Managing Payment Plans

Payment plans define the available options for payment scheduling. Multiple payment plans can be assigned to individual quote options, allowing the user to select their preferred plan.

Creating a New Payment Plan

1. Open the appropriate Billing Entity. For instructions on finding and opening a billing entity, see the section on Managing Billing Entities.

2. In the Billing Entity Menu, select Payment Plans. The Payment Plans page opens.

   

   Tip: By default, only Active plans are displayed. Clear the filter in the Status column to view all plans.

3. Click Add. The Payment Plan Management page opens.

4. Complete the necessary information. Fields marked with a red asterisk * are required.

   

   Name	Enter the name of the payment plan. This name is displayed in the payment plan list and is used to select the plan in the Payment Plan window when viewing a quote option.
   Code	Enter a unique code to identify the payment plan within the system.
   External Code	Enter a code to be used for integration with external systems.
   Description	Enter a description for the payment plan.

   

   Set First Payment (%)	The first payment can be larger or smaller than the rest of the payments, to account for registration fees or discounts. Check this box to set the first payment percentage.
   First Payment (%)	This field is displayed when the Set First Payment (%) checkbox is checked. Enter a percentage value with up to two decimal places. The remaining amount will be divided evenly across the subsequent payments.
   Subsequent Payments Scheduled from	Select the date on which subsequent payments should be scheduled from. The following options are available.
   	Payment Start Date
   	Term Effective Date
   Scheduling	Select the scheduling option. The following options are available.
   System-defined	This allows the scheduling to be selected from a list of system presets.
   User-defined	Allows the configuration of a detailed custom schedule.
   Payment Frequency	This field is displayed when System-defined is selected in the Scheduling field. The following options are available.
   Annually	Creates one payment per year, on the anniversary of the first installment.
   Semi-Annually	Creates one payment every six months, on the same day of the month as the first installment.
   Quarterly	Creates one payment every three months, on the same day of the month as the first installment.
   Monthly	Creates one payment per month, on the same day of the month as the first installment.
   Number of Payments	This field is displayed when User-defined is selected in the Scheduling field. If a total number of payments is provided, the total charges are divided by that number and scheduled according to the Recurrence Pattern and Recur Every values.
   	If this field is left blank, the Recurrence Pattern and Recur Every fields determine the number of payments within the term, and the total charges are divided among those payments.
   	Note that any setting for the first payment may be overridden by the First Payment (%) setting.
   	This setting can be used to decrease the payment period to less than the full term, but cannot extend past the end of the term.  If any payments extend out of the term, they are ignored and the charges are divided solely among the payments within the term.
   Recurrence Pattern	This field is displayed when User-defined is selected in the Scheduling field. The payments are set to specific intervals. The following options are available.
   	Month(s)
   	Day(s)
   Recur Every	This field is displayed when User-defined is selected in the Scheduling field. In combination with the Recurrence Pattern field, enter the number of days or months between payments. If Number of Payments is not specified, the system determines the number of payments within the term, and divides the total charge equally among the payments. The first payment may be overridden by the First Payment (%) setting.

   

   The Transaction Scheduling Rules panel is used to define how payments are handled for Endorsements, Adjustments, and ERP Endorsements. For each of these transactions, the scheduled payments from the billing plan selected for the term are maintained, with the new charges or credits affecting the invoice amounts.

   Single Payment	The additional charge or credit will be applied on the Effective Date of the transaction.
   	Note: For ERP Endorsements, only the Single Payment option is available. Note that only one installment is generated for an ERP Endorsement transaction and all charges associated to an ERP are invoiced separately from other policy transactions.
   Spread Evenly	The additional charge or credit will be divided among the remaining scheduled payments for the term.  This includes payments outside of the effective period of the endorsement or declaration.

   Note: If there are no scheduled payments remaining in the term, binding the endorsement or declaration will create a new charge or credit for immediate billing.

5. Saving the payment plan configuration displays the Taxes / Fees Scheduling Rules panel.

   

   Tax / Fee Type	Indicates the tax or fee type.
   Scheduling Rule	Indicates the selected scheduling rule.

6. Click Add to add a Tax / Fee Scheduling Rule.

   

   Tax / Fee Type	Select the tax or fee type.
   Scheduling Rule	Select the scheduling rule to apply. The following options are available.
   Assign in Full to First Scheduled Payment	Assigns the full Tax / Fee amount to the first scheduled installment.
   Distribute Evenly Across Scheduled Payments	Assigns the Tax / Fee amount to be equally distributed across all installments regardless of the First Payment (%) setting.
   Exclude from First Scheduled Payment	Assigns the Tax / Fee amount to be equally distributed across all installments subsequent to the first installment.

7. Click Add & New to save the scheduling rule and clear the form, click Add & Close to save the scheduling rule and return to the Payment Plan Management page, or click Close to close the window without saving the scheduling rule.

   

   Once the payment plan has been saved, the Status panel is displayed at the bottom of the page.

   Active	Marks the plan as active and available for use. Inactive payment plans will still be functional in existing transactions, but cannot be selected for new transactions.
   Created By	Identifies the date and time the payment plan was created and the user who created it.
   Last Modified By	Identifies the last date and time the payment plan was changed and the user who made the changes.

Viewing and Modifying a Payment Plan

1. Open the appropriate Billing Entity. For instructions on finding and opening a billing entity, see the section on Managing Billing Entities.

2. In the Billing Entity Menu, select Payment Plans. The General Settings - Payment Plans page opens.

   

   Tip: By default, only Active plans are displayed.  Clear the filter in the Status column to view all plans.

3. Click a link in the Name column to view the payment plan details. If there are a large number of available plans, see the Using Grids section for help on finding the appropriate plan.
4. See the section on Creating a New Payment Plan for a detailed description of the fields. All fields may be edited, if necessary, except for the Code field.
5. Click Save to save any changes and remain on the page, or click Close to return to the Payment Plans list without saving any changes.

Deactivating a Payment Plan

Once created, a payment plan cannot be deleted.  It can be deactivated, which leaves it linked to any existing companies or individuals, but prevents it from being used for new configurations.

1. Open the appropriate Billing Entity. For instructions on finding and opening a billing entity, see the section on Managing Billing Entities.

2. In the Billing Entity Menu, select Payment Plans. The General Settings - Payment Plans page opens.

   

   Tip: By default, only Active plans are displayed.  Clear the filter in the Status column to view all plans.

3. Locate the plan or plans to be deactivated. If there are a large number of available plans, see the Using Grids section for help on finding the appropriate plans.
4. Check the boxes for all payment plans to be deactivated.
5. Click Deactivate, then confirm the deactivation when prompted to do so. All selected plans are deactivated.  If the payment plans list is still defaulted to only show active plans, they are removed from the list.

Tip: Individual plans can also be deactivated or reactivated directly through the payment plan record.  See the section on Viewing and Modifying a Payment Plan for details.