Coordinating with the Collection Agency
Debt Collect is designed to work in conjunction with a collection agency to recover delinquent fines, fees, and materials from borrowers. There are several issues you should resolve with the collection agency before setting up Debt Collect.
Contact the collection agency to find out this information:
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What borrower information the collection agency needs you to include in the Debt Collect Submit (or New) report and the Debt Collect Update report. (A Submit report is a list of newly delinquent borrowers since the last Submit report. An Update report is a list of borrowers who have had any kind of activity on their account—from a small payment to completely settling their account with the library—since the last Submit or Update report.) |
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The collection agency may want different information on the Submit (New) report versus the Update report. You can even send a copy of a sample report to show the default information that appears. |
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Here is an example of a report with one borrower listed: |
# Debt Collect for Horizon generated report
# Submit Report generated:11 Apr 2002 08:40:33 EDT
# Borrowers: 1
======== 22001
name=SMITH, JOHN C.
adr1=700 S. West Ave.
adr2=
adr3=
adr4=
city_st=Centerville, ST
zip=49203
birth=
acct=22001
phone=555-555-1922
bphone=
totamt=125.28
duedate=09 Jan 2002
parent=
bypte=s
ss=22001
locamt=bro=0.00|car=115.28|con=0.00|eas=0.00|gra=0.00|han=0.00|hen=0.00|mei=0.00|nap=0.00|par=0.00|sar=0.00|spt=0.00|sum=0.00
#### END
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How frequently the collection agency wants you to send the report (daily, weekly, or monthly). |
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The collection agency may want an Update report daily and a Submit (New) report weekly, or vice versa. |
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Ask the contact person at your collection agency for this information: |
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Email address to which the collection agency wants your library’s reports sent. |
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Contact person at the collection agency, or the person to whom the email address belongs. |
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Name of the collection agency. |
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You may want to ask the contact person if you can test the email address using your library’s email program. This way, you can verify that the email address works. (Debt Collect does not display an error message letting you know that an email address was invalid or that a report was not sent.) |
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Fees from the collection agency (such as processing fees). |
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Find out what fees the collection agency charges your library for their services. If you want to do so, you can use Debt Collect to add these fees to the fine amounts borrowers already owe. |
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