The Collections Management Solution for Navision helps users control their receivables and therefore generate substantial flows

The Collections Management Solution

for Navision

Product Overview

The Collections Management Solution, designed by Solutions, helps users track and collect overdue accounts and manage the collection process more effectively than they could using any existing procedures. Specific benefits include:

An immediate reduction in Accounts Receivable balances.
Instant identification of overdue invoices.
Assignment of collection responsibility to named individuals within your firm.
Utilization of built-in Contact Manager to track and resolve each overdue invoice.
Comprehensive management oversight functions.

The Collections Management Solution gives you all of the tools you need to minimize payment delays while contributing to customer relationship management objectives and strategies.

Key Elements

The three key elements to The Collections Management Solution are the Exception List (shown above), the Exception Manager (shown below) and the notion of Trigger Points.

The Exception List displays all invoices currently assigned to an individual Collection Representative or workgroup. In addition the Exception List can be used by managers to monitor and control the collection process.

The Exception Manager tracks the contact history for each invoice providing users with all of the functionality and information they would expect from a contact manager and then some.

The Collections Management Solution allows users to define a Trigger Point (Due Date + X Days) when an invoice will be transferred to a Collection Representative's Exception List.

Power and Ease-of-Use Standard

While The Collections Management Solution can serve very large organizations with many people involved in the collection process, its power can be unleashed by firms with only one person assigned to collecting overdue invoices without that person having to wade through layers of complexity. The following features are supported:

Individual Collection Representatives and Workgroups (where people share collections responsibilities) are supported.

Sales Representatives can be given full or read-only access.

A hierarchy with up to three levels can be defined to increase management oversight.

Invoices can be passed up the line for more serious action or just for advice.

Trigger Points can be defined as system defaults, customer specific or based on a customer's payment history (including automatic updates to reflect current payment patterns).

Customers can be assigned to individual Collection Representatives or Workgroups.

A default Collection Representative can be defined so that even new customers will be tracked.

High-value or partially paid invoices can be transferred earlier in the process.

Small value invoices can be held until there are a sufficient number where the cost to collect would be more reasonable.

The Exception List is sorted by Next Contact Date so that users can see who they need to contact when.

New invoices are added to the Exception List automatically.

The Exception List can be sorted by customer so that Collection Representatives can discuss multiple invoices in one contact and copy their collection notes to each invoice automatically.

Exception Manager

The Exception Manager performs exactly the same functions as a contact manager, but is geared specifically to meet your collections needs.

Once an invoice has been selected from the Exception List, it will be displayed in the Exception Manager (shown above) including a complete contact history for that invoice.

The Exception Manager provides the same general functionality as a Contact Manager, but unlike a Contact Manager is geared specifically to your collection requirements.

The system supports an unlimited number of customer collection contacts per customer.

In addition you will be able to record and review both customer specific comments and contact specific comments so that users will understand more completely the customer and each person in the customer's organization.

Collections Representatives can access a complete payment history, aging reports, sales order and invoice details, and other critical information from within the Exception Manager.

Users can reprint invoices or statements and access e-mail from within the application.

Once a contact has been completed, a Next Contact Date is assigned and the invoice is assigned a new position in the Exception List depending on the Next Contact Date.

If a customer disputes an invoice, even though it may not be overdue, it can be moved to the application automatically.

Reporting System

A number of very useful reports help users monitor the collection process as well as the effectiveness of individual users.

Managers can review the progress of all people for whom they are responsible, from adding notes to collection files to transferring responsibility from one user to another.

The complete collection history for each customer is available for review so that people can understand how a customer has acted in the past, including what delaying tactics they have employed.

Each customer's payment history is tracked so that you can determine both their Average Days to Pay and more importantly their Average Days Late.

Trigger Points

The key to any collection process is how quickly it can start after an invoice is overdue. The sooner the customer is contacted, the sooner they will pay. This is particularly true for customers who run into financial difficulty. If you do not start the process soon enough, a customer can reach their own point of no return and no efforts on your part will result in payment.

The Collections Management Solution gives you tools that cannot be found elsewhere and as a result your control of the collection process will be enhanced significantly.

A default Trigger Point (Due Date + X Days) can be defined for all customers.

A customer-specific Trigger Point can be assigned to individual customers.

Trigger Points can be based upon a customer's payment history and dynamically changed as a customer's payment history changes.

High-value invoices can be assigned specific Trigger Points so they are monitored earlier than other invoices.

Partially-paid invoices can be transferred to The Collections Management Solution immediately under the assumption that a customer would not normally part-pay an invoice.

Customers with historically poor payment histories can be assigned a negative Trigger Point so that they are contacted prior to the Invoice Due Date and reminded to pay their invoice.

Payment Classes

The use of Payment Classes lets you automatically review a customer's payment history.

Although The Collections Management Solution supports a manual review and assignment of system or customer-specific Trigger Points, the use of Payment Classes can become an extremely powerful feature. The system will measure each customer's payment history and assign the customer to a Payment Class automatically. Each Payment Class can be assigned a different Trigger Point, thus giving customers stricter or more lenient Trigger Points depending on their current payment history. The actual value that is used to assign a customer to a specific Payment Class is their Average Days Late.

