

  setup

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

  RATE

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

Use the Move option to move an occupant (and his or her subscription, if applicable) to a new address. An occupant may move to an existing address (already in the Circulation database) or to a new address (when no address record exists). Use this option to move both subscribers and non-subscribers.

A subscriber’s delivery method and delivery schedule may change at the new address. For example, the subscriber may move from a motor route to mail-delivered area, or an area that delivers only Mon-Sat, instead of Mon-Sun.

A Move transaction can also be used to change a subscriber's digital address to a permanent address.

Business Rules determine whether a source code is required for a move. To enter a move for a subscriber:

• Find the subscriber you are going to move.

• Click the Move button ().
• Click the Address button, and then add or find the address to which the subscriber is moving, using the Address tab. Then click OK. With a non-subscriber, you need only add or find the new address, and the transaction is complete.
• Once you have added or found the new address, enter information about the move in the fields described in table below. You can also click on the Copies, Mail-To, or Remarks button to enter additional copies, a mail-to address, or remarks about the move transaction.

  Field

  Type

  What to enter

  PRODUCT

  setup

  Select the publication that will move with the subscriber.

  MOVE OUT DATE

  date

  Enter the first date the subscriber should not receive his or her subscription at the old address. The default date is the next publishing date.

  MOVE IN DATE

  date

  Enter the first date the subscription should be delivered to the new address.

  SOURCE

  setup

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

  REASON

  setup

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

  ROUTE

  setup

  Enter the route for the move-to address, if route delivered (click the Routes button to enter multiple routes). You must enter either a ROUTE or a LABEL GROUP.

  LABEL GROUP

  setup

  Select the mail label group (such as “main”) for the move-to address, if mail delivered. Label groups are used to group mail subscribers.

  DELIVERY SCHEDULE

  setup

  You can change the subscriber’s delivery schedule, if applicable.

  AAM ZONE

  setup

  Enter the AAM Zone for the move-to address.

  DELIVERY PLACEMENT

  setup

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

  BILLING METHOD

  predefined

  Enter the billing method for this subscriber, such as “office pay”.

  RATE

  display or setup

• Click OK to accept the move.

Once a payment is processed (using Payment Processing), you cannot modify the payment transaction. Instead, the payment must be canceled (reversed) and a new payment must be entered. Payment processing will then adjust the expiration date for the cancellation (negatively) and the new payment (positively).

To cancel a payment:

• Find the subscriber whose payment you want to cancel.

• Click the Cancel Payment button ().

• Complete the fields described below.

• Circulation will look for the payment, based on your search criteria. If more than one payment fits the criteria, the Payments window will open and list the possible payments.

• Click OK to enter the payment cancellation into the database.

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

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

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

To enter a billing change:

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

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

   Field

   Type

   What to enter

   Billing Change Information

   CAMPAIGN

   setup

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

   PRODUCT

   setup

   Select the publication for this billing change.

   EFFECTIVE DATE

   date

   Enter the date this billing change should take place.

   SOURCE

   setup

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

   REASON

   setup

   Enter the reason code, such as “ratecode”, for this transaction.

   BILLING METHOD

   predefined

   Enter the new billing method for this subscription or keep the default.

   RATE

   display or setup

   UPDATE RATE

   yes/no

   You can enter a billing change with a rate change that takes effect immediately. In other words, the billing change does not need to be processed before a payment can be entered for the subscription at the new rate (or the same rate re-used). If, for example, you want to keep a subscriber on a promotional rate past the promotional period in order to retain the subscriber, set Update Rate? to “yes”, enter the subscriber’s rate, and then immediately enter a payment that will apply to that rate.

   MERCHANDISE

   setup

   If the subscriber will be awarded some merchandise for the transaction (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.

   Renewal Information

   INVOICE SUBSCRIBER

   yes/no

   Indicate if an invoice should be sent for this subscription. This and the following field may be display-only, based on transaction security

   RENEW AFTER THIS TERM

   yes/no

   Indicate if a renewal should be sent for the next subscription term.

   P O NUMBER

   open (20)

   Enter the purchase order number, if any, for this billing change.

   LAST RENEWAL #

   integer (1)

   You can change the renewal notice number for this subscriber or leave this field set to “0”. As an example of how Last Renewal # might be used, suppose a subscriber lost their 2nd renewal notice and wanted a new one. You could enter “1” in Last Renewal #, so that the 2nd renewal would be reproduced the next time renewal notices are printed.

   LAST RENEWAL

   date

   You can optionally change the last renewal notice date for this subscriber.

