Circulation calculates the subscription term based on the rate code and payment amount. Suppose the following rate table was set up for a specific subscriber rate code:

Based on a subscriber’s payment amount and the rate code, Circulation calculates the subscription term and length. For example, suppose two subscribers with this rate code make payments of 45.00 and 116.00:

• Subscriber #1 pays 45.00. Circulation displays the length and term as 3 months.

• Subscriber #2 pays 116.00, Circulation figures the number of days based on 9 months (100.00) + 1 month (15.00) + 1 day (1.00). Whenever a rate term is not matched exactly, Circulation displays the term as “days”.

If the subscriber has a pending grace owed transaction, a message displays that grace is being paid off. This creates an odd amount payment, and the term’s length will be returned as days.

If a payment (or payment adjustment) is made for a subscriber on a promotional rate, the subscription will “step up” to the rate defined as the next rate after the promotional. This will happen regardless of the payment amount. This means that subscribers who make larger payments will stay on promotional rates longer.

If the discounted rate should be offered for a set time period (such as one year), marketing terms should be used. With a marketing term, the subscriber remains on the rate until the full term has completed. Small payments will not “step up” the rate until the marketing term has ended, while a large payment will only buy up to the marketing term length on the discounted rate (the remainder of the payment will be applied to the “step up” rate).

See Subscription Rates in the Setup Manual for more information on promotional rates and marketing terms.

Business Rules determine whether a check number, source code, and reason code are required for a subscriber payment. Business Rules also determine the default source code, reason code, and bank, the number of days a payment can be backdated, whether a payment should auto-start a former subscriber, the draw adjust code to be used when a payment converts a subscriber from carrier collect to office pay, and (when this takes place) the number of days after expiration that the expire date should default as the effective date. Finally, Business Rules determine the processing vendor for credit card payments.

Rewards programs are promotional offers, such as Air Miles, that give consumers credits for purchasing a product. Rewards will be generated for subscribers when a payment is entered for them if they:

• Are signed up for a rewards program, and

• Their rate term is set up to give a reward amount for that program.

If payments are imported via Subscriber Lockbox or the Subscriber Activity Import, those processes will also generate rewards. Likewise, Auto Payments will generate rewards as part of the auto renew process. If a payment is subsequently modified, the reward amount will change accordingly, and if a payment is deleted the rewards will be removed. If a payment is canceled a negative reward will be created to cancel out the original reward. Unlike manually entered rewards, generated rewards do not create Reward transactions.

An occupant may pay for an entire group of subscriptions with one payment. For example, let’s say Benton College buys free subscriptions for all of its instructors. A single check for 1500.00 from the Dean’s Office might pay for 75 subscriptions. Circulation has the ability to enter and distribute group payments. So, the 1500.00 payment mentioned above can be tracked as a group payment that is split 75 ways. Of course, the payment could also be broken up and entered as 75 individual payments; but the Group Payment feature allows for better tracking and more efficient entry. The procedure for entering group payments is given below.

Enter group payments:

• Group payments are entered along with regular payments in Batch Payments. Currently, group payments can only be entered in character Circulation (not in the Batch Payments option in Graphical Accounting). Rather than adding the payment by selecting Add, the Group option must be selected from the strip menu. The Group Subscriber Payments screen will display.

• Select Add and enter the name, phone number, or subscription ID of the occupant making the group payment (in order to qualify for group payments, this occupant must be the bill-to occupant for at least two subscribers). Then enter the payment amount and other payment information.

• The subscriptions billed to this occupant will be listed in the Group Subscriber Payment Distribution screen. Select Modify to enter or change the payment amount for an individual subscriber.

• When the entire payment is accounted for, select Accept to accept the group payment and return to the Group Subscriber Payments screen. You can then enter more group payments, or select Accept again to return to the Batch Subscriber Payments screen. Each individual group subscriber will be listed, but marked with a “*GP” to indicate that the payment is part of a group.

Use this option to enter subscriber payments that are received by the newspaper. These payments can only be from office pay subscribers; if a carrier collect subscriber makes a payment over the counter, the payment must be entered as an account payment (see Payment Entry). If a payment is entered for a carrier collect subscriber using this option, Circulation will automatically change the subscriber to office pay.

Subscriber payments can be entered at any time. The steps involved in entering and processing subscriber payments are given below:

1. Select Batch Payments and enter a batch of subscriber payments (or enter payments individually in Customer Service). A batch is a group of payments entered a session; batches have IDs and control numbers for greater accuracy and organization. Payments entered in Customer Services (or iServices) are automatically added to their own batch.

2. You may Accept the batch of payments, or Suspend it. Suspended batches can be restarted at a later time (for instance, after the Payment Journal has been reviewed).

3. Print the Payment Journal to verify the accuracy of the payments entered.

4. When you have verified that the batch and payments are correct, select Payment Processing to process the subscriber payments. Expire dates will be extended, and general ledger entries made.

Use this option to enter subscriber payments in batches.