The use of Payment Classes gives you the greatest degree of control over the collection process. As the screen above illustrates, the Payment Class Calculations screen allows you to review each customers' payment history and then assign them to the best-suited Payment Class.

Rather than having to review each customer's payment history via a Payment Class Report and then manually changing their Trigger Point, The Collections Management Solution does most of the review and reassignment for you subject of course to your approval.

Specific customers can be exempted from this process and will therefore revert to their previously assigned customer-specific Trigger Point.

You control what payment history is taken into consideration when calculating Average Days Late. This includes specifying a minimum number of invoices, the number of months payment history and when that payment history should start.

Each customer is assigned to a Payment Class tentatively.

In addition to the suggested Payment Class, the system will display the Payment Class to which the customer is currently assigned.

You can elect to accept the system's recommendation, revert to the previously assigned Payment Class or assign a customer to a Payment Class of your own selection.

Control is the Name of the Game

The key to effective utilization of any software application is giving people what they need in order to do their jobs better. We have taken a great deal of time creating a set of tools that give users all of the assistance they need to not just collect overdue accounts, but to become more proactive in preventing accounts from becoming overdue in the first place.

All customer no matter whether they are assigned to a Collection Representative or not will be tracked by the system.

If a customer disputes an invoice, even though it may not be overdue yet, that invoice can be transferred to the system for tracking and resolution.

If a Collection Representative needs the assistance of someone else in the organization, they can send the entire collection file to that person as a Query. That person can in turn review the file and respond to the Query.

Users can group invoices by customer and establish the same Next Action Date so that they can discuss multiple invoices with their contact.

Users can copy all relevant contact information to other invoices if more than one invoice has been discussed at the same time.

Every piece of information users need to discuss either a single overdue invoice, multiple overdue invoices or even a customer's worsening payment history is available within the same set of screens.

If users need to transfer responsibility for a single file or a group of invoices or even an entire account, each of these actions can be accommodated with ease.

You can even instruct the system to transfer a file automatically if no action is taken within a set time limit.

Summary

In this ever more fragile economy, managing cash flows may prove to be one of the keys to survival. Customers will delay payment in an effort to preserve what little free cash they have. Unfortunately this can prove to be extremely painful for users and may contribute to their demise.

The Collections Management Solution has been designed from the ground up to help users track and collect overdue accounts and manage the collection process more effectively than they could using any existing procedures. An immediate benefit for many users is an absolute reduction in Accounts Receivable balances as a percentage of revenue. As an example, a 3 day reduction in Accounts Receivable balances (a very reasonable and achievable target) will generate $5,000 in cash flow for every $1 million in revenue). Thus, a $10 million dollar company should be able to generate $50,000 in cash flow simply by investing in The Collections Management Solution.

The Collections Management Solution is a critical success tool that can and should be used by all organizations. There are no products like this on the market today.

The Debt Collection Solution will help you reduce your Accounts Receivable balances significantly and manage those balances so that they will remain within acceptable limits.

	Key Features	Description

	Current Receivables Balance	Reduce current balance by 5% or possibly more.
		Generate $5,000 cash flow per $1 million in revenue.
	Long Term Receivables Balance	Maintain receivable balance at acceptable levels.
	Customer Relationship Management	Align collection strategies with CRM objectives and strategies.
		Maintain close relationship with customers while encouraging them to pay outstanding obligations sooner than they may have paid in the past.
	Standard Trigger Points	System default Trigger Point.
		Customer specific Trigger Point.
		Payment Class Trigger Point.
		High value invoice Trigger Point.
	Other Trigger Point Options	Immediate transfer if invoice is partially paid.
		Immediate transfer if invoice is declared as being in dispute.
		Non-transfer if invoice below minimum value.
		Transfer low-value invoices if aggregate value exceeds defined trigger point value.
	Collection Representatives	Three-level hierarchy to facilitate management oversight.
		Supports workgroups as well as individual Collections Representatives.
		Salespeople can participate fully or assigned read-only access to collections files for their customers.
	Exception List	Identical to contact manager to-do list.
		Generate for individual Collections Representative or workgroup.
		Lists all outstanding invoices.
		Uses Next Contact Date to sort list and schedule calls.
		Group contacts by customer to increase efficiency.
		Group contacts by Collections Representative for management oversight.
		Share list of other Collections Representatives if they are on vacation or sick.
		Immediately transfer all responsibility from one Collections Representative to another (e.g. if they leave the company another person can pick up the contacts with minimum effort and maximum effect.
	Exception Manager	Identical to contact manager functionality.
		Tracks complete collection history.
		Maintain unlimited customer contacts.
		Maintain unlimited collection comments.
		Unlimited customer and contact comments.
		Tracks revised Promised Payment Date.
		Reschedule contact for specific future date.
	Other Significant Functions	Transfer files to other Collection Representatives.
		Access e-mail from Collections Management Solution.
		Compare effectiveness of Collections Representatives.
		Monitor customer's payment history and its trend.
		Generate substantial ROI based on reduction in AR balance.

	Microsoft Business Solution Center

You have everything to gain and absolutely nothing to lose