   BONUS DAYS

   yes/no

   Qualify (or disqualify) the subscriber for bonus day deliveries by changing the bonus day flag. Note that if Bonus Days is unchecked, the subscriber’s Bonus Day transaction(s) must be manually deleted.

   Remarks

   REMARKS

   unlimited

   Enter any remarks that should appear on the carrier’s bundle top and/or the District Manager Report.

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

   Button

   Description

   AAM Column

   Click this button to change the AAM column for the subscription.

   Auto Pay

   Bill-To

   If the subscriber has a special bill-to address (i.e., renewal notices should be mailed to a different address from the delivery address) click this button to enter it.

   Mail-To

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

   Tax Exempt

   If this subscriber is exempt from any country, state, county or city taxes that are normally applied, click this button to enter the exemption reasons.

   Deliv Method

Subscribers who are eligible for a refund, but have not had a refund issued, may have their refunds written off. This can be done by a batch process whereby all subscribers who have had refunds available since before a certain date are written off. Or, available refunds can be written off manually for individual subscribers using this option. Refund write-offs do not have to be processed—they are effective immediately.

To write off an available refund for a specific customer:

• Find the subscriber for whom you are writing off the available refund.

• Click the Refund Writeoff button ().

• Complete the fields described below and click OK.

The purpose of this option is to enter subscription-related notes to record information about a subscription and/or transaction.

Subscription notes should be subscription/transaction related, such as “third subscription at introductory rate”. In order to enter a subscription note, the customer in question must be a subscriber or former subscriber. These notes are not printed on bundle tops, the DM report, or any other document.

To enter a subscription note:

• Find the subscriber for whom you want to enter the note.

• Click the Notes button ().

• Complete the fields described below and click OK.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Payments can also generate rewards (see Rewards).

To enter an individual payment:

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

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

   Field

   Type

   What to enter

   Payment Information

   PAYMENT TYPE

   predefined

   CHECK NUMBER

   open (8)

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

   PAYMENT AMOUNT

   decimal (7)

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

   COUPON AMOUNT

   decimal (7)

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

   TIP AMOUNT

   decimal (7)

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

   ADJUSTMENT

   yes/no

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

   PAYMENT DATE

   date

   Enter the transaction date for this payment.

   EFFECTIVE

   date

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

   More Information

   TERM

   predefined

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

   LENGTH

   open (4)

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

   SOURCE

   setup

   Enter the source code for this transaction.

   REASON

   setup

   Enter the reason code for this transaction.

   BANK

   setup

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

   BATCH

   display

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

   RATE,

   DISCOUNT

   display

   The new rate and discount amount are displayed.

   PAID TO

   display

   The date the subscription is paid up to displays here.

   SEND EMAIL CONFIRMATION

   yes/no

   Remarks

   REMARKS

   unlimited

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

   TOTAL CHARGE

   display

   The total charge for this payment is displayed.

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

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

     • Click ‘Save Payment Info’.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

If a subscriber requests a special delivery placement, or wishes to change a previous request, it is not necessary to enter a reroute. Instead, you can enter a delivery placement transaction to change only the delivery placement code.

To change a subscriber’s delivery placement:

• Find the subscriber who requested the delivery placement.

• Click the Placement Change button ().

• Enter information about the new delivery placement and click OK.

A newspaper may allow a subscriber who is late in payment (or has not yet paid for a new subscription) to continue to receive the paper. This is known as being “in grace”. When the payment arrives, the grace amount is deducted from the payment. However, if payment is not received after a certain period of time, the newspaper stops the subscription (or turns the subscriber over to a billing method of carrier collect). If this happens, the cost of grace period, or “grace owed” amount, will not be paid for by the subscriber (unless a late payment arrives). Eventually, the newspaper may want this grace owed amount “written off”, either in Accounting | Subscriber | Grace Writeoff or, individually, using this option.

You can write off grace for active and stopped subscribers using this option. For example, you can write off the grace owed amount for a subscriber who wants to start a new subscription but does not want to pay for the old “grace owed” amount. You cannot, however, write off grace for a subscriber who has a pending (unprocessed) payment. Grace write-offs are immediate; they do not have to be processed by transaction processing.

To write off grace-owed amounts for a subscriber:

1. Find the subscriber for whom you are writing off grace.

2. Click the Grace Writeoff button ().
3. Enter information in the fields described in table below. If the subscriber has more than one grace-owed amount, select the amount to write off in the pop-up window that appears (Ctrl-click to multi-select).

   Field

   Type

   What to enter

   WRITEOFF TYPE

   predefined

   You can choose to write off grace only in the GL, in which case the grace-owed amount will still appear for the customer and be deducted from payments in Circulation. If so, select General Ledger here.

