Overview of Debt Collect Tasks and Workflow

 

This guide assumes that you know how to use the Table Editor. (For more information, see the Horizon System Administration Guide.)

Whenever you make a change to Horizon setup, you should exit Horizon and restart it on any workstation where you want the change to take effect.

Here is a summary of the Debt Collect tasks. This includes the tasks you must do to install and set up Debt Collect and the tasks that Debt Collect does once you set it up:

1 Install these software programs:
Java 1.6 or 1.7 Runtime Environment software.
Day End Process software.
2 Coordinate with your collection agency.

You must gather some information from your collection agency that you will use in setting up Debt Collect.

(For more information, see Coordinating with the Collection Agency.)

3 Set up the email address for the collection agency and others to whom you want to send reports.

(For more information, see Setting Up an Email Address.)

If you do not want Debt Collect to automatically send reports via email, you can skip this task and see Turning Off the Automatic Sending of Reports via Email.

4 Define report criteria.

A report is a compiled list of your borrowers who qualify to be sent to a collection agency; the report includes information about the borrowers from your Horizon database, such as borrowers’ names, addresses, phone numbers, and so forth. You must define what information about delinquent borrowers that you and your collection agency need on a report.

(For more information, see Setting Up a Report.)

5 Set up a group.

A group represents a location or set of locations for which you want a separate report generated.

When you set up a group, you also define collection parameters for borrowers from that location or locations, such as how long a borrower account can be delinquent before Debt Collect adds a borrower’s account to a report.

(For more information, see Setting Up a Group.)

6 Set up Day End to generate the reports.

Once you set up Day End to generate the reports, then Debt Collect automatically generates and sends the reports for each group that you have set up.

(For more information, see Activating the Day End Processes for Debt Collect.)

7 Debt Collect generates reports that list delinquent borrower accounts in both of these formats:
Submit (New). This report lists newly delinquent borrowers since the last Submit report.
Update. This report lists previously delinquent 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 (New) or Update report.
8 Debt Collect saves reports in a text file, then sends the reports to your collection agency via email (if you choose to have Debt Collect send the reports via email).

If you do not want Debt Collect to automatically send reports via email, you can keep it from doing so. (For example, since Debt Collect does not encrypt the borrower information in the email message, you may want to encrypt the report information with encryption software before sending it in an email message.) If you do this, then you must send the reports manually using email or by printing them and mailing them.

(For instructions about turning off automatically sending reports via email, see Turning Off the Automatic Sending of Reports via Email.)

9 The collection agency contacts borrowers from the report for debt recovery, then forwards the information to you.

How the collect agency sends collection and recovery information to you depends on the collection agency and what arrangements you have made with the agency.

10 The next time you generate a report, Horizon updates borrower accounts in Debt Collect to show which borrowers have paid overdue fines and fees, based on the activity recorded on your Horizon system.
11 If you want to do so, you can view the most recent Debt Collect information about borrowers and their blocks.

(For more information, see Viewing Information about Borrowers and Their Blocks.)

12 If necessary, you can print a full report of the most current borrowers who qualify for collection and their information.

(For more information, see Viewing Information about Borrowers and Their Blocks.)

13 If you want to do so, you can archive or delete old Debt Collect reports and files.

(For more information, see Archiving or Deleting Old Debt Collect Reports and Files.)

 


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