You also enter adjustments here. An adjustment is typically an amount paid for other than subscription purposes. A check for a promotional coffee mug, for instance, would be an adjustment. Adjustments can also be non-cash. An example of a non cash adjustment might be a subscriber who missed a week’s worth of papers, and so has the expire date adjusted an additional week.

To enter subscriber payments and adjustments:

1. Select Batch Payments from the Subscriber Payments menu in Graphical Accounting to display the Subscriber Payment Batch screen.
2. Before payments can be entered, defaults and batch information must be set for this batch of payments, in the Batch Entry panel. These fields are described below.

   Field

   Type

   What to enter

   BATCH

   open (10)

   Create an ID for the batch of subscriber payments you are entering. If you are restarting a suspended batch (such as an auto renew batch), enter the batch ID here and the remaining batch information will default.

   DESCRIPTION

   open (30)

   Enter a description of this batch.

   BATCH DATE

   date

   Enter the date of this batch. This date is used as the default payment date, which may be overridden.

   CASH CONTROL

   decimal (11)

   Enter the control total for this batch of payments. “Cash” includes the subscription payments, any tips, and cash adjustments, but does not include coupons or non-cash adjustments.

   COUPON CONTROL

   decimal (11)

   Enter the total of coupon amount for this batch of payments.

   ADJUSTMENT CONTROL

   decimal (11)

   Enter the net total of non cash adjustment amounts included in these payments. If this is a negative number, enter a minus sign with the amount.

   BANK

   setup

   Select the bank into which this batch of payments will be deposited, or accept the default.

   SHORT DESCRIPTION

   open (10)

   SOURCE, REASON

   setup setup

   Select a source and reason code for these payments, or accept the defaults.

3. Click the OK button below the Batch Entry panel to accept the batch information.

4. You can now enter the payments, one at a time. Click the Add button in the Subscriber Batch Payments panel to enter a payment.
5. Enter payment information in the Subscriber Batch Payments fields, described in the table below.

   Field

   Type

   What to enter

   TYPE

   display

   SUBSCRIBER

   setup

   Enter the subscriber’s last name (or part of their last name), telephone number or subscription ID. Circulation will search for an exact match. If multiple matches are found, they are displayed in a scrollable window so you can select the correct subscriber. If the subscriber has more than one subscription, the subscription information is displayed in the same way.

   PAY DATE

   date

   EFFECTIVE

   date

   Enter the date on which the payment should go into effect. This field is not active for office pay subscribers. For subscribers changing from carrier collect to office pay, enter the start date for the office pay status. If this date is before the last publishing date, back credit is issued to the carrier/dealer(s) using the draw adjustment code established in Business Rules. Business Rules determine how far back to search for this customer’s previous expiration date. If found, that date is displayed. If not, the next publishing date is displayed (and can be changed).

   PAY TYPE

   predefined

   Indicate whether the payment is a check, cash, credit card or bank draft payment. If “Bank Draft,” “Check,” or “Credit Card” are selected, a window will open for additional information, as described in the steps below.

   AMOUNT

   decimal (6)

   Enter the amount of the payment (without tip, coupon or adjustment). The amount may default from the previous payment (as determined by Business Rules); the default can be overridden.

   COUPON

   decimal (6)

   Enter the coupon amount, if any, with this payment. The amount entered is added to the payment amount to determine the length of the subscription.

   TIP

   decimal (6)

   Enter the amount of the tip, if any, included with this payment. If the subscription is delivered by multiple carriers, the tip will be distributed evenly between them or based on the number of days delivered, as governed by Business Rules. For example, a 5.00 tip for a subscription delivered by a Sunday carrier and a Mon-Sat carrier could be divided evenly at 2.50 per carrier, or by days at 0.71 (Sunday) and 4.29 (Mon-Sat). Press F5 to override these amounts and enter your own tip distribution. A Charge Code (see Publication in the Setup Manual) and a Charge GL Account (see CR GL Account in the Setup Manual) must exist for tips before processing.

   ADJUSTMENT

   yes/no

   Check this field if the subscriber payment includes an adjustment. If so, the Adjustment window (shown below) will open for entry of the adjustment code and amount.

   TERM, LENGTH

   display or integer

   REMARKS

   open

   Enter any remarks that pertain to this payment. Remarks appear in the Payment Journal and are retained in history.