   If, conversely, grace should be written off in Circulation but not in the GL, select Customer Services.

   If grace should be written off in both places, select Both.

   PRODUCT

   setup

   Select the publication for which you are writing off grace, or leave the default.

   WRITEOFF DATE

   date

   Enter the general ledger transaction date for this writeoff.

   SOURCE

   setup

   Enter the code for the party who originated the writeoff (for instance, “Carrier”).

   REASON

   setup

   Enter a reason code for the write-off (for instance, “move,” indicating the subscriber moved away).

   CHANGE CREDIT STATUS

   yes/no

   Indicate whether to change the credit status of subscribers whose grace is written off. Circulation will change the credit status to the Stop Credit Status setting of the subscriber’s current credit status, as defined in Credit Status setup.

   ORIGINAL GRACE DAYS ORIGINAL GRACE OWED GRACE PAID GRACE WRITTEN OFF DISCOUNT

   display

   Circulation displays the original number of grace days the subscriber had received and the value of those days (grace owed). The amount of this grace owed that was paid is also displayed, with the remaining grace that will be written off.

4. Click OK to accept the Grace Writeoff.

Grace WriteOff Transaction Security

Transaction Security is added to the “WriteOff Type” field so that it may be regulated at the user level.

• If the Security field in Transaction Security is left blank, all options under the “WriteOff Type” field are accessible to all users. The security field value is set to blank by default.

• If any Security is applied to the Security item, users who are part of the Security ID will have access to the "Writeoff Type" field, and all options are available, while users who are not part of the Security ID would not, and the "Both" option is selected by default.

Use this option to enter an outbound customer contact, such as an upsell e-mail message or letter, or a welcome message. As part of an e-mail contact, you can send an e-mail message to the customer, using a predefined template. Contacts can also be automatically added by sending an e-mail confirmation with another transaction, such as a start (see About E-mail Confirmations). Any contacts associated with the customer will be listed on the Contacts tab in the upper-right corner of the Customer Service window (see Contacts).

To enter a contact:

• Find the customer for whom you will enter the contact.

• Click the Contact button () to display the Contact Information window.

• Enter the following information.

• Click OK to save the contact. You will be able to view the contact transaction from the Contacts tab in the upper right corner of the Customer Service module (see Contacts).

• If the contact type is “Email” and an e-mail template is selected, a confirmation message will display for the e-mail. Click Yes to the “Do you want to continue?” prompt to send the e-mail.

A combo change transaction allows you to switch active non-combo subscribers to a combo subscription, or switch active combo subscribers to a different combo with the same primary product. See About Combos for more information on combos.

To enter a combo change for a subscriber:

• Find the subscriber to switch over to a combo subscription.

• Click the Combo Change icon () and select Combo Change from the pull-down menu.

• If the subscriber has other active subscriptions that could qualify as components of the combo, you will be alerted with a message. Click Yes to continue. By default, the existing subscription will be included as a component in the combo (rather than starting a new subscription for that product). You can override this by clicking the Accounts button, as described below.

• Enter the following information.

• You can optionally click the Accounts button to view and change the combo components in the Account Selection window. If the new combo adds additional subscriptions, they will display as “New” in the Status column.
• When entering a combo change for an existing combo subscriber, if the new combo does not include some subscriptions in the existing combo, they will be listed in the “Dropped Combo Accounts” area of the Account Selection window. If you leave the Stop checkbox flagged, a dropped subscription will be permanently stopped as part of the combo change. If you uncheck the Stop field, the subscription will remain, but will no longer be part of the combo.

• Click OK to accept the combo change.

You can modify any transaction that has not been processed by transaction processing or, in the case of payments, subscriber payment processing. Refunds cannot be modified in Customer Service, because they are placed in a suspended refund batch after being entered. Complaints can be modified even after the complaint is processed, but only the reason code can be changed.

To modify a transaction, double-click on it in the Transactions Summary window. You can then click Modify and change the values in the transaction fields. When you have made the changes, click OK. See for more information about the Transactions tab.

Combo subscriptions can be ended, and subscriptions for some or all of the combo publications stopped, with a Combo End transaction. See for more information about combos.

End a combo subscription

• Find the subscriber who is requesting the combo subscription to be ended.

• Click the Combo Change icon and select End Combo from the pull-down menu. The End Combo Information screen displays.
• Enter details about the end combo transaction. The fields are described in the table below.

• To end individual subscriptions as part of the end combo, click the Account button and select specific component publications to perm stop in the Account Selection window that opens. Individual subscriptions will remain active for products not perm stopped.
• Click OK to end the combo, and stop any individual subscriptions selected in the Account Selection window. A Combo End transaction is created for the subscriber.