The Pending Collection Agency Referral (COLLR) page allows for both methods of referring delinquent receivables:
Closing the Receivable with a Referral to Collection Agency transaction along with a notification to the agency created outside of Advantage.
Leaving the Receivable open with a flat file created to notify the collection agency with supporting system processing to update for subsequent A/R activity.
Both processes start with the page after records are loaded with the Select for Collection batch process. That process loads records with a Collection Status of Not Applicable or Approved for Collection. The latter being the conservative choice where all eligible receivables are loaded but none will go further with either method above without a user changing the status to Approved for Collection. The latter is chosen either when there are a small number of receivables that have to be manually updated or there is no desire to pick and choose what is referred from what is eligible.
That Collection Status is just one of a hand full of fields that can be updated: Collection Agreement, Date Returned from Collection, Return Reason, and Uncollectable Reason. Collection Status is one that is both manually updated and updated by the system. With method 1 above, only Not Applicable, Approved for Collection, Collection Generated, and Not Approved for Collection apply. With method 2 above, Not Applicable, Approved for Collection, Referred to Collection*, Closed*, Not Approved for Collection, and Uncollectable apply. Those marked with the (*) are values that cannot be manually set.
Not Applicable – Loaded by the Select for Collection job and may or may not have been reviewed. Records of this status can be deleted after being reviewed and deemed not ready for collection, if choosing the Not Approved for Collection status is not desired for tracking the receivable was reviewed but not approved.
Approved for Collection – Set by a user so that collection agency method 1 or 2 will select the record. Records with this status can be deleted before being processed in the next step when the receivable previously approved is now found to be ineligible and the Not Approved for Collection status is not desired for tracking the receivable reviewed but not approved.
Collection Generated – Set by the Generate Collection chain (method 1) when the receivable is closed and a Referral to Collection Agency transaction is created. A record in this status can be deleted as using method 1 does not lead to the Pending Collection Agency Referral page being used for tracking the receivable in collection. Instead the Referral to Collection Agency transaction is used.
Referred to Collection – Set by the Collection Agency Referral job (method 2) when the receivable is set for collection.
Not Approved for Collection – Set by the Collection Status Update job (method 2) when the receivable was Closed but is not found to have an open amount greater than $0 because of an NSF event. This status can also be used by method 1 to indicate a receivable was reviewed but a user has determined it should not go for collection and instead of choosing to delete the record, they used this status so the initial set loaded can be retained.
Returned from Collection – Manually set with method 2 for various reasons and requires a Returned Reason and Date.
Uncollectable – Manually set with method 2 for various reasons and requires entry of an Uncollectable Reason.
Closed – Set by the Collection Status Update job (method 2) when the receivable is found to have an open amount of $0. This can be because it has been collected or was cancelled.
Please see all the items in the “Advanced - Batch Processing” topic with ‘Collection’ in the job name and the associated run sheets in the Accounts Receivable Run Sheets Guide to get a complete picture before testing out either of the two methods.