Payment Plan Enhancements in 2018.1

Utility Management > Customer Service > Select an account > Payment Plan

Overview

In New World ERP 2018.1, a number of changes have been made to improve payment plans in Utility Management. When consumers are put on a payment plan, they are expected to catch up on their past due amount through plan installments, while also keeping up with their ongoing charges, some of which will likely come due within the time-frame of the payment plan. In earlier releases of New World ERP, when a payment plan is created and a payment is made, the results are sometimes unexpected in regard to how the payment will be applied.

Enhancements have been made to improve the way plans apply payments against ongoing charges and plan installments. These changes make the process much more intuitive for utilities and consumers alike, and create outcomes that better match the likely intent of the consumer. Enhancements were also made to correct flaws in the plan creation process that, in earlier releases of New World ERP, contribute to the faulty application of payments.

What does this mean for New World ERP users?

If you have been using payment plans, the work load required to manage plans and the need to closely monitor them will be greatly reduced. The new enhancements resolve issues related to the incorrect reporting of the plan status, as well as plans closing early or not closing when expected. The reports and presentations of the plan status in the system will be accurately represented.

If you have NOT been using payment plans because they were not working to your satisfaction, you should consider using them now as the process has been refined and made much more intuitive.

Note: These enhancements should result in the proper functioning of newly created plans. However, they will have little impact on existing plans. Consider closing and re-opening existing plans to receive all the benefits of the new enhancements.

Payment Plan Creation Enhancements

When Payment Plans Are Created for Less Than the Entire Account Balance

In earlier releases of New World ERP, if a payment plan is created for less than the entire balance of the associated account, the payments may not track accurately against the installments.

For example, when setting up a payment plan, billing managers and customer service representatives often prefer to have the customer pay part of the balance up front as a good faith effort on the part of the customer. Such good faith payments are typically due either immediately or shortly after a payment plan is defined, before the first installment is due. In earlier releases of New World ERP, the most recent regular bill or good faith due date doesn’t always appear on the payment plan, and a payment made toward that bill might actually be applied to a payment installment.

This issue has been corrected. Now, payment plans can be created for any portion of the account balance and the plan will execute correctly. Also, payments made toward bills that are due will no longer affect the installments.

When Payment Plans Are Created for Accounts with Pending Transactions

In earlier releases of New World ERP, if an account has pending transactions when a payment plan is created, the plan may not function correctly when payments are made. The payments are effectively counted twice, once in the plan installments and also as ongoing charges incur while the plan is active. This behavior contributes to the core issues described above, i.e., plans not closing correctly or reporting status correctly.

Now, when a plan is created for an account with pending transactions, all transactions are recognized within the plan and payments are processed as they should be, as one would expect them to be, correctly and in order of due date.

When Payment Plans Are Set to Follow the Frequency of the Bill

Previously, when the plan was set to follow the frequency of the bill (i.e., when the Frequency field on the Payment Plan page was set to Billing Cycle), the system would set the installment dates to match the billing dates of the bills they followed instead of the due dates of the bills they followed. This is not the intention of the Billing Cycle setting, which is to make installments and their corresponding bills due on the same date.

This has been corrected. The installment dates are now set to the due dates of the bills they follow, so, when the plan is set to follow the frequency of the billing cycle, installments and their corresponding bills are now truly due on the same date.

Payment Plan Payoff Enhancements

Paying Ongoing Bills Based on Billing Date vs. Due Date

As stated above, consumers on payment plans are expected to catch up on their past due through payment plan installments while also keeping up with their ongoing charges. In earlier releases of New World ERP, the system pays ongoing bills based on their billing dates instead of their due dates. When a user makes a payment that is intended to pay off an installment, the payment may instead be applied toward a bill whose associated billing date falls before the installment date. Since paying an ongoing bill at the earliest possible moment is rarely the consumer’s intention, this usually results in significant confusion for the consumer and the utility staff as to how payments are applied against the plan.

Now, bill charges and miscellaneous charges appear in the payment plan schedule based on their calendar due dates instead of their billing dates, thus eliminating the confusion described above. As money comes in, bills, other charges, and installments are paid off in the correct order, based on their due dates, not their billing dates.

“Paying Ahead” on Installments

In earlier releases of New World ERP, plans do not allow consumers to “pay ahead” on their installments. The system imposes a confusing set of rules to apply extra payments to shorten the plan rather than allow consumers to pay ahead on their installments.

This has been corrected. Payments are now applied to the next item in the time line (i.e., ongoing charge or a plan installment) whether or not the due date is in the future. This should result in a significantly more intuitive plan status.