Re: emerald billing method

iml@interconnect.net
Wed, 08 Apr 1998 14:02:59 -0500

Good old operator error on our part missing the incremental option.
Sounds like you got it down....I don't mind billing renewals that far
in advance, gives them PLENTY of time. However, auto bill credit
cards doesn't work at all....the incremental will work great for them.

I wonder if a different system that looks at a set number of days
would be a good option for emerald. Then you would not have to worry
about missing people in a previous month.

How are you handling your new sign ups...at current we do a default
extend of 10 days....gives up time to receive payment. However,
people on renewals still get that first invoice in the email which
confuses them. I guess the solution for that is to just add some info
in the footer to tell them what's going on with a first invoice.

Thanks a bunch for the tip.

On a side note....DALE
Any idea why the default limit and default extend doesn't get set on
new accounts. I believe it is setup properly in the emerald
admin...even though changes would not take effect...I had to run an
SQL statement to set the option days right. However, it still doesn't
set them correctly on new accounts.

Thanks,
Brian

On Wed, 08 Apr 1998 12:58:24 -0400, Jeff Woods wrote:

>At 11:29 AM 4/8/98 -0500, you wrote:
>
>>Emerald look for all accounts that expire in the month of the date
>>that you enter in the date field under the batch tab.
>
>Only if you do NOT have Incremental Batch turned on. If you turn ON
>"Incremental Batch", it will ONLY go through the exact date you enter, =
and
>ONLY in the given month. (This confused the hell out of me until =
someone
>explained it properly).
>
>To PROPERLY bill, turn ON INCREMENTAL BATCH, and at least ONCE PER WEEK:
>
>Bill all CC's about 7 days in advance. If 7 days from now WRAPS AROUND=
A
>MONTH, you MUST do it TWICE.... once for the last day of the month, and
>once for a few days into NEXT month. E.G. on April 28th, you wish to =
bill
>all credit cards through May 6th. Do TWO credit card batches, one with=
a
>date of 04/30/98 and the other with a date of 05/06/98.... These two =
steps
>combined will generate bills for ALL credit card customers who expire on=
or
>before May 6th *and* have no outstanding past-due invoices.
>
>Bill all TERM (renewal or invoice customers) at least 30 days in =
advance.
>For BEST results, insist paper billing customers pay quarterly to =
prevent
>them from being SKIPPED if they have an outstanding invoice (in essense,=
to
>ensure a bill has time to reach them, and payment has time to get back, =
30
>day cycles aren't enough, since many PAY the last day possible). Same
>applies here. TODAY, for example, I ran a pair of Renewal Batches, one
>dated 04/30/98 and the other dated 05/08/98, the latter being to catch
>those in the first 8 days of May, and the former being to catch those in
>the rest of April who may have not yet been billed, or who have recently
>paid, said outstanding payment having caused them to be skipped last =
week.
>
>You're right, though -- if Incremental Batch is OFF, you get the whole
>month, like it or not.
>
>>#1 People having expiration dates on the extremes (end of the month
>>or beginning of the month) get invoices or charges at odd times.
>
>Using incremental batch prevents this, but means you have to be sharp, =
and
>do TWO billing runs each time, since Emerald won't jump over a month-end
>border in a single run.... (i.e. if you enter 05/06/98 on April 15th, it
>will bill ONLY those who expire May 1st to May 6th -- you have to do one
>with a date in April to catch those in April, etc....
>
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