6. If the payment is a check (based on the Pay Type field), the Check Info window opens. Enter the check number in the Check Number field. The bill-to subscriber name displays in the Holder Name field.
7. If this is a credit card payment, a window opens for the credit card number and other information—the fields in this window vary based on Business Rules, your selected credit card authorization vendor, and whether you are using the Hosted Order Page. See About Payment Authorization for more information. Note:

   If you are using the character version of Batch Payments and the Hosted Order Page, use the Vaulting Service to obtain a vault ID for the credit card payment, and enter it in the Vault ID field. See Vaulting Service for details.
8. If this is a bank draft payment, the Bank Draft Info window displays. Enter the bank routing number and account number here. Additional fields may also be required, based on your bank draft interface format.
9. If the payment includes an adjustment, the Adjustment window opens. One or more adjustments may be entered here (press F2 in the Code field to display a list of valid codes). You can set up some adjustment codes to credit the Cash Total (for cash adjustments) and others to credit the Adjustment Total (non cash adjustments). Be sure to select an appropriate code for your adjustment. Enter a minus sign with negative amounts. See in the Setup Manual for more information about adjustment codes.
10. Click the OK button to add the payment to the batch, or the Add Another button to add the payment and begin entering the next payment. (If you click OK and then decide to enter another payment, you can just click the Add button.) You can also modify or delete payments added to the batch (authorized credit card payments, however, cannot be deleted). The payment is listed in the Subscriber Batch Payments grid on the right side of the screen.

11. As you enter subscriber payments, the amount displayed in the Total field (above the Subscriber Batch Payments grid) changes. If you enter coupon and/or non cash adjustment amounts, those totals change also. When you finish entering payments for a batch, Total Cash and Control Cash should be equal. Otherwise, the batch is out of balance. The same is true of the coupon and adjustment totals.

12. After all payments have been entered, click the Accept button below the Batch Entry panel to enter the batch of payments into the database (the payments will be applied to subscriber accounts during Payment Processing). If the totals for the payments do not match the control totals entered with the batch, you will be prompted to update the control totals. You may also suspend the batch by clicking the Suspend button. To reject the batch, click the Reject button (all of the payments will be lost).
13. If a payment batch is suspended, you can print the Payment Journal to verify payments, and restart it at a later time. To restart a suspended batch, go into Batch Payments and select the suspended batch in the Batch field (rather than entering a new batch ID). The batch will then display with its payments, and can be accepted.

14. If you accept a batch and later find that a payment was entered incorrectly, you must cancel the payment in Customer Service (see Cancel Payment) and then reenter it.

Premium days are bonus days such as holidays where the subscriber receives the paper on a day that is not normally a delivery day, or receives a special edition of the paper (see Premium Day). Premium days have special charges special charges associated with them, which are deducted from a premium day wallet rather than the subscriber’s balance.

When entering a payment for a subscriber, any premium day amounts included in a term will be part of the term amount purchased. The premium amount, however, is placed in the subscriber’s wallet rather than being used to buy days. For example, say a 4-week term is $20 and contains a $1 premium day, while a 13-week term is $50 and contains two $1 premium days. A $21 payment would be required for the 4-week term, with $1 being placed in the wallet. A $52 payment would be required to purchase a 13-week term, with $2 being placed in the wallet.

Once the bonus day is published and delivered, the premium amount is deducted by the subscriber’s wallet by running Bonus Day Adjustment (see Running the Bonus Day Adjustment Utility) and importing the bonus day adjustment file in Lockbox Processing.

If no payment is made by the subscriber, premium day costs will still be subtracted from the wallet, and the wallet balance will be included in grace owed and grace paid amounts. A typical subscriber going into grace will have a zero wallet balance, and any premium days delivered while they were in grace will therefore create a negative wallet balance.

Adjusting the Wallet

A subscriber’s premium day wallet cannot be adjusted manually by entering payment adjustments—it can only be adjusted by the bonus day adjustments, which use a payment adjustment code that has Update Wallet set to “y”, and certain subscriber transactions.

If a subscriber who paid for a premium day temp stops and does not receive the premium day paper, the money for the premium day will be removed from the wallet and be used to extend the expire date when the subscriber restarts. Likewise premium days missed between a move out and move in transaction will be deducted from the wallet and used to buy days. In the case where the restart or move in extends the new expire date out past another premium day, the wallet will be updated. Likewise when transactions such as delivery schedule changes, billing changes, transfers and complaints extend the expire date to cover a premium date, the premium amount will be included in the expire change. Wallet amounts can also be included in transfer out transactions.

About Uncommitted Wallet Amounts

In some cases a subscriber does not receive a purchased bonus day paper for reasons other than the transactions described above. For example, a bonus day could be defined and purchased, and then removed (or the premium amount could be changed after the payment is made). In this case the wallet amount not used for the premium day is considered an uncommitted amount. Uncommitted amounts from the subscriber’s wallet are added to payment amounts when the subscriber makes a payment, just as unallocated amounts in the subscriber’s balance are added.

To calculate the uncommitted wallet amount, Circulation:

• Finds the subscriber’s current wallet total.

• Calculates the number of premium days still scheduled before the subscription expire date.

• Subtracts the scheduled premium days from the wallet total to determine the uncommitted amount.

For example, say a subscriber pays $1 for a premium day, and the premium day amount is changed later to .75 in Bonus Day Setup. When the bonus day occurs, .75 will be deducted from the wallet, leaving .25 uncommitted. That uncommitted amount will be added to the payment amount when buying the next subscription period.